APS joins the club: May cut 475 jobs to deal with budget
Atlanta joined other metro school systems in announcing plans to lay off employees to cope with a worsening budget crisis.
Gwinnett is planning for 585 fewer employees, Cobb is planning for 250 fewer, Henry is planning to cut 200, DeKalb is planning for 133 fewer, and Clayton and Fayette might have to work with roughly 100 fewer employees.
The AJC reports that the APS board is looking at cutting up to 475 jobs, including about 230 teachers, 90 custodians and 14 bus drivers and transportation staffers. Some of the layoffs are a result of a recent school redistricting, others because of declining revenue.
“We’re going to rethink almost everything we do, from the classroom to central offices,” said Chuck Burbridge, APS’ chief financial officer.
Revenue from property taxes has dropped by $119 million since 2008. Over the same period, the budget for the 49,000-student district has decreased by $56 million.
Almost every department was asked to cut spending by 10 percent in order to accommodate a leaner proposed budget of $564.8 million. Employees will again have two furlough days, and there will not be raises or cost-of-living increases.
Like most school systems, the district spends most of its money — 53.6 percent — on salaries. Benefits are the second-highest expense and make up more than 20 percent of the budget. That’s why APS leaders say it’s impossible to make cuts without cutting people.
“We will have to reduce labor force to achieve this,” Burbridge said.
APS hasn’t yet decided who will get a pink slip. The budget is expected to be finalized in early June and the layoffs executed June 30. Some positions will be eliminated as a result of attrition or as educators implicated in a cheating scandal leave the district.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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100 comments Add your comment
Teacher Reader
May 14th, 2012
11:42 pm
Is there a reason why central office workers and administrators are not being touched? I don’t understand why teachers are the first to be cut, when I am sure that there are less important jobs within the district that could easily go away and save money and not effect the children.
Isis5467
May 15th, 2012
1:33 am
Here’s a plan. Cut 10% across the board for every APS employee
thereby preventing some people from becoming unemployed, homeless and possibly avoiding foreclosure. Don’t destroy Carver Early Learning High School since it’s doing great. Rethink your plan for Maynard Jackson. Don’t divert funds to it
and destroy any school that’s doing well to provide funds. Reduce contributions to the pension plan by 5% if legally possible. Cut Administrative Cost by an additional 5%. Give these suggestions to your Finance Director and see how much he can close the gap of your proposed deficit. Hope you try it.
The Budget Issue Will Not Disappear With Cuts
May 15th, 2012
4:03 am
The deficit in the APS budget will probably grow larger the next
year even though big cuts are being made this year. Other districts
are doing the same thing, and state tax revenues will decrease even
further as more people are being forced from the ranks of property
ownership. Look across the country at states issuing massive teacher
pink slips, and you see the trend of even larger state budget deficits
occurring in the following year as tax revenues (especially property
taxes) decrease.Does APS have caps on contributions to benefits?
I know many districts have instituted caps on benefits-definitely
becomes a financial hardship for teachers when caps are present.
Lee
May 15th, 2012
5:57 am
{{{shrug}}}
Many of us have opined about the unsustainable levels of government spending for years. Sorta like seeing a car stuck on the railroad tracks. You knew what was going to happen, it was just a matter of time.
School systems were no different.
Bloated bureaucracies, “Taj Mahal” central offices, paying premiums for unneccesary degrees, sports complexes that rival the pros – you name it and the government educrats found a way to spend it. In the end, they forgot three little words:
Teachers, textbooks, and classrooms.
Those are the three components vital to the core mission of the school system. Everything else is a cost center.
Unfortunately, it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better and even then, I don’t think many will learn their lesson.
APS Budget Cuts Hurt Everyone at the Bottom
May 15th, 2012
6:14 am
I am not surprised that the APS Board agreed to the Budget cuts. However, I just don’t understand how you can justify laying off teachers who are targeted because of vindfictive principals. Our superintendent sat there last night and stated that principals had hired people that they knew before the teachers could even get to the so called job fairs. AJC quoted them as saying that through attrition and resignations and firings of cheating scandal teachers, 400 teachers would not be returning (a few weeks ago). Our superintendent went back on his word. He is not keeping the most effective teachers. It is the same story again. It will not be what you know, it will be who you know. Those of us with vast experience are being passed over in favor of people who don’t even have certificates.
APS School Board watch out. Many of you with your tax scandals, none paying HOA and student loan selves are going to be voted out. How dare you do this to these children. You should have cut fat at the top. The children deserve smaller class sizes and teachers, custodians and bus drivers deserve to be treated with dignity. We will not forget and we will vote you out…all of you.
APS Budget Cuts Hurt Everyone at the Bottom
May 15th, 2012
6:17 am
Vindictive…I so expected better of this superintendent. Well, it is human nature.
Ron F.
May 15th, 2012
6:20 am
Normal attrition should reduce the number of teachers qutie a bit, and I suspect many will leave just because of the negativity in the entire district. I can’t imagine why another 230 teacher cuts would be necessary. When the majority of cuts come at the school level, you can’t help but think that somebody is tyring to save a friend’s job at the administrative level, which is where the gluttony is really happening in many districts. Sad, just sad.
Chris Murphy
May 15th, 2012
6:42 am
The student population of APS has been decreasing for decades, yet the budget- until this year- has always increased. The central office does need to take (a much bigger) hit, but I’m not sure that the teacher numbers are going to do harm to the schools.
Shar
May 15th, 2012
6:42 am
The AJC story gives a total of 475 jobs to be cut, and specifies that will include 230 teachers, 90 custodians and 14 transportation workers. That is a total of 334. Can we hope that the remaining 141 will be central office staff? Preferably highly paid ones from the Hall administration?
jezel
May 15th, 2012
7:03 am
Shows how really serious Ga. is about public education. You do not increase class size and expect to see higher test scores.
Cut any employee who does not teach…janitors and lunch room personnel excluded. This has not been done or discussed.
If the prison population was reduced to what the national average is….that would make some 600,000,000 dollars available for the schools. 1 of 12 Georgians are felons. The national average is 1 of 32.
It cannot be said that Ga. does not have the funds to support education as it needs to be supported…education is just not a priority here….only the rhetoric is.
Doris M.
May 15th, 2012
7:14 am
Why not just merge APS with Fulton County schools and save a lot of money?
Howard Finkelstein
May 15th, 2012
7:17 am
Sorry govt employees. You are not exempt from layoffs nor should you be. Enjoy…
GwinnettGuy
May 15th, 2012
7:44 am
Jezel,
I’m not arguing that many systems have a bloated central office. However, your suggestion of cutting everyone except teachers, janitors, and lunchroom personnel is not even in the realm of being remotely possible.
Just think of it this way:
Who’s going to pay the bills? Who’s going to order the textbooks? Who’s going to cut the grass? Who’s going to maintain all of the student records? Who’s going to plan the school boundaries? Who’s going to deal with attendance? Who’s going to take care of the sick kids?
Support staff is an important function of any school system. While teachers are certainly the most important function of a school, they couldn’t perform their function without help.
Cut bloat? Absolutely. Say do away with everyone but teachers? Absolutely unrealistic.
tony
May 15th, 2012
8:03 am
this makes sense to me , this shouild be going on EVERYWHERE… it blows my mind the fact that the economy has been down for so long but county , state and federal bureaucracies countinue to stay the same or grow???
jezel
May 15th, 2012
8:04 am
Teacher committees can do the things that you mentioned…excluding grass cutting and building up keep. What ? you think you are talking about rocket science.
catlady
May 15th, 2012
8:13 am
Gwinnettguy: Teachers already DO many of those tasks now. What? You think we just TEACH?
skipper
May 15th, 2012
8:19 am
Get rid of some of the dead-weight INSTEAD OF TEACHERS…..too many “assistants to the assistants” and “Politically-Correct-Sensitivity-Trainers” on the dole. While these are fictional titles, of course, there are many unneeded but added positions that are draining the budget! Too much administration, not enough just good old fashion teaching!
jj
May 15th, 2012
8:21 am
This is what happens when you run out of others peoples money.
Forced to be Anon >:(
May 15th, 2012
8:24 am
One of the big reasons teachers endure poor conditions in public schools is job stability. This proves how little stability there is anymore. Why would teachers stay where benefits are cut, jobs are no longer stable, public opinion and respect is all but gone, and expectations are getting higher while pay decreases.
How do we deal with the budget crisis? Start by cutting the textbook adoptions. Why did some systems adopt new textbooks this year? You can also look at the secretaries of secretaries. There are far too many duplicate positions.
Teachers have taken the brunt of the cuts for too long. Children suffer as good teachers leave for better opportunities.
Don’t bemoan your test scores, Georgia, if you don’t invest in your education.
A Conservative Voice
May 15th, 2012
8:47 am
Eh, APS, DCSS, CCSS are nothing but “Jobs Programs” anyway. There’s fat in every school system that we taxpayers have been funding for years. If I’m not mistaken, school systems are required to have a balanced budget……how else are you gonna do it? Instead of 500, the number probably needs to be 750 to ensure that all unbudgeted, required needs are taken care of.
MeAgain
May 15th, 2012
8:59 am
Crazy question – why don’t the people who decide how tax money is spent, take it away from other services, such as prisons, instead of education. If these kids don’t get a good education because of fewer school days, and low quality teachers, they will end up in prison. Oh, but then they will get all of the services and money they should have received when they were young and in school.
jezel
May 15th, 2012
9:13 am
Me Again
Why do other people not make the connection that it is the uneducated that commit most of the crimes? If one has no job skills or jobs then they are more likely to resort to crime in order to survive.
Who is profiting from the prison system in this state and why is it being allowed? To uncover this travesty would be a great job for the AJC. Maybe the paper does not have the guts to do so.
When a state spends more on prisons than on schools….something is very wrong.
Mary Elizabeth
May 15th, 2012
9:16 am
I realize that school budgets are presently tight; however, I think that the words of a blogger identified as “I love teaching” should, also, be considered as to why so many teaching jobs are now being cut by local school districts. “I loved teaching” first posted his/her remarks under the “Library Cuts” thread, at 6:57 pm, May 14. See below. My comments follow “I love teaching’s” post.
=================================================
@ I love teaching, 6:57 pm
“So, pray tell, how did public schools end up in this predicament? Could it be the continual cuts to funding? More and more, I believe it is deliberate… starve the schools till they can no longer fully support student learning, then start screaming about how they are ‘failing’ our children and how it is time to shift to a corporate profit driven educational system.”
—————————————————————————-
It is my opinion that you see the truth of what is happening in Georgia, regarding education. Thank you for stating your perceptions so concisely, for all to read.
HS Public Teacher
May 15th, 2012
9:21 am
I simply cannot understand why the tax paying public and the parents accept this in Georgia.
Why not cut management salaries to the bone, first? While teachers are laid off (which mean class sizes increase) and also get forlough days, Superintendents and their “friends” get pay raises.
Doesn’t ANYONE care about the students and the impact these cuts have on them? It seems like the only “care” is for the upper management to continue to increase their own salaries and benefits while all else suffers.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
May 15th, 2012
9:22 am
When is the last time that the APS has undergone a rigorous personnel audit conducted by a competent, disinterested, out-of-state entity which issued an unredacted report to local print and electronic media?
jezel
May 15th, 2012
9:24 am
Spinks..are you a teacher or an administrator
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
May 15th, 2012
9:27 am
Asking educRATS which positions to cut is, at best, a rhetorical exercise. The answer will always be “please take someone else’s cheese.”
bob
May 15th, 2012
9:36 am
Is the job of changing test scores a tenured position or can we show them the door.
Ronin
May 15th, 2012
9:42 am
Given the efficiency of the APS, all the more reason to support vouchers.
Craig, you’re correct, the cheese rulers/rats (mid and upper administrative staff) will protect their own, while the lowly worker mice scurry for crumbs. Most people have been reduced to rats in a maze and don’t even realize it.
Frustrated Taxpayer
May 15th, 2012
9:43 am
A few questions for Maureen and the Education team:
- What’s the current bill for litigation related to the cheating scandal?
- Will contract custodians have to pass the same (hopefully rigorous) background checks before entering schools?
- How many employees occupy positions completely unrelated to curriculum at the APS Central Office (Communications, Chief of Staff, Human Resources, Legal)? With a smaller district, each of those departments should shrink, and outside counsel handles quite a few cases. Actually, the last question applies to all metro Atlanta districts.
Trim the fat.
RCB
May 15th, 2012
9:44 am
I would agree that most prisoners are uneducated, but they CHOSE not to educate themselves and ended up where they are through personal choice and responsibility. I’m not saying the GA prison system doesn’t have its problems, but they don’t choose who ends up there. Any education is better than none, and I think most of our schools provide a good education for those willing to show up and learn. My hat is off to all teachers, because I could never be one. My children are grown, but I still like to volunteer in a local school, and I just know I couldn’t do it in today’s climate.
Ronin
May 15th, 2012
10:01 am
Prisoners have all the time in the world to learn, but lack the motivation. Students have almost as much time as prisoners, but also lack the motivation. Therefore, government school students could be the equal of state prisoners.
Entitlement Society
May 15th, 2012
10:12 am
How’s that government education working out for you now? When will people learn that the amount spent per student is not tied to performance? Just google how much is spent per child by state and then do the same for performance and you’ll realize the gross mismanagement of your tax dollars. Georgia needs to wake up and learn how to effectively run its education system, if it still wants to retain one. The smart parents sure aren’t waiting around for the current administrators to use our children as guinea pigs, we left the system for a quality education without the drama.
horkheimer
May 15th, 2012
10:13 am
The more I see of Errol Davis, the less impressed I am. In the article in Monday’s ajc, he took the classic “blame the teachers” stance while saying nothing about APS’s administrative and bureaucratic weaknesses. And again, he seems far more interested in firing janitors than in addressing bloat and incompetence in administration, or vendor contracts that might need to be reviewed/rebid.
And lest we forget, Nathan Deal and the goobers in the Legislature made sure schools would have even less money by handing out more corporate tax breaks this year–because cutting taxes on the wealthy and on big corporations (while underfunding education) has helped Georgia so much the last 9 years or so.
Mary Elizabeth
May 15th, 2012
10:15 am
horkheimer, 10:13 am
Thank you for your astute remarks.
@horkheimer
May 15th, 2012
10:18 am
Please cite your source where you reference that Errol Davis is firing janitors. I have read nothing where Mr. Davis has eliminated any janitorial positions. I like to stick to the facts, so please point me to the source. Thanks!
Laurie
May 15th, 2012
10:22 am
Lee, well stated: “Teachers, textbooks, and classrooms”. The rest is fluff and noise.
APS joins the club: May cut 475 jobs to deal with budget – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) | Budgeting Planner
May 15th, 2012
10:23 am
[...] 585 fewer employees, Cobb is planning for 250 fewer, Henry is planning to cut 200, DeKalb is …APS joins the club: May cut 475 jobs to deal with budget – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) This entry was posted in Budgeting Planner. Bookmark the permalink. ← Bethlehem Area [...]
Ronin
May 15th, 2012
10:26 am
Entitlement: your question: “How’s that government education working out for you now?”
It’s working EXACTLY the way it was designed to. Teach students enough to work at retail jobs and employ people with state jobs. There are some that are true college material, they can then pay the state to take advanced classes in science, computers and math.
Look at most college campus locations, they are upgrading and improving their amenities. New buildings, new dorms, new facilities. For over a decade, college tuition has increase multiples of inflation, you can partially thank HOPE for that.
Entitlement Society
May 15th, 2012
10:27 am
@horkheimer – more money spent doesn’t mean better results. Education is not underfunded, it is grossly mismanaged. Check your data.
Pluto
May 15th, 2012
10:28 am
Hasn’t this “news” paper been railing about “bad” teachers and what is going to be done about them? Here’s your chance to throw the baby out with the bath water. Problem is all the downsizing probably won’t get rid of just the bad ones but some of the good ones as well. And you wonder why some folks home school? Maybe administrators can start teaching classes again. If you ain’t in the trenches, you really have to wonder what you are doing in education.
HS Public Teacher
May 15th, 2012
10:29 am
@Entitlement Society -
You combine many individual issues in your stance. This is not a good thing to do.
Mismangement of money does not, by default, mean that “public education” is bad. These are separate issues and need to be kept as such.
There IS “public education” that has perfectly good management.
LongTime Teacher
May 15th, 2012
10:36 am
I don’t understand why I don’t hear parents screaming about too many students in a classroom. It is not like the old days when you could have 40 children in a classroom. The world is different today. Every student over 20 in the classroom takes away from the quality of teaching. Georgia….keep your teachers and keep the number of students in the classroom down. Get rid of the rest
Inman Park Boy
May 15th, 2012
10:41 am
I worked for the Cobb County school system for roughly sixten years. When I began, the system was administered from a small building with a minimal number of central office employees. By the time I left the system the central office had bloated into a number that filled an entire office building and enough central office staff to man an entire high school. Many of these central office administrators earned six figure salaries. This is not only the case in Cobb, but in every single metro system. Probably the largest single offender has been DeKalb, where central office personnel often make in excess of $200,000.00. So now some poor custodian making 20K gets booted. What about the crowd in the central office?? Trim the fat there!
Entitlement Society
May 15th, 2012
10:44 am
@ HS Public Teacher – I never stated that public education is bad. In fact, I am a product of public education. My point is that public education in Atlanta is appalling. The money spent per student in Georgia (I can’t find stats broken down to APS level) is right on par with the national average, but our state performs so abysmally. People in Atlanta just demand more and more money be allocated to education instead of demanding better accountability and efficiencies. I have a bone to pick because we pay twice for our children’s education. Once through high taxes to the APS school (Smith – that was so awful that we had to pull our kids out, don’t get me started) and secondly to a private school. It’s just not right that, as taxpayers, we don’t have a quality, dependable school system here in Atlanta on which we can rely. I agree with you that there is public education with perfectly good management, just certainly not here in Atlanta!!
Mary Elizabeth
May 15th, 2012
10:51 am
Please note that my “thank you” at 10:15 am to “horkheimer” for his “astute remarks” at 10:13 am was meant to be in reference only to horkheimer’s remarks in his second paragraph, regarding Georgia’s legislature’s funding of public schools, and not regarding horkheimer’s thoughts in his first paragraph about Interim Superintendent Errol Davis of the APS.
I have not followed closely enough Interim Superintendent Davis’ tenure at the APS to make an informed comment about his efforts there.
C Jae of EAV
May 15th, 2012
10:57 am
I agree with the viewpoints expressed that suggest each school district needs to take a hard look at central office staffing/compensation as a major part of the budget cutting exercise. However, realistically speaking I’m wondering to myself the degree to which such an exercise significantly moves the needle such that an further examination of deepening cuts to teacher staffing/compensation can be avoided.
It would seem to me that it’s the public education funding model that we need to address. As pointed out by @The Budget Issue, the trend we’re seeing with regards to the tax digest shrinking due signifincantly lower overall property tax base is likely to be with us for the midterm (i.e. 3-5 years). We cannot expect to continue gutting the teacher ranks throughout this period and not expect academic quality to suffer as a result! Not to mention what such actions will do to morale of those in the profession or seeking to join its ranks.
Frankie
May 15th, 2012
10:58 am
WHAT IS MISSING HERE????? No cuts from the top. APS needs to cut some positions out of there own house. Through attition, layoffs, whatever. THat is what makes a good manager, i have not heard if the superintendent will be taking a raise this year…givinmg up any of his perks. ie county suupplied car, what gives….
How about restricting the budget and staying within your spending means..
They knew the housing market and taxes were being affect back in 2008, they just failed to plan and make the necessary cuts then. I am sure the superintendents got their raises over the last 4 years…PAY IT BACK….
HS Public Teacher
May 15th, 2012
11:03 am
@Entitlement Society – Woah there….
First, let me respond to your comment that you “pay twice” for your child’s educaiton. That is your ‘choice’. No one forces you to do that. You made a choice where to live and anyone with an ounce of sense would take the local schools into consideration on that decision. You made a choice to not try to improve your local school but rather pay the extra amount to send them to private school.
So, yes, you may pay more out of ‘your’ pocket – but that is ‘your’ choice. Aren’t we all for school choices?
Next, as I have mentioned, I don’t understand why YOU and the general public in Georgia stand for this mismanagement that you speak. There are laws and avenues that YOU can take to fix things. For example, you can start a petition to recall the Board of Education members. You can actually run for the Board of Education yourself.
The bottom line is that by “running” from the public school system you do not participate to fix things. If you chose not to help fix things, why should you complain?
Venting your comments here does nothing to really fix things.
Shar
May 15th, 2012
11:13 am
There is also the issue of mission creep. Public schools are the last great bastion of the public forum, and those wishing to influence or otherwise address the public have been given a great deal of leeway in pushing off their special interests on the schools and the school budgets. Why are we firing teachers and hiring nurses? Why are school counselors and nurses not paid through the budget of the public health service? Why are school “resource officers” not paid by the police department? Why are politically-connected people with ideological axes to grind permitted to instigate or influence textbook and curriculum adoption, often warping instruction to the point where their preferred text has to be replaced at astronomical costs?
These costs should not be hung up to the school system’s account. If budgets must be cut, so too should the excess responsibilities that schools have been saddled with.
Lee above is extreme but on the right track. If spending is not going directly to “teachers, textbooks and classrooms” – which is what the taxpayer is trying to fund, after all – it should be required to be justified annually and it should be cut at twice the rate of student-facing spending.
Maybe we should start by cutting the number of Board members.
CLLcrew
May 15th, 2012
11:14 am
First of all Central office employees are being affected at a high rate. We have gone through a reorg and a lot of individuals lost their job. The problem is that you have a lot of underqualified overpaid people in the Central office and in the district. The people who really do the work are not compensated including the teachers but we are the first ones to be cut.
mogrunt
May 15th, 2012
11:16 am
I think it would be interesting to have the class sizes tracked next school year by subject, school, & system to see if equitable class sizes result from all these cuts. Number of athletic coaches & assistants per 100 students and also number of school/district administrators per 100 students by school & system would also be interesting too I’ll bet.
Attentive Parent
May 15th, 2012
11:17 am
The lack of admin cuts is particularly outrageous as APS has the most expensive ratio of admin expenses to students in the state.
$3000 per student for admin and no cuts there. Public Education has become an expensive boondoggle for administrators at the expense of teachers, students, and taxpayers.
We have too many administrators with track records of consistent mediocrity getting promotions and absurd salaries because of what they are willing to advocate doing to students, teachers, and taxpayers.
Glad I can afford to send my daughter to pvt school
May 15th, 2012
11:19 am
Maureen Downey…It is my understanding that the Maynard Jackson family provides the food service for APS & that they cost $1,000,000.00 more. Can you varify this. Just like the airport the Jackson is in every pocket of the City of Atlanta.
cris
May 15th, 2012
11:32 am
Massive cuts are the symptom, not the cause; the cause is our State Legislature’s inability to leave educating children to the people who have been trained to do so, are experienced in doing so and, if asked, would be more than happy to point out/correct the areas that are under our control to change to benefit children. I don’t know about other systems, but there is no more fat to be cut from the system that I work in (don’t know about central office, so I’ll keep my mouth shut on that one, but rumors on the street aren’t…flattering).
Frustrated Taxpayer
May 15th, 2012
11:37 am
First of all Central office employees are being affected at a high rate. We have gone through a reorg and a lot of individuals lost their job. The problem is that you have a lot of underqualified overpaid people in the Central office and in the district.
@CLLCrew: You sound like a perfect example of the problem.
Also, that reorganization was a joke. Many people were reorganized into the same role. With fewer teachers and students, you don’t need so many HR employees spending their days posting Facebook updates. You don’t need a full-time Communications employee who only tweets and blogs for APS. You don’t need employees who cannot send an email with recalling it due to grammatical errors.
Trim the fat.
Dekalb taxpayer
May 15th, 2012
11:39 am
I agree with Tony. The recession has been going on for years. Why didn’t the “leaders” see this coming? Why are they so far behind on reducing expenses in all of the metro counties?
Entitlement Society
May 15th, 2012
11:49 am
@ High School Public Teacher –
Whoa there, yourself – behind the computer screen you seem to think you know everything about me and what I have done (or in your fictitious case, what I have not done, to help my child’s school)!
I never said it wasn’t my choice to pay twice for a quality education for my children. That’s precisely why we choose to do it, for our children. To your statements, “You made a choice where to live and anyone with an ounce of sense would take the local schools into consideration on that decision. You made a choice to not try to improve your local school but rather pay the extra amount to send them to private school.” Yes, we selected a house in the Sarah Smith district, one of the highest perfoming elementary schools in APS, so again we did our research. We suffered through a year of a teachers with poor grammar, huge class size, three teachers assigned in and out of the class over just a 4 month period, student erroneously put on the bus, poor administrative communication, abysmal parent participation (thank goodness I had flexibility to give my time because other parents certainly didn’t/couldn’t), for gosh sakes in a Buckhead neighborhood only 30% gave towards the teacher gifts! So don’t you dare lecture me on being involved in a public school.
As for running, yes, I am running! And fast. Far, far away from the failure of APS. I now spend my volunteer hours at a school that cares, spends its resources wisely, and knows how to balance a budget instead of stretching its hand out for more, more more, while producing well-educated, independent citizens.
P.S. FYI – Venting comments here is a stress release. This is an entertainment blog, not some scientific forum. Good day.
Ronin
May 15th, 2012
12:08 pm
Entitlement, you are indeed wise and have suffered enough at the hands of the draconian leadership at APS.
Voting with your feet is effective way to change district schools, especially after November.
MARSHALL
May 15th, 2012
12:12 pm
The problem with cutting the central office personnel is that they interact with each other fairly often. When cuts need to be made it is always easier to cut teachers, cafeteria, custodial, and transportation areas.
I don’t know where public education went off the rails in the metro Atlanta area, but it surely has. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight to the low test scores, low staff morale, overly administered centeral offices, inept school boards and other defeciencies which have plagued the public schools for far too long.
For many years the metro area schools were a crown jewel in Georgia’s educational system however, those days are long gone. A sad state of affairs.
Ronin
May 15th, 2012
12:18 pm
Yep Marshall you’re right.
Where is Gordon Gekko when you need him? Oops, he’ll be here in November.
Glad I can afford to send my daughter to pvt school
May 15th, 2012
12:20 pm
Maureen Downey…It is my understanding that the Maynard Jackson family provides the food service for APS & that they cost $1,000,000.00 more. Can you varify this. Just like the airport the Jackson family is in every pocket of the City of Atlanta.
chillywilly
May 15th, 2012
12:26 pm
I don’t understand why Erroll Davis won’t cut some of those jobs in the central office. Finance is extremely top heavy with three people (CFO, Deputy CFO & Controller) salaries totaling approximately $475,000 or more. This is a waste of taxpayers’ money. Only one of these positions is needed. There is more waste in the central office than a local landfill. Erroll Davis, cut some of these overpaid worthless folks and leave the little people alone!
Sandy Springs parent
May 15th, 2012
12:31 pm
@Entitlement Society, I am at the Sandy Springs School (Middle School) right above you. I also bought in to what was suppose to be the best district. While the middle school is way better than the Award Winning High School with it’s hard drugs, oxy, ambien and herion. Yes, every private school kid that has been kicked out. I don’t currently have the luxury of going elsewhere, I have an ex-husband that thinks child support is a joke. The current child support laws just cause me to waste $3-5,000 to hire a lawyer to get that back, since I have never gotten foodstamps or welfare. I would go to the back of the line without a private lawyer and wait over a year. So I really want my vouchers.
I went yesterday as a chaparone to the Chorus performance at a Buckhead Church. By the behaviour of these 6th, 7th and 8th graders, it appeared that 90% of them had not spent much time in church. Several of them waltz into the sanctuary with Chick Fillet drink cups. We had to tell them you can not eat or drink in church. The teacher, told them to get out the ear buds, this was like school no cell phones or electronic gadgets. I took away 3 cell phones after this. The teacher asked the chaparones to sit amongst the students during the practice to stop them from talking and screwing around during the practice of the different groups. I spent 1.5 hours moving them around, making the worse, sit next to me. Some defiantly try to tell me know at first. I moved kids, White, Black and Hispanic, to the back row with me, or I moved them to another row to sit with another chaparone during this. They were shocked. I also caught a group, who I really suspect was the begining of a female Hispanic gang hanging out in the Bathroom. The second time, I caught just 3 of them in the bathroom, they had the lights off. It was clear to me that they were doing some sort of drug behind the one stall. It wasn’t smoking blunts, I would have smelt that. The girls that I suspected came out looking all dazed, then up on the concert, she was off on every count, she was sweating, kept on moving her hair. It looked like a Janis Joplin or Grace Slick in Concert, and this was a 6th grader.
I also found out during my volunteer time that several of the black families were line skippers. They bring their kids up here to go to school while they work. At least the hispanics live 10 to the old run down apartments in the district.
William Casey
May 15th, 2012
12:37 pm
A MODEST PROPOSAL: Pay ALL administrators on the TEACHER’S SALARY SCALE + per diem for extra days worked over 190. That’s the deal I had when I was Dean at Chattahoochee H.S.
Don’t tell me that such a plan would not attract the “best and the brightest.” Look what paying top-dollar did for the Atlanta School System. My plan could not do worse and would save millions that could be used in the classroom.
Attentive Parent
May 15th, 2012
12:52 pm
Oh SS Parent, you gave just enough info for me to guess the school unless there were multiple chorus concerts in Buckhead last night.
I am genuinely worried that between the poorly understood IB MYP programme, the real meaning of the language in Fulton’s charter, and the announced plans of Fulton’s new super and his obedient minions, things are about to get much worse.
Taking down academic excellence in Fulton so that it becomes no better than its neighbors reminds me of OECD’s work trying to combat tax havens. Instead of noticing businesses and people do not want to locate in countries with confiscatory taxes, OECD is trying to force tax havens to raise their rates.
Fulton was the wrong school district to relocate to for more money unless you are willing to get caught. Unlike those poor Charlotte-Meck parents who never understood why it got so bad, so fast, Fulton parents are waiting and watching. With the script in hand.
Frankie
May 15th, 2012
12:55 pm
@entitlement society….then why bring up the fact that you pay taxes that goes to the school and you pay tuition for private school. So you pay twice is what i believe you said…
@sandy springs parent…wrong blog, the child support, chorus performance is down the street and around the corner….besides what does “black families” being line skippers have to do with anything.
If you are referring to teachers being able to take their school age child to the school where they work to attend school so what….if you don’t like the rule change it….
Entitlement Society
May 15th, 2012
1:14 pm
@ Sandy Springs Parent – it is such a shame that APS allows this behavior in school sponsored activities, whether on campus or not. Trust me, my family is not one who can easily afford private school tuition. It takes a lot of sacrifice, but trust me, it can be done. I urge you to start talking to some of the private schools in the area. All of them offer financial aid and you would be surprised at how many families utilize it. It’s parents like you and me, who are just trying to find a quality, safe school environment for our children. You’ll find the atmosphere refreshing after what it sounds like you’re experiencing.
AlreadySheared
May 15th, 2012
1:29 pm
What’s missing from this story is reporting. AJC seems to lack a reporter with enough financial acumen to dig into APS’ budget and analyze the budget this year as compared to previous years to determine the cause of the shortfall.
I suspect it relates to changes in promulgated by GASB (governmental accounting standards board?)in the past few years requiring governments to properly account for their future retirement and retiree medical obligations. Alas, I will not be finding out whether or not this is true by reading the AJC.
Howard Finkelstein
May 15th, 2012
1:49 pm
Why dont you hear parents screaming? Perhaps the cheating scandal, wasted tax dollars, entriched educrats with nothing to contribute, etc. Root out all the theft, mismanagment and stupidity and there is plenty of money to go around.
Perhaps thats why…
ELMom
May 15th, 2012
2:16 pm
@Howard Finkelstein Why aren’t parents screaming? They are but about the wrong things. Sadly APS parents are too busy bickering amongst ourselves. North of Dekalb Vs. South of Dekalb, Charter vs. Traditional, North Atlanta Vs South Atlanta, Lin Vs. Toomer blah blah. We keep letting APS distract us. They throw out a divisive distraction and we take the bait every single time.
Dekalbite@Gwinnett Guy
May 15th, 2012
3:36 pm
“I’m not arguing that many systems have a bloated central office. However, your suggestion of cutting everyone except teachers, janitors, and lunchroom personnel is not even in the realm of being remotely possible.
”
Excellent systems like Rockdale, Marietta City and Decatur City seem to be able to retain their teacher numbers. DeKalb Schools is doing the right thing by putting as many personnel back into the classrooms as possible and balancing class loads between special and content area teachers to even out class sizes.
Personally, I’m for eliminating, consolidating and outsourcing as much as possible to retain teachers for students.
Gavin S
May 15th, 2012
3:41 pm
Close down 210 Pryor Street and send them packing. That would do more good than anything else.
And why aren’t parents screaming? They are. Nobody’s listening.
HS Public Teacher
May 15th, 2012
3:46 pm
@Entitlement Society – Since you admit that you are “running” then you need to accept everything that this includes.
When you “run” from something then you leave it behind. You still must pay your taxes (as does everyone). However, when you do not participate in something but rather “run” from it, how can you justify faulting adults that are participating?
jezel
May 15th, 2012
4:14 pm
Lee
Thanks for making it simple….teachers, textbooks and classrooms. If you are in education and not teaching students…find another job. We do not need you.
Out of focus
May 15th, 2012
5:13 pm
APS school teachers at the four high schools that were suppose to merge for 2012-2013 (but will not merge until 2013-2014) were informed on Monday, May 7 that they would be scheduled to attend a job fair on either Tues. May 8 or Wed. May 9. The teachers could only interview with 4 schools in the time allotted. Teachers were then told that they would be contacted on Friday, May 11 if they were hired by a particular school. For some teachers who were not picked up by a school, they were advised that they could attend the job fair on Sat. May10. Not all teachers were informed about the need to attend the job fair on Sat.May 10 and remain in limbo about their employment status. Neither tenure nor seniority merited any consideration at the job fair as teachers were being snatched up based solely on test scores. These teachers will see their work load for the upcoming school year double or even triple as school administrators make plans to saddle these teachers with back to back high stakes testing courses with the expectation that their success rates will be the same. APS is clearly not seeing the big picture.
The Phantom
May 15th, 2012
5:24 pm
Maybe we should start by cutting the number of Board members.
Shar, that would be awesome! Can we pick which ones to cut? “Those of you who were on the Board during the Hall years, please raise your hand.”
APS Sacrifices Low Salaried Employees For Big Salaried Employees (Shame of Them)
May 15th, 2012
5:27 pm
If Chuck Burbridge, APS’ chief financial officer did not travel to and from Chicago
maybe APS could save money.
If the 4 Executive Directors were not getting paid while awaiting their termination
APS could save money.
If they cut the jobs of the Model Teachers APS could save money.
If they cut the jobs of the Learning Technologies’ staff APS could save money.
If they cut the jobs of all the retirees that were re-hired APS could save money.
If they stop catering workshops and meetings APS could save money.
If they stop unnecessary travel APS could save money.
If they re-coup the bonus money given to Dr. Hall that could pay several
custodians for several years.
If they cut the jobs of the Administration downtown they could save money.
APS Sacrifices Low Salaried Employees For Big Salaried Employees (Shame of Them)
May 15th, 2012
5:32 pm
@Out of focus
May 15th, 2012
5:13 pm
APS school teachers at the four high schools that were suppose to merge for 2012-2013 (but will not merge until 2013-2014) were informed on Monday, May 7 that they would be scheduled to attend a job fair on either Tues. May 8 or Wed. May 9.
*********************************************************************************
They have played that Job Fair game every year.
It is just a way to get rid of teachers.
APS Sacrifices Low Salaried Employees For Big Salaried Employees (Shame of Them)
May 15th, 2012
5:39 pm
@Gavin S
May 15th, 2012
3:41 pm
Close down 210 Pryor Street and send them packing. That would do more good than anything else.
And why aren’t parents screaming? They are. Nobody’s listening.
*************************************************************
You mean 130 Trinity.
Its the tower of Babel.
Genesis 11:1-9
By building the tower they wanted to make a name for themselves and also prevent their city from being scattered.
God came to see their city and the tower they were building. He perceived their intentions, and in His infinite wisdom, He knew this “stairway to heaven” would only lead the people away from God. He noted the powerful force within their unity of purpose. As a result, God confused their language, causing them to speak different languages so they would not understand each other. By doing this, God thwarted their plans. He also scattered the people of the city all over the face of the earth.
To build, the people used brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar. They used “man-made” materials, instead of more durable “God-made” materials. The people were building a monument to themselves, to call attention to their own abilities and achievements, instead of giving glory to God.
Teacher Reader
May 15th, 2012
5:41 pm
@ HS Teacher As a homeschooling parent and former teacher, I don’t want my child to be the guinea pig. I know what isn’t happening in a classroom and what happened when I first began teaching 17 years ago and what happened when I was in elementary school in the late 70’s and early 80’s and sorry the quality of education has gone down. Not sure if it’s because I am in the South now and I was educated in the North.
I will fight for the bettering of our schools as I have always done since I moved down here, but the facts are that too many parents are usually worried more about a child’s grade, than what they have actually learned. Too many parents don’t want THEIR child to be disciplined in ways that would show them right from wrong and also make them think before doing. Too many parents are more interested in what schools have to offer their children in terms of sports and extra activities than the quality of education their children will receive.
Parents and citizens can’t make all of the necessary changes. Teachers have to stop whining about pay and instead get more vocal about the quality of education they are able to give the children with the larger class sizes, poor quality of text books, too much paper work, and teaching to the tests. Teachers also have to speak out about the keeping of poor quality teachers and the lack of discipline in our schools.
Parents have the right to do what is best for their children. How many public school teachers do you teach with that send their children to private school? Most of the teachers I worked with in DCSS did this. Why is it okay for a public school teacher to teach in our public schools, but send their children to private schools? To me this is a much bigger issue than tax payers opting for a better education for their children. If a teacher teaches at a school/ in a district that they won’t send their children to, than that is way more telling than a taxpayer sending their child to a private school or opting to homeschool.
APS Sacrifices Low Salaried Employees For Big Salaried Employees (Shame of Them)
May 15th, 2012
5:44 pm
@chillywilly
May 15th, 2012
12:26 pm
I don’t understand why Erroll Davis won’t cut some of those jobs in the central office. Finance is extremely top heavy with three people (CFO, Deputy CFO & Controller) salaries totaling approximately $475,000 or more. This is a waste of taxpayers’ money. Only one of these positions is needed. There is more waste in the central office than a local landfill. Erroll Davis, cut some of these overpaid worthless folks and leave the little people alone!
**********************************************************
You have been telling them this for a while.
Why would they cut the people who do all of the DIRTY WORK for them?
Gavin S
May 15th, 2012
5:51 pm
APS
210 Pryor and 130 Trinity both…
Gavin S
May 15th, 2012
5:53 pm
And, before I forget…Erroll Davis is a sycophantic fraud. Run him out of town on a rail before he does any more damage.
Jordan Kohanim
May 15th, 2012
6:07 pm
Teacher Reader you said “Teachers have to stop whining about pay and instead get more vocal about the quality of education they are able to give the children with the larger class sizes, poor quality of text books, too much paper work, and teaching to the tests. Teachers also have to speak out about the keeping of poor quality teachers and the lack of discipline in our schools.”
Speaking out can lead to retaliation as well as accusations of whining. Teachers are speaking out in Georgia (as you have seen in blog posts here on GetSchooled) but when will people stop telling teachers they are “whining” and actually listen to what they have to say? Often the mantra in GA is: “Shut up, teacher. You should be grateful you have a job.” What is “whining” versus being “vocal?”
Let me give you a for instance:
Class size affects teacher quality. I teach 160 students. Each essay I assign takes 10 minutes or so to grade (longer for students with lower writing ability). That’s approximately 1600 minutes per essay set. I assign four essays a semester. That is 6400 minutes of grading essays alone–not homework or tests–just essays. That’s 106 hours. Divide that by six hours worth of grading, with no breaks, and I have 17 days of JUST GRADING ESSAYS. I have three teacher work days a year. I have not included any time to grade other smaller assessments, planning, parent meetings, and other job requirements. It cuts time from essential aspects of my job.
Now all of that relates to class size and quality of education, but I guarantee that a lot of the readers here view that little math breakdown as “whining.” Many of them will tell me that I knew what I was getting into when I got into the profession, that I should have picked a different profession if I didn’t want to grade papers. As a Language Arts teacher my kids must write. I must grade it, and in fact enjoy grading it. It lets me know where my students are academically. But 17 days? It’s too much.
It affects quality because I am only human.
And I’m not alone. So am I whining or being vocal? It seems that for many readers it depends on perspective.
Wow...
May 15th, 2012
8:34 pm
Get rid of the fluff at the CLL Building and all the SRT Offices.
MB
May 15th, 2012
8:51 pm
Deja vu all over again…1000 jobs in Fulton two years ago? http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/03/19/the-day-the-music-died-in-fulton-and-1000-jobs-disappeared/#comments
bootney farnsworth
May 15th, 2012
9:16 pm
why don’t we just get around to getting rid of all the non administrators?
they’re gonna do it anyway.
education is over in Georgia. time to move to Mississippi, Guam, or inner city East St. Louis
where they comparatively give a damn about education
Burroughston Broch
May 15th, 2012
11:44 pm
@ Glad I can afford to send my daughter to pvt school
Maynard Jackson’s daughter Brooke is a founder and Senior VP of Jackmont Hospitality.
Jackmont is a joint venture partner for food service for APS, Morehouse, and Spelman.
At APS and Morehouse, Jackmont is a joint venture partner with Sodexho.
At Spelman, Jackmont is a joint venture partner with Aramark.
Sodexho and Aramark provide the food service expertise and operations, and Jackmont provides the political muscle and minority contracting coverage.
I would not be surprised if Jackmont received a $1million per year from APS.
Glad I can afford to send my daughter to pvt school
May 16th, 2012
7:26 am
Burroughston Broch
May 15th, 2012
11:44 pm
Thanks for the information about the invisible hand of the Jackson Family..Looks like they will probably pocket another MILLION DOLLARS from privatizing janitors. Hard to see how the public to allow these crooks to steal mostly from poor black children.
Burroughston Broch
May 16th, 2012
9:34 am
@ Glad I can afford to send my daughter to pvt school
I guess that they would guide the janitors through another Jackmont company, Jackmont Administrative.
It’s hard for me to understand how Brooke Jackson can be a “disadvantaged minority.”
Regarding the public, if you buy into the “prosperity gospel” (ala Bp. Eddie Long) in which the congregation lives vicariously through the clergy’s ostentatious wealth, then doing the same for Brooke Jackson and other “disadvantaged minorities” is OK with you.
Really amazed
May 16th, 2012
10:51 am
What are they doing with all of those RTTT funds??? Aren’t any of you wondering where they are going to? Like I have said before…the more money that gets pumped into GDOE the worse it gets. Why is that? Money is NOT the answer! Gov’t corruption on the rise!
Numba One Educrat
May 16th, 2012
11:34 am
APS should lock their doors and shutter the windows. Criminals educating criminals. Let the Feds worry about them.
Eliminate Nanny Governments
May 16th, 2012
1:17 pm
You know what is needed to fix this? Some more worse-than-worthless “SEX OFFENDER” laws like Registration, Banishment, and the other adjunct stupidity. It is good to see that the stupidity of the SEX OFFENDER witch hunt is directly stealing resources from such useless things as education. Oh, I’ve got it …. many schools have installed “anti SEX OFFENDER” devices. These schools need some of that. Remember, Registration protects children. Your children will be sexually assaulted if your nanny big governments do not run their Registries, etc. and the propoganda campaigns/stunts (e.g. SEX OFFENDER residence “verifications”) to tell you how great it all is.
Judy
May 17th, 2012
11:37 am
Gwinnett is right there as well, shoddy land deals – bloated central office, though they say hiring freeze. One person retires and they replace the position with two people. They just hired 5 executive area directors at a salary of over $140,000….their central office is known as the Taj Mahal….
.
Charter schools are the answer………..working with the bare minimum, yet passionate about student success.
Jaye Fields
May 17th, 2012
1:57 pm
RE: Cuts in Maintenance Staffs: APS
Several illegals were arrested while working for the “Contract Cleaners” in Atlanta Public School buildings. For years the contract staffs have stolen from classroom, kitchens, and buildings in the district. No proof has be shared, but these cleaners do a poor job and often do absolutely nothing in the classrooms other than empty the trash cans.
If authorities were to go into each building, at say 7:00 PM, they would find over half of the people working there have docuemnts that are forgeries and workers are illegals.
The regular day staffs could be moved to the night cleaning staff and jobs saved for people who have spent decades working for an “ungrateful” district. The regular maintenance staffs deserve to keep their jobs, even if pay has to be frozen are cuts in salaries made. PEOPLE ARE GIVEN NO CREDIT FOR LOYALTY TO ATLANTA PUBLI SCHOOLS…THIS NEEDS TO STOP.
bloodbike
May 17th, 2012
9:00 pm
I’m getting into who should be cut, but its funny that state and county workers of any kind feel as if they can’t or shouldn’t be let go when money is tight! I work in the private sector and it snice seeing folks who have been living on the money of my hard earned tax money now have to get their crap together and produce or be let go. Welcome to the real world governement workers of America.
N. GA Teacher
May 17th, 2012
11:42 pm
The cuts and layoffs across the state are tragic. Much of this could have been avoided by prudent planning and a few good brains. First, the feds should never have been allowed to implement NCLB and other unfunded mandates. Paranoid scurrying to obey these laws by state level officials led to overhiring of SPED personnel, overspending on private testing and curriculum agencies, and other ridiculous “complying” expenditures. The teacher in the inner city school who acts as social worker, surrogate mom, nurse, mentor and confidant works much harder and suffers much more stress than the fatcat central office worker who makes four times her salary, yet terrorizes her, her peers and their principal when “his eminence” visits the school. God help them if his critique is negative! Next, the state should always have used more lottery money for K-12. Students motivated to go to college always found a way to do that BEFORE the lottery. The lottery just made it EASIER. The real crisis in Georgia and the nation involves K-12 education, particularly education of poor children. Yes their parents are often no good, but we shouldn’t punish the kids for this- many already live in terrible neighborhoods, and without low student to teacher ratios, many kids will fall though the cracks and become bigger drains on society through crime and the penal system. Four-day a week high schools are great money-savers and morale-boosters. These have worked great in Utah and up in Chattooga County. How about charging a few more bucks for football games? There’s another hundred thousand a year for a high school. It is painful to see the obvious not done.
2 in college;1 to go
May 18th, 2012
1:55 pm
I don’t understand APS. They are cutting school level employees while adding more to the central office. Why does the strategy office and information technology both need project managers and managers of project managers. These positions cost almost $100k each in salary and benefits. What projects are they working on, how to reduce spending??? Get real. Central office always ensures they favorite people and projects are covered.
Good Mother
May 19th, 2012
7:52 am
To Long time teacher, you asked a good question ”
“I don’t understand why I don’t hear parents screaming about too many students in a classroom.”
To whom would we scream? Errol davis? The principal of our school? To you?
What would any of them do about it?
What COULD any one of them do about it?
Errol cannot create more money.
So he tries to save money by closing underpopulated schools that cost too much to keep open.
But that didn’t work as others fought to keep inefficient schools open (others like Emory and other special interests).
So by not closing Coan MS, we have to pay for that behemoth, inefficient school and throw money down teh drain and then everyone in my kids’ school is having 25 kids in a classroom or more and sitting in a dilapidated trailer.
We parents DO bring the oversized classroom sizes to the attention of everybody who listen BUT the special interests like those at Coan MS are more important.
We just happen to be the educated schmucks paying for it all.