DeKalb school board: We can save Fernbank and middle school sports but only with a tax hike

What a mess…all school systems are in this perdicament. They are having to do less with less and at the end of the day, student achievement will be affected!!

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Yep, students will have less instruction hours and more students in a class, teachers will have their pay decreased & and increase in their insurance premiums, our taxes will go up, but hey – the BOE in all of their brillance saved a building and a program that benefits very few of DCSD students. What should be even more insulting to our teachers is that the 28 “instructors” at FSC made over $2 million in salaries last school year and 11 of those “instructors” don’t even have Teaching Certificates on file. Woo Hoo!!! This “new day in DeKalb” sure looks like the old days. Let’s make sure the special few are taken care of at the expense of the rest of our students.

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The same story everywhere, Bartow county has shortened the school year by five days and added two furlough days to that. The Republican led statehouse is accomplishing its goal of destroying public education.

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And much more can be saved by getting rid of more bloat at the Palace and getting rid of the School Board and leave the things alone that takes from teachers and students.

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About a year ago, Ramona Tyson stated how “robust” the DCSS financial position was. So robust in fact, the system was in a position to roll back teacher furloughs. Meanwhile, Dekalb taxpayers are in the hole for over $50 million in legal fees because Paul Womack didn’t want to pay a $1 million construction invoice and his cohorts on the Board went along blindly…meanwhile, oops we forgot to budget for bond interest due on SPLOST projects. Add that to the bloat and nepotism in the central office, which NO ONE is willing to address, and there’s your budget deficit folks.

I wouldn’t mind paying an extra school tax if the money wasn’t being handled by utterly incompetent bureaucrats who were only interested in maintaining the status quo. ALL of this could have been avoided.

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@ Hurricane:

Amen….SELF-INFLICTED is right! Time are tough all over, but when I think of all the legal fees and waste and bloat and lack of planning and incompetence and corruption in DCSD it makes me sick.

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the BOE in all of their brillance saved a building and a program that benefits very few of DCSD students.

Good news for you Dunwoody Mom…the decision isn’t final, so there’s still time to cheerlead for flushing Fernbank Science Center down the toilet.

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Are media specialists and paras still on the chopping block?

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Folks, they never intended to cut FSC, or middle school sports. It was all a ruse so the BOE and Dr. A could say they tried to cut but got shut down, so they “had” to raise taxes and take a machete to teachers (and by extension, students) again.

In the meantime:
–despite recommendations to cut 336 central office personnel, only 73, lower paid, staff are cut
–despite the fact we will obviously lose, the lawsuits continue and we continue to pay lawyers–a lot
–despite having more security staff per capita than other counties, almost no cuts to that bloated budget
Oh, and are we anticipating 6.25% pay cuts for Dr. A, Ms. Tyson, and the BOE?

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Not that it will happen now that it’s saved again, but the sustainable future for FSC includes thing like:

–user fees. Nominal fees, higher for non-county residents, could provide some revenue.
–use of existing communication technology. One or two visits a year to a school is not enough. We have a DCSS television system that could easily do streaming video to bring FSC instructors into all classrooms on a regular basis.
–public-private partnerships. Many of the county charter schools seek private funding to make up for what they don’t get from DCSS (or the state). FSC is not ‘above’ doing this.

Of course, this should all have happened years ago, and didn’t. But if the Fernbank community cared about the whole county it still could.

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Fernbank is a crown jewel of the school system and must be saved even if it means a tax increase. It is priority time folks and education is one of the most important functions of our state and local govts. Time for us to cut back on needless toys for the wealthy like Artie Blank’s proposed pleasure dome stadium and diversions of public funds into voucher type programs for private schools for the wealthy.

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yuzeyurbrane

So to save FSC. the board decided to up the cost of health insurance for teaches after also cutting their salaries through furlough days. (Yes folks, furlough days are salary cuts.)

FSC is a jewel? I don’t think so. I think for a small handful of students each year, the instructors do a fabulous job. They don’t do such a great job on the in school field trips, if you ask teachers and students. The kids are sick of the planetarium and much of the other equipment at FSC is 1970s era.

But Aquagirl, FSC is certainly worth an increase in class size right? RIGHT?

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This may give DeKalb Schools a gasp of air, but it doesn’t help students or teachers. Class sizes are already too large and teaching anything meaningful is becoming increasingly difficult. Pressure in the pressure cooker is building. It’s time we started rethinking the model for education that we have been using for the last 200 years and bring the process of education in line with what we now know about the process of learning. The problem with formal education now is the way it’s structured. One very clear thing about teaching is that smaller class sizes, especially in the primary grades improves learning. Yet, every time there is a budget crunch, class sizes go up. The crazy standardized testing that has been forced on school systems does not, I REPEAT, DOES NOT, help education. It does nothing to help students learn or get interested in learning, it contorts the learning process into a “force feeding of facts”, it takes creativity and initiative away from the classroom instructor, and it drives a wedge between the major pillars of education which must work together: parents, teachers, administration, and the public. In fact, standardized testing is destroying public education. The only thing it accomplishes is to take education tax dollars and make the testing industry wealthy. Education is (or should be) about more than force feeding facts to schoolchildren which they are then required to answer a few questions about on a test. The volume of this material is now so great and the content so broad that a child has no chance to build a logical framework in his/her brain to be able to understand the information in it’s proper context. There is no hope of students undertstanding the information (or a significant amout of it) and being able to apply the knowledge. The best they can do is to memorize it and retain it for a short while to score well on a test. The real danger here is that the kids actually believe they have learned the material when they pass these tests, and parents think they are getting educated.
The system is broken. Fixing it will not be accomplished by sending our children to private or charter schools, by school choice, or even hiring better teachers. Education should not just be seating kids in a classroom, reading a book, and taking a test. We need to rethink the process and determine what a student graduating from HS really should know, WHAT HE/SHE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO, and find ways to promote and encourage students to develop their own creativity and initiative.
We are always one generation away from loosing the civilization that we have. Our success in educating our children each generation will determine our future.
Budget wars on education are going on all over the country. Much of the money that we now invest in education is wasted because the model, the structure of education is wrong. We probably arrived at our current dire situation by using the wrong tools to measure success, and actually defining success in an incomplete skewed way. A successful graduate should be able to leave school and become a good citizen, understand the basics of the world he/she lives in, and have had some experience in accomplishing things without detailed step-by-step instructions. To do well at anything one should learn to experience failures and overcome them. Schools not only don’t teach that, they rigorously teach students that failure is the most horrible and unthinkable outcome to anything. In today’s classrooms a “hands-on” lesson (and everyone knows hands-on learning is the best kind) usually is a very rushed step by step experience that the teacher leads the students through. If students do not get the desired outcome, they are told what it should be and fill out their lab sheets/notebooks accordingly, not recording what they saw and experienced but what the teacher told them it should be. That is not education, its indoctrination!
The system is broken. It won’t be easy to fix, but we must fix it if we expect to secure our future!

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@Dunwoody Mom point well made…so let’s ask the school board to find efficiencies at FSC, not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

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@Bill & Ed – I agree that Fernbank should still be left open and available but we do need to reorganize and rethink the staffing and pay. Perhaps some of the staffing at Fernbank could also handle some duties that are handled at Central Office since we have alot of unnecessary and overpaid staffing there. Student involvement at Fernbank could help with the displays, etc. as they would be a learning tool. Also, I still do not understand why DCSS is paying for Montessori Schools! That should go, along with extraneous transportation costs. By that I mean we should not pay to run buses for anyone who lives within a mile and a half of their school and no transportation should be provided for any students who choose to go to a school that is not their “home” school, magnet or otherwise. Perhaps the answer to sports, especially at the middle school level, is that parents pay a fee to help subsidize that activity since most practices are held after the normal school day is finished.

I do not believe that increasing the tax rate once again and throwing more money at the problem is the answer. Get your house in order first and live within your means like the rest of us.

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Folks here is a quote from Tom Bowen in this mornings AJC.

Tom Bowen introduced the proposal to increase taxes while cutting teachers and school days. He said, “the one mill increase SHOULD be rolled back by 2015.”

Then Tom write it into the proposal. Place a sunset on that one mill increase. I know you won’t but you will say you tried. Does anyone believe a Eugene Walker led (if he gets reelected) BOE will “ROLLBACK” the one mill increase in 2015? I’ve learned never to trust a Superintendent or a BOE that continue to balance budgets on the backs of teachers, students and taxpayers. The friends and family reaped huge benefits throughout the “recession” and now we’re paying dearly for poor leadership. The amazing thing about it? Most of the people that got us stuck in this ditch are still drawing checks from DCSS. Why?

When I see the people, who aided Clew through the most corrupt period in our school systems history start getting pink slips, then I might actually want to give them more money. However, just the mistakes under Tyson’s “interim” leadership cost us millions and could have cost us more until a Dunwoody State Senator Millar stepped in as the adult in the room and got the funds to DCSS.

The many mistakes made by the Clew/Tyson leadership, still in place after all that has happened, is the true tragedy. In the real world, people responsible for huge costly gaffes would have been fired long ago. At DCSS, the ones that make the biggest mistakes are usually celebrated and even given a raise. Why?

DCSS(D?) still an epic failure since 2004.

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Wow! You are certainly fixated on destroying Fernbank Science Center. I wonder how many classroom science teachers would want to loose the 749 traveling exhibits from FSC that they ordered last year? Each month last year FSC sent out traveling exhibits to an average of 54 schools (throughout the county) that requested them. Exhibit designers make those exhibits as well as the exhibits and supplies used by FSC instructors and the exhibits displayed at the science center.
Education is not just about force feeding facts to children in a classroom and paying the absolute minimum dollar to do that. Its about getting children excited to learn, helping them to see and experience concepts, opening the world of knowledge to them. Why can’t you understand that FSC is dedicated to doing just that, in as many ways as possible?
And…….. what does the Middle School Sports budget have to do with that?

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Earlier budget proposals suggested eliminating funding for Middle School Sports. I was just pointing out that these “designers” at FSC make more than the $200,000 Middle School Sports budget.

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The answer to every question is not, “Raise taxes.” What is Dekalb’s school millage rate now?

I am guessing the designers and others at FSC work year-round.

Start at the top. That is where real savings can start. Cut the CO 50% immediately! Then prune the rest through reducing pay and adding duties.

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There is no reason for Fernbank to be left open. I’m willing to pay for kids to learn science at school. Fernbank is a luxury we can live without in difficult times.

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@AtlantaMediaGuy: Obama health care plan has not gone into effect yet. We will have to wait and see on that one.

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Just got an email informimg us that the IB program is trying to be cut from $130000 to just $29000. That is not enough to run the program properly. The DCSB spent countless dollars creating IB High school programs and their middle school feeder programs for those talented kids only now to make them pointless. So much for all the “inclusion” programs they claim. Those parents and kids who want a challenging education are just as deserving as any other “inclusion” student.

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Pardon me, I meant to type, Over a Billions dollars per year spent for the last 4 years and our reserves are gone. How is this fiduciary responsibility of our elected leaders working out for us? How can we trust them with more of OUR money. That’s right Eugene Walker, it’s OUR money and OUR school system.

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Bobby, I know pieces and parts have not been implemented for political reasons. However, do you think the BOE will roll back costs to healthcare once it is implemented? Will DCSS roll all the employees onto the government healthcare rolls once it is implemented? Just wondering….

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The meeting tonight, will people be able to speak or will it be the DCSS way where Mr. Moseley picks and chooses who gets to speak? Is this meeting going to be telecast on PDS-24? If not, why not? The most important meeting of the year and they are having it the week of Memorial Day, really? Talk about the lack of transparency, this is the norm for DCSS, make the most important decisions, when no one is watching and then when August comes around our feckless BOE members say, “Where were you when these decisions were made?”

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Said it before, will say it again – you could randomly eliminate 25% of the central office staff by pulling names out of a hat, and you wouldn’t lose one iota of “production” from that bottomless pit of bureaucracy.

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@ Medlock Madness If parents at the school want IB, than they need to get raising funds and having the PTA help out.

I really don’t understand what adults in DeKalb do not understand about being BROKE!!!!!!! 73 million is a conservative estimate. I’m willing to bank that it’s much more than this.

Granted if I had my choice, I’d pick IB over Fernbank, but it’s time that we had a real discussion in this county, not based on emotion, but based on facts and decisions were made based on facts, and not on emotions and making others happy. We cannot continue to raise class size and take away from teacher salary. Having teachers pay more in healthcare is inevitable with the current costs rising so much each year. The costs of healthcare are something that all employers and employees are facing.

It’s time to have a meeting where everything is on the table, truly on the table. Costs, number of kids using program and ways to cut costs are all examined. We cannot keep giving those with the loudest mouths what they want. We need to make decisions based on what is best for the most amount of kids and what will have the best and greatest impact on the majority of students.

Larger class sizes will have the greatest negative impact on children and will hurt far more students than Fernbank helps.

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Real patriots would be willing to pay more in taxes to improve their community and their country, particularly since federal tax rates now are at the lowest they’ve been in 60 years. I’d gladly pay more in taxes, but I don’t live in DeKalb. I’d gladly pay more in federal taxes as well.

With that said, I’ll again advocate that DeKalb takes every administrator who has a “doctorate” from an online school or other diploma mill, and places them back in the classroom with a salary of $50-60k, which is what any other experienced teacher with an advanced degree would make. This way they still have jobs so unemployment and foreclosures don’t increase, but DeKalb saves $30-50k a year on each administrator (who wasn’t qualified for the job anyway), and class sizes would be reduced which should improve students’ education.

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Why should Fernbank operate 7 days a week and why can’t they cut out the expensive That should save a hunk!! Also, transportation for field trips to the forrest should be eliminated since the forrest now belongs to the museum and will charge DeKalb students to visit.

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This is why we R glad 2 not live in Dekalb. The schol system is a mess and is going broke and is over run with minorites that end up causing the tax payers.

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I wouldn’t mind paying more in taxes, if the school system’s budget looked like that of my own family (lean and mean-no extras). I begrudge having to pay more, when the school board and Atkinson did not make all of the cuts that they could to have the school system run more efficiently. I begrudge taking away from my family to keep employing people that the district does not really need, while teachers and kids are screwed with larger class sizes and smaller pay checks. Why aren’t our central office employees having to deal with an increased work load? Why do all of the cuts fall on the backs of the teachers and students? What happens when the law suits are lost and we are owing people millions?

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Melanie, kids should be charged for every bus trip they take, unless it’s to their home schools-even choice schools. Fernbank Science field trips should be no different from any other field trip a child takes.

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@Progressive Humanist

you said “I’d gladly pay more in taxes, but I don’t live in DeKalb. I’d gladly pay more in federal taxes as well.”

Start writing your checks and putting your money where your mouth is. The US Treasury and the county will gladly accept your money at any time. You are not hindered from paying more than your accountant says you “owe” and can pay more into the system at any time of the year. How very noble of you.

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I am ONE of only 19 Assistant Principals nonrenewed in my position. Instead of Dr. A making logical cuts, she went after the “weakest” first. How is it that only 19 AP’s would help save a $73 million shortfall and most of our salaries were just a few dollars more than a teacher? I am the sole AP at my school, therefore, there was not a need for my position to be eliminated, but yet, we have Prevention/Intervention Specialists in the county who make as much or more than administrators and they were SAVED. Where’s the rationale?

I am in complete agreement that trimming the fat in DeKalb is necessary and it’s the only way to get us out of the hole, but there was no thought behind the first wave of budget cuts and RIFed positions. I am a product of DeKalb County and if the board is willing to keep spending $4.7 million on Fernbank Science Center, they are the idiots that you say they are. Fernbank Science Center is a traditional entitity in the district and people are wanting to hold onto it because of it’s history with the district, but quite honestly, my students have always dreaded the Fernbank field trips. So why keep it??? Not to mention, where is the research that says that Fernbank has an impact on our students’ science scores?? Sell it to a private entity and keep the $4.7 million! That’s not rocket science.

There are many ways for DeKalb to get this right, but we don’t have many smart people at the top making these decisions. I am moving on with my career and it won’t be in DeKalb….thanks for nothing!

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Reluctantly I say close the Fernbank Science Center. It’s very disappointing it has come to this, but pouring more money into this failing system is not going to save it. Why is there even a debate over cutting areas that don’t impact the classroom, ie. middle school sports, outsourcing custodians? These are desperate times. Why is it ok to put all this other stuff back in the budget, but continue to cut our teachers? Where are our priorities really? This BOE continues to demonstrate why they cannot be trusted to handle our money responsibly. Yet they can force us to give them more to mismanage.

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Medlock Madness-the cuts in IB make perfect sense to me as the actual implementation of the Common Core state standards brings the school district close to the outcomes that IB was pushing in its IB Learner Profile.

In fact there has already been a merger of the IB Learner Profile with the 21st Century Skills movement. Much of Common Core’s implementation is not knowledge or content but those generic skills.

I am very familiar with both the Middle Years and Diploma Programmes. When I track ed reform globally I can see countries that are 5 years to a decade ahead of the US. When I look, for example, at Australian middle schools now, it looks like a duplicate of the IB MYP because of Australia’s adoption of Ted Sizer’s Coalition for Essential Schools framework about 10 years ago coupled with Howard Gardner’s ATLAS Project.

I haven’t covered that story yet although I was in Australia this morning virtually looking at it school leadership programs.

http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/ is my blog if you want to look at any of my posts explaining how Common Core is actually a renamed attempt to finally get Transformational Outcomes Based Education in place in the US.

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The Dekalb schools could easily balance their budgets just by eliminating at least half the administrative staff and their taxpayer-funded perks. Don’t take from teachers and kids, get rid of the useless people clogging the system!

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Yeah

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You need to email Dr. Atkinson and every member go the Board of Education and let them know your thoughts on the tax hike and making NO cuts Fernbank. I did this last week. They have only heard from the Fernbank supporters. Now they need to hear from weary taxpayers and classroom supporters. If you do not make your voices heard, nothing will change. Here is the link to email every BOE member(names on the right in blue are email links):

http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/board-of-education

Dr. Atkinson:
Cheryl_atkinson@fc.dekal.k12.ga.us

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I saw a tweet from the Patch online media site that indicates they plan to live blog the meeting tonight

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I’d rather see the entire district go IB rather than cut IB for the common core. While you may say that the standards are mirrored images, what IB has is an international team that reviews implementation – in other words: true ACCOUNTABILITY!. Give my lack of trust in DCSS, I see IB as one of the few saving graces of the district. These schools answer to a group outside of DCSS that really does have kids interests at heart.

You really trust DCSS to implement CC correctly and in the best interests of all the children? Including those who truly want to move beyond average and achieve at higher levels? ha ha ha ha.

And for those who will quip, then pay for those things yourself, I do. Because of the local schools’ ineffectiveness, I and many families of average kids ARE paying for tutors and additional skills (music and sports) outside of the schoolhouse. THAT’s the problem. Why should an average kid need a tutor? They should be getting what they need in the classroom. Instead, the teachers’ time is spent dealing with unruly children and ensuring that test PREP is going smoothly. Meanwhile, basic skills are really ignored.

For the first time, I’ll be challenging my taxed home value. I have never minded paying more than what the house is worth, because I believe in supporting the schools. BUT, when the super spends hundreds of thousands of dollars and is told by consultants to CUT (not move) 300 positions, but instead chooses furlough days, pay cuts, and tax increases, I’ll simply not support it.

Indeed, I have to ensure I have enough money to pay those tutors that my kids require.

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Fund the system. Jack the taxes, 20mills.

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@ Dunwoody Mom, we need to get people at the meeting tonight. Fernbank supporters, IB supporters Magnet, Montessori, and every other potential cut will have it’s supports there tonight. If we who want the district to spend reasonably do not show up, we too are part of the problem. Our voices need to be heard loud and clear. We need to talk to a news outlet and get another point of view out there.

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Get rid of Athletics….get rid of all the teams, all the costs with funding them, keeping up the stadiums and paying the good for nothing coaches….most of them couldn’t pass a competency test anyway…..that should save the important things like Science and Math.

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“Fernbank supporters, IB supporters Magnet, Montessori, and every other potential cut . . .”

What we need to do is all work TOGETHER to be heard loud and clear demanding cuts to CO staff, ends to the lawsuits, and the other cuts we ALL want. The BOE, Dr A. and others are clearly pursuing a divide and conquer strategy to preserve the “Dekalb Way” and so far it’s working.

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@Gwinnett Mom:
Do you mean your reference to “minorites”, your typing, or Gwinnett being a net receiver of equalization funds (while Dekalb is a net donor)?
Can someone else enlighten our friend about equalization please, what it costs Dekalb and how it benefits Gwinnett? I don’t have the reference handy. Thank you

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@big picture

You should be on the school board! You really get the “big picture”!!! I’ve said it before and I will say it again…children are going to be on the losing end of this administration. The supt’s decision making HAS NOT been transparent…Dr. A and her staff have created a pool of disgruntled educators and unfortunately this will roll over into the instructional foundation for most classrooms. Yes, as the old adage goes, “be thankful that you have a job”…but how can one be thankful when you have a craft that has been raked over the coals with no regard for the impact it will have? Education is dealing with human lives…children are our biggest investment but yet, the children are not being taken into account with these decisions…

2012-2013 will be a memorable year in DeKalb…watch my words…

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Medlock Madness

Some programs are losing all their extra funding.

At what point, do people realize if no other county in Metro Atlanta, is spending the $ that DCSS is for little and big extras, but they have more revenue than DCSS does and offers more to every student than DeKalb does.

I am tired of the specialty this and the specialty that. It is time to serve every child equally.

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And no…I am NOT part of the friends and family network…From the time that I started teaching in DeKalb 14 years ago, I always wanted to be able to serve children beyond the four walls of my classroom. I worked diligently to shadow GOOD administrators, I went to “traditional” grad school to gain a working knowledge of educational leadership, and I patiently applied for YEARS to get to the interview table for an Assistant Principal position. When I gained my position 2 years ago, I worked from sun up to sun down for the good of CHILDREN. I worked with struggling teachers and I invited parents to come to the school to have an understanding of how to help their children. So anyone who is sitting back saying that I “deserve” to have my job taken from me is full of it….

I EARNED where I am in my career and if that means that I need to take my TALENT to another district, that’s what I will have to do…my school losing me is DeKalb’s loss…and it will be another school district’s gain…trust me on that one!

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@Dekalbite – it does you no good to email Dr. Atkinson. She put Fernbank on the table. The majority of the board took it back off.

You all need to realize – Gene Walker, Jay Cunningham, Donna Edler, Sarah Copelin-Wood and Tom Bowen run this school system. Dr. Atkinson can only make suggestions. She must get board approval for her actions. Gene Walker has advocated for a tax increase since the day he stepped up to the dais. Here we go! Gene Walker is the ‘real’ superintendent!

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If U dont have the refernce handy then why bring it up?

I’m talking about the non citisen job stealing minorites that caused the tax payers to teach there kids english.

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Only an incompetent board would make statements as ridiculous as this one. You should title this post, “When a system is broken, THIS is what happens.”

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Once again good folk of Atlanta who do not read: Central Office Staff has been cut. More than 300 people have been invited to pink slip parties. Don’t believe me, then do an open records request, or better yet ask when will the DOL RIF list be public knowledge. Perhaps after June 11. It seems that because the media fails to report, people continue with “central office needs to go” mantra. And no where does the media say, well the truth is hundreds have been notified that they are no longer needed at the end of the budget year. The superintendent did follow the report and cut many people.

Next: cut Fernbank, cut magnet, theme, and high achievers programs. Allow true parent choice INSIDE of the community school. All of the parents wanting and demanding parent choice, stay in your neighborhood and fight for the best programming in your community. The community that is affected by poor schools thus decreasing home values. Stay and fight to make the home schools the best, get involved, and make YOUR school the school that you want to emulate. Cut transportation to theme, magnet, and high achievers schools. If parents are so dedicated to their students and still want to get the best outside of the home area (because parents fail to work hard at the home school), then pay the cost and pick up the transportation cost of busing your kids. Further return Pre-K back to the state. End Montisori in a select few schools for a small amount of children (less than what other teachers have to teach). If you just gotta continue with these special “parent choice” options, then “encourage” the principals to build their school programs around such option for the sake of the community. Imagine the bus and fuel cost saved by stopping these special programs. If they were stopped, then another office would be goone: the magnet and theme school office would no longer be necessary. That could easily be $300K in salaries and benefits saved.
Cut FSC and if Fernbank ES still wants it as its weekly trips for the students, then let the Fernbank parents purchase the building and call it the Fernbank ES annex. Simply a waste of money. $4.7 million for how many students? how much increase in science scores across the district? There are many research universities in metro Atlanta and the Zoo that has outreach programs to come to the schools to work with students. Ever heard of virtual science websites.

The biggest pain is that people are blaming the current superintendent for this nightmare. It can be said time and time again, that ALL of GA is going through these pains, yet people continue with name calling. How much could we have in next years budget if we did not have to send money to “poor” school systems such as Gwinnett and South GA through equalization grants? When will people call and demand that this farce of sending money to Gwinnett end? Because if Gwinnett is a poor school system, then the rest of GA is at the bottom of the caste system.

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Salty, I do wonder if I know you. You sound like someone that I know the district is losing….or should I say the KIDS are losing.

Let’s remind everyone why those specialty programs exist. They are there because for so many years, under federal requirements, the only kids receiving any interest from the schools at all were those who were causing schools to miss AYP. Instructional time, programs, etc., were developed within schools in attempts to reach these kids – as they are perceived to be the ones who most need assistance. I agree that help needs to be offered to these populations.

HOWEVER, unfortunately, this assistance was provided at a significant cost to the average child…the child who absolutely is capable of better than B and C work with a little encouragement. The A student who can become creative if asked to push beyond the easy, monotonous work of the current county and state curriculum. These students have absolutely been “left behind.” And this is why families have fled local schools. We know. We tried to ensure that our local school provided supports for these kids, but all we ever heard about was how there were others who were “more” in need. I have not yet left the schools, but am looking. I am appalled that I am paying for a tutor because I have noticed my child is behind where she should be to enter the next grade level.

Cut the bloat. Keep programs where outside assessments occur (IB, etc.) because we cannot trust our administration or board to keep the kids – the great wonderful kids in the middle – learning and moving forward. Keep the teachers who really care – those who have stayed in the trenches over the years. Those who work to perfect their craft. Those who are wiling to evolve their style to reach different kinds of students. Get rid of those who have worked to, or stood by while the decision-makers have decimated true learning practices in the system so that they could pay for and support family and friends, and personal and private pocketbooks.

Unfortunately, I did not know about this meeting and had already put plans in place. I could say something, but you all know.

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@TEacher and Taxpayer: These positions are in addition to the other layoffs primarily listed in the audit. If the ajc wanted to tell the truth, they could do an open records request and see how many people were notified in meetings (with armed security, might I add)in late April/early May that they were no longer needed. That could be a story in and of itself. Six police officers in an auditorium. Telling people, you do not have to wait until June 29, you can leave now. Armed police escorts for chief of HR because of the vile bitterness waifing through the county. She is doing what her boss, the superintendent, is telling her to do.

This horrific mess goes prior to Lewis. He may have taken the stripping of DCSD to a new and faster level, but the problems began 45 years ago.

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The real problem is not Fernbank but the central office. More draconian cuts need to be made there. Board member McChesney challenged the board and superintendent to remove more “fat” from central office. Cutting Fernbank is taking away from the kids just as much as much as any of these other budget fixes. We don’t need to get rid of anything educational. We need to get rid of the friends and family members drawing $$$ salaries for doing nothing. All this is a ruse to keep the eyes and heat off central office. Jester accused Dekalb of trying to go to the welfare office in a mink coat. Most of the board scoffed at that idea and said Dekalb has no fur coats. Most of the commentors here need to put there money where there mouth is and to go the board meetings and raise hell. No one is even at these things. Central office needs to be trimmed down. that is really the only issue worth discussing. The rest of this arguing about FSC etc is a diversion. FSC is loved by students and provides educational benefits. Some offensive family member drawing big bucks for sitting on there arse all day provides no benefit

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The only reason FSC was saved is that the Board was finally informed by its attorneys that the site reverts to Fernbank Inc if the center ceases to be a science or social science educational center. The board was reluctant to give over any more turf to the Museum ( the forest is already gone), but it wasn’t put of concern for science education that they took it off the table. Don’t take this as a mandate for FSC: it’s just the latest installation of boys defending their turf.

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Why is Fernbank the sole responsibility of DeKalb? Why can’t it have a number of fundraiser and other Non-governmental sponsorships? Why always depend on tax money?
There is a ton of citizen funded material available there such as the SEMAA – NASA sponsored classes and simulators, and could be intelligently and practically leveraged. No need to drag children / students there to admire snakes available at the Zoo. The cost of constructing the planetarium, or Fernbank like facilities pale in comparison of maintaining it, BUT, it should not be the burden of the DeKalb county. Please consider other approach besides: close or raise taxes.
By the way, our 3 magnet school kids are now going to private schools. Where would this theoretical money go? Could we be exempt from property taxes since we really saved the county a whole lot more they can ever dream of collecting annually from our property taxes?

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FYI:
DeKalb Board of Education Public Budget Hearing 5/30/2012 – 6:00 PM
J. David Williamson Board Room, Administrative & Instructional Complex 1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard
Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083

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Meeting Agenda

A. CALL TO ORDER
B. ROSTER
C. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
D. FISCAL YEAR 2013 BUDGET PRESENTATION
E. CITIZEN COMMENTS (30 speakers\2 minutes each)
F. ANNOUNCEMENTS
G. ADJOURN

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Raise taxes: the Democrat solution to everything. There’s never been a problem that couldn’t be solved using Other People’s Money.

How about getting rid of the bloat, fraud, and waste? Oh wait, that would require someone with some ungodly salary to actually DO WORK. Nope, not happening.

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Well if you start by closing all middle schools and start k-7 and start 8-12 you would not have a debt
problem you have to many buildings that are taking up space you close a school and build another one you have schools for high achievers , magnet school if the children are that far advanced send that child to next grade stop spending tax payers money for nonsense you are talking about raising taxes my home is worth nothing now the value is nothing. so do not raise my taxes if you are not going to raise the value of our homes

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Oh great… They saved Fernbank Science center. In the mean time, 2200 four year olds won’t have a place to go to school next year. How sad when all of the research shows that $1 spent on early education saves $7 later on. Good planning school board!

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Hey, Ramona Tyson got hers, didn’t she? In fact, she continues to get it – pay period after pay period. What exactly does she do these days to earn that paycheck?

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Cut the fat out of administrative jobs and keep Fernbank open.

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AND…I nearly spelled all those words right..See the education I have..LOL

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Tyson had the BOE give her a guaranteed salary through 2013. If they break the contract and fire her, she will continue to get paid. She is suppose to be over a new office that covers the foundation. The only work of which I am aware that the foundation does is to go begging for TOTY funds. This foundation should be managed by a real dollar raising, charity developer for a variety of issues going on in DCSD, not just the teacher of the year programming.

Magnet, theme, high achievers needs to go back into every community school. Since the new superintendent is continuing with the new regional supervision model such as Charlotte-Mecklenburg, then there should be a variety of models at the elementary level that prepares all the students feeding into the regional/area high school. transportation must stop going all over DeKalb county from 5am-9pm daily.

Also,some one continues to scream, the district should be broken into 3 districts. Then which district gets what? Who decides which area gets what? Just a knee jerk response to a problem that has festered since the late 1960s.

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You guys get your tax assessment yet? My property value is down again…So they want an increase? Right…I think it’s a plot…Less tax liability so the BOE decides they will get what we should have paid if our value had been up and add to their budget. I say noooo to the increase…As far as Tyson claiming that we were solvent, wasn’t she brought in by Crawford Lewis? What did she teach before she magically rose to the top? Couldn’t have been Math!

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for a brief moment in time, DeKalb had a chance at fiscal sanity.
and them blew it away.

I moved out of DeKalb nearly 30 years ago, and have never ever looked back.

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Livesy Mom – you described, more or less, my son’s experience at our top DCSS high school with an on-slaught of AYP transfers… not so different from that. Those of you who think you know what the “fancy” private schools are like — you have absolutely no idea unless you’ve had a kid sitting in the clasroom — it is not what you think it is — the noses are much much snootier in many of the public school haunts we were visiting before we went private (and frankly, it’s been shocking because it was contrary to all of my expectations) — a group of 28 of these “fancy school kids” are getting an education in Aids and working with township kids in south Africa this month and this is just one of many things they do to “counter” what you think is snootiness. It is an unbelivable education away from the “hoops” that my oldest was required to spend his days jumping through at his “best of the best” public school that didn’t serve him very well at all (and only graduated about 1/2 of the kids who were in 9th grade with him and yet when he was in 9th grade it made number 106 of the best high schools in america) — the guilt I feel for not giving him what his brothers are getting is pretty astounding. We thought we were doing the right thing by keeping them public at the time. Just masses of kids in hallways who couldn’t move, couldn’t get lunch in their allotted 20 minutes, teachers with classes stuffed to the gills who didn’t have time to really care for the kids (yes, there are some teachers there who are to this day near and dear to my heart) but too many kids in each class — not eanough time for them. An assistant principal cheking for skirts that were too short and shorts that were too low with different standards for white kids and non-white kids. Labs in insufficient classoroms. No supplies. It’s really not about the kids. At least in private school — it’s all about the kids. (And, yes, parachoial school is different than the other schools and my oldest did spend his last year and a half at one and it was much better than the “best” Dekalb had to offer but not nearly as good as the private we’re at now).

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A few notes from the inside: (from a DCSS teacher who left the system)
1) While I love FSC, I am wondering what the “exhibit designers” actually do? Take it from me – I was a DCSS teacher for over 20 years and none of the exhibits have changed one bit in all those years. No kidding. So what are they designing?
2) Teachers are already expected to put in more hours with fewer materials. While we are trying to go paperless, using paper cannot be avoided, and yet we ran out of paper repeatedly. No, this wasn’t due to running “worksheets”, but due to running the many worthless “tests” the county demanded we give that yielded no valuable information about what the students knew or did not know.
3) For every light bulb that goes out, the county sends three men. Yes, three. It’s a comedy, actually. All three of these men, individually, make more than the average first-year teacher.
4) Last year, on the PATS website advertising open positions in DCSS, the position of “Grounds Manager” was listed with a salary of $84,000. This person was to be charged with creating a schedule for cutting grass at area schools. Not one long-time teacher I know makes that much money. Give me a piece of paper and a pencil – I’ll make a grass cutting schedule for half that amount.
5) When a principal or highly-regarded athletic coach gets in trouble, they are “reassigned” to the county office. No loss or cut in salary at all. Everyone knows it. THESE are the positions that need to be cut first. First.
6) The county spends millions on “programs” for the entire county that are only needed for a handful of students. Millions of dollars of materials are sitting boxed up and unused because they are not needed. The teachers tell the administrators this, the administrators pass it on, and it is ignored. Complete waste of millions of dollars.
The list could go on and on….
My own children attend DCSS and I have worked in the system for many years. It is sad to see the system crumble around our feet. Yet, in a county where teachers aren’t even allowed to contact anyone in the county office without permission, should anyone really be surprised? It is a top-heavy system that wants to put the burdens on the backs of their lowest salaried employees.

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” FSC E D’s helped the Museum with their exhibits as well as their own exhibit hall, traveling exhibits, printed material and planetarium programs. All of this effort to help the fledgling museum get through their rough beginning and later with there own mismanagement.”

Why is DeKalb Schools paying $500,000 in educational for Designers to work on taxidermy at the Fernbank Museum?

So what does this have to do with the terrible student achievement our students have in science? You do understand that the ONLY job of the school system is to teach students and improve student achievement. If they can’t do that, they might as well pack up and go home. Almost half of our 8th grade students do not know the most basic science concepts while this is the Exhibit Designers who suck educational dollars out of the classroom make:
Designer $77,381
Designer $63,360
Designer $84,073
Designer $65,827
Designer $69,178
Total: $359,819
With benefits – $431,782 for five Fernbank Designers.

Let’s not forget the Cabinetmaker $56,600 salary and benefits

This is just wrong when we need science teachers so desperately.

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Found Focus,

Do you think it is appropriate for funds meant for public education, and this is the pile of money that funds FSC, were used for projects at Fernbank Museum, a Nonprofit entity that should pay its own bills. Are you kidding me? It is beyond inappropriate that my tax dollars were used for this. WRONG! WRONG!WRONG!

Students in DCSS suffer in large classes, teachers have salary cuts, etc and we were paying employees to work for another institution.

If you love FSC so much, send Dr. Atkinson an email today, volunteering to lead the effort to convert the center into a non-profit organization.

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Maybe Emory and Ga Tech want to adopt it and make it part of the universities…. but somehow the costs need to be offloaded away from the citizens so that the money being spent can get back to the classroom.

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Glad to see the Museum machinery out in force trying to justify their own existence.

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[...] a competent County government and a functioning school system, DeKalb has chosen to raise taxes and spend, spend, spend! Hey, if you had a unicorn farm in your county, wouldn’t you go hog-wild by [...]

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