DeKalb board delays budget vote after learning it must trim $12 million more
The DeKalb County property digest is down more than the school district expected, creating a likely need to cut $12 million more
At a crowded board meeting tonight, the DeKalb Board of Education — all members on hand — tabled discussing the school budget until June 20 after learning county property values were even worse than it was expecting.
The board learned that it would likely have to cut $12 million more from its already scaled-down proposed budget. DeKalb was already facing a $70 million deficit and was considering closing Fernbank Science Center and eliminating its local contribution to pre-k, which could mean fewer pre-k days.
DeKalb Schools CFO Michael Perrone delivered the bad news: He expected the county property tax digest to fall 6 percent, but now projects it will drop 9 percent in value. The county was badly hit by the collapse of the real estate market in Georgia.
So, Perrone is calling for $12 million more in additional cuts to reflect the downgraded property digest.
Board member Jesse Jay Cunningham, Jr., said that he didn’t feel the board could proceed now with the new information and wanted the budget questions pulled off the agenda, but school chief Cheryl Atkinson urged the board to consider moving on some proposed cuts. She didn’t find support from other board members.
“We are spinning out of control here without having all the facts at hand to make wise decisions,” said board member Don McChesney. “These are serious items and there are some things you can’t take as one piece set apart from all the others. I would hate to see us go off half-cocked tonight…We have to find 12 more million dollars.”
“It is getting worse, not better, let’s be honest about that,” said Nancy Jester, agreeing that the board needed to wait but urging more detailed information to the public about what programs are slated for elimination or reductions.
“It would not be prudent for us tonight to find $12 million,” said board member Thomas Bowen.
Board member Pam Speaks says the county can’t delay too much longer in making the hard decisions since parents have to plan, especially in pre-k where families will have to seek other options if DeKalb cuts its offerings. “We can’t keep putting it off and off. We have to think of parents,” she said.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
(Congrats to the all-female Envirothon team from Fernbank Science Center, which won the state competition held at UGA in April. To reach state, the team defeated 22 other teams at the regional level. At the state contest, the team placed first in three of five competition events and second in the remaining two. Their presentation earned a perfect score, the first in Georgia Envirothon history. The team made up of DeKalb high schoolers was based at and sponsored by Fernbank Science Center, and coached by Stacy Byrd, a Fernbank Science Center instructor. The team goes to Pennsylvania for the nationals in July.)
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204 comments Add your comment
bu2
June 11th, 2012
8:14 pm
Atkinson is really looking disorganized. She pulls the calendar stunt and now is doing the budget at the last minute. I guess she isn’t reading the papers which have been saying for the last week or two there were problems with the appraisals in the county.
The type of decision making she wanted is what Lewis used to steal from the school system. Everything’s an emergency and needs to be decided NOW!
catlady
June 11th, 2012
8:16 pm
It is easy. Cut everyone who does not have direct instructional responsibility ALL DAY. Then, look carefully at what is absolutely necessary to survive (ie one head of HR plus a secretary, one head of sped plus a secretary, etc). Choose who gets to stay for these (much fewer) open positions by eliminating all those with “write in” degrees, then pick the best of those left. Give all non-instructional staff a 30% salary decrease. Cut those making over $80,000 to less than that.
Guest
June 11th, 2012
8:24 pm
So Dekalb’s going to disregard the $150K consultant’s advice to cut redundant/unnecessary administrative positions? I can’t imagine why they’re in financial trouble.
Taxpayer and Teacher
June 11th, 2012
8:26 pm
Again I say…add 230 more administrative board positions to the chopping block. There’s your 12 million! Get rid of Ramona Tyson and cut the pay of the board and the superintendent’s pay now, not on the twentieth. Vote every last one of them out of office…fuming…
RCB
June 11th, 2012
8:27 pm
Who can honestly say they didn’t know this would happen??? A moron could have told you months ago that property values would not produce that much tax. These incompetents need to be voted out–you hear that south Dekalb???
Sade
June 11th, 2012
8:33 pm
@ Catlady:
You are on target. In addition, all vacant properties should be sold at auction along with eliminating the print media, parent centers, Pre-K, and Fernbank. Pre-K can be served by the private sector, print media can and should be replaced with technology, ditto for parent centers. Schools and parents can take kids on metro area field trips to enhance the sciences. Get back to the basics of what was provided 40 years ago and then slowly rebuild with caution.
Taxpayer and Teacher
June 11th, 2012
8:40 pm
Start by selling that albatross on N. Decatur Road! Why is it still sitting there empty? In fact I have a better idea. Move back into it and get rid of the new one. With less staff we won’t need all that space anymore. That is if they follow the recommendations of the audit! NOT. They won’t. Sacrifice is for everyone else!
Teacher2
June 11th, 2012
8:48 pm
Wonder where they’re going to “find” the $50 Million for the annuity lawsuit?
Pre K Teacher
June 11th, 2012
9:05 pm
I just would like to get everyone’s honest opinion- if Dekalb cuts funding to Pre K, do you think other school systems will follow suit? I teach Ga. Pre K in a daycare in another county, but I’m still wondering how this is going to affect Ga. Pre K overall.
Pre K Teacher
June 11th, 2012
9:07 pm
I would like *anyone’s* opinion, I should say.
bu2
June 11th, 2012
9:15 pm
Noone is as messed up as Dekalb. And real estate prices are probably about near bottom, so revenue won’t get much worse. Look at AJC’s Sunday article. Still going down, but the foreclosures are starting to move which is the key to stopping the slide. So what Dekalb does with PreK is not indicative of what everyone else will do.
Pre K Teacher
June 11th, 2012
9:20 pm
Thanks @ bu2.
JW
June 11th, 2012
9:21 pm
Many school districts have gotten out of the pre K program altogether b/c the money from the state doesn’t cover the costs in the school setting. The GA Pre K programs in private daycare facilities run on state funds alone, but being private facilities, they have other streams of income (before/after care programs, toddler/infant programs) that pay the bills. Plus I don’t think the teachers in the private setting are on state benefits. So teachers in a private pre K should only be affected if the state lowers the pre K money….you don’t get a district/county supplement.
As for DeKalb….as much as I loved Fernbank Science Center as a kid, DCSS needs to clean house and completely rethink that program and facility. It costs FAR too much to run the way it is currently organized. If I were a DeKalb tax payer, I’d be all over my BOE rep to demand a complete restructure of that facility.
Homeschooler
June 11th, 2012
9:21 pm
I remember when Cobb had Pre-K in the schools. It was only for a very short time. I think it functions just fine in the local day care centers. I’m not sure what the benefit is to having it at the schools.
Trip
June 11th, 2012
9:42 pm
I saw tht Fernbank Science Center employs 56 full time employees with full benefits and pensions. Why?
Living in an outdated ed system
June 11th, 2012
9:55 pm
What a joke. It didn’t have to be like this, if they focused on reinventing how education is delivered to students. Instead, they’re trying to continue to operate in a system that is an anachronism.
What a shame – these poor children deserve BETTER.
itsbrokeletsfixit
June 11th, 2012
10:02 pm
Maureen, I note that in your congratulations comment for the “all female Envirothon Team from Druid Hills High School”,you chose not to acknowledge that Fernbank Science Center (which was prominently mentioned at the meeting) was not even recognized in your comment. Just for the record, the county Envirothon teams were put together, coached, and carried to competetions by a Fernbank Science Center Instructor. It is just one of the competetive science programs that FSC Instructors do after school hours to help nurture the interests of DeKalb students in science and technology. Are you trying to stick the knife into FSC as well? If so, Why?????
Ron F.
June 11th, 2012
10:05 pm
How much more will have to be cut before the follow the recommendation made earlier to cut jobs at the district level? How many more teachers and parapros can they reasonably cut? And it is a calendar issue now. They absolutely have to make some decisions so that employees have a chance to find other jobs. As it is now, if they wait until the end of June, they’ll end up cutting teachers who will barely be able to find other jobs and move in time for August school year start.
Shar
June 11th, 2012
10:09 pm
Seems to me that it would be beneficial to ask Dr. Atkinson to prepare a plan of what the central office would look like if the recommendations of the outside consultant were implemented, then have her justify every retained position above that limit. The savings would be considerable and the rest of the system would not feel alone in their financial sacrifices.
WAR
June 11th, 2012
10:12 pm
positions at the district level have been cut or redefined.
itsbrokeletsfixit
June 11th, 2012
10:19 pm
It is time to look at the real 500lb gorilla in the School Board Room. All those $37 million taxpayer dollars that are being taken away from educating school children to pay legal fees. I can’t believe that Crawford Lewis himself would sanction taking this kind of money away from children’s education in DeKalb County and giving it to a bunch of attorneys for whatever reason. Do we not value our children’s education more that this??? And, these lawsuits that have sprouted up like weeds and are sucking the life blood out of our children’s education, even if we win a judgement aganist the construction firms, won’t they just declare bankruptcy and leave DeKalb School System holding the bag, and our children–yet again– without the funds desparately needed for education? It’s way past time for a Judge to put all the attorneys in a conference room and tell them to settle it without ONE MORE DIME of taxpayer funds taken from education. Whatever the outcome of the trial(s) the big looser is the children of DeKalb County.
Anon
June 11th, 2012
10:25 pm
And folks wonder why Democrats are the minority. Just look at how Jester compares to Gene and SCW. The Republicans can’t get enough of these Democratic politicians who really do make it look like government is the problem.
NCR
June 11th, 2012
10:33 pm
EASY, IF THEY REALLY WANT TO DO IT. Start by cutting 10% of administrators at the central office. Then sell un-used/dilapidated buildings. Then only ONE Principal, ONE assistant principal at every school. Then cut Pre-K, cut Fernbank. Also, stop busing everybody around the county so much. Taken all together, that’s easily several million dollars right there.
NCR
June 11th, 2012
10:38 pm
And when I say 10% of administrators, I don’t mean the bottom paid 10%, I mean cuts at ALL levels of administration, including the upper levels.
mike
June 11th, 2012
10:56 pm
Why isn’t anyone talking about getting rid of sports programs instead of cutting education?
over it
June 11th, 2012
11:19 pm
Yep, time to cut athletics. In economic times like these, academics MUST BE prioritized over athletics. A real no brainer, but oops, I forgot, this is Georgia.
Teacher Reader
June 11th, 2012
11:21 pm
We can’t afford for every school to have one principal and vice principal. Some of our elementary schools are just too small, about 500 kids, and one principal should be able to do the job for the money that they are paid. However, every other school should be able to do with less administration, as well as every office and area.
We do not need 5 area superintendents at $160,000 a piece plus benefits. Three or four should be able to the job. We do not need secretaries for secretaries. It’s time that we did away with the many secretaries and had those making $160,000 do their own paper work, teachers don’t get any help with the paper work that they need to fill out. This goes for principals. Do we need both a full time clerk and secretary at every school? Some having more than one of these positions? Could this be an area where cuts could be made?
Do we need the $1,200,000 box program that the board said it would buy from Pearson’s tonight? Can we follow the money trail to see who is getting the commission from this and other products that the district buys from this company? Sounds like a great story and investigation for a local news outlet?
Fernbank needs to close. We simply can’t afford these programs. Any extra money spent on pre-K above what the state gives needs to stop being spent. All schools get the same number of spots for the children enrolled in the school. No more extra personnel in the theme, magnet, Montessori, and other special programs and schools that the district has going. These schools also need to be at the same number of kids in a class as every home school, no more special perks for any child like the smaller class sizes of these schools. DeKalb residents can no longer allow a few to receive a superior education, while leaving the children in the home schools far behind.
No more travel for school board members. The amount of time spent on this perk by the board is embarrassing. What do they not understand about being at least $85 million dollars in the red? We do not have money for any trips, to reimburse them for travel for keeping their certification (something that we don’t do for teachers), or for any other reason. If they don’t like it, I am sure that there is at least one other parent in their district willing to take on the job of working to improve the quality of education for our children. Tonight’s discussion reminded me of last years about the top dollar others are able to gift board members. Really????
No more free busing to any school other than your home school.
Any reduction in pay by the teachers, should be seen by EVERY other employee in the system, including Dr. Atkinson and the board.
Other questions: Can we lower the number of janitors in our schools? Can we begin to have kids pay for the destruction that they do in the school (writing on bathroom walls, peeing all over, pulling doors off the bathroom stalls, food fights, etc)? Could we save money by hiring someone else to take are of the school’s landscape? Do we really NEED textbooks that were set to be purchased this year? If parents want the special programs for there kids that Fernbank offers, charging them the cost of this education per child? Could we charge parents for kids to play in sports/extra curricular activities, covering the cost the district has from insurances, transportation, coaching, etc? Could we charge for the music lessons that the kids take beginning in fifth grade in regular schools and fourth grade for Kittridge, and who knows when in other choice schools, as they are not a regular part of the state standards and are wants and not needs? Do we need to be spending money on the leadership program also receiving congratulations at the board meeting tonight?
We could go on. Cuts can be made and need to be made. The tax payers will not tolerate more in taxes without severe cuts to all areas of the budget. Teachers and children have been the ones hurt for far too long. It’s time other employees feel the pain and pressure.
over it
June 11th, 2012
11:26 pm
For the record, the Envirathon team that won the state championship was coached by a teacher at Fernbank Science Center. It included kids from Druid HIlls High School but was not a team from that school. And unlike coaches for athletic teams, the coach for this academic team did not receive a stipend for the many hours she put in after school hours.
Teacher Reader
June 11th, 2012
11:37 pm
@ over it, I am glad that this Fernbank teacher did this, however, this achievement by this group of girls, does not make the millions spent on Fernbank a viable option given the 87 million deficit we are facing. We are at a point in our district where the rubber meets the road, and we need to buckle down and look at needs first, and cut out the wants. Fernbank is nice to have, but is not a necessity for running a quality school district. If we had smaller class sizes in our home schools and spent more than 50 cent per child in the district on science supplies, science teachers would be able to do more labs with children across the district. A science teacher in high school can’t do labs, when the classrooms are packed, he doesn’t have the needed equipment or it is broken and hasn’t been repaired. I support that homeschool science teachers could be doing what Fernbank does if given the proper number of student to perform labs in a class (18 or so) and had the necessary equipment. Fernbank teachers aren’t magicians. They simply have more materials and fewer students to deal with. They also aren’t tied to the learning standards.
The Deal
June 11th, 2012
11:37 pm
No one is advocating for the certified science teachers from Fernbank Science Center to be fired. What we do need to get rid of is the idea that we need the FSC to house that staff. They can teach and inspire and coach without the actual FSC building, or at least they should be able to.
Over it
June 11th, 2012
11:52 pm
Is high school football a “need”? What about baseball?
mike
June 12th, 2012
12:01 am
Btw… if they decide to get rid of pre k, it is going to be interesting to see how big the class action lawsuit gets. They have already done the lottery for this program for this year. Even discounting the education aspect, hundreds if not thousands of parents will be surprised with no childcare in a couple of months. That is not something that can be arranged on the fly. The county does not need further legal troubles, but if pre k is cut, that is exactly what they are going to have to deal with. Does anyone even know how much is spent on sports for county schools each year? Do we want more jocks or more scholars?
another comment
June 12th, 2012
12:12 am
Perhaps they need to go on 4 day school schedule.
Georgia and education not compatible
June 12th, 2012
12:17 am
After the all counties have cut and cut, who will you turn to when all the cuts still aren’t enough…the General Assembly. Did you know Jasper county has 15 furlough days? Would you say that they have bloat?
I don’t have the answers but if the state can enact a tax to fund charter schools, if HB 1162 is passed, then I say that they can enact a tax to assist with lack of funds that school systems now receive due to austerity cuts.
I think the Superintendent of Jasper did an excellent job in explaining just how much the state has withheld from the students in this county.
Scroll down to the May 16 memo until you see a question that asks, “how has the the state of Georgia withheld from Jasper County students” This superintendent has done a great job in explaining the shortfalls to the Jasper community.
http://jasperga.schooldesk.net/OurSuperintendent/tabid/14083/Default.aspx
I don’t live in Jasper just looking to see how other Georgia counties are coping with their budget shortfalls. I assure you that these are interesting times.
bootney farnsworth
June 12th, 2012
12:27 am
the trick is cutting the most efficiently, not reenacting the French revolution. lopping off janitors and secretaries distracts from, it does not corrects the problems.
issue 1: DCSS lives well beyond it means. it must stop. no new anything for awhile.
issue 2: what is the actual purpose of DCSS? figure it out, pare down the rest.
issue 3: massive redundancy at every level of DSCC.
issue 4. indian to chief ration is insanely out of proportion
issue 5. tough decision time- make em and stick by them.
easy ways this can occur.
-forensic audits of the books to see where the waste is occurring. it’s there.
-close underutilized schools, no matter how much people complain.
-limit the size of the maintenance staff on each school. create a roving unit for non essential tasks like lawn care.
-privatize Fernbank. if it is such a treasure to the community, the community will support it.
-take a chainsaw to the central administrative staff.
-reduce the size of the libraries. most research is done on line these days. create a main country library to hold the bulk of the collection and any archives.
-privatize charter schools. at least get corporate partners.
-do not eliminate travel, but institute limits on it. rotate thru the staff, no more than 1 trip every other year
-if not already doing so, make all non classroom activity pay as you go.
-eliminate mandatory attendance, enforce removal of dangerous/disruptive students
-return after hours school activities – prom, for example to school grounds
-slow down the purchase of new books. outside of computers, nothing changes so fast it can’t wait an additional year or two.
-create a new method for funding education. instead of having 1/2 the citizens fund the entire system-the homeowner to renter ratio is unrealistic, fund it via a sales tax or other approach
-give those who survive a raise, assuming their pay scale is not freakishly out of line with others in the state/southeast in similar circumstances. do wonders for productivity
-most important of all: REALITY CHECK. DeKalb is not longer flush with money, and has not been for some time. by all indications its economic base will continue to erode. deal with it.
mike
June 12th, 2012
12:28 am
The more i think about this sports issue, the madder I get. Middle school sports programs are on the chopping block, but god forbid we touch the sacred high school sports. They arent even apparently bringing it up as an option. As a DeKalb county taxpayer and parent, I do not want to hear any more talk of cutting science and pre k programs until high school sports are gutted to the bone. I wany my tax dollars to go to education. Let the jock’s parents pay for their extracurricular activities. When was the last time a pro football player discovered a new planet… or cured a disease… or came up with a way to save the economy? Come on, people…let’s get fired up about this. Demand that the board do at least something right.
mike
June 12th, 2012
12:45 am
@ farnsworth, I like the comments and agree that some privitization of the science center may be necessary, but consider this… in one scenario, FSS is privatized. In another, lets say that FSS was kept open and public (taxpayer) funding for high school and middle school sports was removed. Which of these institutions do you think would receive more private donations from the community? Fernbank or the Friday Night Lights? Of course sports programs would fare better. Now ask yourself, which of these has a larger benefit to the community and the world? Sports or science? With our priorities this screwed up, why is anyone surprised that we are in this predicament? Why do we wonder why America is losing ground on the world stage?
Truth in Moderation
June 12th, 2012
1:00 am
Why is pre-K a problem? We have a deficit because there are no jobs.In the good old days, women stayed home and there was no need for pre-K. If there are too few jobs, LET THE WOMEN STAY HOME WITH THE KIDS! Now there will be more jobs for the husbands. Problem solved.
Teacher
June 12th, 2012
2:53 am
I watched that joke of a school board meeting on tv tonight. Half of that board is so lacking (particularly Coplin-Wood), I can only conclude that there is little to no hope of ever making DeKalb “premier” again. Atkinson has taken some bold steps, but she looked very unprepared and unprofessional tonight, not having told the board to expect another shortage of $12 million before a budget meeting. I do not mind taking a hit, because these are hard times, and I do have a job,and I am thankful for that in these difficult times, but there are still useless administrators making above 80K a year, who need to have their pay cut before teachers do. As for Fran Millar’s suggestion that all pay should be cut across the board, I have news for him. My income pre-tax probably wouldn’t cover his annual country club membership.
CTPAT
June 12th, 2012
3:48 am
It’s time for a massive restructuring in Dekalb. I agree with other posters who recommend a bare-bones approach to the central office before we take any more instructional days away from students or pay from our teachers. If the purpose of the school system is to educate students, then no changes should be made which directly impact the basic requirements needed to do this. At this point, everything else is a luxury. Instead of looking at what to cut, we should establish funding for the minimum necessary to educate our students with basic programs and then add back in programs to fill in whatever money is left over. Don’t get me wrong, I hate the idea of cutting some of the programs that we have, but I don’t think we have a choice. More importantly, the system needs to get their act together and make some decisions. Pre-K parents who won the lottery need to know if they need to find an alternative provider. If we’re going to scrap certain types of transportation, parents need to know to ensure they can fill the transportation gap. Teachers/admins/central office need to know if they have a job in the next school year.
valid questions
June 12th, 2012
6:30 am
Actually Mike, I believe that long term, Fernbank has a far better chance of being self-sustaining than high school athletics. What makes me crazy mad, is that this is the third time in 7 years that FSC has been on the chopping block and between a weak superintendent (Lewis) and shortsighted supporters, we are back there again.
Among all these supporters of Fernbank, there should have been one who was a strong enough leader to take the “bull by the horns” and begin the much needed transition to a non-profit. In fact, one of the candidates for school board is such a person and three years ago, even authored a letter, with the Fernbank Elementary school council, imploring the system to raise taxes to spare Fernbank and given Fernbank a chance to become an independent organization. Well, FSC never became a non-profit, no one ever made the effort, and here we are again. This makes me crazy.
Dr. John Trotter
June 12th, 2012
6:40 am
Pitiful.
Two Cents
June 12th, 2012
7:05 am
I know this to be fact because it is all around me on a daily basis. Illegals refusing to even attempt to become legal but stand on their kids being legal because they were born here. Sending their kids to my door telling me I have to learn Spanish so I can communicate with them They need to learn English so they can communicate with me. Their kids are the first ones on the bus every day for head start and private Pre-K shoving taxpayers kids out of the way to do so. Millar and his cronies need to address this huge problem and so does this Country and County. These parents contribute nothing just have their hand out for more. Get with the program; get legal or go back.
BlahBlahBlah
June 12th, 2012
7:15 am
Has anyone (especially the superindentant) explained exactly why the consultant’s recommendations about cutting administrative staff are being ignored? If that report said a couple of hundred jobs needed to be cut, why are they only cutting 70?
Homeschooler
June 12th, 2012
7:28 am
@mike, in regards to the pre-k question. No one in Cobb goes without lottery funded Pre-K (if that is what they desire). It is just not in the schools. I see it as a complete waste of money for the school to be subsidizing it. As I understand, this is money above and beyond what the lottery pays for. Am I wrong?
As a matter of fact, why did we start putting Kindergarten in the schools (back in the 70’s)? Seems we all did just fine with 1/2 day church or private school or just being home. Everyone in my first grade class learned to read and write just fine. Obviously this idea that kids have to be in a group environment “the earlier the better” is faulty. First grade should be the “first” grade. Maybe the lottery can pay for public kindergarten and everyone else can just suck it up and pay for daycare until their kids are age five like they used to. I’m being facetious. (kind of) I really do believe that the lottery funds should stay as they were intended. But the schools should not contribute to Pre-K.
Anonmom
June 12th, 2012
7:28 am
it’s really time for the system to be taken over- – SACS really has done DCSS a disservice. Do you still believe that they are really trying to spend the money for education?
Dunwoody Mom
June 12th, 2012
7:40 am
I’m glad I missed the Budget discussion portion of the meeting – or else I would have had to double up on my blood pressure meds. Where to find $12 million, I just don’t know. It was hard enough to come up with the $73 million in cuts.
Tammy
June 12th, 2012
7:40 am
Dekalb county is the has been school system of the 1980’s. It is now completely rotted, bloated and destined to fail. So sad because it used to be such a good system.
aps
June 12th, 2012
7:45 am
Do what democrats do best. Pass something so you can see what’s in it so you don’t have to worry about the details.
say what?
June 12th, 2012
7:48 am
Get rid of all magnet, theme, and special schools. Revert every last one of them back to the standard curriculum and expectations. Do away with purchasing new books. There are enough websites that teachers use in the classroom to go beyond what is printed in these books anyway.
Do away with transportation that does not take a child to the community school. If parents are so involved and want the best for their children, they will work their butts off in the community school to make it better, thus increasing the property value in their community.
Take away all MS sports.
Cut Fernbank science center and send those teachers back into the classroom. If they are such a gem, let them be a gem to the masses, not a special group of children. Send them to Arabia as it is suppose to be science based HS.
Make Arabia a community school.
Cut the chief of staff position. That person is used to filter information (i.e, gossip) to the super and to keep her secrets. That is why she brought in Ms. March, her BFF.
Halt the re-alignment of the district into regional support, such as is the model in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC. If it was such a great superior model of education, then go back.
Parent Centers, reinstate them because giving the principals more parent involvement money to screw with, will only add to the problems in DCSD. That story should be coming out next summer by the ajc if they follow what I am saying and do an open records request each month to see review what the principals are doing with the money. They return parent involvement money every year since they found out they cannot spend it on food items and beverages.