Rather than slash 10 days, could DeKalb schools shut down for month of July?
I watched the DeKalb school board meeting long enough today to hear the school chief announce that the state DOE said DeKalb could cut its school year by additional days.
With an $85 million deficit and no reserves, a proposal is on the table for DeKalb to slash 10 more days.
Paul Womack wants to cut an additional 10 days from the school calendar.In approving a tentative general fund budget, the board had already voted to reduce the school calendar for students by two days. Four furlough days approved for teachers in prior years would also remain, but they would not affect students.
Officials said it costs the system $3 million a day to operate, so the proposal could save $30 million — enough to balance the budget without a tax increase. But they needed time to check on the details, so the budget deliberations were postponed until 6 p.m. Thursday.
But Lisa Morgan, a teacher and representative of the advocacy group Organization of DeKalb Educators, said Womack’s proposal wouldn’t save as much as he thinks. Womack wants to make up the lost school days by lengthening the rest of them. Another county in Georgia tried that several years ago, Morgan said.
“Because teachers were providing the equivalent of 180 days of instruction, they had to be paid for 180 days,” she said. The proposal, Morgan said, could still save money on utilities, gasoline for buses and pay for support personnel, such as bus drivers and cafeteria workers.
Womack threatened to cut teacher pay if his colleagues don’t find some other way to avoid new taxes. “I’m going to get $30 million somewhere,” he said. “I’m not going to vote for a millage increase.”
Here is another idea on how DeKalb could cut costs from a reader — she suggests that DeKalb shut down its whole operation for the month of July.
I think parents would prefer this alternative to slashing instructional days (And I don’t think those lost instructional hours can be mitigated by adding 10 or 20 minutes to the remaining days.)
Please note that several posters have said this idea would not save much money because many DeKalb employees are on 11 month contracts already. In that case, could some of them go to 10 months?
From a reader:
A school-level administrator posited an interesting, creative idea for restructuring the DCSD budget that I thought I’d pass along to you. DeKalb now has 12-month employees (principals, some assistant principals, custodians, and the central office) and 10-month employees (teachers and elementary assistant principals). The idea is to make the 12-month employees into 11-month employees and shut everything down for the month of July.
This administrator explained that everything that schools need to do over the summer to get ready for the next year can be accomplished in the month of June and in that first week or so of August (this year we start back August 13). CRCTs are back and reported in June; AYP has been certified, etc. The buildings can be prepped and planning can be done in June.
And the same goes for the central office — with a competent BOE, get the budget approved by the end of May and then work efficiently and effectively through June.
Yes, it’s a cut in pay for non-classroom personnel, but that should be the priority — cut pay there before you cut teacher pay or increase class size.
This kind of idea has plenty of precedence elsewhere. Back when I worked full-time, a major car manufacturer was a client (I was a lawyer). It shuts down for four weeks a year — from the highest level corporate executives to the assembly line workers at each and every plant. Shut down. Period.
It’s done in the last two weeks of July and the last two weeks of December, and employees are not paid during that time. It saves the company a substantial amount of money.
In these dire financial straits, an idea like this merits at least a try for a couple of years — who knows, we may find that the work gets done just fine and we have actually built up reserves. We need innovative, creative thinking like this, and not the constant bickering that this BOE gives us.
The other suggestion this administrator had was as follows: Have middle and high schools designate one “lead AP” who is the now 11-month employee who works the month of June to prepare for next year.
In reality, many of those assistant principals right now are sitting idle — there’s simply not work for them to do. Anyway, just thought I’d pass these ideas along in case you thought readers would find them interesting to discuss.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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131 comments Add your comment
Teacher Reader
June 21st, 2012
8:11 am
The problem is that we have parts of the county who have not seen an decrease in their property values, while other property values have gone down 50% or more in the Southern parts of the county. Every home should be paying the same amount.
Being one where my home is just an average home, in the central part of the county whose taxes have stayed at the same rate, I don’t want to pay more, while others are paying less. I realize that I am not paying as much as some, but the product that I am paying for is inferior and not a good value, as I won’t send my children to be educated here.
Teaching is a tough job, and EVERY employee needs to be seeing cuts and larger work loads. Teachers however need to stop complaining about their salary and get to the real issues, large class sizes, lack of discipline, and too much paper work just to start. Everyone’s health benefits are costing them more, not just yours. Few are getting salary increases despite the stagnant economy. Teachers need to focus on how they can do their job better and what they need to do the best job that they can do. Whining about your salary and having to pay more for benefits, is what is happening across America.
Until I hear teachers complain as loudly about the increase in class size, the large work load not allowing them to provide a quality education, not being able to give zeros or other failing grades to deserving students, not having discipline in the schools, and other issues that would turn the school district around, then I can get upset about you making less money and having to work harder. Simply complaining about your salary is not showing me, a tax payer, former teacher, and parent, that you really care about the quality of education that the school puts out and are more focused on yourself.
EVERYONE is feeling the economic pinch, not just teachers, and you need to get over yourselves.
Pluto
June 21st, 2012
8:30 am
here’s an idea; why not cancel “summer school” for those at risk high school students that didn’t get the job done during the regular school year. Maybe a bit of “stigma” is needed to kick these kids into gear. If not, let ‘em make a high school career as a freshman for a few years.
DCSD Employee
June 21st, 2012
9:26 am
Some suggestions:
1. Next year have 12 month employees forlough days on Fridays in the summer months (i.e., 8 furlough days = 8 Fridays)
2. Asst. Principals can do 10 months plus 2 weeks. (one week after school is out and one week before teachers return)
3. Have Professional Learning work 10 months and staff that conduct summer courses can be contracted for summer.
4. The month of May can be remediation for CRCT and students that need to re-take CRCT can take the last week of school.
These are just a couple of suggestions.
d
June 21st, 2012
9:30 am
@LOGIC – there are some problems we have here:
4. Eliminate Asst Principals – I’m sorry, a principal cannot run most DeKalb schools on his or her own. There is too much going on and too many students for this to work. Besides, we could be like Gwinnett where schools have 9-10 assistant principals. Reduce, maybe, eliminate…. can’t do it.
7. Eliminate contracts – Georgia is an employment at will state…. have you actually read a Georgia teacher’s contract? It’s not worth the paper it’s written on, but at will is not good for students.
8. Eliminate LIFO (last in, first out) – great teachers are being “reassigned” or let go to protect the status quo of tenure…. “Tenure” or “Fair dismissal” is in place once a teacher has successfully taught for 3 years in order to ensure that great teachers aren’t fired because of a principal’s personal preferences or political issues. It is not in place to protect bad teachers and it does not mean teachers cannot be non-renewed – they can if a principal is doing his or her job, and it is actually quite easy.
11. Eliminate the “special” program funding allocations – Montessori, Magnet, FERNBANK…. I think these programs can be done if done more wisely, they don’t need to be eliminated outright.
14. Keep our tax dollars in the DeKalb – get informed on where our tax dollars are going and how the calculations work to rob DeKalb…. this is out of the district’s hands. Write your legislators.
17. Fire SACS – they are completely worthless and if this series of events doesn’t show how worthless SACS and our state oversight folks are, I don’t know what does… Students cannot qualify for HOPE or most college admissions unless their school is accredited. Do you have an alternative option?
18. Get ELLIS OUT OF OFFICE. Kasim Reed helped save APS and Ellis has been MIA from redistricting and is STILL MIA. DeKalb needs real leadership and at this point, we need to have someone assigned to our county because DeKalb’s election track record is abysmal…. This is out of the district’s hands also, and Ellis has nothing to do with the district.
22. Evaluate charter school budgets more closely – a boondoggle is occurring with some of these charter schools and I think we would find a lot of money in places like Arabia Mountain…. Arabia Mountain isn’t a charter.
23. Look at changing the Coralwood model – average spend is $22K per child – great place, but we can’t afford this…. We don’t have a choice here – IDEA and other federal legislation mandates this for these students.
24. Close the school system for the period of time where teachers’ benefit from the time away (i.e., they can keep their summer jobs for a longer period of time or for an uninterrupted period of time)…. How do you propose doing this? If we start after Labor Day as many advocate, we go later into June and summer still works out to approximately 8 weeks. No change to the length of summer break.
zeke
June 21st, 2012
9:35 am
if the school system keeps getting worse, property values will go lower even more as no one would likely want to live there; can’t everybody move to northern suburbs and then what do you have traffic out the wazooo….
a reader
June 21st, 2012
9:39 am
I just don’t understand how Dekalb can pay for non necessities such as:
- any busing to non home schools
- any magnet program that is not open to all comers
- any special pull out program that doesn’t serve all children (Fernbank, I’m talking you here)
In addition, why can’t we see
- User fees: If you want a special program for your child, pay for it. Still cheaper to pay for an add on, parents, than to have to pull out and use private school and still pay property tax.
- cuts to admin salaries at least as large (or larger) than what teachers are facing.
- funding the legally required retirement funds (yes, that’s another lawsuit coming)
- a line by line easy to find budget on the DCSS website that folks can look at and actually comment on
- a description (easy to find and easy to read) about what is proposed to be cut thus far
- a way to have people comment online / make suggestions
Necessities before nicities. We seem to have this reversed and it’s not working.
d
June 21st, 2012
9:41 am
Have we ever thought about perhaps charging the students $5 a year for their lockers? I paid a rental fee every year in high school for mine. It’s a drop in the bucket, but would offset some costs.
NTLB
June 21st, 2012
9:56 am
I am playing the devil’s advocate with this proposal:
1) Eliminate all those instructional support teaching positions in the elementary schools. Put those teachers back in the classroom.
2) Lay off the Connections teachers in the Middle Schools. Stick with the basics and keep the core subject teachers. Give students double sessions of Math and Language Arts. Give students 30 minutes of recess each day. No need for furloughs,no decrease in learning days, and improve reading and math skills and join the fight against obesity in this state.
3) Use distance learning. Have students take online classes for non core subjects.
Nikole
June 21st, 2012
9:57 am
Teachers of Dekalb: If you are attending tonight’s meeting, please show up wearing black, in protest of Mr. Womack’s Budget Proposal. Dekalb has been balancing the budget on the backs of teachers for too long. Email the board and let them know that this is unacceptable.
valid questions
June 21st, 2012
10:02 am
D
You are wrong about a couple of things — citizens of DeKalb have a choice when it comes to Ellis. He has done nothing to help condemn the Board of Ed.
There are many regular ed students at Coralwood who aren’t receiving a cent of state or federal funding because the state doesn’t fund regular ed three year olds. Additionally, do you really think that a pre-k special ed class in a traditional school costs the same as Coralwood. It doesn’t, it costs much less. LIke Fernbank, there aren’t many school systems anywhere that have such a program and they all comply with IDEA. There is no long term evaluation of how the students do at Coralwood as compared to those served in community schools. I am certain that Coralwood is a cost center that could be trimmed. Paul Womack would have a fit though. This is another group of overly influential parents. DeKalb is a mess.
zeke
June 21st, 2012
10:09 am
as someone mentioned the property on n druid hills, old briarcliff and kittredge, needs to be sold and maybe emory could buy fernbank as they seem to be expanding as it is only a short distance from main campus. or shut her down and sell property as it is prime location for home building.
d
June 21st, 2012
10:12 am
@NTLB – there is much more to a complete education than the four core subjects. We cannot afford to let the connections go or we risk losing the students.
LOGIC
June 21st, 2012
10:30 am
@ d
Agree with most of your counter points. I did not view my proposals as permanent because you do bring up the valid risks, but we have to start somewhere. The contract paper and our accreditation is not worth the paper it is written on. SACS is a laughing stock and the state needs to intervene.
I do take exception by what you state as district v. county. We are DeKalb County and our leadership needs to work together. Ellis’ absence from entering the fray is inexcusable. Reed stepped up and helped Fulton and APS navigate through a difficult time and we deserve the same. Our DeKalb tax revenues are siphoned by DCSD at a 70%+ rate, decreasing the county’s ability to deliver services to the residents. We all deserve to get our money’s worth.
We are also part of the state of GA – it is the state oversight that did not get these huge financial mistakes by Turk and co. and it is the state that drives the calculations for the allocations. We are in a crisis and need all hands on deck to fix the shortfall and salvage what is left of DCSD.
Finally, I love Coralwood and understand the federal requirement, but if you look at the cost of the operating model, we need to look for ways to fulfill our obligation at a lower cost or expand Coralwood into a more full-service elementary school to decrease the cost per head.
Some good finance people need to come to the Board and the County. At this point, we need strong, experienced appointments and not elected DeKalb officials. It is time for an intervention.
Dekalb taxpayer
June 21st, 2012
11:00 am
LOGIC, I wish you were running for the school board, but I’m sure you have far more sense than that. I agree with every single one of your proposals.
TO DAVE WITH LOVE!!!
June 21st, 2012
11:19 am
Dave, WHAT THE HELL DOES OBAMA HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?!! GEORGIA HAS BEEN AT THE BOTTOM IN EDUCATION FOR DECADES, AND NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, STARTED BY A REPUBLICAN -GEORGE W. BUSH CREATED THIS MONSTER. YOU ARE AN IDIOT AND OBVIOUS A RACIST!!! STFU!! WHAT IS YOUR WONDERFUL GOVENOR DOING ABOUT THIS? NOTHING, AND AGAIN EXPLAIN HOW OBAMA HAS HURT DEKALB COUNTY SCHOOLS, LAST TIME I CHECKED THEY WERE AWARDED RACE TO THE TOP MONEY, BLAME THE BOARD IN DEKALB-TYPICAL RACIST OBAMA BASHER. WE GET IT, YOUR ANGRY THE BLACK GUY WON! GET OVER IT, OR LEAVE THE COUNTRY, BECAUSE COME NOVEMEBER HE IS GOING TO DO IT AGIN!! SUCK IT DAVE!!!
Understanding Atlanta
June 21st, 2012
11:28 am
There are definitely ways to trim costs without much of a negative impact on students…let’s hope these people can figure it out.
I’m sure that closing in July will help, but most employees aren’t working then. Spreading out the 10 furlough days throughout the year before holidays makes sense, but it would need to be followed by a reduction in pay for the central office that equals that of teachers…if teachers haven’t had a pay increase since 2007, then central office should be on a 2007 payscale…seems simple
LOGIC
June 21st, 2012
11:37 am
@ Dave and TO DAVE WITH LOVE!!!
This is the type of race baiting that is going to drive rational people out of DeKalb. I recommend that everyone stay focused on the realistic solutions for our educational woes locally. This blog has some well-versed and intelligent individuals who care about maintaining our presence in DeKalb because of the huge perks of living in this county – metro Atlanta access, some amazing neighborhoods and communities and the people.
I am sure that there are other blogs addressing the issues at the federal level that need to be rectified. We have to stay focused on addressing DCSD and DeKalb county issues here.
DeKalb Residents – Please go to the DCSD Budget Meeting tonight at 6 PM. Seek out your Board Member and talk about logical steps to maintain viable education options for our children. Take the emotion out and focus on solutions. On 7/31/12, VOTE with an informed decision for the two year terms.
Prof
June 21st, 2012
11:42 am
Just as an FYI: the earlier blog, “Bloody Monday: Layoffs at Georgia Perimeter College” has been moved to “Older posts” but is still going fast and furiously. Interesting insights that pertain to USG, not just GPC.
NTLB
June 21st, 2012
11:57 am
@d—Clarify to me how a “complete education” is completed with deficient math and verbal skills.
kaitsmom
June 21st, 2012
12:52 pm
I live in South Dekalb and I just received my assessment and it was lowered by about $700.00 . I do not mind paying an additional mill rate. I know that every house in my subdivision of about 120 homes has received similar lowered assessments. There is no way to close a budget gap and provide a quality education with that kind of reduction in taxes throughout the county. Though I do not mind a mill increase, I can imagine that those in North Dekalb are having an issue with an increase because they will see a real increase since their property has not declined in value. Something about that does not seem fair.
ColonelJack
June 21st, 2012
2:39 pm
@ d … WIth reference to your point #8 in your 9:30 post … “tenure” (fair dismissal) is in place exactly for the reason you cite. However, a principal that wants to get rid of a teacher for personal reasons will do so, even though the building of questionable or bogus evidence will take a while. I know this from first-hand experience.
Dekalb taxpayer
June 21st, 2012
3:10 pm
Kaitsmom, I live in Tucker and I think the County way undervalued my property. It would probably sell for 50% more than the value they assigned to it. I wouldn’t be affected too badly by a millage increase until (or if) my home increases in value. But many elsewhere in the county have experienced wildly overvalued assessments. I can understand why they would be opposed to a millage increase because it would affect them disproportionately. This is just another example of how the incompetence in Dekalb government, in this case the tax assessor’s office, creates problems for us all.
Why did we redistrict?
June 21st, 2012
3:13 pm
What ever happened to all that great money we were saving with redistricting? I think a lot of issues here point to the fact that we are getting away from sustainable (smaller) community school models that help communities flourish. If we got back to principals running the schools as one person mentioned, you wouldn’t have the issue of teachers moving here and there, but you would have school’s leader find the best fit for the team he or she builds to advance the school. This would in turn create an environment where teachers feel appreciated because there is leadership in place that picks the teachers, works with the teachers and in turn builds a place where everyone wants to go.
I know a lot has changed, but this is how it used to be before we bussed kids all over this county because of this program, that speciality, that group, etc. Now all this county does is redistribute our tax dollars, our students and any responsibility. We are the ultimate model of redistribution and how it doesn’t work!
I respect what the one person said about increasing taxes to help schools, but I don’t see getting anything for our increases other than rewarding this bad group of people for doing a bad job by letting them keep their jobs. I saw my tax assessment decrease modestly, but the value of my house is no where near what I would get if I needed to sell. On top of that, I can’t boast a great school in my neighborhood because it was closed. I have a great family house, but which sane, growing family would move into it?
Very sad state of affairs and none of our legislator,s county leadership, nor the governor’s office are trying to help.
embarrassed to work in DeKalb
June 21st, 2012
7:11 pm
$3.7 million in central office positions are posted now and they want to furlough teachers? The superintendent’s friends and family plan has replaced the old friends/family plan.
Judge Wyld
June 21st, 2012
8:08 pm
You all know that there is plenty of money in the schools. It doesn’t take a genius (pun intended) to slash the non-educational subjects such as drama, music, sports, and art. Society wants educated children and that is the agreement we make to have our money taken from us and spent.
Having parents on a School Board is a conflict of financial interest. It’s no different than a politician making decisions on how to spend public money toward a business he owns. Parents on school boards won’t give up funding for their kids’ hobbies in schools…seriously, swimming pools in schools?
If your kid isn’t smart enough to get algebra, music class isn’t going to make them smarter at algebra.
It’s time to stop the child tax deduction which basically reimburses parents for their school property tax. This leaves the childless footing the entire bill for the schools, so the childless should get to approve how school money is spent. Of course, this idea would be outnumbered by the greedy parents getting a free pie to split amongst themselves. If you want more money for the schools, don’t take the child tax write off. JW blogtalkradio.com/judgewyld
logistixs
June 21st, 2012
8:28 pm
Hey Dave,
I realize you want to blame your president for all of our earthly ills but this problem with Dekalb Schools began long before your president’s reign even began. Know your facts before spewing your misplaced hatred.
d
June 21st, 2012
10:39 pm
@NTLB research shows that music/art ed increases math ans verbal skills and children who have regular physical education also perform better academically. Frankly, there are also a number of other skills that students need that are met by connections classes as well.
NTLB
June 22nd, 2012
8:36 am
@ d, I agree with the research when the child can already read, write, and do math. But not effective for the child that is already struggling and who is not musically or artistically inclined either.
Connections classes are another education “filler” that is expensive, and they are not teaching students how to think logically, critically, or with common sense either.
I do wish to see organized sports programs at the middle school level instead. Many students who are talented athletes, and their parents cannot afford the extra curricular expenses and lose out to the kids whose parents have paid for x amount of camps throughout their childhood.
5 Ways You Can Help Fund Your Child's School Without Spending Exta Money | Black and Married With Kids.com - A Positive Image of Marriage and Family
June 25th, 2012
5:10 pm
[...] after year budgets are being slashed even further and some school districts are even considering shortening the school year to compensate for financial woes. What if I told you that there was a way that you could help [...]
Judge Wyld
June 26th, 2012
7:42 pm
What role is it of societies’ to notice that a kid is a talented athlete? None. Zero. Nada. Poor kids are NOT behind Rich kids when it comes to sports and athleticism. It is a non-educational issue. I don’t care what hobbies you have as a rich person or a poor person. Society only needs to pay for a core education. If society has the luxury after the core education can be met, then some familiarization classes might be NICE, but not mandatory for society to pay. Rich people’s foundations (not the govt) can pay for familiarization classes. No society owes kids proficiency training in hobbies. Art carving on cave walls may be a way to creatively pass the time between buffalo hunts, but isn’t a core life skill. Sincerely, Judge. blogtalkradio.com/judgewyld
Xteacher
June 29th, 2012
10:57 am
Fire the administrators, they are the LEADERS and they have led you to bankrupsy-BLAME them they are teh LEADERS, Blame someone, blame the LEADERS