DeKalb schools get another warning on SACS accreditation. “Why so many second chances?”

I’m not sure who’s making budget decisions in the County “palace” but I want to know why Dr. Atkinson approved having band in every elementary school but won’t supply any money to fund instruments. The band teacher assigned to our school and four others can’t even work out a schedule, has no place to teach students and an expensive Music computer software he can’t even use. What will happen is the students who can’t afford to play will once again be penalized for DeKalb’s stupid decisions they rushed to make. These students can’t fill out the “free and reduced band instruments paper” and expect one to magically appear. All of this was an effort by a friends and family administrator who tried to save “his people” and got what he wanted.

Meanwhile, Art teachers are begging to have time to teach students at least once a week but there schedules don’t allow it. They’ve been cut and split and told to teach more with less and less. The County doesn’t supply ANY Art materials for them to teach with either. How can you have a quality program with no support? No wonder we’re losing students and families by the droves!! Something has to happen soon and people need to be held accountable for decisions they make.

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im not worried, the people in charge of the Dekalb School Board are as smart as they come ! some of the brightest minds in the country … the children of dekalb are in good hands

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Let the punishment begin. I see no prospect for improvement until there are repercussions for two decades plus of inept and corrupt management.

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After living through the drama at Smoke Rise Elementary (SRE) School over the last few years and only Tucker Middle/High school to look forward to, we, have already bought a home in Gwinnett (closing is today). A concerted and organized drive was made to get parents complaints and concerns heard at the county level and they only ran into a brick wall. Consequently, more than 20 neighborhood families have withdrawn their children from SRE and a foundation set up for the sole purpose of raising funds for school improvements has been dissolved (which is a whole other story – see the playground drama on the Get Schooled blog from several months ago). The school is now majority non-local students. The impact to my family is significant and I will be so glad (and sad) to dust the ‘dirt’ of Dekalb off my feet and move on. I had hoped to be a part of change and improvement, but, life is too short. I hope I am wrong, but my feeling is that Dekalb is becoming the next Clayton Co.

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This is almost a case of “too little too late” with SACS. This BOE has been “misbehaving” for years. Despite the hand-slaps from SACS, Eugene Walker and other members of this board, past and present, have blatantly ignored SACS and continued to do what they desired, whether allowable or not. SACS should have taken steps long ago to put this system on probation, which would, at least, give the Governor (who I don’t have much faith in, anyway) the option or removing board members.

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I think everyone in Georgia should pursue alternative accreditation. SACS has become a joke: don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain!

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there is also the very real desire by SACS not to pee on DCSS specifically.

back in the dark ages when I was in DCSS, it was considered one of the very best school systems in the south. maybe in the nation. as the system moved from majority white to majority non white, it kept its high ranking (?) and was seen as a “blacks in charge are no threat to you” beacon.

to slap DSCC now would be -in political eyes- a slap at that achievement.

and Dr. Belle, especially as the first minority head of SACS, is not gonna do it short of DCSS adopting a policy of slavery was good and Hitler was misunderstood.

maybe not even then.

Dr. Belle might want to, but the pressure she’s getting from so many different political groups with so many different agendas all put ensure nothing of substance will happen

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The problem is not SACS; its the Dekalb County Schools. More accurately, it’s the voters in DeKalb who have the school system and the government they voted for. You can get over a bad superintendent or a rogue council member but it’s hard to get over the stupidity of a majority of the voters.
Emma Darnell in Fulton County is an expensive problem. But the problem racism is not just Darnell, its the voters who send her back, term after term.

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@jsmith – you’re joking right! Womack did have one thing right, there should be some criminal investigations into the actions of several BoE members. There are other actions by Lewis that warranted additional criminal investigation and don’t forget HR and others in the past and current administration who probably need to be looked at. To lose accreditation would continue to let the true “criminals” off with no punishment and hurt the students and residents of DeKalb. SACS should look at the whole system and then go to the GBI with specifics.

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This system is a cluster…pure and simple. If one rants against it, then they either are “elitists” or worse, “racists”. I am neither, but ANYBODY who seriously thinks this cluster is going to improve under the present situation is nutty. Laugh, cuss me, whatever. Check back in five years and see if this blight is better; it won’t be with the present set up. The worst thing is…EVERYBODY knows it!

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The action is because of the budget disaster this year. The week before school teachers didn’t know if they had jobs. Some may still be on the fence as they deferred some votes until after the election. The district significantly overspent its budget and noone seemed to know. Apologists claim the SACS keeps the board from asking questions, but that is nonsense. Managing the budget and setting priorities is the board’s primary job.

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I’m not defending the actions of DCSS, but SACS probably has no more credibility than, well, DCSS.

Who am I kidding. Carry on you crazy kids. There is a whole lot more taxpayer money just laying out there for the taking.

No. Really there is…

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Hey upset DeKalb parents-

Did you vote in the last election? When I went to vote out Paul Womack, it was me and about 5,000 of my closest friends. Too busy to vote these idiots out? Then be quiet. Someone in an earlier post said basically we get what we deserve. If we aren’t willing to vote these bozos out of office – hey what can you expect.

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saying one has worked in a system SACS accredited for 41 years is not stating much of an accomplishment, RE: SACS. all that means is 4 times some system swept its trash under a pre-determined rug.

its not like SACS just shows up at the door like 60 min used too. SACS visits are well know years in advance, with pre visits to make sure you know what they’ll be looking at so you have plenty of time to fix things.

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@ Bootney:

“saying one has worked in a system SACS accredited for 41 years is not stating much of an accomplishment, RE: SACS. all that means is 4 times some system swept its trash under a pre-determined rug.”

For once, you and I agree.

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SACS should not be a “watch dog” but rather an agency that ensures proper functioning of a school system.

Someone mentioned that when a school system loses accreditation, it hurts the kids more than the system…. if that happens then weren’t the kids already hurt? And, isn’t this a way to help ‘fix things?’

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@ HS Public Teacher – I am the one that made that statement. To your point, yes, children are already damaged by a dysfunctional system; however, if SACS comes in and takes accreditation away, that impacts their long-range opportunities with college, grants, etc. So it’s a double whammy.

I know of a district board member who has been pretty disgusted with their school board for a long, long time (there are more of these out there than people realize.) When the district went through their accreditation process, the board member chose to stay silent on all of the garbage going on in the district because they didn’t want the kids to be penalized if accreditation was lost (fearful of the situation poor Clayton County students have been in with their situation). This person decided just to do what they personally could as a board member to address the issues…but one person can only do so much.

There needs to be higher accountability for board members (charter board members included) who do not fulfill their fiduciary duties. Jail time. Fines. Whatever. If you accept the responsibility, and especially if you get paid for it, you should be accountable. The kids should not be impacted by adults’ poor decision making.

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Bill & Ed’s Excellent Adventure, I recall hearing that much of HR is managed by spreadsheets because the internal systems can’t provide the necessary information. I hope that is not true for Finance but if good information cannot be provided, you have to ask the question. Someone also told me that an inventory system in the Sam Moss building was managed on a DOS system. Yes, if you want to save money and operate more efficiently, you must invest in your technology infrastructure, along with training the users. How can Dr. Atkinson make decisions if there are questions about the validity of the information she is getting? Same applies to Board members.

These things did not happen overnight in DeKalb Schools. They have been happening over the last 20-30 years. When times were good, the school system provided many extras, including operating small schools and providing door to door choice transportation. Now that money is tight, no one wants to give up these extras yet complain when tough decisions are made. You either need to find a way to increase revenues or make cuts when there is not enough money in the budget. Seems like many don’t want to do either.

There is enough blame to go around.

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oops – that should be “sound mind” not “sound mine”.

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@Fred with all due respect, when I attend BOE meetings or watch them on public access, I see no expense spared as it relates to technology. Do we really need to spend taxpayer dollars to broadcast the spelling bee? Not sure, but I can tell you one way to fund technology upgrades in Dekalb, quit cutting at the bottom and start cutting at the top.

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The only thing that keeps the tax base up in Dekalb County is the location of the Clifton Corridor with Emory, CDC, The American Cancer Society , etc… Unfortunately, the Average Government worker at CDC doesn’t make enough money to send their children to a private school, so once their Children hit Elementary School age they are either move down the street to Decatur or pay the tuition to Decatur schools. Or they move out to Cobb or Gwinett County. They use to move out to Smokerise, it use to be the Subdivision of the GS-14 and aboves from CDC’s. My old boss was even steered to Main Street in Stone Mountain, when he came down from FDA in the early 80’s. Luckily he was divorced with out kids so a friend and I got him and intown Real Estate agent who got him a redone house accross the street from Lakeside about 15 years ago. Good thing there are the Emory Students and the Student housing nearby. Those that own the Driving Ms. Daisy Houses all have their kids either going to Padeia or down to Woodward.

So many of us would sit there at work dreaming of buying one of those Ms. Daisy Houses, even if we could find one that was a fixer we could afford and do ourselves. We could not condsider it because of the schools. The only person who could was the Engineer GS-13 who was married to a GS-14 PHd had no kids, bought a disgraced politicians house, next to electrical lines. Then a GS-13 Architect, who was married to Doctor. The doctor was a tiger mom, and they got their kids into one of the Magnet Programs. He also had me as a boss who streched the flexible work hour rules so he could pick up the girls from the Magnet program. He would come back with them and work more. Then I ended up with the incompetent wicked witch boss who didn’t want to accomadate the work schedule.

The plans of the Clifton Cooridor Committee 25 years ago where for it to become a magnet for high tech biological and chemical research, medical and Pharma Companies. Very High Paying jobs. What has been the biggest problems, the schools. The beautiful North Druid Hills School Building once one of the best Schools, people were proud to graduate from 40-45 years ago, is now way down. The School on the corner of Briarcliff and Clairmont sits empty after years of the board polluting the area with the Alternative School thugs. They would hang out on the corners and try to intimedate as you drove by.

Dekalb has gone down since Leanne was CEO. Sure she was at every building ground breaking, but she carred about Dekalb County and moving it forward. She was not Mr. CEO. The Problems really started when it elected a CEO who had to have body guards and be addressed as MR. CEO.

Elections should not be decided at any other time than November. Both parties should put up Candidates for all Offices. People need to stop voting because someone is there own skin color.

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Even more galling is the ungodly amout of money that the Board of Education has to in its budget. If you divide that per pupil served, all our kids could be going to fancy boarding schools out of state. The budget for schools is hundreds of millions more than the total budget for all other county operations. Why? And the schools still can not teach the vast majority of students enough math, science, grammar, etc. for them to be employable. At this point, would it really hurt anyone if the schools lost their accreditation and were forced to close?

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Agreed, DM and Lynn D, we are going to have the same 5-4 vote split as always.

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@Lynn D
Not sure how different it will be, but it will be better. Bowen led the mess the last two years and was the most important person to get off the board. You never knew where Womack was coming from. Not sure if he did either. McChesney, while well intentioned, was ineffective and probably in over his head (as Bowen claimed all 9 of them were-for once I agreed with him). So I think all 3 are big improvements, even if Johnson votes much the same way as Bowen. I think McMahan and Orson will be vastly more effective than the two they replaced.

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Well, I called the governors office and I was told the governor will not start any investigation of DCSS without a LOT of pressure from the public absent ‘official’ proceedings – in other words taxpayers in Dekalb need to call the governors office and make their voices heard. You can say all you want about presonalities, favoritism or cronyism, but let the dollars and the results speak for themselves – DCSS is NOT functioning properly and it will NOT get better by itself. If SACS cannot effectively police the situation the next hope is the governors office. Call.

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This is only my second year in DeKalb.
I’m still trying to comprehend WTH is going on in this county and in its schools. Amazing.

The board has two different law firms on retainer? What?
It’s the end of the third week of school and overcrowded schools are still waiting for more teachers?
I’m flabbergasted.

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Remember, the right to vote certainly does NOT mean the intelligence to do so!

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DeKalb schools are going to keep being a mess because DeKalb county is a mess. The issues that SACS is pointing out merely reflect the underlying attitudes and wishes of the various electorates in the county. At this point, there is likely no fixing either the schools or the county.

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I am experiencing DCSS trauma and crisis fatigue.

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DeKalb Teacher, when you get a chance, read Board Policy DC. It discusses how the annual budget should be prepared. Our Board members are overly involved in the details for the annual budget. The exercise with the spreadsheet and voting up and down on line items for cuts should not happen with Board members. That is the responsibility of the superintendent.

Board members should ask about the factors involved when the actuals exceed the budgeted amount for any fund balance. The should not request detailed line item expenses.

As I mentioned earlier, I think Womack was on to something when he raised questions whether employees designated for RIFs were actually let go. The budgets vs actual figures should be examined for past years to see if there was a change in the monthly payroll expenditures. This is the kind a thing a Board member should ask questions about.

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DeKalb is a mess and our schools have little chance of improving with this superintendent and DCSB. My daughter attends Livsey. In the four short years we have been at Livsey, we have witnessed unprecedented decline from the platinum school it once was to just another Dekalb dysfunctional school. Tucker Middle is unacceptable. Neighborhood friends whose children attend the school complain about the incompetence of the administrative staff, teachers who are unprepared to teach their assigned subjects, and students who have no sense of self-discipline. Don ‘t even talk about Tucker High School which is not a neighborhood school at all but a sports magnet school for students throughout DeKalb. (Just watch how many students arrive to school on MARTA buses.)

We are going to private school next year, it’s unfortunately our only option. So are most of the other students at Livsey who haven’t already left. Pretty soon you will have another blighted school to add to the train wreck of a system that exists as a jobs programs for DCSB friends and families.

Great job DCSB! Bravo.

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cgregister is absolutely right! Some citizens and communities have had the ear of superintendents, Board members and staff members for years. This has been the culture that has evolved over the years. Not all suggestions have been bad but not all have been in the best interest of all children.

Sad for DeKalb asks about approving band for every school. Do you think that was something that originated from Dr. Atkinson or a citizen through a Board member? That is why it is important to know the true origin of some on the recommendations.

Given the current makeup of the Board and community, I think even the second coming of Jim Cherry would have a hard time being successful. The original budget presented by Dr. Atkinson caused minimal harm to teachers and the classroom though it did include a 2 mill increase. Only when the Board (along with some citizens and communities) got overly involved in the details did we have the mess that we have today. Does anyone believe Jim Cherry would put up with meddling Board members like that when putting the budget together? The superintendent is supposed to be in charge of the process along with implementing the instructional programs to improve student achievement. No superintendent could be successful in DeKalb given the current climate. You are fooling yourself if you think so.

The irony is the Dr. Atkinson has to provide the response to SACS in 30 days about the allegations. It will be interesting to see what she will say about the allegations and Board members, especially since she was hired by them, at least in a 6 -3 vote. The last superintendent that commented on something like this lost his job in a coup. He has been successful in his current superintendency, implementing many of the same programs he attempted to implement here.

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If Dr.ATkinson was REALLY a SMART Leader. She would step away and out of the financial decisions of this No win situation. Establish and appoint a financial committee of financial professionals and charge them with establishing new goals and plans for the school system. what goals are presented by this committee adopt, establish and implement. A Real Leader would say this is the best option and with least Liability for ALL. To Take on All of those massive decisions is suicidal and will never succeed. Stick to doing what she does Best. Managing and overseeing the day to day operations of the school system. She would be far safer in her Job, better run school system, improved education and testing numbers, a happier citizenry and Parents.
Everybody Wins!

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What does John Barge say?

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I went through DeKalb County schools, 1955-1967, and Jim Cherry was certainly a felt presence. Yes, the school system was “exemplary”; but at that time DeKalb County’s population was one of the most affluent (if not the most affluent) in the state. There were no special classes for English-language learners at the schools I attended; everyone was simply expected to come into the system speaking English. There were very few special-education classes, and those students who were identified as needing special services were contained in separate classrooms–no “inclusion” or “mainstreaming.” There was little if any sensitvity to dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, or other learning problems; if you didn’t “get it,” you failed. Period. My high school classmates, especially the boys, stayed in school because they would have been drafted and sent to Vietnam (and were as soon as they graduated, unless they could afford college, which many could not). And at the risk of sounding like Grandpa on “Rugrats,” we didn’t have air-conditioning, either.

Shop class was restricted to boys; no girls allowed. No boy would ever have thought of taking home economics (now “family and consumer science”). One of my classmates was harassed for being the only girl in a drafting class. Our principal freely quoted from the New Testament, and a local minister preached at school assemblies.

Exemplary or just restricted? A relatively homogeneous population is cheaper to educate and easier to administer.

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There are two…let’s call them trends; very uneasy trends…which, over the past decade or so, have infiltrated/infected the very fabric of society, the economy, and our very posture on the global stage:
1) the endless “second chances” which have become the automatic “court of appeals” in everything we think, say, or do. There is no longer a need to “do it right the first time”, or at least “to the best of our abilities” since, “HEY…what the hell, we’ll get that second chance”.

2) the recent expenditure of (I believe it was…) several hundred billion on the “troubled” auto industry (remember those corporate vermins who flew to Washington on corporate aircraft aircraft so they could plead financial hardship to congressional leaders…) in support of a recently-coined lexicon…TOO BIG TO FAIL. We have come to think that old institutions, be they automotive, educational or otherwise, need not keep up with current demands, trends, and economic realities because, WHAT THE FREQ, WE’RE TOO BIG TO FAIL.

One of the major themes behind these educational blogs lies behind the preparedness of generations of young folks for the (let’s see…how do those politicians pontificate?) global economy, etc, ad nauseum. Yet those very same politicians are too damn lazy; too damn timid to set the example; to do the right, though unpopular things. The trail of American history is strewn with the memories of institutions which simply did not/could not/would not keep in step with the realities of the times…to name a very few: Packard, Eastern Airlines, Brannif and any number of once-thriving organizations which comprised, if not led the way in their respective fields of endeavour. For one reason or another, good or bad, fair or unfair, they failed to meet the acid test of realities. Are the fields, in which they all once played crucial roles, any better off? Whose to say; the jury of time will be out on that one for some time, but one thing’s for sure…IN THIS LIFE, YOU EITHER HACK IT OR PACK IT! If you can hack it, personaly or organizationaly, your both a winner and a contributor. If you can’t (personaly or organizatiojnaly), you’re simply a drain…a LOOSING DRAIN…on everything and everyone whose bustin their butts to do the right things.

ANY QUESTIONS?

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I would not be surprised if Atkinson and March convinced some parents to forward letters to SACS to get teh BOE off of her back regarding her hiring flood of former coworkers and associates. They have been placed in old positions that were abolished, but only to come back from July 16- now.
How about the AJC do a records request to see how many out of state employees have been brought in since July? it is easy for the media to get the information than the BOE because BOE memebers will then be viewed as meddling in personnel affairs. If the cost of firing thousands, only to spend $$$ to relocate others to the state, then the BOE should be allowed to question what the superintendent and Ms. March are doing with the budget.
I have checked ( up to last week) for the July and August HR report online. Why is the June 2012 HR report the only uploaded HR report in July? Something is not right in DCSD.

DCSD and Macon-Bibb must have twins in the superintendent roles b/c they believe everyone, except themselves are stupid. And that includes SACS.

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Fred;
I couldn’t disagree more about the budget. The board’s primary purpose is to set priorities. Many of those line items are priorities. Atkinson lacks financials skills as she demonstrated in Lorain. Putting the millage rate at the max when every indication is that the problem will be worse next year is not wise at all. Setting the tax rate is most certainly the board’s choice. The mess was when Atkinson produced a very controversial budget very late. The BOE then naturally made the problem worse, but it started with Atkinson.

Atkinson needs strong direction from the board. She just lacks some practical sense with her e-books plan in a huge district with financial problems and many other higher priorities being one instance. Her trying to change the already approved calendar at the last minute was another.
Someone needs to tell the Empress to put some clothes on. From everything I’ve heard about the DCSS culture, its not likely to be someone who works for her (and that culture pre-dated Atkinson).

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The late Norman Griffin, Jr., a long-time Richmond County School System principal, opined that the biggest problem with GAPubEd was politics. The DeKalb fiasco evinces the wisdom of Skeeter’s view.

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@ Fred/DeKalb,

I’m not convinced it’s all that difficult to educate a diverse population, if we -big if, here- focus our efforts on the ones who wish to be educated. in my years at GPC I saw classrooms of Africans (real Africans, not black Americans) next to Europeans next to Asians being taught by someone from California in a classroom in the deep south.

when you have a group of individuals who wish to learn, the teaching part is EASY.

what is killing us is the cultural balkanization going on in the system and communities. there are large segments in the black and latino population which don’t see the need for education. there are large segments of the white and asian population who look at education as their birthright, not a process which takes time and effort. and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

the communities which make up the BOEs and trustees are not sending us the best and brightest, but the loudest and most obnoxious. once in power they pass out favors like Halloween candy. the give us administrators who use the faculty, the system, and the community like their personal ATM.

the last thing these fools care about are the students we’re entrusted to teach.

even back in the days when DeKalb was a white a bowl of vanilla ice cream these problems existed, but society demanded more from the people who supposedly served them. today, to paraphrase Kennedy, its “ask not what you can do for your community, but who has allegedly offended you, so you can force them to do for you”.

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seems old guy is longing for the England of Charles Dickens.

they knew what to do with their “surplus population”

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I think SACS may be looking to “save face” — if DCSS is really about to run out of money (which I understand may really be the case based on zero reserves and the system’s failures to implement the passed budget from the past 2 years and not necessarily directly from lack of oversight) – SACS, which has had DCSS on “watch” status for a few years — probably doesn’t want to be discovered as having failed to have revoked accreditation as it hits absolute bankrupt status on its watch and is taken over by the governor — that would not look very good, particularly given how much money they receive each year to accredit and to consult to maintain accreditation and to train the BOE. I am for reducing government’s role in our lives, across the board, but I am absolutely appalled that we allow a “private” agency such as SACS be judge, prosecutor, lawyer and jury in the school accreditation process — receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from a system such as DCSS (of taxpayer money) — this is an appropriate role for the state and the state should be the watchdog for accreditation. Boy is this so messed up! There is nothing in SACS accrediting standards that looks at whether the kids are actually learning or if resources are actually going into the classroom… it’s all about the BOE getting along and other issues of governance — well, if you’re in a system that is very diverse, with a representative board – it’s highly likely that the board isn’t going to get along so well and, in fact, lots of time, in the “real world’ — good decisions get made when people are able to “float” disagreement and share their points of view from their own perspectives, which are vastly different and then reach agreement or agree to disagree — this isn’t ‘getting along’ – this is “working together” — that’s not what SACS wants…

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@bu2, not to make an excuse for Dr. Atkinson but she had a former CFO that provided financial information she lacked confidence in. This meant she did not have a full understanding about the state of the finances. Add to that the sacred cows that Board members did not want touched, it made things that much more difficult. Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan together would probably have a hard time with the DeKalb budget given the current Board and inaccuracies in our finances we are hearing more about. .

@DeKalbite, please don’t pass out but I agree with you again. It would be interesting to see if the small government Republicans would request an additional balkanization of our school systems in the state. I still contend that federal lawsuits would be filed and it would never come to fuition. Take a look at what happened recently with the Texas voter id law that was ruled discriminatory.

@bootney farnsworth, likewise I agree that if you have motivated and well behaved students, regardless of their color, race, or family income, teachers and students have a greater likelihood of success. I don’t mean to sound like an elitist but I do believe income, regardless of race, influences motivation with respect to school. We are know people that have pulled themselves up from their bootstraps and made something of themselves. Much of how we see things is based upon our personal life experiences and what we are measuring.

There were job opportunities in manufacturing for those that at least had a good work ethic yet not the best students. Those opportunities are fewer and fewer. Losing the three area auto plants has had some impact. Seeing what happened in Detroit and other rust belt areas dependent on the auto industry should have given us a clue much earlier.

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@bootney farnsworth
Of course, many of today’s problems existed during the glory days of Jim Cherry; but they were ignored or minimized. For instance, there was no Americans with Disabilities Act; so students with physical or developmental diabilities did not have to be accommodated. Learning problems such as dyslexia were often unrecognized and poorly understood; certainly they went unaddressed much of the time, and many students were unfairly labeled as “retarded.” We were tracked into three fairly rigid categories (3-advanced, 2-general, and 1-basic), which eventually resulted in lawsuits. We could spend days and lots of blog pages on tracking’s benefits and deficits (and whether or not it still exists), but that would only take us farther off topic than we already are. My point is simply that we tend to idealize the past, including DeKalb County schools during Mr. Cherry’s tenure.

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I would love to know where to find the laws/rules/regulations, etc. governing what a Board of Education is allowed to do (by law and by SACS). If a BOE is truly limited by such rules to merely voting a budget up or down, it seems they are quite limited in what they can do to fix things. Likewise, if their only recourse is to fire the superintendent, that seems like a drastic measure that a BOE would be reluctant to resort to. Why in the world shouldn’t a BOE be allowed to discuss specifics on budget items with the Superintendent? Is the BOE allowed to set certain “general” budget limits for categories within the budget — for example, start the budget by allocating first the amount required for the salaries needed for the number of teachers required to meet the DSCD’s class size limits, then add the other costs related to the school buildings, etc., and then divide up what’s left for other budget categories? Such as, you only have $X left over in the budget, so you are limited to that much you can allocate to positions in the Central Office. Also, can the BOE say, “the DCSD budget history shows we always spend at least $X on utilities, so we require you, Superintendent, to use that number in your budget”, instead of the artificially low one they keep using? Certainly SACS should allow the BOE to insist on realiistic numbers being used in the budget! Also, the BOE gave the Superintendent authority to hire consultants up to $99,000 without having to get BOE pre-approval — if she is budgeted to have a pool of money that’s hers to spend on consultants as she sees fit then this approval seems fine, but is there actually a total limit on how much she gets to spend on consultants? If not, she could be increasing the expenses in the total budget in this way all by herself, without BOE approval, and without there being any money in the budget to pay for it! I understand that SACS doesn’t want too much meddling going on, but some of SACS’ rules for BOEs seem ridiculous, and rather than helping, instead prevent the BOE from (1) requiring measures that could fix the budget and (2) requiring that budget items that most affect the chassroom instruction be prioritized. I really don’t get the sense that SACS’ rules for the BOE are helpful at all — anyone who tries to get involved and fix things seems to get a slap from SACS for meddling. Can anyone enlighten me?

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@Fred
I do agree with you about the smaller school systems. It would be tied up in endless lawsuits as it would be majority white middle class areas leaving behind all black, overwhelmingly poor areas. And the finances for the left behind school district would be a disaster and create all kinds of problems.

That is the correct comparison to Texas. They have had a series of lawsuits because they have many more school districts and vast disparities in property tax wealth. Harris County (Houston) has about 2 dozen school districts. There are districts that would be like western Dekalb south of I-20 with little tax base and districts with 1 high school and multiple oil refineries. Edgewood ISD (an impovershed San Antonio area district) vs. the state of Texas was the main lawsuit.

Unless the state is going to fund schools 100%, the property tax wealth disparities would be magnified and there would be even more problems. And if the state funded 100%, some districts would spend like a drunken sailor with others money. Despite the problems of large districts, we really do have a better system limiting it mostly to county school districts.

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@ Claudia

your points are very valid. one thing which has happend no one could have forseen is how much the pendulum swung in the opposite direction.

-no girls sports/title IX
-no real handicapped support/paralysis due to ADA.
-upwardly mobile population/downwardly mobile population

the list is near endless.

as a long time DCSS student/employee -before DeKalb College joined the USG- its my observation that the main thing which hampers visionary thinking in DCSS is a general lack of vision. Cherry, for all his faults, dared to try to be great, and surrounded himself mostly with people who shared the same audacity.

today’s DCSS admin and BOE: they dare to be ….? territiorial? combatitve? offended?

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Why has the county received Title I funds for some schools to implement a small-group reading program called “Success for All” when elementary classes are too large to form “small groups?” Also, there has been hardly any time in our schedules for teacher training to implement this program successfully. This, on top of a brand new Georgia Common Core Curriculum, which we also are expected to implement with little or no planning time built into our schedules. Parents, when it comes time soon to vote for next year’s calendar, please don’t complain about early-release days for teacher training and planning.

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for those of you planning on moving out of dekalb , a few things to remember when looking for a new school district. find a school with homes in the area that are above 350K. And maybe even more importantly make sure there are NO APARTMENTS FEEDING INTO THE SCHOOLS YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE ATTENDING !!!

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Sorry. I didn’t know that was the lawsuit ou were referring to.

It appears that in the lawsuit in Texas, the system that sued wanted funding to flow to the poorer school systems to equalize the revenue for the various systems – like Equalization works in Georgia. Except Equalization in Georgia ensures that $100,000,000 LEAVES DeKalb and never returns. This dwarfs the $40,000,000+ coming into DeKalb with Title 1, and unlike Title 1, Equalization funds can be used to hire teachers in the core content areas – math, science, language arts and reading. Wouldn’t Equalization then work in favor of poorer school systems if DeKalb was split into smaller system? This seems to be the opposite of the Texas situation.

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Thanks again Maureen!! The more I read your blog the more I’m glad my wife and I choose to send our children to private school. It’s a financial sacrifice, but given the alternative in DCSD it’s a decision and choice well worth it!!

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DeKalb is breaking the backs of its teachers. The teachers are paying for the administration’s mistakes out of their own pay checks.

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The equalization grant is a problem — but if we gave the money back to DCSS would things really get better? The current board and much of the central office can’t be trusted to make good decisions. The most recent speaker that Atkinson and her team brought in to speak to school leadership is questionable at best. This friends and family poison in DeKalb is caustic. Feeding it more resources probably isn’t the best answer.

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for everyone looking to get out of dekalb here is what to look for in a school district… neighborhoods that feed into the schools to have homes over 350k…. and by all means make sure there are NO APARTMENTS THAT FEED INTO THE SCHOOLS YOUR CHILDREN WOULD BE ATTENDING !!

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the only solution for DCSS is to wipe the slate clean and start over from ground up

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@bootney…I have heard that comment repeatedly on various blogs. But I’m curious…”HOW do you wipe the state clean and start over from the ground up?” What does that actually look like?

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Maybe DCSS needs half of their schools to become charter schools. This is the only way DCSS could start over!

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The overwhelming proportion of the Mars exploration team came from America’s public high schools. A JPL website, “Zip code Mars,” carries brief bios of the Mars team. When this article was written, 141 names were posted. Of those, 104 graduated from public high schools. The rest either didn’t list their high schools, attended private schools or attended high school outside of the United States. The graduation dates are not given, but other information indicates that most finished high school in the period between 1970 and 2000.

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_21451916/ralph-e-shaffer-our-public-schools-still-launch

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I agree with School Counselor — every school with CAPABLE leadership and should immediately announce to their parents that they will be petitioning to convert to charter for the 2013-2014 school year (assuming they haven’t missed deadlines yet). I do not live in Dekalb — I’m in Cobb, and it isn’t perfect over here either, but admittedly not as bad as DCSS. I’ve always heard great things about Livsey Elem and to see on this blog that parents are starting to pull their kids from there as well is very disheartening and sad. In addition to offering choice to children who would not otherwise have it, maybe it’s time we start viewing charters as a way for successful traditional public schools to save themselves from the sometimes dysfunctional systems that they are part of.

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@ concerned DeKalb

honestly, a fair question which it will take better minds than mine to answer:

things I would suggest:

1-reviewing and establishing a set of basic criteria for who can run for BOE. any other job has minimal qualifications.

2-reluctant as I am to have term limits, possibly something requiring a BOE member to sit out a cycle
after three successive appointments

3-to be an educational administrator there must be a criteria requiring a minimum of actual class time for every level, with a requirement for more years in class the higher a person goes. as far as I can tell, education in the only profession when you can get a Ph.D. in it without having any real practical experience.

4-vital!: a watchdog orgainzation, seperate from the county or state whos job it is to function as devil’s advocate. a: vette all spending initatives over 5 figures, b: actually investigate from the employees POV complaints about harrassement, nepotism, favoritism, questionable spending, ect.
this group must have the power to compell the system to explain itself in these matters and protect the employee in question from the reprisials.

I’ve long held if someone had actually listened to people like me and the others trying to get some-one’s atttention about the illnesses killing GPC, it might not have imploded. same I think for DCSS and APD.

6-a consulting group made up of faculty, staff, admin types, parents, ect to advise the BOE on its decisions.

7- a careful reassessment of the use of community partners in nontransparet ways. I don’t object to them, but you often see the usual suspects at certain events and supporting certain events. a great example of this is seen in bootster orgs, which almost always are run by the people who donate the most money.

8-an substantial increase in charter schools, PROVIDED they can secure external funding. I’ve posted before about the mythical Home Depot School for Skilled Trades. we teach, they fund.

9-seperate education and sports. its gotten out of control. nothing wags the educational dog more than the sports tail.

10-all of the above to be made public record and posted on the web on a regular and scheduled timeframe.

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@ taxpayer and teacher

just so you know, I stopped reading after that stupid DNA test comment.
blacks have African descent? well, duh. do you need a test to confirm water is wet?

your hypen is a state of mind, not of geography. if you are so African, Delta is ready when
you are. one way ticket, please, and leave your US citizenship with the person at the gate.

there are some legitimate African-Americans. James Kahagia (hope I got the same right), Greg Okoro, and Martin Okafor who teach at GPC are genuine Africans. Kenya, Nigeria. they started in Africa and came here.

if you’ve been here long enough to need a DNA test to justify your politics….

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@ Taxpayer and Teacher, September 2nd, 11:18 am: “@bootney farnsworth. We are REAL Africans. I recently had my DNA test done and I am 100% real African.”

Bootney is right.

You wouldn’t be 100% African unless you just emigrated from Africa…and even then, Africans at this point in history are likely to have mixtures of other racial/ethnic groups in their DNAs. European colonization of North and West Africa has been going on since the mid 1500s, and the Middle Eastern colonization of East Africa since before that. Also strange for you to claim that the 3 main African ethnic groups are the Angolans, Ghanaians, and Nigerians, unless you mean at present within metro Atlanta. Those are just 3 countries in the south of Western Africa. There are certainly a lot more ethnic groups in all of Africa than those!

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bu2

There has been no announcement of who is serving on that Board, but regardless of the existence of the Board, don’t you think the system should have vetted the construction management companies? More troubling though, why was Jester the only one to vote against this appointment, even though Copelin-Woods expressed concerns about the lack of references. She still voted for it. Oversight? More like rubber stamping!

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About Dekalb Teacher — listen to her statement that just floored me == she complains that there wasn’t enough time to train the teachers to teach reading in small groups….
I almost fell over.
Dekalb teacher, if you need training to tell you how to teach reading in small groups then what was the purpose of your “education” degree?
Really? You can’t teach kids to read in small groups? WHAT did they teach you in college?
It just sickems me that Dekalb teachers say they need special training to teach kdis to read.
You should absolutely already know how to do it, be experienced at it (that’s what student teaching is for) and you already haev an entire NEA of trained so-called professionals to ask for advice.
If you need more time to learn, you need to get OUT OF THE CLASSROOM NOW!

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@ Pride and Joy – hold on now. I read what the lady said, and it wasn’t that. What she said was that they had a new program and did not receive training on implementing it and that class sizes were too large to effectively do small group instruction. Be fair now.

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@ Teacher Reader – Amen.

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“The internal auditor, who reported to the Board, is gone. When that position is filled, it will be reporting to Ron Ramsey rather than the board. Doesn’t make for a very independent person.– which is both disappointing and worrisome.

The reason the internal auditor position was created to report to the Board is because the person indicted on racketeering was the superintendent and this should not have happened if there was an internal auditor – which DCSS did not have. How reasonable is it to expect your subordinate to report on you? Ron Ramsey, head of Internal Affairs, charged with investigating unethical and illegal conduct did no investigating of Lewis or Pope. He was also a subordinate of Lewis. How did that work out for taxpayers and students?

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http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/www.documents/organizational-chart.pdf

According to this internal audit is way down the organizational chart. That’s almost a guarantee you get a weak auditor who won’t do all of the things needed. Another chart shows Ron Ramsey in charge of the Office of Internal Affairs whose purpose all has to do with discrimination complaints.

Internal audit should report to the superintendent with scheduled regular private meetings with the board’s audit committee.

And the finance/audit committee shouldn’t have a thief on it. I looked quite a bit to find the committees, but the only way I found it was on Nancy Jester’s site where she had some draft minutes posted. Cunningham, Womack and the two board members with a financial background-Jester and Elder were on it.

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And this brings us back to the fact that Atkinson should not have been hired in the first place. Her inexperience and lack of fiscal responsibility is showing.

@teacher reader – agreed, if the school system were treated like a private business instead of a source of income for family and friends, perhaps we would be in better shape. Instead, from the superintendent on down, individuals were hired based on personal preferences instead of real qualifications for that position. Instead of efficiency we get deficiency in all areas.

The BoE should absolutely be reviewing all budgets and have final approval; however, we need BoE members that have a background that fully understands how to run a business and what schools truly need and definitely have members that have a clean criminal history.

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Its pretty common for the auditor to report to the CEO (superintendent for a school district), but the ability to have private meetings with the board allows them to report on the CEO/super, a kind of a dotted line to the board.

But the further down the organization the auditor is, the more supervisors he could theoretically be reporting on and likely would be intimidated into not reporting on.

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The internal auditor was supposed to report to the Board:
“Babst reports directly to the school board, so he’s just as free to investigate high ranking employees if need be.”

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/auditor-hired-by-dekalb-schools-to-prevent-fraud/nJZwH/

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Lets not forget that Ramsey serves in the GA Legislature and also hired Eddie Long for NB…..

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@Pride and Joy…if you had taken the time to read my post more carefully, you would have better understood what I said. I did not state that teachers need more time to learn to teach small-group reading. I mentioned small groups because some elementary classes at my school currently have 29-30 students, hardly numbers from which small groups can be formed, and the reading program run successfully. I also stated that teacher training is required to implement the new Georgia Common Core Curriculum effectively, and mentioned early-release dates next calendar year as possible planning/training time. Please understand what you are reading before you post.

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