DeKalb ought to ensure its accreditation response is done in full public view
UPDATE at 5 p.m.: I received a call from a concerned DeKalb parent saying that the AJC misrepresented what actually was decided at last night’s meeting about how the district should respond to a warning letter from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
So, I checked with the news reporter who covered the meeting and he told me that the entire board will not meet on this issue. Instead, a team is being formed.
AJC reporter Ty Tagami said: “The process is this: a team comprising the board chair, vice chair, Atkinson, senior staffers and at least one community representative will draft a response. They’ll run that draft by the board members, but not in a public meeting. Then, they’ll send it to SACS. None of that will happen in public.”
Members of the DeKalb school board often portray themselves as populists, but ducking behind closed doors to discuss the system’s accreditation is not the way to promote community trust.
Given the deepening level of public distrust, school chief Cheryl Atkinson and the board should never waffle on transparency and open government. I would opt for opening the “process,” no matter how it is done, to the public.
I talked today to Dr. Atkinson and believe that she wants transparency and better communications. So, look for updates on this matter.
The DeKalb County school board approved a closed-door process Wednesday for responding to allegations of mismanagement.
The public will not get to see discussions about a letter last week from accrediting agency AdvancEd that accused members of the school board of overstepping their authority in some areas, such as hiring, while failing to exercise oversight over finances and other key responsibilities.
“The goal is to be as open and transparent as possible,” school board Chairman Eugene Walker said before leading the vote for a process that leaves the public outside the door.
Parent Michelle Penkava sat dumbfounded in the audience. “They just held a public meeting to say this is not going to be a public process,” she said.
Board members said they were merely acting out of respect for AdvancEd and its subsidiary, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. “I don’t think SACS wants this in the newspaper before it goes to SACS,” board member Paul Womack said.
But Mark Elgart, president and chief executive officer of AdvancEd, said in a telephone interview after the hastily called DeKalb meeting that “no such courtesy is necessary or required.” He said the process for responding was up to DeKalb.
System spokesman Jeff Dickerson defended the process, which was recommended by Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson. He said the school system effectively opened the process by holding Wednesday’s meeting in public. The board could have met in a private executive session or merely passed around drafts of their response among themselves, he said.
Georgia law allows few exceptions to the state Open Meetings Act. Officials can meet in executive session to discuss legal matters, land acquisitions and personnel matters. It’s unclear whether a letter containing allegations about mismanagement would fit any of those exclusions.
Parent Molly Bardsley said she was “frankly a little surprised that this is all going to go on behind closed doors, because part of the problem SACS is addressing is what goes on behind closed doors.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
198 comments Add your comment
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
8:10 am
This is unbelievable and shame on the BOE and shame on Dr. Atkinson!!! My guess is that this could be challenged as a violation of the Open Meeting Laws??? There must be a lot this BOE doesn’t want made public…to no one’s surprise.
Tired
September 6th, 2012
8:22 am
I could support all these new little fiefdoms (Dunwoody, the ridiculous “city” of Brookhaven) if they were also going to secede from the school board. UGH.
Hamilton
September 6th, 2012
8:33 am
It would be outstanding if King & Spalding would do a little pro bono work for the citizens of DeKalb County by filing Open Meetings Act lawsuits against the DeKalb Board of Education. It would be a tremendous gesture, given the money they have been making off of the DeKalb taxpayers for years. Any of the other law firms could chip in too.
SHUT THE FRONT DOOR
September 6th, 2012
8:33 am
Another bloated school system not using money in the classrooom where it belongs. R.E.M said it best…”Its the end of the world as we know it”. Bring on the charter system!
DeKalb School Board goes to the Dark Side » chaingangelementary.com
September 6th, 2012
8:36 am
[...] Downey has a post up on this travesty on her Get Schooled blog. If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing [...]
SML
September 6th, 2012
8:40 am
OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The ENTIRE school board needs to be replaced IMMEDIATELY!
Pardon My Blog
September 6th, 2012
8:44 am
No open meeting about this? Really? They don’t want it in the newspapers? Afraid of the truth finally coming out about 10 years of corruption? Time for the State to step in and let the criminal investigations begin!
Bobby
September 6th, 2012
8:45 am
As a Dekalb County taxpayer and resident since 1976 I smell a rat here. This is why voters are turning out incumbents right and left regardless of how well we think they did their jobs. Eugene Walker needs to take a leadership as the Chairman and open up the hearings. I’m not sure who is more dysfunctional – Dekalb Code Enforcement (which the Commissioners need to abolish the entire department) or the School board.
Pride and Joy
September 6th, 2012
8:45 am
Thank you, Get Schooled and thank you, Maureen! This is exactly the kind of news I want and expect from the media — being a watch dog on our elected governement officials. Super Cheryl has lost my confidence by pulling this outrageous stunt.
What particularly infuriates me is this “Board members said they were merely acting out of respect for AdvancEd and its subsidiary, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.”
What about the respect for tax payers and parents?
What about respect for the LAW?
This is clearly a duck and cover your A meeting. This is not what we need from our elected officials and it is a PERFECT example of why we can’t trust our elected boards to make sound decisions regarding charter schools.
Rickster
September 6th, 2012
8:46 am
Can anyone say “Death Knell?”
Big picture
September 6th, 2012
8:47 am
Let the spin begin.
Mike
September 6th, 2012
8:51 am
When can we get the state to take over…..this is a train wreck that everyone can see coming from a mile away. We shouldn’t need to wait and become the next Clayton County before action is taken. These people are idiots!
Tuckergirl
September 6th, 2012
8:57 am
“The goal is to be as open and transparent as possible,” school board Chairman Eugene Walker said before leading the vote for a process that leaves the public outside the door.
Read that paragraph again. Mr. Walker said they want to be transparent and then does completely opposite. And the Board wonders why parents have no faith in them. They wonder why SACS is concerned. What does the Board have to hide? As a parent of a new Dekalb kindergarten student, I watch this circus with disgust.
My disgust is not with my son’s school or its staff. For Dekalb, it is about as good as it gets. The principal, teachers and parents are very involved on every level. For the past four weeks, as I’ve volunteered there, I’ve been quite impressed and he is thriving despite the fact his class has 25 students and no parapro (not the school’s fault). But I am fully aware that’s not the case for many Dekalb public schools.
As for the Board and DCSS, my confidence has been going down the drain since we moved here. The Dekalb “Friends and Family” Program is one factor that has been part of the problem. When you continually hire your aunt, cousin, boyfriend, mother in law, neighbor, etc. because of your relationship to them and not their abilities, something is wrong. But once you are “in” (unless you are a teacher) the system, it is nearly impossible to be removed from it. Even when you do something illegal.
As a result, numerous conflicts of interest continue to crop up that have led to expensive law suits. So the Board hires TWO different law firms to handle it because they can’t agree on which one to hire. Does somebody have a cousin working for one firm and maybe a girlfriend for the other? I wouldn’t be surprised because this is how Dekalb operates. Your tax dollars at work.
Having seen the hell Clayton went through after its accreditation was removed, I don’t think anyone wants to see that nightmare repeated in Dekalb. We can hope that SACS’ concern will wake the Board up but as can be seen from their efforts to be “transparent” with the public, I remain doubtful and depressed that any positive changes are coming any time soon.
Tyronne
September 6th, 2012
8:59 am
The Dekalb County mafia strikes again.
Remember this when you go into the voting booth in November and see the wonderful variety of choices we will be presented with throughout our cozy little cleptocracy.
We will never get real change until we stand up for ourselves and demand a better product for our tax dollars.
Lynn
September 6th, 2012
9:00 am
First, now with a public outcry, the board and Dr. Atkinson will announce “opps” and make the process open. Mark my words, we will soon hear from Jeff Dickerson about a change of plans.
Second, the DeKalb School Board has long been the poster child for back room deals. You vote for this and I will support you on that is the norm. The inability of School Board members to not worry about their own reelection and therefore only their own communities is a large part of how the system got where it is today. I am certain they violate Open Meetings but DCSS lacks a whistleblower. That is a shame.
Roach
September 6th, 2012
9:06 am
Disastrous decision. Moreover, while this vote was in public, you know the proposal would not have been advanced unless its backers were already sure of support–which means that a vote on a board proposal was discussed outside of a public meeting, in itself a violation of state law.
Responding to SACS:
Step 1: Violate the law.
Step 2: Alienate the public.
Step 3: Do something else incredibly stupid which just makes matters worse.
Yep, that’s just what it says in the state school board association guidebook.
CTPAT
September 6th, 2012
9:07 am
Outrageous? Yes. Unexpected? No.
I suspect that if they were interested in truthfully responding to the allegations, they’d have to admit to engaging in unlawful conduct; hence, it’s totally legit to be behind unclosed doors. Unfortunately, I also suspect that they’ll craft some sort of cover-up behind those closed doors too.
DagnyT
September 6th, 2012
9:08 am
Maureen, what, if anything, is preventing the city of Dunwoody and the future city of Brookhaven from forming their own school districts? The loss of accreditation depreciated homes in Clayton county by as much as 70%. I doubt the people of Dunwoody would stand for that. Those in Birmingham, AL split off into smaller cities and formed their own school districts resulting in increased property values and acclaimed schools. Personally, we left Dekalb because the schools were headed south and our taxes kept increasing. I would move back if Dunwoody or Brookhaven had a city school system.
DeKalb Teacher
September 6th, 2012
9:09 am
Whoooooaaaaa … there are a lot of generalizations and accusations without specifics flying around here.
1. Specifically what law are they breaking?
2. How are they breaking it?
Let’s not get our panties in a wad until we know what is going on.
Fred ™
September 6th, 2012
9:11 am
Maureen? How many of these yahoos were voted out? When do the new folks come in? Is this a case of the idiots that got booted having a last hurrah at the check book before they leave? I know Our SB member, Womack got the boot. How many others did?
Oh and shame on all of you who didn’t vote your incumbent out this past July/August. See what you foisted on the rest of us?
Steve from Tucker
September 6th, 2012
9:13 am
God bless you, AJC. God bless you, Maureen Downey. Where would we be without you guys to shine the light on the corruption we elect to represent us? Is there not a single true public servant left in DeKalb County?
LOGIC
September 6th, 2012
9:15 am
SACS is not innocent in all of this, folks. If the State were to actually do something, I hope it would fine SACS for negligence because none of these allegations are new. Ty points out in the article that the letter is to Dr. Atkinson. I believe that the Board is her boss and not vice versa. How does this work? SACS needs to have a process to determine how to oust the Board members if they are negligent. Impacting change from the bottom up does not work. What can Atkinson do other than make it a bigger circus – which is what she did yesterday?
SACS needs to escalate to Barge and Co. immediately to save us from losing accreditation. The children and the taxpayers should not be punished for the negligence/corruption of the Board, the Superintendent (current and former) and the governing/review agencies.
Can we save DeKalb???
Big picture
September 6th, 2012
9:16 am
@lynn, don’t think they’ll open the doors of this meeting. Not this time. Spin is too essential. They have cut the school house resources to nothing and the super continues to travel and push for a balanced calendar. She is the one who made the suggestion, according to the article, that discussions be held in closed session. She is the one who develops the budget that they vote on. She is the one who puts information forward that they must use in decision making. She is the one who wants a closed session. Really, has any information been forthcoming since she has been in charge? I cannot find posted minutes of recent board meetings (if they are there, I cannot find them), and by recent, I mean any 2012 minutes. It is my understanding that the board cannot interfere with daily operations in running the district. The problem is, the district isn’t running, but parents and good teachers ARE running, AWAY, that is. It is not in the supererintendant’s best interest to hold open meetings. Nor is it in the best interest of many members of the board….they don’t think there’s a problem. They don’t think they’ve done anything wrong. Guess they think overspending by millions of dollars is not an issue, not as long as they keep the CO covered, which they can do by cutting school level resources. Oops. I rant.
Maureen Downey
September 6th, 2012
9:16 am
@DeKalb teacher:
Here is a clear summary of the open meetings law
Here are the situations where a board can elect to go into closed session and ban the public:
The general rule is that all meetings of governing bodies of agencies must be open to the public. A governing body may exclude the public from a portion of a meeting known as a “closed session” if it identifies a specific statutory exemption. Under Georgia Open Meetings Act, a governing body may hold a closed session when it is dealing with one of nine subject-area exemptions found in Ga. Code § 50-14-3. The nine exemptions are:
staff meetings held for investigative purposes under duties or responsibilities imposed by law;
deliberations and voting of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles;
meetings of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation or any other law enforcement agency in the state, including grand jury meetings;
meetings when any agency is discussing the future acquisition of real estate;
meetings of the governing authority of a public hospital or any committee thereof when discussing the granting, restriction, or revocation of staff privileges or the granting of abortions under state or federal law;
meetings when discussing or deliberating upon the appointment, employment, compensation, hiring, disciplinary action or dismissal, or periodic evaluation or rating of a public officer or employee;
adoptions and proceedings related thereto;
meetings of the board of trustees or the investment committee of any public retirement system when such board or committee is discussing matters pertaining to investment securities trading or investment portfolio positions and composition; and
meetings when discussing any records that are exempt from public inspection or disclosure pursuant to paragraph (15) of subsection (a) of Code Section 50-18-72, when discussing any information a record of which would be exempt from public inspection or disclosure under said paragraph, or when reviewing or discussing any security plan under consideration pursuant to paragraph (10) of subsection (a) of Code Section 15-16-10.
Big picture
September 6th, 2012
9:17 am
Maureen, Did any board members voted Against the closed meeting approach?
Baby
September 6th, 2012
9:18 am
The board and their ringleader are the poster children for incompetence, thievery and corruption. They care nothing about children, and only about their own self-important positions. The only way they can continue to hold onto those, are by hiding their deceitful misdeeds, which are probably much worse than we already know about.
Head on over to Dekalb School Watch and look at the budgets. They claim they need to cut teachers, while rising the school board members’ budgets and central staff offices budgets by millions.
Someone should sue to make this transparent, I mean, what’s another million in legal fees when you’ve run up as much as these scoundrels have…
Lynn
September 6th, 2012
9:18 am
GA Law (Open Records/Open Meetings) errs on the side of transparency. Because Dr. Atkinson and the Board apparently don’t want the public to see the response to the SACS complaint before SACs does, they will write the letter, share it individually with each board member and then send it off. The reality is this could be viewed as a move to avoid complying with open meetings. The board asked if they could discuss it in Executive Session, the answer was no, so this is the strategy they are going with.
The moment the letter is sent to a board member, it becomes subject to open records law. It is silly for the board to think that they can hide this from the media, and therefore, the public.
Ernest
September 6th, 2012
9:24 am
This is strange and very concerning. Though Jeff indicated it was recommended by Dr. Atkinson, the BOE could have consulted the legal staff before voting to go into executive session. For the sake of transparency, they could have rejected the recommendation. Does anyone know how the vote went for going into executive session?
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
9:28 am
I am just stunned. An open, transparent discussion of the issues SACS raised would have gone a long way toward supporting the promise of an “open and transparent” school district. Now, we just see that DCSD is “business as usual” despite promises that we would see “A New Day in DeKalb Schools”.
Devildog
September 6th, 2012
9:30 am
Looks like their trying to become Clayton II.
BB
September 6th, 2012
9:30 am
I grew up in DeKalb County years ago. Then it was considered a wonderful place to live, work, and go to school. I’m so sorry I can’t say that about the county anymore.
AnonMom
September 6th, 2012
9:36 am
I’m not sure I see which exception to the open meetings statute cited above applies to this situation…. any guesses? I wish the FBI would start looking at things.
Mitch
September 6th, 2012
9:36 am
And these are the people Maureen wants to give exclusive control over approving charter schools. No thanks. This what you get from “local control.”
Maureen Downey
September 6th, 2012
9:37 am
@Dagny, I am unsure of the law governing the creation of new school districts. However, the challenge would be persuading voters to take on the higher costs that smaller districts bring. (Decatur has the state’s highest property taxes as a result of its small school system.) A theme in the campaigns for cityhood in various DeKalb communities has been that taxes would not rise. So, voters, most of whom have no kids in schools, would likely resist a deannexation from the county schools if it meant higher taxes.
But the law may not allow it or make it difficult. Tennessee had to change its law last year to allow suburban towns to break from the county schools, and that law is facing a constitutional court challenge.
Maureen
Maureen Downey
September 6th, 2012
9:42 am
@To all, Some weird antics with posts this morning, including my own, which disappeared twice already. If your stuff does not appear, repost. And if your comment appears six times, as one post just did, I will delete the repeats.
Maureen
Mikedawg
September 6th, 2012
9:44 am
Aren’t you glad you recently voted to continue the penny sales tax for school improvements? Now the BOE has even more money and “influence” to play around with.
Morovia
September 6th, 2012
9:54 am
Crooks running your schools—meeting in private to discuss fraud, mismanagement, failing schools, loss of accreditation, hiding from the public—-congrats Atlanta—you voted for them!
Hamilton
September 6th, 2012
9:57 am
For those that asked why smaller school districts can’t be created, the State Constitution prohibits the creation of any more school districts. The constitution would have to be amended to permit the creation of new, smaller school districts like you see in other States. That’s the simple explanation, perhaps someone else can provide more detail.
Really?
September 6th, 2012
10:01 am
I am relocating my children to Gwinnett County. I have two ninth graders and I don’t like when I start hearing about accrediation. DeKalb schools are a joke!
Lulu
September 6th, 2012
10:04 am
If there is not a law already we need one that allows taxpayers to sue such officials who break the open session law without involving the city, county, whatever government. As it is they do as they wish with no personal responsibility because apparently law suits punish the government involved and not the officials. Government in this part of the state becomes more laughable every day!
williebkind
September 6th, 2012
10:04 am
Be gentle people these are college educated minds at work with high pay and benefits.
Van Jones
September 6th, 2012
10:06 am
Dekalb, the “new” Clayton county.
Concerned Parent
September 6th, 2012
10:18 am
And they wonder why enrollment in this county is declining….HELLO!
Triple D
September 6th, 2012
10:25 am
This is a sad day.
Ernest
September 6th, 2012
10:25 am
I spoke to someone that explained they did not go into executive session during this meeting but only discussed making the process closed. That said, it looks like no laws have been broken at this time. Given the concerns expressed about making the process of formulating and reviewing the response to SACS closed, hopefully there will be a reconsideration.
Is my understanding correct?
Paul
September 6th, 2012
10:33 am
Since the schools are solid in Dunwoody, Chamblee and Brookhaven, these cities should form their own district and start a process to marginalize any dependance with DeKalb government services. Sanitation and fire are great and reliable, but beyond that there is no reason to keep any association with that collection of clowns at the county.
Tag
September 6th, 2012
10:40 am
Who trusts government any more, be it republican or democratic?
Constitution
September 6th, 2012
10:40 am
The Georgia Constitution (Article XIII) prevents any new school districts, so absent an amendment, Dunwoody, Brookhaven et al cannot form their own school district. Maybe folks should explore what it takes to amend the GA Constitution.
Its says, FYI, as follows. I beleive the last line is the issue. Existing city schools (i.e Atlanta, Decatur etc) were grandfathered.
SECTION V.
LOCAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS
Paragraph I. School systems continued; consolidation of school systems authorized; new independent school systems prohibited. Authority is granted to county and area boards of education to establish and maintain public schools within their limits. Existing county and independent school systems shall be continued, except that the General Assembly may provide by law for the consolidation of two or more county school systems, independent school systems, portions thereof, or any combination thereof into a single county or area school system under the control and management of a county or area board of education, under such terms and conditions as the General Assembly may prescribe; but no such consolidation shall become effective until approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon in each separate school system proposed to be consolidated. No independent school system shall hereafter be established
bu2
September 6th, 2012
10:41 am
While Atkinson was blamed for suggesting it, I wonder if she was told to suggest it by one of the board members to be cover for them.
The only board members quoted in the article are Womack and Walker, who are probably the two with the most to be embarrassed about. They are the ones people complain most about getting involved in personnel issues.
Where are Jester and Elder? I hear no complaints about the secrecy from them and they are the newer members who should have the least to be embarrassed about.
Orson, McMahan and Johnson don’t come on board until January. McChesney, Womack and Bowen are still on the board until then.
I would like to see the new members ask for more transparency.
Robin
September 6th, 2012
10:49 am
It’s sad that other districts’ boards apparently learned absolutely nothing from Clayton County’s ordeal with accreditation.
Solutions
September 6th, 2012
10:51 am
When you elect your leaders based on race and not ability, this is what you get, corruption behind closed doors, imho. BeverlytheFruad got away with her crimes behind closed doors, we still do not know what she told her cronies behind the public’s back. The DeKalb board looks on school property taxes and bond issues as money on the table for the taking, and that is what they have been doing, imho. Where is the FBI, is it not their job to investigate government corruptions? Oh, the White House has told them to stand down, imho, to protect the guilty.
claytondawg
September 6th, 2012
10:54 am
While it’s nice to hear this kind of news from another system, I do get a little agitated with some folks calling this situation “another Clayton County.” Yes, I can certainly see your point. However, part of my issue here is: Why is Dekalb getting so many chances? At Clayton, it was almost a “one and done” kind of deal. I live in Clayton, but I totally support the parents in Dekalb. As someone posted above about dysfunctional school boards, he/she is absolutely correct.in that TEACHERS make the real difference, but the school boards utilize their own agenda and manage to have teachers who move a step forward while the boards move three steps back. Dekalb parents…I love your outrage; keep it up. It’s the only way to make positive changes.
Maude
September 6th, 2012
10:55 am
It would seem that open meeting laws only pertain to some not all. The mess with this and other government offices is that no honest person will run for these jobs!! People are voted for and hired based on their race rather than their qualifications. Also most people really just do not care what is going on with the government and how their tax dollars are spent.
red herring
September 6th, 2012
10:55 am
we have too much administration in our county schools and we all know what idle minds will do. now it comes down to having open meetings and the taxpayers indeed have right and should demand to have access to meetings held by the taxpayers employees, in the buildings, with the utilities, etc. that their taxes pay for. in no way should this be acceptable. County school superintendents and school administrations are vastly overpaid and overstaffed—research old ajc articles for proof of this.
Teacher Reader
September 6th, 2012
10:55 am
I am not sure what can be done to help turn this ship around. Why hasn’t SACS acted sooner? How are they involved in the corruption?
As a tax payer, I don’t care about my home value, as I’m already underwater by 1/3 easily. I care more about getting the children of DeKalb a good education. I want my tax dollars to be spent wisely. I want the corruption to stop.
The Deal
September 6th, 2012
10:55 am
At this point, I don’t care if there is reconsideration and they end up discussing it in the middle of a town square. The fact that Dr. Atkinson requested that it be closed speaks volumes. The fact that the board did not stand up to her and do the right thing speaks volumes.
For you Pollyannas out there, the new board members are not going to change anything. The vote will remain 5-4, so there’s no need in holding out hopes for that. In defending the suggestion to be in closed session, SACS showed that this letter was simply bark and no bite. It’s a political move for show. Everyone knows there’s been enough issues to yank accreditation, and they haven’t.
At this point, there is literally no hope for this school system. As wonderful as the parents, kids, and teachers are, we do not have a strong enough influence to change anything fundamentally. The only thing that will make a difference is a 100% clean start on the board, the superintendent, and her direct reports. There is no agency or person that has the power to do that, so we are stuck. Electing one good board member at a time will accomplish nothing for the kids who are in the system now, and what good people want to be a part of that board anyway? The failure of this administration and school board is going to turn this school system and county into a southern Detroit. Figure out a solution for your kids now because it just isn’t going to get better. It can’t get better because there is no group or person that has the authority make the big changes that we need now.
DeKalb Teacher
September 6th, 2012
11:02 am
Excellent Summary Maureen (@9:16).
Now, how are they breaking that law?
The BOE is moving forward with Committee Meetings and will not have a quorum. Therefore the meetings will not be Executive Meetings and those laws you referred to do not apply.
I think those Committee Meetings should be open to the public. I suggest emailing Dr Atkinson (the Superintendent), Dr Walker (BOE Chair), and Dr Elgart (SACS CEO) and request that these Committee Meetings be open to the public.
Disgusted in Dekalb
September 6th, 2012
11:04 am
DCSS is paying millions to law firms every year. Don’t you think they could have consulted one of these overpaid legal minds before making this hair-brained decision?
bu2
September 6th, 2012
11:05 am
I think it will make a difference having 3 bright, energetic board members who won’t just accept the way things are, instead of just having 1. There have been a lot of 6-3, 7-2, 8-1 votes with noone arguing much.
Solutions
September 6th, 2012
11:06 am
Prior to 1970 or so, Dekalb had the best school system in the State of Georgia, then the thieves were allowed to run the school system into the ground. Slowly the smart teachers were replaced with teachers of the right color, regardless of ability to teach or even understand the subject they were suppose to be teaching. No wonder the people who could afford to move out of Dekalb did, and smart people did not relocate to that county. Now the locust are moving to the perimeter, invading the Gwinette and Cobb school systems, and in 10 years I expect to see a similar decline there as occurred in Dekalb. The migration outward continues.
alm
September 6th, 2012
11:07 am
I lived near Brookhaven and that’s all anyone talked about. I still don’t understand how so many people could get so worked up over 30% of their property taxes and not get worked up when the school system mismanages the other 70%.
I’m thankful I moved.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
11:08 am
Sorry, bu2, I just don’t see that happening. Johnson is a former insider who will go along with Walker and the others. McMahan and Orson…well, we’ll see.
Solutions
September 6th, 2012
11:09 am
I suggest the ajc ask Dr Elgart (SACS CEO) for a copy of the letter sent to the Dekalb School Board.
northern neighbor
September 6th, 2012
11:13 am
There are two solutions to this problem in DeKalb. The first is the best and most American solution. The second is desperation. Maybe these are desperate times. Fortunately they are not desperate in my county.
1. Elect new school board members. When was the last time any of you who are complaining presented yourself as a candidate for school board? When was the last time you recommended and urged a qualified friend to run for school board? When was the last time you campaigned for a qualified candidate for school board?
2. Pass the Charter School School amendment and try to start your own school. Just remember if you do this, your local school board still has the power to levy property taxes and your state tax dollars will still go to the local school system.
LOGIC
September 6th, 2012
11:13 am
I share the disgust with every parent and taxpayer, but we need to ensure that we are keeping the absolute need to of good public education at the forefront of any actions or steps we support. An illiterate society is a breeding ground implosion and we as a country get closer by the day.
We need to go after DCSD and hold them accountable and not punish the children. This is no longer about property values, but daily existence in society and without viable schools, we may not be able to recover. No one has mentioned Ellis and his absence. Where is he? These are our DeKalb tax dollars and DCSD takes 70%+ of our tax money.
THIS IS TAXATION WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATION. We are hamstrung by the fact that none of the review/accreditation agencies did what they were supposed to do and we are paying more taxes.
Which law firm will represent the taxpayer here against Ellis, the Board, the Super, SACS, the Governor, Barge and everyone else who kept saying everything was ok??? Who can get a petition going???
Disgusted in Dekalb
September 6th, 2012
11:15 am
The dekalbschoolwatch site has a link that allows you to download the SACS letter.
RCB
September 6th, 2012
11:19 am
My husband lost his job 3 weeks ago, but I’m beginning to see the silver lining. We now may be able to move from Dekalb. We don’t even want to focus his search on the Atlanta area. Fulton, Dekalb and Clayton will not improve in my lifetime. It took 4 decades to run Dekalb into the ground and I think it will be longer to “fix” it–if ever. What has happened to Atlanta?????
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
11:25 am
Link to the letter from SACS to DCSD:
http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/waga/documents/DeKalbSchoolsLetter.pdf
Admin1
September 6th, 2012
11:31 am
The new cities in Dekalb should form a separate school board. The remaining members of Dekalb including my family should vote for new members of the Dekalb school board. This will allow parents of Dekalb county students to repair a damaged school system.
StaD1
September 6th, 2012
11:44 am
Hiding waste, fraud and mismanagement with secret meetings—-classic for the ATL! It never changes in this city.
Roach
September 6th, 2012
11:46 am
@DeKalb Teacher–
I wasn’t at the meeting. The article says that the school board “approved a process.” That sounds like they took a vote. Do you really think that someone sprung this idea on the board at this meeting, with no preliminary discussion? Did any of the members seem surprised by the suggestion? Springing this as a surprise would have been risky. I’d bet most anything that this issue was discussed privately, with assurances given that board members would play along. THAT prior, hidden discussion of a board vote was a violation of open meetings rules.
Pride and Joy
September 6th, 2012
11:46 am
Let’s get right to the heart of the problem.
The real issue is race.
Black voters will vote for black candidates regardless of whether those candidates are honest or not. Look at Clayton County. The elected an official who was under indictment because he was black.
Because whites are a minitory in number in Clayton County, in APS and in Dekalb, black candidates on school boards will always outnumber whites on the school board and waste, fraud and abuse continues.
Also, the issue is that many black voters recognize that white tax payers pay for the schools so if money is stolen, it is “white” money and it is OK.
This is why so many parents want charter schools. Good black parents know the schools are lackluster to horrible and they want their kids out of that environment and so do white parents.
Not all black voters are racist but enough of them are to completely ignore integrity and instead vote for the darker candidates.
That’s why I got my kids out of this mess but I still have to extract myself and my money out of it. I own residential property in APS and Dekalb. My property taxes go to APS and Dekalb and my children get zero benefits from that money. On top of my property taxes, I have to pay private school tuition and it’s financially killing me.
I need honesty in my government and there is no way I can vote in an honest school board. Racisim is alive and well in Dekalb and APS and it’s destroying our societys’ education systems.
Happy St. Pat's!
September 6th, 2012
11:51 am
Look at property values in Decatur (excellent, independent school system) vs. DeKalb County–that’s all the evidence you need.
concernedmom30329
September 6th, 2012
11:59 am
BU2,
I love your optimism, but it is misplaced. The DeKalb School Board, with the exception of Sara Copelin-Woods is full of members who have served less than 8 years, many having served only 6 or less. The reality is that every two years at least one or two board members is newly elected and yet nothing much changes.
There have been lots of good well intentioned people elected to the DeKalb School Board for the last 20 years, but nothing much changes. It isn’t as easy as you think.
The new board members may be as you described (I doubt it since I know 2 of the three) but in the end, the need to protect what they perceive is important will most likely drive their decision making. I hope i am wrong, but years of back room deals that benefit little fiefdoms while the rest of the system suffers, makes me believe I am right.
Ernest
September 6th, 2012
12:03 pm
I have to agree with DeKalb Teacher. I don’t think anyone can point to a law that has been broken yet however the intent to possibly do so with respect to how they respond to allegations of mismanagement. As I stated earlier, hopefully they will reconsider making the SACS response public once it is finalized, whether SACS sees it first or not.
Roach said,
“I’d bet most anything that this issue was discussed privately, with assurances given that board members would play along. THAT prior, hidden discussion of a board vote was a violation of open meetings rules.”
My understanding is that ALL elected officials discuss things privately with one another. As long as these discussions did not occur with at least 5 Board member present (a majority), they can legally do this. I understand this is how some get around the Open Meetings Act by having small group meetings with a few members at a time.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
12:04 pm
Does anyone know of a reason why the letter is addressed to Dr. Atkinson when it deals with Board of Education “issues”?
Fred in DeKalb
September 6th, 2012
12:14 pm
Solutions has a point! If the lawbreakers running DeKalb prior to 1970 abided by the 1954 Supreme Court decision declaring state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional, a lot of this could have been prevented. There could have been a peaceful integration of the school system however the pendulum swung just as far in correcting this mistake as it was in creating the problem in the first place. I wonder how things would have turned out if there was not such defiance by the community to allow integration to happen
There is enough blame to go around.
Fred in DeKalb
September 6th, 2012
12:20 pm
Look like Pride and Joy dusted off their hood today based on their comments. Beliefs like yours is what perpetuates the stereotypes of the South. For the record, I don’t believe all whites are like those shown in Deliverance or their children are like Honey Boo Boo. There is good and bad with all people.
There is enough blame to go around
Pluto
September 6th, 2012
12:35 pm
My family and I left Dekalb seven years ago because the writing was on the walls then. Granted no public school system is ideal but Dekalb has been so corrupt for so long that’s the only way they know how to operate and then they give you the ,”we only do it for the children” crap. Good luck Dekalb.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
12:46 pm
Dr. Atkinson have a plan with which she plans to address this letter? The letter itself offers no specific details of the complaints that SACS has received, so I’m a little concerned as to how this will be addressed by the BOE, other than “what us, we haven’t done anything wrong”.
The Deal
September 6th, 2012
1:01 pm
I agree, DM. The letter isn’t specific enough to craft a response to. Gene Walker will say, “Nuh uh. Prove it.” and that will be the end of it.
Again, the only way DeKalb Schools have a chance at this point is with a major housecleaning. I would wipe the entire board (I know we would lose Nancy, but she’s always getting outvoted anyway) and the entire central office (non-schoolhouse, non student contact). Obviously there is no governing body with the authority to do this, so DeKalb will continue to trudge along in decline until everyone who can bails on it.
The only thing propping our schools up at this point are the parents and good teachers. The BOE and administration think things are rosier than they are because we have parents shelling out more money to pay foundations that pay extra staff, we have PTAs raising money for copy paper and cleaning supplies, and we have parent volunteers filling in remaining gaps with time and money. I have personally shelled out around $300 so far this year in various fees, donations, and requests for items the school typically provided when I was in school.
If there were a clear path out of this mess, DeKalb parents would have risen up and demanded it. The problem is that there is not a clear path. We are so mired in problems across the board that we don’t know where to begin, and there is no higher authority to provide any help. There is also no bomb about to go off that is pressuring anyone to do anything. They figure we’ve survived through racketeering, cheating, lying, politics, scandals, steep student achievement decline. If those didn’t ignite the bomb, what will?
skipper
September 6th, 2012
1:01 pm
As I have said previously, the right to vote does not mean the intelligence to do so. I also said come back and look at this system in a few years. It is now, has been, and will be a cluster….period. Cuss me, etc., but look back in a few.
Ernest
September 6th, 2012
1:26 pm
Dunwoody Mom, I think Dr. Atkinson is in an awkward position. She is being asked for provide a response about allegations made against the people she reports to. She has been here for almost one year yet she is being asked about some things that occurred before she got here (financial expenses over time). How does she respond to the allegation that Board members ‘repeatedly and knowingly’ violate Board policy, especially if she believes this to be true?
Will there be an honest reply to the allegations if it must be reviewed by the Board before SACS gets this? I think she is caught between a rock and a hard place.
Roach
September 6th, 2012
1:27 pm
“Discuss things,” yes, just like a board member might discuss an issue with a parent met by chance in a supermarket. But commit a vote, that’s another matter. Just how hypothetical do you think those undisclosed discussions were?
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
1:32 pm
Ernest, I don’t disagree that Dr. Atkinson is in a tough spot here having to answer for actions of the BOE and previous administrations. However, this process, whatever it may be, needs to be very open and transparent to the public. Trying to do this “behind closed doors” is not favorable to Dr. Atkinson. I also am of the continued opinion that this was nothing more than a PR ploy by SACS to take some heat off of themselves. Parents and other stakeholders have been writing to them for years for some type of action and we’ve been met with nothing by a hand-slap to the BOE. I’m not optimistic than anything helpful to the students of DCSD will come out of this.
Parent and Employee of Dekalb
September 6th, 2012
1:43 pm
What did we expect when a Super from a failing system is allowed to influence one in trouble?? How could Dekalb County hire her with her track record?. Someone should pull her files from her last school System..???
Ernest
September 6th, 2012
1:51 pm
Dunwoody Mom, I believe her response, especially if it is truthful, will compromise her relationship with the Board, her bosses. I believe that some of our current and former Board members got too involved in the day to day operations of the school system. I also believe that the Board did not ask the right questions regarding legal fee and utilities (aside from Nancy), especially if these areas were exceeding what was budgeted for a 5 year period. How does one honestly respond to allegation like this while being transparent?
Using a college football analogy, I think the NCAA regrets giving the ‘Death Penalty’ to SMU back in the 80’s thus did not give this to Penn State. The collateral damage to innocent people was more far reaching than they expected. I see the same thing with SACS. The collateral damage caused to Clayton County was probably more than what SACS expected and I believe they want to find other options for not pulling DeKalb’s accreditation. Why should students, especially graduating seniors, be harmed because our collective Board members have challenges in meeting the standards for accreditation? I think we are in a tough position.
Pluto
September 6th, 2012
1:52 pm
I don’t really see this thing as a racial issue, hell history is replete with white, black, asian or whatever corrupt individuals delighting in screwing over someone. This time it’s gotten serious in Dekalb. It would have been sweet justice if the black politicians replacing the good old boys had been able to rise above the obvious temptations faced by public servants but they seem to be just as vulnerable as the rest. Maybe it’s time to become much more discerning of those who would steward public monies and hold them accountable. Our democracy/republic is not a passive endeavor.
gsmith
September 6th, 2012
1:53 pm
i have full faith in the board…. they are all very honest people and as sharp as they come…. you are in good hands dekalb… dekalb county schools are the envy of all other school systems in the state..
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
1:56 pm
I certainly don’t want to see DCSD lose its accreditation – as you say, that will affect the students, not the BOE. It’s just so frustrating as there seems to be nothing anyone can do about the crisis facing this school district. The GABOE says they are “monitoring” the situation, but have no plans to do anything. The Governor can’t do anything unless the system is put on probation. I guess I, like many parents, am just looking to someone, anyone to help out here.
Ernest
September 6th, 2012
1:58 pm
Roach, we hear about it all the time, elected officials lobbying other elected officials before a big vote. Isn’t that how we got the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ several years ago, the Alaska Senator Ted Stevens was provided funds for the Gravina Island Bridge in exchange for his vote on transportation legislation? This is an extreme example but you get my point. There is a lot of ‘horse trading’ that goes on behind the scenes to get favorable public Yes votes. I’m not saying it is right but acknowledging that it happens.
Did our Board members discuss this prior to their vote? I don’t know but it is reasonable to ask.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
September 6th, 2012
2:09 pm
The Educrats’ Mantra: “What The People don’t know can’t hurt us.”
Baby
September 6th, 2012
2:53 pm
Maureen- As you know, occasionally media outlets will file requests in court to make records/meetings public. Do you know if the AJC has discussed any such action, after you filed this piece this morning? It would be a tremendous service to the community.
Chris
September 6th, 2012
2:54 pm
Looks like Dekalb County in big trouble if they don’t get it together. And people talk about Clayton County lol. Clayton County school system looks ten times better than Dekalb.
bilbo799
September 6th, 2012
2:55 pm
Who is it that keeps on electing these folks? Oh yeah. . .
Pride and Joy
September 6th, 2012
3:27 pm
Hey, Fred in Dekalb. Racism goes both ways. If you want to deny that black voters can be racist against white voters, you’re living a lie.
Pardon My Blog
September 6th, 2012
3:45 pm
Unfortunately, we have a large faction that will vote who the “preacher man” tells them to vote for and that goes for the County, State and National elections as well. It does not mean we get honest and well qualified individuals. Then they fill their administration and create jobs for the friends and family as dictated by said “preacher man”. A prime example is Lewis, just take an indepth look at the individuals he hired over better qualified candidates. He filled the central office with individuals like Fred in DeKalb who are now scrambling to try to justify their jobs.
As I said before, it is time for the foolishness to end and the State to step in. Start the investigations into the hiring practices, misuse of funds, and the nepotism that exists. A long look at certain “relationships” between the system and certain entities might be very revealing.
This has been going on for too long and there have been a lot of good administrators and teachers that were either forced out or have left the system because there are a lot of people (white and black) who refuse to look past the color of the person’s skin to see the good that they are doing.
The Deal
September 6th, 2012
3:50 pm
Does anyone have any credible account of a student in Clayton County being harmed by the pull of their accreditation for that time period? Anecdotal accounts that I read online had a lot of worry followed by nothing actually happening. I seem to recall stories of UGA and Duke accepting students.
I think DeKalb losing its accreditation is the only slim hope we have. This group is not going to fix itself.
Starik
September 6th, 2012
3:59 pm
Googling “Metro Atlanta School Rankings” provides a wealth of information, much more than the AJC rankings provide. The situation is dire. There are some truly excellent public schools in Metro Atlanta, but you’ll be surprised what and where they are.
Good parents send their kids to schools which will prepare them for a respectable college. The problem is class, not race.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
4:01 pm
The Deal, one of my co-workers niece was a student at a Clayton County HS and was accepted to Duke, so I don’t think the lack of accreditation by SACS really hurt in the long-run for her, but not sure if if affected any other students.
Starik
September 6th, 2012
4:17 pm
Here’s the link: http://www.ostenson.com/SchoolInfo.html
It has very complete information, but doesn’t provide the most important. Ask you kid these questions: “When kids fall asleep in class, does the teacher wake them up? For high schoolers, “How many Disney or cartoon movies have you watched in class so far?” When the teacher writes a comment on your work, is his/her spelling and grammar correct? When kids leave school during the school day, does anybody care?
Dekalbite@Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
4:39 pm
I thought the issue was that students was the Hope scholarship:
http://atlanta.about.com/od/governmenteducation/a/atlanta-school-accreditation.htm
“College Acceptance
Traditionally, colleges require applicants to graduate from an accredited institution. Some out-of-state universities may not accept a non-accredited diploma, while others will require additional documentation or testing for acceptance.
HOPE scholarship
Students who graduate from a non-accredited high school have an extra requirement to qualify for the HOPE scholarship: they must score in the 85% or above on the SAT or ACT in addition to earning a 3.0 GPA.
Federal and Private Funding
Federal education dollars go to accredited school systems. Private philanthropic groups have said that the troubled school districts’ funding could be pulled, stripping the districts of millions of dollars.”
I think private schools like Duke could wave that requirement, but the Hope scholarship is tied into accreditation.
bu2
September 6th, 2012
5:15 pm
Tried the link. Yeah! Dekalb has 4 of the bottom 5 HS and 11 of the bottom 25. Atlanta contributes 7, although 4 of those are specialty schools (perhaps they’re all part of Carver). Fulton contributes 4 and Clayton 3.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
5:40 pm
Maureen, thanks for the update. So, Dr. Atkinson still intends for this to be a “secret” process. Not acceptable AT ALL.
Lynn
September 6th, 2012
5:52 pm
The state waived the accreditation requirements for Clayton students for HOPE.
Keep in mind that DeKalb could be placed on probation and still keep accreditation but that would allow for state intervention.
DSW2
September 6th, 2012
6:12 pm
Dangerous as it is for us to post here, we’d like to go on record as agreeing with Ernest. The letter from SACS was written to Dr. Atkinson. She alone is charged with responding to it. Now, think about that. What if the President of Coke was asked by the SEC to reply to them regarding the behavior of the Board of Coke?? This is bizarre. We don’t see a way for her to deal with this gracefully. In fact, we don’t think she was required to call a meeting at all regarding this letter. However, she did, possibly in order to proceed very carefully with the board’s blessing as she tries to respond to charges of their bad behavior and decisions. Which leads us to this question: Why is SACS doing this? Who encouraged them to place Atkinson in this position? Why now? After all, the complaints from citizens referenced in the letter came to Elgart at SACS going back several years. Yet no action was taken to ever put Ramona Tyson in this position. What’s up now? Think about it. Things are never as they appear in this drama. This SACS letter is bizarre. It’s vague yet broad in its wording and offers no specifics as to what kind of response is expected. On the charges that the board ‘interferes’ in the day-to-day operations, what is Dr. Atkinson to say? How about the charge that they have failed to be good stewards of the school system’s financial resources for the past five years? How about the charge that they have continually adopted budgets that fall short of actual expenses? (You may note here that she already fired CFO Marcus Turk and head of HR Jamey Wilson.) What is SACS true motivation here? Time will tell, of that we are certain. For now, we may all want to lower the temperature of our torches.
Anyone taking bets...
September 6th, 2012
7:33 pm
…that her “two senior staffers” will be March and Brantley? Since she’s closing ranks and keeping this from the public, why not get her co-conspirators at the table? They’ve been helping her spin things and manufacture information for months now and must be getting pretty good at it, since she still has a job.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
8:19 pm
@DSW2,For now, we may all want to lower the temperature of our torches.
Why? If Dr. Atkinson is really being put in a bind by SACS, as you seem to feel, then she should be willing to put everything out in the open rather than keeping everything “secret”. Responding to SACS via Executive Session only makes it appear as if all parties have something to hide and belies the “open and transparent” school district we were all promised.
LOGIC
September 6th, 2012
8:26 pm
Agree with Dunwoody Mom – enough is enough. Now is the best time to strike and show how ALL parties are culpable in the erosion of our school system. Elgart was classic on the news. These parent complaints, the long school year, and budgeting…really? I did not know that SACS was just a call center to field complaints but a legitimate accreditation agency.
To salvage the gems in DCSD, decisive action needs to be taken and not by the idiots currently sitting at the helm. I hope that the reporters really sink their teeth into this story because I am thinking that we have a Constitutional case.
And, kudos to Ty for sticking to his story. The BOE and Super are trying to keep things under wraps and were just plain foolish yesterday. They are the taxpayers’ employees and need to be accountable to us.
The Deal
September 6th, 2012
8:36 pm
I have zero pity for Dr. Atkinson on the awkwardness of this situation. If she had stuck to her initial promises as superintendent, we would be in a much different situation right now. I see her incompetency as ranking right up there with the board’s. At least the board has a few bright lights; Dr. Atkinson’s cabinet is full of more friends and family from Charlotte. I haven’t see our board turn down or disapprove a good idea from her. If she could put something substantive and useful out there for them to work with, it might work out better for her. Instead, she asks them to approve firing 350 teachers because her new CFO doesn’t know how to create a budget or understand that the tax digest is in a free fall. She has had a full year, has earned plenty of money, and has plenty of information at hand. 10 months ago, we would have let her do anything she wanted, but, in those 10 months, she has squandered all of that good will by not sticking to her words and promises.
DSW2
September 6th, 2012
9:01 pm
It’s not Executive Session. It’s a committee or a panel of sorts. It’s a group of people who will work together to formulate a response. Hopefully, one of those will be the new CFO, since so many of the issues have to do with money. Hopefully, the panel will release the response to the public at the same time as submitting it to SACS. You all don’t really want to watch the entire board debate a response to this letter do you? Oh my. That would be entertaining, but futile. There are board members who probably can’t understand what is written in that letter. Actually, neither can we when it comes down to it. And further, we have to wonder why a meeting was called at all. Did the board need to vote on receiving the letter? That seems strange. It all seems strange. We are left wondering when the other shoe is going to drop.
LOGIC
September 6th, 2012
9:07 pm
@Deal – spot on. Atkinson has made over $220K+ not to mention the expense account – we should have seen more by now. Instead, we have had a calendar debacle, a band debacle, a budget debacle and “friends and family” imported from other states. We still can’t overlook that Tyson is drawing this nice, fat paycheck through the end of October I believe. Why did it take Atkinson to fire Turk? Wasn’t Tyson supposed to do all the heavy lifting? Why hasn’t SACS asked this Board why we are paying two people Superintendent salaries??? How many teachers’ jobs could we save if we looked at those comp packages.
This is all the stuff that is evident to the public eye and it is unbelievably wrong. I can only imagine what we don’t know about.
The only way to divert the people’s attention is to put CLew and Pope on trial immediately. Maybe Walker and James can strike another deal to divert attention from DCSD and put it somewhere. Isn’t that how DCSD got out of a special investigation after the first grand jury recommended it?
DIrty, dirty, dirty all the way around. Sad that our children’s education dollars and system are in the hands of these people.
LOGIC
September 6th, 2012
9:13 pm
@DSW2 – we are talking about our taxpayer dollars and our children’s education. The public has a right to know. So, the question would be – why wouldn’t DSW2 not want the transparency? The budget is posted and all the previous budgets are available. What I believe has alluded us is the famous audit from a few years ago. The allegations regarding elected officials needs to be known because they are paid by taxpayer dollars.
I personally think seeing the BOE respond is to the school system’s benefit. If we ever had any question that this is a group of unfit individuals, a public meeting showing them trying to form intelligent sentences could motivate the State to unseat them all.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
9:18 pm
I would like to know why Jeff Dickerson thinks it is not appropriate to discuss board behavior in a public forum? Really, Jeff? The board’s “mis-behavior” is on public display at every BOE meeting.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
9:21 pm
Eglart added, “It’s their choice but they are a public school system. They have an obligation to the community and I think one of the areas of our concern in governing effectively are you being honest and open with your community?”
http://www.11alive.com/rss/article/255533/3/Dekalbs-effort-at-transparency-raises-questions-about-secrecy
DSW2
September 6th, 2012
9:45 pm
FWIW, this has been a long road with SACS and DCSS. To date, SACS has only written warning letters and asked for ‘reports’ on ‘progress’. It’s been a several-years long drama that seems to be at a stalemate. We really see this letter as nothing more than a SACS CYA move. It seems they are very concerned about our finances, as they should be. But both Tyson and Atkinson should have proposed much more serious cuts to expensive programs, transportation and central office and other jobs outside the schoolhouse. And the board should have at least approved the cuts that were presented. The board continues to spend untold millions on programs, attorneys, security, buildings, transportation and other non-essentials that we simply can’t afford. No one seems able to adhere to budgets that are set, and the budgets that are set are unrealistic. We are broke, but no one wants to give up their little dish of ice cream.
This is an old story with a lot of history. All we’re saying is don’t get distracted by the minutia in front of you – pay attention to the big picture. We still need to make deep, serious cuts but many on our board will not let go of friends and family jobs or expensive specialty programs their constituents treasure. But the gravy train has left the station and we are standing on the platform with empty pockets.
bootney farnsworth
September 6th, 2012
9:46 pm
as much as it deeply pains me to sorta agree with P&J, in this instance she’s correct. race plays a major role in the dysfunction called DeKalb county government/education. remember this is the same population who put Cynthia McKinney and Hank Johnson into congress.
for those of you old enough to remember, a common sight in the Maynard Terrace/I-20 area were signs exhorting people to vote the Black Slate. and Morris Finley.
there is a significant portion of the electorate who vote race over position. some do it to retain control, some do it for pride, some for ignorance, and some for the perks. but it does occur.
and until all citizens of DeKalb vote issue over pigment ….they’re screwed.
which answers the other, bigger question: can DeKalb be saved?
not without a takeover, no.
bootney farnsworth
September 6th, 2012
9:53 pm
what SACS is up to here:
1-wanting all this to go away. the less done in public, the better
2-wanting to save everyone’s face. if these discussions are public, nobody can hide.
3-wanting to keep the boat still. if they ring up DeKalb, they gotta explain themselves
4-no stirring the pot. if they ring up DeKalb, at some point the sitting members will be on the receiving end of this process. and hell has no fury like a admin wonk scorned.
5-delay til it goes away.
6-no double dipping. SACS has already reluctantly rung up GPC for many of the same issues. they have no desire to do this dance again in the same neighborhood.
SACS will do everything in its power to avoid this mess.
bootney farnsworth
September 6th, 2012
9:55 pm
do not confuse SACS with an actual regulating body. SACS does not exist to bring order and standards to southern education. it exists to keep itself in business.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
9:55 pm
@DSW…who is this “we” you keep referring to? Your last post seems to be quite condescending.
bootney farnsworth
September 6th, 2012
9:58 pm
please pay attention here:
both DCSS and SACS have had every opportunity to be transparent and open.
bot have worked hard to avoid doing so.
Deal should grow the manhood to take control over the system until DeKalb gets themselves in order
Mandella1099
September 6th, 2012
10:23 pm
Spot on Dunwoody Mom! DSW2 thinks they are the voice for everyone, hence the use of “we”
Dekalbite
September 6th, 2012
10:26 pm
Since the DSW2 blog is run by a number of DeKalb citizens, it is entirely appropriate to use the pronoun “we”. You don’t use the pronoun I when referring to more than one person.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
10:31 pm
So, the person who posted under DSW2 speaks for all of the people who run that blog now? Scary…..
DSW2
September 6th, 2012
10:35 pm
Despite all of the smoke and mirrors ‘budget cuts’ and posturing during those heated board meetings, the end result is summed up on the DCSS website:
“The total budget for the General Operations of the District for FY2012 is $774.60 million. It represents a decrease of 0.01% over the current FY2011 budget for General Operations.”
Did you catch that? ALL THAT DISCUSSION back in May, 2011 resulted in a net of 0.01% worth of cuts for FY 2012!! IF you watched all the drama, you may have thought that deep cuts were made. IF you listened to the agony of the RIFd employees at the schoolhouses, you would think that deep cuts had been made. But the net result says virtually NO cuts were made! What is going on? The same thing will be true for the recent painful rounds of ‘cuts’ and the upcoming FY 2013 budget for sure. Add to that – we now have several thousand fewer students!! Yet the expenditures seem to remain steady. Was this reduction of students accounted for in the budget projections?
Did you all know that we ended FY 2009 with a deficit in reserves and no one from the state or CFO/super informed the board? Do you know that no SPLOST audit was performed under Tyson’s leadership, even though it’s required by law? Do you know that millions are wasted on duplicate lawyers performing duplicate tasks because our board insists on hiring the Alexander firm as well as Sutherland? Do you know that we have some schools spending $6,000 per student and others spending $14,000 and up? Do you know that our transportation and security costs are breaking us as well as the legal fees? Do you know that the budget numbers are blatantly incorrect in several areas like utilities and charter school contributions year after year in order to appear to have a balanced budget? Do you know that although deep cuts were supposedly made by the board year after year, very few actual cuts were realized when end of year actual budgets were calculated?
They want you to watch a circus [in this instance, that would be them pointlessly arguing about how to respond to SACS] while they continue to spend as they please willy-nilly behind the scenes. It’s the age old shell game. Watching them argue over a response to this letter, while riveting, would result in an incomprehensible reply and would simply distract attention from the big issue that needs the real attention – that we to spend money that we simply do not have. That scenario makes a mockery of transparency.
Dunwoody Mom
September 6th, 2012
10:40 pm
Demanding an open and transparent response to SACS is “watching a circus”? Demanding and open and transparent school district is making a “mockery” of transparency? Please just stop with the condescending crap you are spewing.
DSW2
September 6th, 2012
10:45 pm
ps. Dunwoody Mom, “We’ve” determined that you are never going to listen to anything said by us on the DSW blog. But, for that matter, the ‘we’ does refer to the fact that the DSW blog now has several moderators. And we agree on the points outlined here. [Certainly many of our contributors disagree though.] “We” are only trying to get everyone to peel their eyes away from this train wreck and focus on the bigger picture. To that end, it could be a very good idea for citizens to write their own ideas to Atkinson and the board as to how we would like to see them respond to SACS. Send in your opinions. Send them to Elgart too. Do what you can to stay a part of the process. Better yet – find some decent people in each district to run for a school board seat!
As we first said, it was dangerous for us to post here, as we are well aware of the disdain bloggers here have for us and our opinions. Oh well.
Mandella1099
September 6th, 2012
11:04 pm
“We’ve” determined that you are never going to listen to anything said by us on the DSW blog…”
HA! What a bunch of hypocrites – since “multiple moderators” seems to be the response from DSW2. I dare anyone to try and get a negative work about Nancy Jester on DSW2 (talk about a “friends and family” institution….).
Mandella1099
September 6th, 2012
11:05 pm
negative “word”
Jo
September 6th, 2012
11:15 pm
@Mandella1099
What negative “work” (or did you mean “word”) do you want to say about Nancy Jester? She seems to be the only person on the board who is asking intelligent questions and who understands that DCSS is NOT a jobs program for adults but a means for educating DeKalb’s children.
Recently Nancy outlined her position on the charter schools issue that will come up for a vote in November. Although I agree with her thoughts, others did not and they certainly had their say on DSW2.
bu2
September 6th, 2012
11:36 pm
@Mandella1099
Yes. My moderately negative comment about Saint Nancy got deleted.
I simply pointed out how she didn’t grasp the negative comments from the legislature about the board not meeting on redistricting (she thought it was fine that 3 of them presented a plan and several of the others presented a different plan with neither done with public meetings and both very strongly gerrymandered to the writers benefit), as well as not grasping why a state school board group would support non-partisan elections for school boards. Not understanding the desire for public meetings. Not grasping that differing opinions doesn’t mean the other side is evil with ulterior motives. I’m beginning to think “We” includes Saint Nancy. “We” certainly shares the hypersensitivity about criticism and lacks interest in public meetings about SACS and thought it was fine Nancy & friends did their own private redistricting map.
bu2
September 6th, 2012
11:46 pm
I’ve never seen anyone who did so little especially controversial get such a negative reaction as Nancy Jester. I’m glad she’s on the board, but I suspect she would be a cancer on a healthy school board as she doesn’t seem to play well with others. Unfortunately, I don’t see it being healthy for a long, long time. I’m hoping Orson and McMahan can play well with others and influence people while sharing Nancy’s unwillingness to accept the status quo. 11 of the bottom 25 high schools in the area is simply not acceptable. That’s a clear sign that things aren’t working.
DSW2
September 6th, 2012
11:51 pm
Well, you are simply out of line bu2. FWIW, school board elections ARE non-partisan, so your point makes no sense. And FWIW, many comments end up in with literally hundreds of spam comments in the Wordpress filter. And as far as the maps go, it was Paul Womack’s map that won support in the legislature. So, obviously there were many different people working on many different maps. We tried to publish them as we discovered them, but we don’t have a paid staff. “We” are not as evil as you would have folks believe. And no, Nancy does not have time to spend blogging on DSW. But she does have a sort of blog of her own, you can ask her questions on it. She is the only school board member with that level of communication. We do get info from her newsletters that a citizen just would otherwise never know. She tries. Therefore, maybe she is as you say, a saint!
At any rate, carry on criticizing us.
concernedmom30329
September 7th, 2012
5:29 am
Bu2, The only way Orson can contribute positively if he is able to pack his overarching concerns for Fernbank at the door. I am concerned that he won’t be able too.
The way this board has operated for decades is on back room deals. Will Orson and McMahon be strong enough to forgo what their constituents want to do what is best for the system as a whole? The first big test of this might be, for example, another round of school closings. Certainly the budget will an example of this.
For those of you who live in the Druid Hills area, any chance you would consider filling papers for a recall of Gene Walker? It isn’t easy but the rewards would be large because his behavior and attitudes on the board are among the most damaging. As Chair, he is a terrible problem.
Pardon My Blog
September 7th, 2012
6:08 am
@concerned – Perhaps a petition to remove Walker and others who were not up for reelection so we can start with newer leadership and perhaps a Board that will actually have the skill set to get the job done!
Dunwoody Mom
September 7th, 2012
8:03 am
@DSW2, your obsession with all things Nancy Jester is bordering on creepy. I have to wonder if your sudden support of a closed process to the SACS report and your not-so-subtle insinuation that SACS is “out to get” Dr. Atkinson is to assure that any discussion of possible SACS issues with Mrs. Jester are not discussed in public view. Your words are hypocritical as in the past you have made many vile and vicious comments about current and past board members, but let anyone question or disagree with Mrs. Jester and you are on them quickly and with vengeance.
Has Mrs. Jester asked you or your blog to be her voice and support? I doubt it. If her actions are somehow viewed as interference by SACS, then she is more than capable of providing a succinct and compelling explanation of her actions. Most of us would agree that Mrs. Jester has only the best intentions and her goal is a quality education for all children in a fiscally sound school district.
Let Mrs. Jester be her own voice. You do not need to be and your insistence on being her voice reflects on Mrs. Jester, and it is not a good reflection.
DSW2
September 7th, 2012
8:28 am
Fine with me Dunwoody Mom. I guess DSW has been ‘told’ here at the AJC Get Schooled blog. You have successfully driven us away. Congratulations! But I will personally tell you true – this letter writing thing makes no sense. It just floors me personally that there is so much outcry over not being able to ‘watch’ the board somehow ‘hash’ out a response letter to SACS (as if that were possible in one meeting) when there are enormous issues – mostly budgetary and staffing that need serious attention immediately. What exactly is it that you expect a letter to or from SACS to accomplish? This is only one in a series of those ‘letters’ – they are just CYA drama. One more thing though – we see nowhere where we have ‘insisted’ on being the ‘voice of Nancy Jester’, but with the way you people beat up on the only halfway decent board member we have, it’s no wonder that very few people care to run for school board anymore.
Hasta lavista. We won’t be returning to these blogs. All the best to all of you.
LOGIC
September 7th, 2012
9:08 am
Let us not forget the budget meeting in June, which I attended, where Nancy, an actuary I believe, did not ask the tough budget questions and neither did Edler, a CPA. DSW2 makes great points and those are the points that SACS, the State Super and the State Audit Committees need to be reviewing to hold the administration accountable AND make that information public. It is sad that there were line items in the budget that were approved that are so out of line. Last budget I saw had raises for folks making $150K and it was not brought into question. SACS CYA letter is WEAK. The real issues need to be brought to the forefront and by SACS.
Again, where are the checks and balances here? These are taxpayer dollars and an almost $1B school system. Blame needs to be placed with each organization and an intelligent task force needs to intervene to not disrupt our children’s education. Is SACS that organization? Not from watching Elgart on the news, that is for sure. Do we know how much money they are making off DeKalb as a whole?
As far as DSW2 goes – We miss the original and intelligent blog Cere led. The posts and the comments are one-sided and usually late to the game. I was a Jester supporter until she left her home school and from what I have heard caused quite a situation with the leadership there and moved out to Dunwoody. She has disappointed me with her secret map session, her support of McChesney and her inability to work on improving the county as a whole.
If these Board members would look at DeKalb as a whole, we could get schools what they need. Equality and Equity are not the same thing. Some of the best schools have the least spend per student and folks are rigging the system to overpopulate those schools causing a crisis in county. The solution is to get each school to be a good school, get fixed budgets in the schools with principals who run that budget. That means purging Friends and Family and the Office of School Improvement. Implement a law, just like large corporations, forbidding spouses and/or family members to be employed by the same organization.
DCSD need a full purge and now is the time.
Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure
September 7th, 2012
9:24 am
Quick…someone call Jeff Dickerson. We need to spin this better…how about we release a statement to the effect of “With today’s decision, members of the Board felt it could address concerns outlined by SACS in its letter by working on a response and action plan in smaller teams and then regrouping and announcing these steps publicly.” Yeah, that sounds good.
Meanwhile, DCSS continues down the path to loss of accreditation.
Jo
September 7th, 2012
9:26 am
Dunwoody Mom — YOU are “borderline creepy.”
Bartow County
September 7th, 2012
9:48 am
There are issues in all districts. Some are recognized more than others. It is sad that the focus is no longer on the student achievement but personal gain or agendas. Poor Bartow County has a chairman of the board that was once their Superintendent that was dismissed for misappropriation of funds. (millions). He is also on the board of SACS. (how convenient). He also works for the soil conservation that approves in our new school projects and he was recently released as headmaster of a private school. His brother is under investigation for financial reasons and porn on laptop where he taught in Bartow. We have a director whose wife taught in Bartow and is now a registered sex offender. Board members not working in harmony due to name calling, threatening text, and physical threats. Emails and text confirm. Teachers smoking weed with students. Coaches pattern grooming. And administrators sexual harassing. Letters have gone to SACS but with the local board a part of SACS Bartow will never get the help they need to sanction this out of control board. As one has described… It is one political mess.
Bartow County
September 7th, 2012
9:59 am
One more point to add… This superintendent has been caught lying to press and taxpayers. Ails and video tapes confirm. Open records request have been made in multiple ways including written and in public participation. They have complied. But NO consequence. So why should they? Please send SACS back to Bartow and any other help. 50 letters fro a huge district fro
Dekalb. We had that just for Bartow. They let the superintendent respond with a lie and say ok. We want more.
DunMoody
September 7th, 2012
10:02 am
I believe the discussion has sunk to a playground fight. That’s regrettable because all have had thought-provoking opinions. My two cents: DeKalb County Schools is in freefall, the State of Georgia constitution is a major impediment to remedying the situation with locally governed school systems, and the financial mismanagement is taking Dr. Atkinson’s focus off critical issues including the crippling math curriculum, the canned education programs hogtying teachers’ creativity and initiative, and other student-focused issues. She alone has the power and authority to make these decisions.
Frustrating, isn’t it?
The Deal
September 7th, 2012
12:13 pm
There’s no need to fight over who has done a worse job, the super or the board. They have both (all) failed miserably, miserably, miserably at their jobs. Both entities are to blame.
We are stuck between a rock and a hard place. There is no entity or person who has the authority to hit a Reboot option on this school system, and our only remotely drastic option, losing accreditation, has negative consequences for the group we are all trying to protect, our children. If the problem with DeKalb schools is ever resolved, and I am not sure it ever will be, our next job as citizens is to push our elected officials at all levels to retool the oversight of school systems so that, the next time a school system begins to fail, there is a clear line of authority for resolution and reporting.
In the meantime, try not to be too hard on Dunwoody Mom or DSW2. We are all emotional and combative about this because we have been frustrated for years about the failure of a system that affects our children, their future, the quality of the county in which we have chosen to live, our home values (presumably the largest financial investment any of us will make), and the health of our community. These are fundamental parts of life, and we have two entities, our superintendent and our board of education, with all of those in their control completely failing on the job.
Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure
September 7th, 2012
12:23 pm
Man, I miss one day of work and the blog turns into Dunwoody Mom vs. Dekalb School Watch. I missed all the fun!
bootney farnsworth
September 7th, 2012
12:23 pm
considering what has gone on, is still going on, and will continue to go on….
that anyone in DeKalb might think its a bad thing to demand SACS and DCSS be totally transparent boggles the mind. while in percentage Dekalb has a multitude of bigger problems, the SACS issue can destroy your education system.
but by all means, lets let them work out a deal in private. CYA, indeed.
bootney farnsworth
September 7th, 2012
12:29 pm
@ logic
I have been preaching to anyone who would listen for some time the vital need for a neutral checks and balances system to curb the excesses on all sides. but its not in anyone in power’s interest, so…
I am investigating the possibility that since the state refuses..repeat REFUSES… to do their jobs in this matter, does this make the unconstitutional rule preventing us from unionizing null and void?
I have never in my life been even remotely interested in being in a union, preferring to handle my own affairs. problem is, that only works with an honest partner. which the state no longer is.
bu2
September 7th, 2012
12:50 pm
@concerned
Walker is an at large representative covering half of the county and Druid Hills is only a tiny part of his district.
We need to make sure the legislature follows through on reducing the school board. In that event, Cunningham and Walker would almost certainly have to run against each other as they live blocks apart.
bu2
September 7th, 2012
12:56 pm
According to the update, Walker, the chairman, and Bowen, vice-chair, will write the response. The vast majority of the complaints are almost certainly directed at Walker, Bowen and Womack (who tends to step over the line on getting involved). So 2 of the 3 are the ones doing the response in private. They apparently will share it with the rest of the board, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the board will get any real input.
bu2
September 7th, 2012
1:03 pm
“Nancy Jester’, but with the way you people beat up on the only halfway decent board member we have, it’s no wonder that very few people care to run for school board anymore. ”
Wow. Despite the downright bizzarre extremes the DSW2 blog has gone to attacking Woods, Cunningham, Walker, Bowen, Johnson, Womack and Orson, VERY mild criticism of Jester is out of line and beating her up. Nancy, please call off your fans. They make you look bad.
Just Terrible
September 7th, 2012
1:36 pm
Dr. Akinson is terrible…the board members are idiots…and SACS should have been knocking the door down years ago! Dr. Atkinson only has a limited amount of time to hide behind the fact that she just got here…the only thing making her look like she has half a brain is that the board is even dumber than she is. SMH. Let’s get rid of all of them and start over…since they have had some turn over in positions, you would think that these fools would listen to the cries of the voters. Guess they really are that simple minded.
DeKalb Teacher
September 7th, 2012
2:06 pm
Give up on changing the board. For example
District #5 BOE Race in 2010:
Kirk Nooks – B.S. and M.B.A from Mercer and Ed.D. from George Washington
Jacques Hall – Perimeter College student
Cunningham – functional illiterate and convicted felon with high school education
2010 BOE election results
Jay Cunningham – 64%
Jackques Hall – 24%
Kirk Nooks – 12%
Starik
September 7th, 2012
3:31 pm
DeKalb could be an interesting experiment in preserving racially integrated schools. The days when white parents would remove their kids from the public schools because a few black kids attend are long gone. The kids’ racial attitudes are colorblind to an amazing degree, especially considering the history of Georgia and DeKalb, the county where the 20th Century KKK was founded. The AJC could pursue a Pulitzer with an honest, unbiased analysis of the process by which racially integrated and academically successful schools become, in the words of black kids, white kids and Hispanic kids, “ghetto schools.”
Observe Tucker. The Tucker CDP “Census Designated Place” has a population of 27,581, with 22.5% under 18. The population is 63.0% white, 22.3% black, 7.4% Asian and 10.6% Hispanic with 5.9% below the poverty line. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13/1377652.html
Tucker High School is now 11% white, 69% black, 7% Asian and 9% Hispanic with 57% “ecomomically disadvantaged.” The school rank is now 116th of 160 in Atlanta and below 10th in DeKalb County. The football team is excellent.
The Deal
September 7th, 2012
3:47 pm
The schools in the Tucker area (like many other areas) do not reflect the community in which they are located. I’d like to see a clear map of the flight to private and homeschools across the county.
DeKalb Teacher
September 7th, 2012
4:26 pm
North DeKalb is integrated. Segregation is alive and well in South DeKalb. The powers that be have gone out of their way to segregate themselves. For example, at the premier Arabia Mountain 995 out of 1011 students are black. It’s an excellent magnet school and hardly a reflection of the general population.
concernedmom30329
September 7th, 2012
5:45 pm
BU2
The recall effort needs leaders. The highly invested Druid Hills community is the perfect place for the effort to start. Two years is to long for the students of DeKalb to wait for any change on the board. Recalling Walker (not nearly as hard as it sounds) would send a clear message to the current and future board members. Are you a Druid Hills area resident?
You would need fewer than 12,000 signatures to get the recall petition approved. Marshall Orson got 8000 votes — that would be a great start. (I also suspect that most who voted for McChesney would sign as well.)
Where is our District Attorney
September 7th, 2012
9:58 pm
In May of this year, District Attorney Robert James said that the school board should be investigated after the grand jury made the recommendation to him. SO WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THAT?
Mandella1099
September 8th, 2012
2:33 am
“Hasta lavista. We won’t be returning to these blogs. All the best to all of you.”
Hey DSW@ – Don’t let the door hit your [rear] on the way out….
AnonMom
September 8th, 2012
1:56 pm
The Lakeside feeder pattern is very racially diverse — about 50 countries; all races; all religions — whites are about 30-35%. Blacks and Whites put Asians and Hispanics into different categories — it’s very interesting. Adults and their children treat the issues very differently. My children have been “colorblind”. When we pulled my oldest to a religious dayschool for high school, he really missed the diversity. A friend of mine — minority — stated to me at one point that her son didn’t know he was black. When they reached high school and merged with kids from other parts of the county, many of the “local” minorities were “given grie” for “being white”…. it’s really quite fascinating but also sad.
Dunwoody Mom
September 8th, 2012
6:44 pm
One of the things I have valued with regards to my children’s education has been the diversity of their schools. To borrow a line from Pamela Speaks, I don’t require that my childrens schoolmates “look like them”. I hope that my husband and I have brought up our children to be “color-blind”.
Dekalbite
September 8th, 2012
7:34 pm
DSW became too much of a non paying job for Cerebration who has a paying job. No one person wanted to take on the enormous task of running a blog that has grown so exponentially in readers and commenters. I’m assuming most of the DSW2 moderators who run the DSW2 blog also have paying jobs. DSW2 cannot be compared with Get Schooled which is run by a paid moderator. IMHO – DeKalb is fortunate to have a forum where DCSS employees, taxpayers, students, and parents can comment.
Dunwoody Mom
September 8th, 2012
8:26 pm
Cere was able to run DSW on her own without being rude, dimissive and, at times, intolerant of views that differed from hers.
Dekalbite
September 8th, 2012
9:47 pm
Since Cere could not find anyone who would take on the responsibility of running a very time consuming free blog and yet wanted to keep the information and comments flowing regarding DeKalb Schools, she turned the blog over to a conglomerate of people. That is the touch of multiple personality disorder that pervades the blog. You have rubbed up against one of those personalities that disagreed with you in an abrasive manner as have I. The other option is to shut DSW down completely since no one person is willing to take on an all consuming job like this for free. Is that a better alternative. I guess the tens of thousands of people who read and hundreds who comment on DSW2 might be disappointed in that alternative although the DCSS administration would probably be thrilled with the prospect.
Dekalb Citizen on Fire
September 9th, 2012
6:22 am
This systematic atrocity of public trust is exactly why we need to encourage “all” to exercise their voting power in “all” elections.
Dekalb BOE has lost their way…sold out to political corruption. They no longer deserve the label “educators”.
Dekalb Res.
September 9th, 2012
9:30 pm
In the past there were some awful comments about CC and talking down on the students, the schools, the people that live there. Now it is happening in Dekalb!! Now What?? and i doubt this will be the last county.
Pardon My Blog
September 10th, 2012
5:43 am
What SACS should really do is, instead of taking away accreditation and punishing the students, they should recommend that the State step in and remove the BoE and the administration. They should also recommend that criminal charges be pursued because, as someone pointed out, the DA in DeKalb has already stated that there is evidence of wrongdoin
Dunwoody Mom
September 10th, 2012
7:12 am
Here is a link to a statement released by Pam Speaks, Nancy Jester and Don McChesney:
http://www.pamspeaksforkids.com/2012/09/09/advanceded-sacs-letter-our-thoughts/#comment-38
DeKalb Teacher
September 10th, 2012
8:12 am
Some DeKalb board members have made a statement clarifying recent board actions regarding the latest letter from AdvancED/SACS to the DeKalb County School District.
Dunwoody Mom
September 10th, 2012
3:29 pm
There is obviously a disconnect from what the AJC reported and what BOE members are reporting.
What happened to the K-12 Alerts from DCSD? This would have been a perfect time to report the “real story” to the stakeholders. Does Jeff Dickerson not know how to author an email and hit the “SEND” button?
Dekalbite
September 10th, 2012
7:58 pm
And Ms. Speaks, Ms. Jester and Mr. McChesney are reminding the taxpayers of DeKalb that the governor can intervene if DeKalb is placed on probation I.e. we do not have to wait until DeKalb loses accreditation before the governor can step in and make changes to the BOE. So parents/taxpayers need to keep the valid complaints coming to SACS. SACS needs to feel the pressure to treat DeKalb like any other system. SACS needs to take some ownership of approving a leadership that has led DeKalb into a horrendous and avoidable financial rmorass. This has been disastrous for students, and SACS needs to bear part of the responsibility for the draconian decline in DeKalb student achievement.
John Hope
September 11th, 2012
7:28 am
I also posted below on the DSW2 blog. murphey attended the meeting and posted their thoughts on DSW2.
After reading the letter more critically, I found the following statements interesting,
After we receive the draft of the District’s response, we will request a Board meeting to hear from our fellow Board members and vote to accept/reject the draft response. This meeting will be public and all Board members will have the opportunity to discuss the District’s response letter.
I agree with murphey that this statement is curious. murphey also commented in the hold your horses blog that Womack brought up that meeting on the letter will then make it a public document before SACS sees it. According to murphey, this was validated by the lawyer. Should Board members publicly discuss an inquiry developed by their employee about their alleged mismanagement? What purpose would this serve other than to possibly embarrass Board members.
The issues that were raised in their letter have been concerns that we have publicly discussed at Board meetings and shared with various officials. Indeed, we have been the whistle blowers regarding some of these issues.
This may answer the question about the first comment. They are publicly acknowledging being whistle blowers on their fellow Board members. These same 3 members also voted against hiring Dr. Atkinson. It this a ruse to set her up to cause further division with Board members?
This is all very strange especially given what we saw in the Board meeting on Monday night.
Dunwoody Mom
September 11th, 2012
8:05 am
@John…I watched the entire BOE meeting last night – yes, almost 4.5 hours long. I caught a few subtle digs from Dr. Walker and the pulling of the Declaration with regards to the Charter School amendment last night at the last second was really, really bizarre.
As much as I hate to say it, I have to agree with Dr. Walker, that Nancy Jester can make her feelings known about the amendement, but the remainder of the BOE cannot? Did legal not vet this Declaration beforehand?
Dunwoody Mom
September 11th, 2012
8:07 am
Here is a copy of the “Declaration”. As a parent and taxpayer, I totally support this declaration and see nothing in his wording that should be an issue, unless you are a supporter of the Charter School Amendement.
https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/Meetings/Attachment.aspx?S=4054&AID=402562&MID=23960
John Hope
September 11th, 2012
8:24 am
@Dunwoody Mom, I saw parts of the meeting and also found the pulling of the Declaration bizzare. Like you, I also support it. I also thought citizen comments by Marcia Coward and Ruth Primm were appropriate. I support Charter Schools that are approved by a local Board or as a result of an appeal to the State Board. I don’t approve Charters created by a panel of appointees by politicians. Why not create a panel to help public schools that are not succeeding?
I also think Marcus Turk will have to answer for the state of the budgets for the past few years. It was apparent Dr. Walker was trying to protect him but it may be a lost cause. It makes you wonder if Marcus may be a possible witness against Dr. Lewis and blame him for why things were done the way they were. That trial needs to happen soon.
Dunwoody Mom
September 11th, 2012
8:31 am
Yes, John, Ruth Primm’s words were especially on-target.
Yes, it seems Dr. Walker was trying to protect someone with his, at times, pointed questions to Mr Perrone – who has an herculean task in trying to right the financials of DCSD, which will not be done overnight or in a few months. It’s good to know Mr. Perrone is in constant contact with the GADOE. Paul Womack also made mention of a Budget meeting this Friday in which the State DOE Finance individual will be on hand. I have not seen the meeting posted yet, though.
John Hope
September 11th, 2012
8:42 am
Womack also mentioned a policy change by the State Board in 2004 to use the accrual method for budgets, to match what they are using. For what ever reason, DeKalb was still using the cash method. Walker was quick to confirm that nothing illegal was done in not making this change.
I think Womack and Jester both had a good time clarifying that things were not done properly with the budget. I like when Jester pointed out that utility actuals have been running 15 to 16 million for the past 5 years yet the budgeted amount was just over 10 million. Walker attempted to defend this with a feeble attempt of mentioning utility efficiencies however it did not explain why this was done for 5 years running. This resulted in at least 25 million of overspending.
Womack may have lost his seat but he will probably try to do what he can to clear his name as the budget committee chairman. I believe Turk may have to be sacrificed to do this. If that happens, the house of cards known as DeKalb Schools may come tumbling down.
Dunwoody Mom
September 11th, 2012
8:54 am
You’re right, John. As much as we have “obsessed” over the latest SACS issue, the biggest threat to our school district is the disastrous financial situation that it faces.
John Hope
September 11th, 2012
9:02 am
I posted my comments here not knowing if the “angry’ personality on DSW2 would not post my comment. We’ve commented for over an hour and it still has not appeared over there. Maybe because I pointed out Jester was one of those that contacted SACS about her fellow members? Maybe it will appear later. That was once a great blog when Cere ran it and allowed reasonable, differing opinions.
Sumter
September 11th, 2012
10:17 am
@john hope, @dunwoody mom, “disastrous financial situation” IS the SACS issue. Come to think of it, it has been Jester’s issue all along too. I watched the meeting last night and that wasn’t the first time Jester has made those comments. She’s been making those comments for a long time so I guess she is a whistleblower.
Here’s Mark Elgart’s quote from the paper about keeping the process closed to the public, “…chief executive officer of AdvancEd, said in a telephone interview after the hastily called DeKalb meeting that “no such courtesy is necessary or required.” So perhaps Jester is picking up on that and making sure that the public is kept informed. Elgart seemed to smack down the legal suggestion to get it to him first before the public.
@john, you asked “what purpose it would serve?” I think the answer is justice and truth. I think we also have to accept that it is Jester, McChesney and Speaks that have been the most supportive of Atkinson when she makes changes.
DeKalb Teacher
September 11th, 2012
1:19 pm
Legal was saying that the BOE and/or DCSD as an organization can not take a position on the Charter School Amendment. Any individual can campaign until they are blue in the face like many BOE members did for esplost.
GTCO-ATL
September 11th, 2012
3:48 pm
A couple of things we have been wanting to get clarification on. Maybe someone here can help… first off, the comment about the committee Atkinson plans to use: AJC reporter Ty Tagami said: “The process is this: a team comprising the board chair, vice chair, Atkinson, … ” but we also read where the team was comprised of Walker and Womack. What’s going on here? Womack is NOT the vice chair. He held that position when Bowen was chair. Right now, unless we missed something, Bowen is the Vice Chair. So, where has he been? We can’t just let someone who has been essentially given a no confidence vote by the taxpayers (Womack) to step into the vice chair role out of the blue, can we??
And second… we noticed a descrepency in the budget that, if corrected, would mean we have been in the black all along. The “other expenses” were shown as equally around $45 Million but then written in the summary as $99 Million. Did anyone else see this?
GTCO-ATL
September 11th, 2012
4:01 pm
By the way, comments and discussion are welcome on our website any time and we update our content almost daily. We are following all the issues surronding the board since they chose to rope us into this nightmare with the cell tower issue. We were forced out of our neighborhood school and we are still mad about it, so we welcome all who wish to bash, trash, dish and spill the truth, lies and rumors until we can get to the bottom of this mess and return our schools to what we have heard were at least decent enough to supply toilet paper and prevent children from being molested on the school bus, but even that sounds like a fairy tale of days gone by.
GTCO-ATL
September 11th, 2012
4:02 pm
w w w GETtheCELLoutATL dot ORG
DeKalb Teacher
September 12th, 2012
9:24 pm
Nancy Jester (http://whatsupwiththat.nancyjester.com/wp-admin/) is going public with everything regarding the SACS letter. She has released Dr Atkinson’s response to SACS along with her comments and the other board member’s input.
DeKalb Teacher
September 12th, 2012
9:34 pm
http://whatsupwiththat.nancyjester.com/ … that’ll work better … combined the URL from too many websites when cutting and pasting.
Dunwoody Mom
September 12th, 2012
10:10 pm
So, do you think we’ll see the responses of the other BOE members? Nah….
I am fairly certain we will see a SACS investigation come out of this as there is really no response Dr. Atkinson can give to such an open-ended letter from Elgart.
Dunwoody Mom
September 12th, 2012
10:12 pm
FWIW, Dr. Atkinson’s Response to SACS was sent out via DCSD K12 Alert Notification system.
John Hope
September 13th, 2012
12:08 am
I spoke with someone who wondered if Elgart is playing a game of chess with DeKalb. The thought is he knows Dr. Atkinson can’t ‘tell the whole truth’ about her bosses in a response, especially if they will review the response and comment before it is sent to SACS. He will look at her response, look at the information provided by members of the community, including Board members, then decide for a full investigation. The full investigation will result in the school district going on probation, allowing the governor to intervene.
If you believe in conspiracy theories, this is an interesting one.
Dunwoody Mom
September 13th, 2012
6:49 am
John, I’m not sure one has to believe in conspiracy theories to believe that Elgart is “playing chess with DeKalb”. This whole scenario is bizarre. Why would a letter which contains vague, at best, accusations against the BOE be addressed to Dr. Atkinson? Elgart is not a stupid man, he would have to know that her response would be exactly as her response was. How does Dr. Atkinson address accusations and situations when those are not spelled out in the letter from SACS?
I am going to view this as a hopeful sign that SACS is now going to do what they should have done 2 years ago and put this system on probation so that, perhaps, outside help can be given to the students of this school district.
Prof
September 13th, 2012
12:39 pm
@ Dekalbite, DeKalb Teacher, John Hope, Dunwoody Mom, et. al.
I live in Fulton County, so this situation doesn’t immediately concern me. But I’d like to know what you make of the 11:31 am news story that Superintendent Atkinson sent a letter Sept. 12 to SACS in which she “outlined 16 initiatives she’s taken since becoming superintendent less than a year ago to address budgetary, staffing and other issues.” How might this fit into the “chess game”?
First Time TV Board Meeting Watcher
September 13th, 2012
12:47 pm
How can the DCSS Board Chair continue to run the third largest school district in the state’s board meetings without even pretending to follow Roberts Rules. http://www.robertsrules.com/
Is there not a parliamentarian to shut these folks down when they are out of order? After the public comments the Board Chair, Dr. Walker admonished citizens about getting their facts straight. Dr. Walker even said no comments were allowed after public comments but that he had something to say. He went on to complain on and on then when he finished he said, “I rest my case.”
Last I checked the DCSS Board Room is not a court room and Dr. Walker is not lawyer.
This Board and particularly the Board Chair does not appear to know, understand or to be able to clearly articulate how funding sources specifically Title I and Title II are received, allocated and managed within school systems. There are really clear guidelines that are monitored at the local, state and federal level.
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg19.html
DeKalb Teacher
September 13th, 2012
2:29 pm
Miss Management on DSW has a good take on Dr Atkinson’s response.
I’m curious to find out SACS’ real intentions. The rumblings for kicking SACS out have increased ever since the Clayton County debacle. Is Elgart trying to keep his job and play CYA or is he going to expend some political capital and help DeKalb Schools out?
Neither Atkinson nor Elgart named names in their respective letters. At least one BOE member will have to go if this ship is to be truly righted.
John Hope
September 13th, 2012
2:58 pm
@Prof, a good chess master can anticipate the moves their opponent will make, based on their move. I believe sending the letter to Dr. Atkinson was the first move by SACS. It wasn’t sent to the Board members. As I stated earlier, I believe SACS knew the kind of response they would get from Dr. Atkinson. I don’t think SACS believed how the response would be drafted would become a public conversation. Their pre-emptive counter move were the interviews with Elgart where he stated concerns about all nine Board members. He probably has documented evidence to support his allegations on most Board members.
Jester, McChesney and Speaks want the response to be discussed publicly. They stated this in their letter and put their comments on the response in the public domain. I see this as a challenge to other Board members to do the same. It will be interesting to see if other Board members do so. It will also be interesting to see the final letter that goes to SACS as this one is a draft.
I think the next move by SACS will be an investigation. I am assuming they have convincing evidence of possible misconduct by Board members. If this assumption is true, I believe the school district will be placed on probation, giving the governor an opportunity to intervene. This allows SACS to wash their hands of any further penalties. SB84 allows the governor to take action without the school district losing accreditation. Given the governor has his own challenges, it will be interesting to see if he takes action.
There are moves that will happen than are hard to predict given some of the unexpected moves that happened. I think this blog discussion is an unexpected move as more people as wondering about SACS intentions with the letter. Comments are still being posted one week after the AJC article. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the next few months.
Prof
September 13th, 2012
9:59 pm
Thanks to both Dekalb Teacher and John Hope. That link by Miss Management is certainly plausible. This also interests me because SACS oversees the USG accreditations, and I’ve always found it quite professional and solid. Interesting situation, especially when you’re not a DeKalb resident, I have to say.
Dunwoody Mom
September 14th, 2012
6:47 am
@ DeKalb Teacher, you wrote: Legal was saying that the BOE and/or DCSD as an organization can not take a position on the Charter School Amendment. Any individual can campaign until they are blue in the face like many BOE members did for esplost.
But yet, this week the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education passed a resolution opposing the Charter School Amendment. All School Boards in Georgia must adhere to the same rules, so why was APS BOE able to pass a resolution when it supposed not allowed?
DeKalb Teacher
September 14th, 2012
11:05 am
@ Dunwoody Mom
Dr Walker, GSBA, Georgia PTA and many BOE reps across the state are profoundly against the charter amendment (separate convo if you disagree).
Dr Walker is very anxious for the DeKalb BOE to pass a resolution against the amendment. At this past BOE meeting on 9/10, the passage of this resolution was the last item on the agenda. When this item came up, a Sutherland lawyer stood up and asked that it be removed from the agenda. As previously explained by Sutherland regarding SPLOST IV, it is improper to use school resources to influence voters on these matters.
The Georgia School Boards Association has presented a resolution to school boards statewide. Gwinnett and a number of other school boards are using the GSBA as cover to pass the resolutions. I expect Dr Walker to do the same.
I’m no lawyer, but I’m going with Sutherland attorneys over GSBA on this one.
Dunwoody Mom
September 16th, 2012
5:10 pm
When this item came up, a Sutherland lawyer stood up and asked that it be removed from the agenda.
No, he actually ran down to the podium – I was watching the meeting online. Also, this item had been on the agenda for days. It was on the agenda when the agenda was adopted at the beginning of the meeting. Why wait until the last second to pull the item?
In my view, a Board of Education should have the right and duty to formally announce their opposition to legislation that will further erode the financial capabilities of a school district.
Dekalbite@Prof
September 16th, 2012
6:58 pm
“This also interests me because SACS oversees the USG accreditations, and I’ve always found it quite professional and solid.”
But the situations in DeKalb and APS would belie that belief. SACS is loath to criticize DeKalb which then puts students in an untenable situation. SACS should be about the quality of education for students – i.e. does the school system set the stage for student achievement. This is an organization that has lost credibility as they have not put the education of students as their focal point.