APS official response on North Atlanta High leadership purge
From Stephen J. Alford, executive director of communications, Atlanta Public Schools, on the purge yesterday of the leadership at North Atlanta High School:
Thank you for sharing your concerns and views about the recent leadership transition at North Atlanta High School. We have been preparing for new leadership at North Atlanta after learning that our principal planned to retire at the end of last school year.
On Monday, Dr. Howard Taylor was approved by the Atlanta Board of Education to serve as the new principal of North Atlanta. We are confident that Dr. Taylor’s leadership will take the school to the next level, a level of excellence that our parents and students deserve.
We understand the concern about timing and continuity, but please know that North Atlanta is replete with determined instructional professionals who are committed to delivering a quality education to all students. In addition, APS will certainly provide enhanced school-level support to ensure that there is no gap in service to students. In fact, each academy has been assigned two transition academy leaders, during the transition process. Permanent academy leaders will be installed by Dr. Taylor as soon as possible.
Keep in mind that among other changes, we will be moving into a new school next year; the move to a new campus coupled with having a new principal and installing a new leadership team is precisely why it is critical that we begin the transition process sooner, rather than later. Our decisions and actions are guided by longterm, sustainable school and instructional programs that will benefit all students.
Make no mistake, we thought long and hard about the transition. In making significant decisions that result in changes to our schools, we owe it to you and all of our stakeholders to weigh many important factors, including how the school is structured, about processes — how we get things done, and about timing. We have done the work and we are confident that we are making the right decisions that are best for North Atlanta.
Making the right decision is not always easy or popular, but it is always right. We are eager to transition to new leadership at North Atlanta High School and deliver an enhanced educational experience that our students and parents deserve. The staff members, students, parents and community stakeholders of North Atlanta High School play a critical role in the success of the transition. Now is the time to begin laying the foundation of North Atlanta’s new direction.
We will be meeting with parents next week to provide additional information about the transition and answer questions that our parents deserve answered. There is nothing more important to APS than providing a quality education to all students. We will work with parents, students, and employees to make the transition successful and enhance the educational experience at North Atlanta. Parents demand excellence from us; we are demanding excellence for our students and parents.
Again, thank you for sharing your concerns.
Stephen J. Alford
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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146 comments Add your comment
bootney farnsworth
October 7th, 2012
1:21 pm
can’t help but think somebody in the PR office wet themselves when they saw this.
@Sandy Springs Parent
October 7th, 2012
1:24 pm
Some other things that I find interesting. A handyman that I have doing work for me weekly is also working on the North Atlanta High School project. A week ago Friday, he told me that they were working without permits because the city of Atlanta had held them up. I told them that, was nuts since this school was for the City of Atlanta School District. I was sure that some one would see the way and they would be approved.
Now this past Friday, he told me that due to them now being behind they were going to have to work the next 3 Saturdays a minimum of 10 hrs, 10hrs, and 6 hrs. to try to vatch up with concrete concete corring of the floor areas; This work had to work around eother tenants in the new school compldx.
bootney farnsworth
October 7th, 2012
1:26 pm
what do Kasim Reid, Beverly Hall, and Erroll Davis have in common?
(hint, nothing to do with their skin color)
Kim Zemmali
October 7th, 2012
1:27 pm
This response is insulting. If you’ve been thinking so long and hard about it then why did the transition team coming in only find out on Friday afternoon? They too were blindsided. I hope that is not your definition of best practices. Timing was obviously not a consideration either – we had foreign students arriving from Columbia, the final SAT test for many seniors on Saturday, an upcoming IB authorization visit, and homecoming next week just to name a few. Yes, what is right is always right unless it is wrong!
Private Citizen
October 7th, 2012
1:30 pm
“Focus school” label punishes a school for teaching the most capable students and teaching them well. It comes out of nowhere to put stigmata on good performance. It is a most bizarre thing. And then whoever came up with this mixes it up and combines the classification with schools that have low graduation rate. “Focus” labeling is a beat down, a slap for teaching high level kids and getting high performance. It is a real example of bureaucratic dumbing-down, of punishing a school for high performance. I mean,. it is right there, folks, bureaucratic harassment for good performance, which is completely a bizarre “reverse logic” in this politic of demanding results. I would be interested in knowing who authored this categorization system that blights a high performing school as 2nd rate and needing special attention and “improvement.” My understanding is that this came from federal level and the Georgia DOE just witlessly re-delivered it onto the unsuspecting schools who were blind sided with this labelling that came from afar. Where did this categorization system of “you scored too high, how about tone it down a notch?” come from? Who authored it? Does anyone know or is this Chairman Mao era communism where the directives have no source other than the party and you are told to obey.
bootney farnsworth
October 7th, 2012
1:31 pm
at their core- a basic, fundamental lack of integrity.
Beverly Fraud
October 7th, 2012
1:42 pm
“It’s my understanding that in the past week, the English teacher hired a lawyer to ask for e-mails that Principal Mygrant has detailing a long history of reverse discrimination hiring by APS. APS became aware of it and quickly acted/overreacted.”
Sounds like this should be Maureen’s next follow up question, let’s hope HUNDREDS of parents ask it Tuesday as well.
Private Citizen
October 7th, 2012
1:46 pm
If there are emails to be summoned, they should be existent on servers, whether they are deleted or not. System emails are the property of the public.
Wilbur
October 7th, 2012
1:59 pm
Since the APS action against the administrators at APS were “not adverse” these folks will still have jobs of a sort but will not be entitled to make a case in court of to hear evidence of any “crimes”. Seems a perfect way to cover things up and to keep difficult questions from being aired in public.
Things are still rotten at APS!
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
October 7th, 2012
2:30 pm
Here is what I know. The IB Diploma program and the IB Middle Years Programme are aggressively pushing the affective emphasis of changing the student and their attitudes, values, and beliefs instead of pushing content knowledge. Where principals and IB coordinators and teachers have balked, they get reassigned. Preventing Axemaker Minds and levelling (lots of quotes on this one) is a primary purpose of the real implementation and the democratic purpose of schooling that Beverly Hall was pursuing all along. (I have a book she contributed to so this is not inference). That was an issue up in Nashville resulting in a reassignment of a beloved experienced IB administrator. I raised the affective orientation and the mindlessness of the IB Learner Profile with Fulton’s Super, Robert Avossa, at a presentation he gave at Riverwood. I got the blackest look of my life in return for recognizing the issue.
Feature, not a bug, apparently in his mind. But then that is consistent with the tenets of an Educational Leadership doctorate. To push the social interaction and emotional/psychological learning emphasis. I looked it up after that look of scorn.
With IB about to roll back in to NAHS and APS finally in a position to get Fulton (that duplicitous charter) and Cobb (Hinojosa should not have been a signatory to that May 2008 document signing Dallas on to the democratic purpose of schooling and Equitable Education) to follow its lead on what goes on in the classroom, they need NAHS fully on board with the vision. Just like Fulton needed Riverwood.
The IB Learner Profile has been married to the 21st Century Skills movement to get us back to what Transformational Outcomes Based Education functioned as before it became notorious. Joined together the planned IB vision looks a lot like the Hewlett Foundation’s deep learning vision for CCSSI. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/when-deep-learning-and-systems-thinking-radicalizes-the-student-factual-reality-ceases-to-matter/
That all fits with the known, provable facts about IB as well as the spokesperson’s insistence this was about instructional issues. That has become shorthand for moving from the transmission of knowledge instruction orientation to Bela Banathy’s dreamed learner-centered vision. Which also fits with the focus on the IB Learner.
PS- I have IB internal documents touting what they are up to, the history, etc. This really is not just an opinion.
Prof
October 7th, 2012
2:55 pm
@ Private Citizen, Oct. 7, 1:46 pm.
Ah, yes. Computer forensics.
For the last 10 years or so all USG faculty and staff have been advised that nothing of confidential nature (tenure/promotion proceedings, anything connected with hirings, etc.) should appear in emails on University computers, for they always can be subpoenaed since we’re a state institution. We too have been warned about servers.
chillywilly
October 7th, 2012
3:08 pm
Here’s what I do know. While Beverly Hall was superintendent, some coworkers of mine in APS Finance Division were also blind sided, publicly humiliated and walked out of the central office building. This unprofessional humiliation happened right after the three employees provided Hall, Finance Managers and other top administrators with a scathing, detailed report of missing & stolen computer equipment worth tens of millions of dollars. In addition to the missing equipment, the report also included details of numerous errors on computer inventory reports that were provided to APS by inventory contractors. The strange thing about this is that APS paid these contractors in access of one million dollars to conduct the district’s inventory. The 3 employees who were publicly humiliated by APS had a combined total of 65 years of experience with the district. So the unprofessional humiliation that they did to Mr. Mygrant, Mr. Colbert and the other administrators is nothing new. It’s a terrible way of doing business and a terrible way of treating your loyal employees, but that’s business as usual at APS. I personally do not feel that Erroll Davis’ contract needs to be extended. He needs to move on and take some of his board members and incompetent central office folks with him. Stand your ground Mr. Mygrant & Mr. Colbert!
Private Citizen
October 7th, 2012
3:18 pm
Prof, I don”t know how you do it. I’m just referring to actual malfeasance in which is would be good for it to see the light of day. It seems to me the type management action that are the subject of this weblog are damaging to persons at least at the personal / stress / health level. Again, are there any ethics or other operational guidelines or can one person just tell another person what to do in an abrupt manner. I mean, this is not the 1890’s. You would think there were some procedural guidelines in place. This harem-scarem management method is disconcerting. This type of treatment should not be a part of someone’s career experience if they have broken no laws or created no emergency. Abuse of power makes for a situation where the meaning of terms becomes malformed. “Whose emergency” “By what definition?”
concerned
October 7th, 2012
3:25 pm
Invisible serf collar are you stating that the IB Learner profile acceptance or lack there of is the reason for this abrupt and unprofessional removal? I am not sure what your angle is. North Atlanta has the oldest IB program in the South- decades. This is not new nor is the learner profile cause for concern. As for content, the curriculum for the various subjects is on the IB website and for certain subjects is 80 pages long in what is content and almost half as much on the process of independent thinking and analysis. Not sure how this is harmful or cause to remove the administration without causing increase in harm to student body in collateral damage?
Private Citizen
October 7th, 2012
3:29 pm
The public shaming and humiliation ritual is not exclusive to APS, but it seems to be a regional feature. I have seen it done, let me thing, 1, 2, 3 times before this and outside of APS. It is done on the local government / school / university level and has the effect of making intimidation of workers and also making a drama smokescreen that detracts from recognizing what the managers of cliche (click?) are doing. Every every case it involves making a bigger than life drama out of something instead of handling it in a rational and productive way, particularly with regard or stewardship of the person who is getting “the treatment.” This type abuse of power needs to stop. It is childish and indulgent and embarrassing for the citizens who are paying the salaries of the power-thirsty persons who indulge in these antics. There are serious ethics considerations. It is now my opinion that any person this happens to should line up three lawyers on their team and sue the abusers for $50 million dollars, and I mean every time. I think this is the sole curative to this local habit of abuse of power and periodically perform the public humiliation ritual upon someone instead of being productive managers that competently steward their mission.
It needs to be said, who teaches the school children? The teachers do. What do you think is the effect on teacher morale and well being of this sort of heavy handed treatment of the mid-level administrators that the teachers work with? It’s like gardening. If you’re spraying poison on the tomatoes, do you think the cucumbers in the next row aren’t going to notice?
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
October 7th, 2012
3:49 pm
concerned–I think I stated it but the IB Learner Profile coupled with 21st Century Skills IS the curriculum. The change in IB initially came with the acquisition of the MYP Programme. MYP was actually created in Africa, Julius Nyerere’s Tanzania to be exact in the mid 1960s. It was always affective in orientation. The acquisition changed the nature of the IB Diploma.
UNESCO is the primary driver of what is going on in education worldwide right now. UNESCO has always been tied to the IB Programme but with its announced goals to get Education for All, Education for Sustainable Development, and the Millenium Development Goals all in place globally by 2015, IB appears to be one of their levers. Along with the accreditation process as I explained here. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/is-accreditation-the-enforcer-for-unescos-vision-of-solidarity/
So, the “I had a good experience last year or 5 years ago or 10″ is not really apt. UNESCO has gone on offense and so have their allies the accreditors and IB. That’s just a factual statement. If NAHS is still pushing content knowledge, especially in its top students, they would be violating IB and UNESCO and Quality Assurance policy going forward. They would also be running afoul of AdvancED’s accreditation standards.
Things change. IB and education generally have become cultural weapons against our noetic system and political and economic weapons against the US generally. That’s not a matter of my personal opinion. I have painstackingly put together repeated declarations of just that.
Prof
October 7th, 2012
4:55 pm
@ Private Citizen. Not sure whether you’re being sarcastic (”Prof, I don”t know how you do it. I’m just referring to actual malfeasance in which is would be good for it to see the light of day”) , but please see KB here at 12:20 pm, as well as yesterday on the other blog-thread devoted to this subject. Also Bootney and Ron F. here. All have speculated that the reason for MyGrant being rushed out is to prevent his access to school computers that have something incriminating on them, a common business tactic.
As you also noted, “I’m a little late to this party”; and it’s proving to be soooome party.
Mr. Thomas Anthony Jones, SR.
October 7th, 2012
5:59 pm
A bunch of lies from liars. Fire Errol Brown Davis, JR. He is a Carpetbagger.
Old South
October 7th, 2012
6:25 pm
I don’t know if there is any proof of reverse racism, but I would not at all be shocked if APS is reverse-racist. A number of Atlanta institutions are or have been.
These educators should know that there other cities with children who will benefit from their passion. As Atlanta implodes, other places will desire and pay for the talent you have.
bootney farnsworth
October 7th, 2012
6:31 pm
fortunately or unfortunately, take your pick- the vast majority of admin types are dumber than boxes of rocks. even after warning after warning by the USG, I’ve seen threats, harassment, bald faced intimidation, slander, and worse sent on email.
if anyone really wants to, they can data mine the servers and uncover mountains of “gold”
Old South
October 7th, 2012
6:41 pm
Let me also say, I don’t think APS is smart enough to conspire to erase emails. Doing so would be easy to prove if a case ever got to court. It’s more likely that the APS employees are surprised when their email works, let alone sophisticated tactics like spying. Atlanta is a low-tech city, no matter what the suits says. stodgy is something though that town excels at.
bootney farnsworth
October 7th, 2012
6:42 pm
@ old
if you’ve been here long enough, you’ll remember Maynard Jackson, Reginald Eaves, and the city being outed for blatant, intense, and deliberate reverse discrimination.
its a time honored Atlanta tradition
bootney farnsworth
October 7th, 2012
6:44 pm
@ old
IMO its not they’re not smart enough, they are too arrogant to care.
@Sandy Springs Parent
October 7th, 2012
6:45 pm
The big problem that bosses all over Georgia act like bullies is because there are no Unions. It is in the Public and Private Sector. I worked for one company here in Atlanta owned by two brothers on a daily basis the two of them ran up and down the aisles of our office cussing each other out. They also expected the office folks to work 80 hours days. The guys hung around and talked about Football and Nascar. I dared leave at 6:00, some of the guys said where are you going, I said my work is done, I have to go to the dry cleaner ( business attire was required), I don’t have a wife, I am not standing around talking about Football or Nascar. I left after a year.
The area is also full of over induldged brats who are bullies from childhood, when they get in an office or business setting they only get their postion by who they know. Not on their individual merits. So either they only hire their own buddies or the few that dare hire someone competent after you do all the work for them scream and have verbal fits at you trying to put you down, just like a school yard bully.
bootney farnsworth
October 7th, 2012
6:46 pm
Fran, Ed….
tell us again why some kind of watchdog or union would be so evil to the state.
besides it getting in the way of things like this…
bootney farnsworth
October 7th, 2012
6:54 pm
the unnecessary public shaming is done primarily for two reasons (occasionally it is legit).
-to intimidate those not let go, to remind them what will happen to them if they step out of line.
-because they can. petty, small individuals getting one last ounce of flesh from someone they wanted to destroy
Dee T.
October 7th, 2012
7:06 pm
This has been happening for years. APS has treated teachers like dirt for years…..especially under Beverly Hall. This principal must have been kind to teachers, so he had to go.
@Sandy Springs Parent
October 7th, 2012
7:33 pm
Let’s pray for Atlanta’s sake that Mary Norwood decides to run for Mayor again. It only took my friend from College Mitch Landrue 3 x to finally get the seat in New Orleans. Now everyone, is happy down in New Orleans that they stopped voting based on the color of the Mayor’s skin.
Remember Kasim only won by 700 votes. Those 700 votes to address that had been demolished by the Atlanta Public Housing Authority. The same Kasim Reed who bought $1,000 a ton gravel from on of his backers during the ice storm. The same Kasim Reed who canceled Airport Concessions procurement to make sure his donors could bid. The same Kasim Reed who is making sure that 4 minority vendors, who the Feds have ruled are not eligible for disadvantaged minority work, still got 10 year plus contracts. They including the former mayors wife and daughter. Then their is the Airport Limo contract with his investment partner. The list goes on and on. Is he also having the Friday night poker games as Bill Campbell did at his house.
I saw the Irony of irony yesterday, last night while watching the an old episoide of COPS, based in Atlanta. At the end they gave thanks to Mayor Bill Campbell. I could only laugh, yes soon be fellow convict and convicted felon Mayor Bill Campbell.
So what does Kareem Reed and Bev. have in common, they both head RICO organization and should eventually join Bill Campbell has Convicted Felons. But then again I lived in DC when they Arrested Marion Barry for Cocaine and then voted him back in for Marry. Certain subsets of America do the craziest things. Just look at crazy Glen Richardson, next we will have Pat Swindle running again ( I watched his trail in court, his faimly claimed his step father beat him as a boy, it caused him to be wayward).
jw
October 7th, 2012
7:37 pm
Private Citizen wrote: “This follows a pattern that the bosses have all of the power and the workers have no power. Imagine what would happen to one of these staff or they objected to being treated in this manner. Their ‘they will continue in the system’ status would be changed to being marginalized and put on the griddle. Rule #1: Don’t confront the tyrant unless you have an attorney and are willing to go the distance and even if you win, you are then suspect as the bad apple who made someone look bad.”
DING DING DING!!! Winner! Beginning to believe that the Davis administration is not so different from previous APS administrations. Very sad for the students, parents, teachers, and specialists that work with the students day to day. And very sad for the City of Atlanta.
parent1
October 7th, 2012
7:43 pm
Chillywilly could you please tell me what happen to Keith Bromery he no longer work for APS?
Right one
October 7th, 2012
7:50 pm
Would love to hear the answer to that one
Ron F.
October 7th, 2012
8:04 pm
Even if this all turns out to be nothing in the end, just the speculation on this blog and in the general public has definitely tarnished an already bad reputation in APS leadership. One would think they’d think of that before doing something so public as to escort an entire admin. team out of a school. They just don’t need this kind of bad publicity, but as my granny would say, “you put your neck out there, don’t be surprised if somebody slaps it.”
ATL taxpayer
October 7th, 2012
8:08 pm
There has been a change in leadership at almost every APS high school in the past years. The small school Principals at Therrell, South Atlanta, Washington, and Carver were all told this is their final year. Every staff member at those schools had to re-interview just to keep their current positions. And several weren’t picked back up. Barely a peep was made. As soon as they touch North Atlanta we hear an uproar!!! What makes the north Fulton community think they should be exempt from the “Dr.Hall clean up” ?
Doris M
October 7th, 2012
8:09 pm
Yes, I also want to know what happened to Keith Bromery. Did he leave because he could not abide the hypocrisy? Or was he walked out the door also? Inquiring minds want to know.
chillywilly
October 7th, 2012
8:21 pm
@parent1 – Didn’t know Bromery no longer works here. They must have slipped him out of the side door instead of walking him out & publicly humiliating him like they did others.
Maureen Downey
October 7th, 2012
8:34 pm
@ATL Taxpayer, But this is not reapplying for jobs. I have never quite seen anything of this scale.
APS sent a delegation to a school on a Friday, dismissing the principal and then announcing the leaders of the four Small Learning Communities — some of whom have developed those programs for years — are out and being reassigned other jobs.
I also think many of you are overlooking a major oddity; APS assigned eight Central Office staffers to those four jobs, which seems overkill. These eight folks are supposed to stay in place until the new principal hires his own staff, according to Stephen Alford.
So eight system-wide administrators are going to camp out at one high school for an unspecified length of time?
If APS can dispatch eight administrators to one high school — to fill jobs previously held by only four people — I think there are legitimate questions to be asked about overstaffing.
One of those administrators is the gifted and talented coordinator. Another is World Languages Coordinator. One is the Federal Grants Specialist.
Aren’t these important jobs to APS and its students?
What happens to all their work and their responsibilities? Does this shifting of resources make sense? And are the four NAHS staffers going to jobs that make sense for them?
APS parents need to know this as there are a lot of salaries involved here. Is this a good use of scarce resources?
Maureen
Pride and Joy
October 7th, 2012
8:45 pm
about the way the administration was treated…
This is SOP — standard office procedure in the non-government commercial world — when anyone is fired, they do it late on a friday as a surprise with security there to escort one out.
It is in response to shooting and violence in the workplace. They do it on a Friday afternoon to give everyone all weekend to talk about it and make as little disruption as possible. I’m not saying anyone deserved it. They may be completely innocent or absolutely guilty but the “humiliating” way they were treated is exactly like the standard way we in the commercial world are treated when we are fired or just laid off for no reason we workers created.
Emily
October 7th, 2012
8:51 pm
Good questions. The question is the diversion of all these salary dollars good for the kids of APS? Probably not. Is it good for Davis? Yep.
Seems like Davis has a lot to hide and to answer for. He is working overtime to keep all this away from a due process hearing. Davis is going to lose the confidence of a whole wave of parents with his arbritrary actions and his high handed ways.
Brenda McGowan
October 7th, 2012
8:54 pm
I agree that there has to be another explanation for the public display of disrespect to the outgoing principal and staff. It is not what you do but how it is done that makes the difference. I also want to thank the orchestrators for the fine example provides for the students, the inclusive and transparent decision making and showing the parental and students what accountability means in APS.
Chris Murphy
October 7th, 2012
8:55 pm
Yeah, go figure: 4 SLC heads = around $400,000 (just the salary), plus 8 Central Office Mucketymucks = around $1,000,000, plus MyGrants’ interim pay, and were around $1.5 million. Contrast that to “Priority School” (state status; lowest 5% in the state) MH Jackson HS, where we have to recruit waves of parents and staff to genuflect before the altar on Trinity Ave- to get hall monitors, to provide basic safety and discipline. Yes, there’s questions alright.
Ed Johnson
October 7th, 2012
8:57 pm
“Let’s pray for Atlanta’s sake that Mary Norwood decides to run for Mayor again.”
Here, here!!!
Former NAHS Mom
October 7th, 2012
8:58 pm
I am with Maureen Downey completely: what on earth would make Mr. Errol Davis and others think that summarily dismissing the Principal, so close to retiring, and the dismissal of the other 5 administrators in such a public and disrupting manner. This has NOT been helpful for the students, teachers and parents. These acts smack of intimidation for the teachers and insecurity for the students and parents. Also, the letter that was released by Mr. Stephen Alford today was completely ineffectual in addressing these concerns, in fact, the letter was extremely insulting. I am very glad that our child has graduated from this broken system, but feel great simpathy for the current students, teachers and parents.
Frustrated Taxpayer
October 7th, 2012
9:01 pm
What happened to NAHS administrators, and Mr. Alford’s garbled non-response, show that Davis’ administration is just as ineffective as the previous leader and her team. I cannot fathom anyone with an ounce of Communications experience approving the “transition plan” APS implemented, or giving this “statement” a green light.
Until the media digs deeper and sheds light on continuing corruption at the central office, we will see plenty of good people escorted off the property while inmates run the asylum. This district is (STILL) a mess. As usual, the stench at APS comes from the top.
ATL taxpayer
October 7th, 2012
9:04 pm
“reassignment” is the APS way. They shuffle administrators from building to building. I totally agree that the system is still too top-heavy with new titles and job descriptions for many of the same old people that were “walked out” from previous positions. I have no doubt that the academy leaders that were removed had done great things for the students, but it would not surprise me for a second to find out there were skeletons in the closet that helped aid in their removal. At the end of the day once all the dust settles none of this should be taken out on the new Principal. Imagine the resistance he faces from the students, parents and others. He’s in the hottest seat in the whole room.
Concerned
October 7th, 2012
9:29 pm
Nothing has changed in APS. Just as APS shuffles employees, the superintendents are shuffled…nothing different … Hall = Davis ,Augustine= Waldon, Anderson= Misfit Toy, Proctor=Broken Toy…none of these people have done anything to enrich the lives of children. They have talked alot, put out tons of surveys, created task forces and created tons of jobs using RTTT funds. But what has really been done to support the students. I don’t believe any of these people really care. The entire team of people are a joke. As one blogger stated, they are the left-overs from other districts coming to APS to either make a name for themselves or finish their careers. Who cares about Atlanta? Who cares about APS? But most importantly, who cares about the kids…the kids that deserve a well run school system that wants the best for all. SAD! Shame on all of us for allowing this stuff to continue! I hope the parents ask the tough questions, demand answers but most importantly move forward with getting people in place to make good decisions for kids.
Here we go again
October 7th, 2012
9:45 pm
allegations of racism…where is the crack deputy superintendent Karen Waldon in all of this? I wonder if she has any hand in this?
Atlanta Mom
October 7th, 2012
9:45 pm
ATL taxpayer
” The small school Principals at Therrell, South Atlanta, Washington, and Carver were all told this is their final year”
Hopefully they were told that because small learning communities are going away, and they were given 9 months notice to find a new jobs.
It is my fervent wish that all academy leaders and principals of the small schools were told the same. It is a model that can not be sustained without Bill Gate’s money.
Atlanta Mom
October 7th, 2012
9:46 pm
a new job, not a new jobs (of course in this economy they may need to find multiple new jobs)
Atlanta Mom
October 7th, 2012
9:53 pm
Maureen,
You been concerned about “APS assigned eight Central Office staffers to those four jobs, which seems overkill”
Sounds reasonable to me. These eight office staffers are going to be trying to hold it together at NAHS and hold it together at their “regular” position as well. Surely at some point you’ve been asked to cover for a colleague? It’s not fun to do two jobs at once. So now they have two people covering three positions.
ATL taxpayer
October 7th, 2012
9:56 pm
@ Atlanta mom
They tried to dissolve the small school model at the last minute last school year. (in classic APS fashion) time ran out so they let them ride 1 more year. Hopefully this will be the final year of the failed experiment.