DeKalb school chief releases audit to the public. Read it and let’s discuss
UPDATED Wednesday morning: As promised, Dr. Atkinson has posted the audit. Go here to read it.
UPDATE at 3:30: I just spoke to DeKalb Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson who says she plans to release the forensic audit on the district website within the next 24 hours or sooner. She explained that the audit is only a draft and subject to change. She said she is overriding the attorney’s view that the document is privileged in its draft form since it already has been leaked to the media.
Atkinson said her goal was never to keep the audit from the public. She is sending the draft audit to board members now and then will post. She wants parents to understand that this is only a draft from the auditors and changes may be made.
Parents in DeKalb County Schools are among the most dissatisfied in metro Atlanta, in large part because of a string of ineffective leaders, one of whom ended up in indicted.
New school chief Cheryl Atkinson arrived a year ago and cast herself as a change agent. She pledged a new era of openness, but the failure of her administration to release a much anticipated forensic audit undermines all her promises of transparency.
I am not sure why public officials continue to evade the state’s open records law, as they usually lose when challenges are mounted.
I also noted that the county is losing its law firm. AJC reporter Ty Tagami reports: The DeKalb County school board voted Monday to hunt for a new lawyer after learning that general counsel Sutherland Asbill & Brennan had resigned.
I would suggest DeKalb look for a lawyer who knows and understands the open record laws. I would also suggest that DeKalb Schools release the audit to its taxpayers or expect increasing suspicions and an even greater lack of confidence in Atkinson and her administration.
A long-awaited forensic audit has been delivered to the DeKalb County school system, and it may help explain why officials there have had to cut so deeply in the classroom.
Some of the central office staff eliminations the school board ordered in 2010 were not carried out, the audit says. For that and other reasons, the system wound up paying $20 million more than budgeted for central office salaries in fiscal year 2010 and $29 million more the next year, according to the audit, which was obtained by Channel 2 Action News.
District officials refused to release the document, which is labeled as a draft addressed to Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson, Thursday. System spokesman Jeff Dickerson refused to comment, saying the audit was exempt from public disclosure under a part of the law that holds accountants’ work as “privileged.”
An expert on Georgia’s open-records law, however, said DeKalb has no legal right to keep the audit from the public.
“The code section pertaining to an accountant’s notes does not trump the state open-records act,” said Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. “In this case, the audit given to the client — a public school system — should be disclosed.”
The audit, which was produced by the firm KPMG and leaked to Channel 2 Action News, says the board ordered the elimination of 150 central office positions in May 2010 for an expected savings of $11.5 million. Records from the school system’s finance and human resources departments differ about how many of those jobs were actually cut. Of 109 people listed by human resources as laid off, 56 remained on the payroll in different jobs, either because they were rehired or reassigned, the audit says.
The 31-page document notes plenty of other issues, including excessive fees for a line of credit, the way money was transferred between accounts and how retirees got watches and who paid for them.
Amy Trocci, a mother from Tucker with three children in the system, said she has suspected for years that mandatory central office cuts weren’t happening. Instead, she said, officials have cut teachers. “I don’t think there’s a school in the county that isn’t feeling the pain now,” she said. She said she wants ongoing oversight of spending rather than an occasional audit.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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169 comments Add your comment
Private Citizen
November 13th, 2012
11:08 am
sometimes the family just has to walk away and let the rodents or insects or snakes have the house.
Ugh, no.
Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure
November 13th, 2012
11:11 am
It’s important to point out that Atkinson inherited all of this…I’m not really thrilled by her, but it’s going to take longer than a year to clean up the mess that is DCSS. I assume Tyson was supposed to implement these cuts to the Central Office, especially since she gave herself a nice pay bump. Atkinson isn’t helping her cause by waiting to release this and trying to hide the reality of Central Office bloat from the public. Unfortunately, these festering issues were caused by the Lewis adminstration and continue to fester under Atkinson.
catlady
November 13th, 2012
11:11 am
Why didn’t this come to light before the election, so that those who are NOT providing the leadership a school board is supposed to provide could be summarily dismissed by the voters? Ms. Downey, can you get a date for this audit?
Ernest
November 13th, 2012
11:12 am
Concernedmom30329, you are right, that logic does not work. The easiest way to determine if reductions were made would be to look at the salary and benefits actuals month by month. There should have been a 2-3 million dollar difference from June to July, assuming an overall wage reduction of 24-36 million dollars annually. After that, one should look at a month to month comparison, this year versus last year. I wonder if Board members have the ability to review this?
Disgusted in Dekalb
November 13th, 2012
11:19 am
Maureen, you refer to “parents” in your heading (assuming that you write your own headings), but the mismanagement and failure of the Dekalb County School System affects everyone in the county, particularly property owners, and should be of keen interest to us all.
Beverly Fraud
November 13th, 2012
11:21 am
From Erica Long
Are we still supposed to be surprised that the Charter School referendum passed overwhelmingly in DeKalb?
Given that DeKalb is a charter (no pun intended) member of The Four Horsemen of the Incompetence it’s no surprise at all.
WTF
November 13th, 2012
11:22 am
BOE hires 3 bad Superintendents in a row. Nothing changes.
catlady
November 13th, 2012
11:25 am
Also, how about a look at who was kept, perhaps by moving them into another position, and those persons relationships to board members, etc. I am betting we might just find that some in positions to be eliminated were moved and kept on because they are family members or close associates of family members of board members. After all, that is how it seems to work in Dekalb.
Private Citizen
November 13th, 2012
11:26 am
At the risk of being wordy, the Atkinson lady seems like a nice person for running “education” side of things, but this may be a different territory than doing large scale financial control / analysis. A lot of managers (principals) are in this dilemma. Education care and nurture on my side of the fence, heavy budget / finance responsibility on the other side of the fence. It might make more sense to separate the two and have the state / outside audit making the call on structural budgeting, organization structure. Similarly, regional Georgia graduate schools of education seem to have zero emphasis on analysis of greater management, avoid the topic, redirect students with this interest. Better to have them whip up some cream pie of Dewey or somesuch. A lot safer for a state university.
Ernest
November 13th, 2012
11:47 am
Clarifying my comment at 11:12, comparing June to July would catch the reductions in 10-11 month staffers, comparing July to August would catch the reductions in 12 month staffers.
K From Da Wood
November 13th, 2012
11:58 am
We can thank the HS parents from the 2001-03 era! When the entire community banned together to oust the newly hired Superintendent Brown because he wanted to implement uniforms in high schools, that marked the beginning of the end and made a clear statement about what really mattered in DCSS. Lewis was named superintendent and immediately began rewarding his friends with promotions to Area Superintendents. In the process removing quality principals and administrators from the schools where they were needed. You got what you asked for….
Dunwoody Mom
November 13th, 2012
12:20 pm
Something to remember about the recent so-called Central Office “reorganization and RIF’s”….Say, you eliminate XXX number of Central Office positions, but those are overwhelmingly low-salaried positions. Then some highly-paid positions are hired, you could virtually eliminate any savings with regards to savings. It’s better to look at the dollars saved rather than the number of employees RIF’d.
indigo
November 13th, 2012
12:21 pm
RCB – “I think we ran out of candidates”
And white ones need not apply.
Private Citizen
November 13th, 2012
12:22 pm
Upon seeing the Dekalb County schools audit, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaKS13QM4-M
Frustrated Dekalb Parent
November 13th, 2012
12:26 pm
K From Da Wood – How did the 2001-2003 community band together to oust Dr. Brown? We need to band together now to get new leadership but how? Screaming and complaining to the “leadership” has not worked. Neither has counting on elections for new board members when the incompetent ones outnumber the competent ones on just about every important vote. What other recourse do we have?
Don't Tread
November 13th, 2012
12:28 pm
Sounds like the DeKalb schools are being run on the same model as the Federal government (and the politicians are running the same worthless slogans to get elected). What possibly could be wrong with that?
Charter Peachford
November 13th, 2012
12:40 pm
Did the FBI ever catch that criminal Nathan Deal?
Charter Peachford
November 13th, 2012
12:45 pm
Isn’t it ironic that President Reagan championed the idea of local governments controlling public eduction, and now we have Conservatives who want to move administration further up the bureaucratic flagpole?
They want to administer charter schools from the state level. Why not the federal level while you’re at it. Why not just have one national curriculum that you stream in on computers from Washington every morning? And these clowns have the nerve to call other people Socialists. What a joke!
Wondering
November 13th, 2012
12:51 pm
Someone needs to file the suit for violation of the Open Records Act. There are no exceptions for accounting records, and the acceptance of a ‘Draft’ is simply an attempt by the school system to avoid public disclosure. Sam Olens has been a champion for open government before. Maybe a simple letter from the AG to the Superintendent will stop this nonsense.
bootney farnsworth
November 13th, 2012
12:52 pm
@ catlady
why didn’t this come out earlier?
for the same reason we always get interesting relevations after a presidental election.
to much information the public doesn’t “need to know”
ch
bootney farnsworth
November 13th, 2012
12:55 pm
stuipd laptop….picking up where I accidentally cut myself off
choosing to devulge information which runs contrary to self interest goes against the political grain.
bootney farnsworth
November 13th, 2012
12:56 pm
what people need to remember is Cheryl is doing exactly what she was hired to do.
sustain status quo at all costs.
Disgusted in Dekalb
November 13th, 2012
1:05 pm
Bootney is right (as he often is). The majority of the board members most decidely did NOT want a change agent when they hired Dr. Atkinson.
lahopital
November 13th, 2012
1:07 pm
Did I misread the article? I thought it said the ELECTED board cut the budget, but the hired help, the super, et al, did not make the actual cuts demanded by their boss, the board. It seems that the hired help is the problem this time, not the board.
Call Me Missouri
November 13th, 2012
1:17 pm
This is why the employees at the local schools have had to sign several rosters for employment verification. The schmucks at the Palace probably have NO IDEA WHO IS WORKING WHERE!!! God help us all, especially our children. BTW, when is the DA going to get a grand jury and start investigating the lies and malfeasance. Let’s not gloss over the part about money transfers between accounts- big red flag, folks.
Flabberghastedforsure
November 13th, 2012
1:31 pm
Failure to release the draft of the forensic audit “undermines all her promises of transparency”. So do lots of her other actions: advertising parent roundtables as opportunities for questions and answers; giving 3 central office staff members raises “because they have taken on extra work”; requesting a $50,000 raise for Ron Ramsey; quietly disappearing the internal auditor; her request for a new car while “surplusing” 3 cars; pushing a balanced calendar because of brain drain while ignoring the “9 month brain drain” of block schedule, placing the former HR director in a principalship, telling the BOE that approval of Successful for All was to allow the conversations to begin at the local schools and then cramming it down those school’s throats without the required vote, requesting Race to the Top funds for 8 administrators to get a PhD…. Need we go on?? And all the while, parents have called out for help from our legislators, SACS, the DA, DeKalb business leaders, our BOE to vote her requests down; parents have tried to shine light on these kinds of things for years only to be ignored; If the BOE asks questions, they are accused of meddling, if they don’t approve everything the super brings, then the super can claim she isn’t successful because they didn’t support her..and the BOE doesn’t get answers to the questions they do ask – you only need to watch 1 BOE mtg to see that – or they get an answer that is incomplete, misleading or born of incompetency.
Mountain Man
November 13th, 2012
1:40 pm
And all of y’all opponents of Amendment 1 were worried about the STATE commission and charter schools being run by for-profit companies. Looks like the local control is just as bad as the worst case scenario of yours.
Mountain Man
November 13th, 2012
1:44 pm
Good thing that DCSS was not run by those greedy, FOR-PROFIT companies, right, Mary Elizabeth?
Mel
November 13th, 2012
1:45 pm
Somethings STINKS in the Dekalb!!
Entitlement Society
November 13th, 2012
1:47 pm
Right on, Mountain Man!
alm
November 13th, 2012
1:49 pm
Omnishambles
http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/top-news/oxford-chooses-omnishambles-as-word-of-the-year/nS46T/
Marney
November 13th, 2012
2:01 pm
“Local control” Maureen…you may love it in Decatur, but we don’t all live in your world. In the “best of all worlds” this wouldn’t be happening, I am tired of comfortable optimists ignoring it or worse, benefiting from it. Your sudden notice and outrage the week after your constant defense of local Boards of Education being the ideal entity in which we may comfortably place our trust to make decisions on who should be able to offer public education feels like crocodile tears.
DeKalb Inside Out
November 13th, 2012
2:39 pm
Question – If the Superintendent and administration aren’t following OCGA code, what are the sentencing and punishment provisions?
I don’t see where a school administration has to do anything the board asks it to do.
Calendar Dad
November 13th, 2012
2:39 pm
The new Oxford Dictionary word for 2012 – OMNISHAMBLES – somehow seems appropriate!
Mountain Man
November 13th, 2012
2:43 pm
” If the Superintendent and administration aren’t following OCGA code,”
It is not that they are breaking the law – it is that they are not doing what they were told to do. One of the prime responsibilities of the BOE is to hire/fire the superintendent. It is the Superintendent’s job to make sure that the BOE’s instructions are carried out. The BOE should inform the Superintendent (Atkinson) that she had better have a good report that all who carried out these transgressions have been fired themselves – or else she will be immediately terminated and a new Superintendent will be hired.
Judith Austin
November 13th, 2012
2:50 pm
When I started teaching in Dekalb the year was 1984. Dekalb was known to be the best school system anywhere around the Atlanta metro area. I retired a couple of years ago and when someone asks me now where I taught I am embarrassed and almost ashamed to tell them what system. I always preface the answer with….”when I started there and for many years after that the quality and leadership of the system was one could represent with pride but now….” Thought court case for Lewis was finally ready to be on schedule for Sept. 2012, court/class action suit concerning discontinuing pension contributions without properly being timely informed was to come up in Oct. 2012…..and more messes, more screwups, more deception just continues to come forward at record speeds. What’s next? I know charter schools could eventually wreck the system but if the system and those employed by it can’t be cleaned up/ cleaned out and the citizens of this county can’t get action that will start over with a pure and clean slate and move directly to a system to be proud of….one who places the education of students FIRST and FOREMOST, then perhaps for the sake of our individual children we need to make another choice.
Mountain Man
November 13th, 2012
2:58 pm
Didn’t I read that the annual budget for legal expenses was $1 million and they have been spending $10 million per year? And now they want to fight to keep this audit report from the public? Are we going to have to file a lawsuit to get the truth, a lawsuit that will cost Dekalb even MORE in legal expenses?
fondu
November 13th, 2012
3:07 pm
Teachers see the effects of the shamefull and criminal conduct of our school board and administration, on student achievement. Watch as the graduation rate tumbles. Couple that with decreasing pay(due to negligence), furlough days, no raise in six years, discontinuation of health care contributions, illegal discontinuation of the TSA contributions, and rampant apathy it’s a wonder Dekalb has any teachers left at all. But we continue to stay and teach your kids for less and less, and the last parent conference nite I had zero parents.
Dunwoody Mom
November 13th, 2012
3:43 pm
Just saw your update, Maureen. Glad Dr. Atkinson changed her mind about releasing the audit.
DeKalb Inside Out
November 13th, 2012
3:47 pm
Mountain Man
1. Dr Atkinson has been telling my DCSD friends and that the board’s instructions have been followed. She spread false numbers around internally to show how the board’s instructions were being followed. So, all lies referenced in that KPMG audit are by Dr Atkinson’s command.
2. Dr Atkinson is the best Superintendent DeKalb can get. She has fired many of the “Friends and Family” of the South DeKalb mafia (Turk, et al). So, the honest board members won’t vote to let her go. No way the Walker 5 will allow another Super in that doesn’t follow the South DeKalb mafia’s instructions. And … the Walker 5 will grow into the Walker 7 in Jan.
Dr Atkinson is, therefore, untouchable. We might be able to put public pressure on her or shame her into doing things. But if she’s not breaking the law, she’s untouchable.
Rick L in ATL
November 13th, 2012
3:57 pm
Maureen, Marney is right–when Bev Hall was circumventing the Open Records law (even using a private gmail account to conduct official business so she would be able to plausibly deny using her work email to handle controversial documents), you knew about it but you let your personal affection for her sway your judgment. To this day you still have not publicly acknowledged your disastrously poor journalistic decision-making during the entire 3-year period in which Hall’s con artistry was on vivid display to the rest of us.
So, yeah, it’s a little late in the game for you to start with the whole “I’m shocked–SHOCKED!” thing now.
You know, people make mistakes. Journalists make mistakes. It wouldn’t bring about a Mayan cataclysm for you to just say yeah, you know what, I did misjudge that incredibly evil, morally bankrupt child predator, and I wish I hadn’t. Go ahead, you’ll feel better.
BlahBlahBlah
November 13th, 2012
3:59 pm
We are so grateful we sold our house in Dekalb County last month. It’s like getting one of the precious lifeboats on the Titanic.
Claudia Stucke
November 13th, 2012
4:01 pm
A few years ago, during a meeting I attended with several other teachers, School Board member Paul Womack condescendingly told us that we lacked the financial expertise to deal with or question certain particular issues, reminding us several times, “I am the former CEO of a multi-million-dollar company” as evidence of his fiscal prowess. Earlier this year, when a gaping hole was found in the school system’s finances, his attitude was considerably more humble (and I quote from his statement as broadcast on the local news): “I just don’t know what happened.” Oh, the irony.
Beverly Fraud
November 13th, 2012
4:12 pm
If the AJC had only been this determined back in 2001 when Paul Donsky blew the lid off the widespread, rampant cheating in the Atlanta Public Schools.
But I guess at the time, it was more comfortable for the AJC to “believe the narrative” than it was to perform their duties as a valued member of the Fourth Estate.
Still, glad to see the AJC continuing their role as “watchdog.” Particularly encouraging to see they give no quarter to former AJC staffer Jeff Dickinson as he continues to play fast and loose with the truth as a hired Mouth Organ for DCSS.
Pride and Joy
November 13th, 2012
4:49 pm
Mountain Man is spot on when he says “Good thing that DCSS was not run by those greedy, FOR-PROFIT companies.”
Traditional public schools in the metro Atlanta area ARE RUN FOR PROFIT.
YET — they still don’t teach.
I’m ALL FOR for-profit companies running schools as long as they can teach.
Dekalb needs to be broken up into much smaller distrcits, at least three, so that LOCAL communities can really vote for their own boards. Southern Dekalb voters are running Dekalb into the ground and we Northern Dekalbers are paying the bill.
Student Advocate
November 13th, 2012
4:50 pm
If this doesn’t get the head of HR canned, it’s hopeless. Where does the buck stop? Enough of playing this shell game. Teachers are on to these antics, and we knew this about ‘ no cuts at the palace’ before this latest headline…it just demoralizes the remaining competent teachers even more. DCSS needs an HR leader with some cojones, and proper background, too – not some mail order doctorate degree. Many quality HR individuals out of work now. We need a new slogan – DCSS – Deceiving Citizens, Staff and Students for decades. Victory in every administrators’ designer purse – at least that will give us a laugh. C’mon Cheryl, write some REAL pink slips, please!
Pride and Joy
November 13th, 2012
4:56 pm
fondu “and the last parent conference nite I had zero parents.”
Ever thought of scheduling conferences by phone and send documents via email — do you schedule conferences only during 8 to 5 when most parents are at work?
I’vde been to many parent-teacher conferences. Last year, my child’s teachers was late to ALL OF THEM. She always had some excuse. When I schedule a 7:30 a.m. conference, I expect to be seated and talking to the teacher at 7:30 a.m. Yet, ALL of the conferences, the teacher breezed in the school’s door at 7:40 and by the time we actually sat down to talk it was 7:50 and all the kids were clamoring to get in.
If you are genuinely prompt and you are genuinely scheduling conferences during times when parents can actually attend and they don’t show up — then for goodness sakes, do SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
Be creative. Use phones and email.
Beverly Fraud
November 13th, 2012
4:57 pm
Rick in Atl makes a very good point. Turns out it’s not JUST Beverly Fraud after all.
You know, it’s been said that Beverly Fraud has a certain “provocative” way that holds a certain painful mirror of truth up; one not always ready to be eagerly acknowledged.
Still Maureen, when you look at (as we know you will) Rick in Atl’s straight to the point comments, one cannot but conclude he makes legitimate, valid points.
While not offering a total mea culpa, at least the AJC’s Jay Bookman did acknowledge a willingness to “believe the narrative” rather than accept what Paul Donsky was reporting way back in 2001.
We’ve been told time and time again that the AJC wasn’t influenced by the “bidness” community to shill for Hall. Thus if it wasn’t an outside influence that forced your hand then why not a simple acknowledgment: Why not just admit (to paraphrase football coach Dennis Green’s famous rant) that “Hall wasn’t who she said she was” and that your almost unequivocal support (even pushing for her to remain AFTER the cheating scandal broke for “stability”?) was in fact not not warranted?
If anything won’t that specific action give you more credibility when you call on people like Cheryl Atkinson to come clean?
Really
November 13th, 2012
5:03 pm
@ DunwoodyMom Dr Atkinson never changed her mind its a draft. Do you know what Draft means? Let use some common sense here. Even when she releases the audit it won’t be the final so why would she release a draft.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
November 13th, 2012
5:15 pm
Forensic audits of all GA’s publicly funded preK-12 agencies by competent, disinterested, out-of-state firms are essential to restore public confidence in the efficiency of our state’s educational agencies. Of course, the release to print and electronic media throughout our state of the unredacted results of these audits would be another essential step in this trust-restoration process.