Does the state law being used against DeKalb board cede too much power to SACS?

Yes. Every school board member, parent, legislator, members of Deal’s staff, should read the AdvancED Quality Standards to appreciate just how little knowledge and academics are the priority driving who SACS accredits and what its priorities are. They need to understand what Social Construction in education means and that SACS uses taxpayer money to foist it on school districts as well as colleges and universities.

Finally they need to be familiar with the accreditation agencies like SACS and its parent company, AdvancED’s, relationship with UNESCO. UNESCO was created in the 1940s to push a cultural evolution on the West via education that would ultimately change mental consciousness through education to values, beliefs, attitudes, and ultimately behaviors that were comparable to Marx’s development model for humanity.

And that is precisely what SACS does. It is what Atlanta Public Schools pushed so hard and why Beverly Hall was so coddled whatever she did. She was pushing the desired sociocultural Consciousness transformation model and that was all that mattered.

So yes they have too much power. They are the primary driver of cultural poison in education today. And paid well for the mind arson.

• Link
• Report this comment

Way, way too much power is given to an unaccountable, private company, AdvancED. AdvancED does not answer to anyone in Georgia – certainly not the People of Georgia. Mark Elgart, its CEO, prances around like he is some 17th Century prince, who has some divine right to issue educational edicts at his capricious and arbitrary whim. To tell you the truth, this law giving SACS any power is ridiculous. But, it is a law that is liked by the self-perceived elite of this State who, quite frankly, don’t like democracy because “the masses” have way too much power and often elect those whom they do not approve. Governor Deal needs to show some moral mettle and actually reject this law as unconstitutional and state clearly that he will stand by the decision of the voters of DeKalb County. This would a profile of courage, though he might be given the cold shoulder by the scions of the Gridiron at the next Athens meeting.

• Link
• Report this comment

The Dekalb SB need to go. HOWEVER, it is troublesome that the governor, with his penchant for filling jobs with family and cronies, oversees the naming of the new board members.

The worst part of this law is ceding even more power to SACS, a capricious protection racket. Seeing it in action, and watching how it has changed from counting books in the library to requiring that school board members all agree, and follow the directions of their (unelected) leader, their superintendent, would turn anyone’s stomach. I would think that no one would want to grant authority to an entity like SACS, especially our “good Republican” leadership.

I don’t think ANYTHING nowadays should hinge on SACS approval. There ARE other accrediting agencies, and perhaps another agency would be concerned directly about the children.

• Link
• Report this comment

I don’t care how they get rid of them. From what I know and have seen, the Dekalb BOE is selfish and irresponsible. They are not focused on education and apparently the citizens have not been able to elect a responsible Board. Yes, this is a legal issue, but it is also a moral issue. It should be about the students, but it is not. Sad.

• Link
• Report this comment

@NorthAtlantaJoe – I’m sure you see DeKalb in the news daily and unfortunately you see what makes up part of the voting block. Add to that the extreme liberals in the county and voila we get representatives like Hank Johnson and Board members like Eugene Walker.

• Link
• Report this comment

many of the old problems — racial and economic divides, a ravaged real estate market, a growing underclass — remain

You’ve got to start somewhere. I have some experience unwinding complex messed up situations. It takes time, patience, and a lot of hard work. Even if the hedge fund managers take the profit from the economy, there is no reason DeKalb can not have an efficient school system, even if everyone is working with a box of toothpicks. I’ve recently seen real-life examples of “messed up” and “efficiency.” Efficiency is when someone does a job well in one day and it is complete. “Messed up” is when someone makes the wrong decision on the front end, then messes up the work, does not complete the work, and then leaves mess untended for 10 days until someone forcing them to return and clean up their mess, which is done at the pace of a resentful turtle. That’s what “messed up,” when incompetent adults, or adults with character issues, mess things up. I’ve seen the two side by side within feet of each other. Someone has to be the boss, be in charge, have their name on it, and make it right.

• Link
• Report this comment

I would strongly urge the readers to visit the Invisible Serf’s blog (Invisible Serf Collar). She knows what she is talking about. The People of Georgia (and the nation) are being led around with rings in their noses by organizations like SACS which really have a social agenda which has nothing to do with content-based education.

@ “living in an outdated ed system”: Why is DeKalb the only system in 1,000 to fall out of graces with SACS? Because Mark Elgart decided this. The only reason. If you actually think that other school boards and other school systems don’t engage in the same little politics as DeKalb, then you are as naïve as wrestling fans. You are a mark who will believe any drama that a booker will create. Mark Elgart is like a wrestling booker. He creates this drama and hysteria, and then the wrestling fans get all worked up. At nineteen years old, I was a ring announcer for professional wrestling here in Georgia. (I still do announce professional boxing these days.) I have seen this hysteria in action. Mark Elgart decreed that DeKalb was bad, and then people like you have swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. Are there some bad and incompetent things going on in DeKalb? Yes…just like on many other school boards and systems (note Fulton, Cobb, and Gwinnett). But, you let the voters do the removing, not the Governor.

By the way, my coffee has stopped brewing. I need to get my first cup too.

• Link
• Report this comment

There may cause for a parallel case re: is SACS the best mechanism for regulation, and why was the DeKalb situation allowed to occur in the first place. One thing about SACS regulation is that due to their multinational interest, their involvement prohibits Georgians from shaping and directing their own schools, in particular when SACS exercises influence on choosing superintendents, applies influence on directional themes. I wonder, when “DeKalb was great in the 60’s/70’s,” was SACS involved? Does anyone know how regulation was done at that time?

• Link
• Report this comment

Pardon: No. But it is rather ironic that a governor as challenged as the current one should be allowed to fill yet another group with his minions/cronies.

I am sorry the Dekalb voters are so gullible/stupid/uneducated/you fill in the blanks that they have not corrected this problem long since.

• Link
• Report this comment

PC: the standards for accreditation were quite different back then. Also, at that time, few systems were accredited. Many systems were thrilled to have just their high school accredited.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Catlady: Very good points. SACS has long-since left the notion of examining the number of books in the library, etc. AdvancED actually has an agenda to control the school boards. The school boards, in AdvancEd’s and Mark Elgart’s apparent opinion, should be subservient to the superintendents. This is upside down. It is ridiculous. But, I have always said that SACS stands for Still Advocating for Cronies and Superintendents (SACS). Yes, indeed, Georgia does have another accrediting agency which has the same weight behind it, but it seems to go about accrediting the schools without all of the hoopla. The Georgia Accrediting Commission (GAC) has been accrediting schools in Georgia since 1904…way before SACS. It is headed up by an esteemed educator here in Georgia, Dr. Carvin L. Brown.

http://www.coe.uga.edu/gac/

• Link
• Report this comment

@catlady
“But it is rather ironic that a governor as challenged as the current one should be allowed to fill yet another group with his minions/cronies.”

That’s not the scariest alternative. Our equally challenged Dekalb legislative delegation may be giving him the names. Some of these most vocal about replacing the board may go apopletic if Representative Mosby gives the governor a list of 6 Dr. Walker clones to join the board. That result would not surprise me a bit.

• Link
• Report this comment

Dr. Trotter, Great post, but maybe you must admit? that as one of the state board said, DeKalb has become a magnet attractor for lawsuits. We differ in opinion, in that I thing the state is stepping to the plate to due their regulatory duty. Thank you for commending Serf’s Collar work, it is impressive, informative, highly relevant.

Well. One other thing. Real wrestlers wear a mask and know how to fly. These are the two basic requirements of real wrestling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJob-xORJWE

• Link
• Report this comment

Pardon my chopped up spelling. The wrestling thing reminds me that some of the Hong Kong kung-fu actors came from acrobat-training acting academies. Notably, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, also known as “Jackie Chan’s fat friend” are really trained as acrobats / stuntmen / circus school. In particular, Sammo in impressive because with his shape and size, his skills are unexpected. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p7AZO9Hx0c#t=0m34s

‘Recently figured out that Shaw Brothers studio, Hong Kong, make a thousand movies. A lot of the Shaw Brothers movies are like kung-fu spaghetti westerns with a lot of Ming dynasty thrown in.

• Link
• Report this comment

Yes, SACS is the wrong trigger for BOE overturn. That organization’s focus on school board governance rather than achievement is one reason this took so long. Nancy Jester is absolutely right. But it’s the only trigger our short-sighted legislature gave us, so we have to use it. The State Board of Education, State School Superintendent, and legislature have ignored the looming meltdown in DeKalb for so long that it took a surge of public outrage and (AT LAST) media focus on the issues to bring the BOE’s decade-long mismanagement, nepotism, and financial irresponsibility to light.

Deal won’t do it, but the only BOE members who should go are Walker, Cunningham, and Copelin-Wood. They are still too all-powerful and are the last mainstays of cronyism in DeKalb schools.

Many of us in DeKalb have determined that local control is the only way out, so I’m looking to Representative Tom Taylor and his pending legislation to begin the long road back to quality education. I hope Fran Millar advocates for his constituents as well. The parent trigger law is a watered-down mess and the charter cluster option keeps the DeKalb BOE in charge. No thanks.

• Link
• Report this comment

yah. that’s some stuff right there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJob-xORJWE#t=3m35s

• Link
• Report this comment

Why in the world do otherwise informative comment threads go off in surreal directions (wrestling?). Scrolling past now …

• Link
• Report this comment

“The ballot box must be given huge, huge deference in this county. If it is not, we are lost.”
========================================================

I agree with that sentiment. What are we educating our students for, if not to appreciate individual freedom of voice as given to each American citizen through the ballot. African-Americans well understand how valuable the ballot is to freedom. In an extreme analogy, what if members of a local School Board do not agree with a given Governor’s ideological agenda? Could that Governor, conceivably, remove members of that School Board from office so that students in that school district are indoctrinated into the Governor’s particular political ideology?

Think that analogy extreme? Please read the link, below, concerning how academic freedom of thought for professors in some universities is now being compromised by powerful, billionaire ideologues who are “buying” away their academic freedom of thought. The present situation with the DeKalb Board of Education requires reflection beyond how to handle that particular School Board’s problems because decisions now made concerning members of that particular Board of Education will set precedent which will effect other citizens in the state of Georgia, well into the future.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/1277

• Link
• Report this comment

Since we are hitting on the wrestling theme relative to SACS and the DeKalb County Board of Education, let me re-submit (with minor changes) a post that I submitted a day or two ago…

Speaking of Georgia Championship Wrestling, it appears that the DeKalb Team has been thrown over the ring ropes and Homer O’Dell will be leading Buddy Colt and Billy Spier in the next grudge match against Mark Elgart and SACS which are being led by the Tag Team Managing Team of Bill and Melinda Gates.

Eugene Walker, morphing the illustrious Dusty Rhodes, has been targeted as the bad guy personified. But the real bad guy in this episode is Dusty’s former partner with the Texas Outlaws, Dick Murdoch, who is being morphed by Mark Elgart who has monies galore behind his team. Ole Gene (aka Dusty) will be the Champion of the People again. I don’t think that you’ve seen the last of Dusty Walker…even in the DeKalb School Board races. I think that Dusty Walker’s Team will control the next school board elections in DeKalb School. The Big Man from Upson County was made to look like a real Heel, but deep down the voters of DeKalb see him as their adorable Baby Face.

I remember seeing a wrestling magazine in the Summer of 1976. The headline was this: “The Question Terrifying the Wrestling World: Will Dusty Rhodes Turn Bad Again?” Ha! I love watching the American Dream do interviews on TV. No one could talk more smack than the Dream. Ole Gene Walker is the Dusty Rhodes in this wrestling scenario in DeKalb County. Do people forget that Ole Gene has been elected many times to different offices in DeKalb? This is the problem. The powers lurking behind the SACS’s imbroglio with the DeKalb Board of Education know that they cannot control or influence Ole Gene Walker. This is why, in their small minds, he had to go. School systems are about money these days. We’re not talking about small money. We’re talking about the big money that the Gates Foundation, the Pearson Group (the largest educational company in the world, including McGraw Hill and many other publishing companies), the Broad Foundation, et al., apparently want. Yes, before it is over, Bill Gates will probably have “donated” (really “invested”) close to one billion dollars, but some estimate that his return with Microsoft apps in all of the schools could be as high as 100 billion dollars. Cantankerous school boards like Clayton’s and DeKalb’s were in the way. Only pliable and kiss-up school boards are wanted.

Actually, these groups don’t even want local school boards. Really. They want at best Regional School Boards and would really like to nationalize the schools. The several thousands of local school boards are too hard to manage. (See Clayton and DeKalb.) Therefore, the accreditors (e. g., AdvanED and its SACS) are so very important for this new national and global enterprise. Ivan Koloff (aka the Russian Bear) Elgart is really the true Heel. He is the Bad Guy (Heel) who, in my opinion, is out to destroy local control of the school boards. I think that he is just a willing pawn of the monied class. SACS, in the old days, was a harmless good house-keeping seal of approval. Today, SACS is being positioned as the ultimate totalitarian ruler which controls Public Education from pre-K through Graduate School.

The other day I was reading where the Board of Regents in Georgia merged several colleges and universities at its January meeting this year. North Georgia College and State University and Gainesville State College merged to become the University of North Georgia. In the publications explaining the merger, the folks declared that “SACS approved of the merger.” What? Is SACS Frederick the Great or Ivan the Terrible or King George III of Public Education? Yes, the real Heel is Mark Elgart and AdvanED. We need more Dusty Walkers to buck up to SACS. I think that the People of North Carolina essentially told SACS to kiss its collective A$s. We need more of this. We need a complete revolution against SACS and this nefarious scheme of muting local school boards and eventually eradicating local school boards. This is where it is heading folks, and you can remember that “crazy” John Trotter told you so – just like I have told you many things in the past which have occurred.

• Link
• Report this comment

Is trying to influence a school board to protect a school superintendent who “knew or should have known” about the largest cheating scandal in United States educational history “good governance”?

Apparently Markie Mark Elgart does.

According to this very paper (correct me if I’m wrong Maureen) Markie Mark Elgart meet privately with a former board chair El in order to strong arm into ceding the board chairmanship back to Lashundra Butler-Burks, a woman who actively conspired with Beverly Hall (according to this very paper, correct me if I’m wrong Maureen) to delete emails with evidence of cheating.

If Markie Mark was willing to help Beverly Hall survive politically (and in fact go so far as to threaten loss of accreditation in order to protect Beverly Hall) what other ethical shortcuts might he and SACS be doing, and to what political end?

Yes it does feel a bit like Morpheus asking you if you want the red pill, but still, you might want to check out Invisible Serf.

• Link
• Report this comment

I expect the Governor on Monday will request the 6 school board members to do what is best for the students and to resign from their position. He will want the individuals to make the best choice for the students. I predict that some will resign and put the students first and that at least 3 of them will fight and will not resign. I pedict that the ones who do what is best for the students may be appointed back.

I predict the race card will be played.

I agree that SACs was slow to act. However, you really have to do something really bad to get put on probation. As an educator I have watched this process for years and it is a fair process. SACs actually goes out into the schools when going through the process and active administrators from around the state are normally involved in the process.

I also believe there must be a check and balanced system and that school board members should be able to be impeached by the state if there is a problem. Our President is elected and he can be impeached. Education of our children is a state mandate by federal laws. Our local counties and communities are not responsible for educating our children but our state legally is. That is the reason the formulas exist that take money away from counties like DeKalb, Fulton, and Cobb and give it to school systems around the state (even Gwinnett).

I know there is much question able the constitutional issue and I respect that as I come from a family with many lawyers. However, the school board must abide by certain ethics and have boundaries to protect the children in our state and nation. Otherwise local school boards can do as they please (as many of the these school board members have) and the children will suffer.

• Link
• Report this comment

What interesting discussion. Politics & Wrestling, oh my!

SACS: DeKalb County has accepted SACS’ role/judgement for years now and even upped the ante by seeking System accreditation . Whether you like SACS or not, DeKalb School System has agreed to the terms of governance and now should accept their decisions. an indictment of One out of a thousand can’t be construed as racial, careless or all-to-powerful

SBOE & Governor’s role: It is a very slippery slope. The local board has broken no laws yet has run the system into the ground and into debt. And yet most members could win re-election today.

Should DeKalb voters be protected from themselves and their choices Or does the state governing body have a right – through arduous process – to protect our children from the voters of this county?

Only one DeKalb leader has spoken out. Sheriff Thomas Brown has had the bravery to suggest the board should step aside.

Where are our other county leaders ?

• Link
• Report this comment

HI Maureen,

A question – you wrote: “The law cedes unprecedented and almost absolute power over elected officials to a private accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The law specifies that boards can be removed by the governor after being put on probation by its accrediting agency. In this case, that agency is SACS…”

Does this state law actually cede power to SACS specifically, or does it cede power to *any* of the recognized accrediting agencies?

I ask because I am wondering if the courts could decline to get involved because the board had two other possible remedies available, in lieu of suing. The board could have (1) selected another accrediting agency instead of SACS and/or (2) they could have improved their performance and never have ended up being the only board put on probation by SACS!

My hope is that a judge would look at the board, tell them they had free will and that they agreed to use this particular agency (SACS), and so the board must now deal with the repercussions of their choices.

However, I have no idea if that is actually how judges think – I am not an attorney, nor do I pretend to be one in online forums!

• Link
• Report this comment

@DM, you may be onto something here. You’re right of course that all these dollars from the state flow to this county’s coffers to educate children (with all the strings that come with it). So “impeachment”? Maybe so. But on the basis of what? SACS and the mystery stories it proffered, with the declaration that it would not share it’s sources? Let’s stipulate that the state does indeed have authority over this system. If so, then the state should produce IT’S proof. During the hearing on Thursday, I never heard Howe, the Curriculum/Instruction deputy, or Perone, the CFO, say that anyone — ANYONE — approached them to get to the bottom of the textbook business. They are the deputies and they testified under oath that they were never asked a darn thing. If there’s an impeachment process in place today which allows for people to throw rocks and hide their hands, I don’t know about it. SACS, in this case, gets to do that. And it is solely on the basis of SACS that the SBOE was permitted to entertain a recommendation for removal.

• Link
• Report this comment

To me, the difference between the dysfunctional DeKalb County Board of Education and other dysfunctional elected bodies such as county commissions is that the BOE is directly affecting the future opportunities of nearly 100,000 students. These are children!

They only have one chance at their education! They can’t be put on hold while the adults act like children and bullies.

I don’t think much of SACS either, especially their willingness to overlook the tremendous decline in DCSD for so long, but the buck has got to stop. If we weren’t paying so much for legal fees and a bloated central office staff we could pay our teachers a fair wage and give our children an education that will give them opportunities for success in life.

• Link
• Report this comment

The powerful business interest decided to consolidate their interests in the Metro Atlanta Chamber.

Yes and well saw how well that worked (according to this very paper, correct me if I’m wrong Maureen) An almost universally derided “Blue Ribbon Committee” investigation, members of which (according to this very paper, correct me if I’m wrong Maureen) actively conspired with Beverly Hall to cover up evidence of cheating, all with an expressed purpose to “finesse this past the governor” in the hopes that it might all go away.

This was supposed to “improve things”?

• Link
• Report this comment

There are several groups coordinated in this effort to modify DeKalb County schools: SACS, the state board of education, the governor’s office, various ancillary local political community, parent and homeowner community.

This refuse-to-behave school board seems to have a lawyer addiction, using hired counsel as a form of management, as if hired counsel is part of their collective of employees or support staff. The moral error is that this method of “support staff” does not fit budget guidelines and real fiduciary duty as guardians of public money. Any they seem thoroughly addicted to it – right up to the very end. http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/dekalb-school-board-files-injunction-stop-suspensi/nWXdQ/ Truly, they just.don’t.get.it. I encourage everyone to view the hearing video when it is formatted and posted online and see how flippant / arrogant / dismissive some of these folk are to anyone regulating them. They just do not get on board or respond and seems to be under the illusion that they are a power unto themselves.

• Link
• Report this comment

There was a 14 hour session and deliberation of a few minutes.
The governor has a weekend naturally to make him look deliberate.
The legislature is rushing through legislation regarding the new board members.
The SBOE magically has a totally different interpretation of how the law impacts new board members.
It all speaks to this being a dog and pony show with everything already decided behind the scenes. And the Dekalb legislative delegation is going to have their hand in the pie, much like the legislature insists on being able to appoint the SBOT in our dysfunctional transportation governance. The only question is who and how much.

• Link
• Report this comment

DeKalb BoE aside, Yes SACS can trigger government constitutional over reach, with no public/goverment regulations, oversight/accountability, standards, or burden of proof. BUT, it can be an effective tool to soften the beach head to accelerate charter school deployment and expand its market.

(Note: I like charter schools as “ONE” tool to help improve public education)

• Link
• Report this comment

Well, this will be a chance to see if the “cure” is any better than the “illness!”

I still have major concerns over the actors in this scenario. Has the board been disfunctional? Yes. Has it had the children first and foremost? No. Should the governor be allowed to replace it with others? Is the law regarding this, as dependent on SACS accreditation flawed? I say yes, in a big way.

I feel for the folks of Dekalb. (My daughter rents a house there, and I am sure at least $400 of the monthly rent goes to the school system.) I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but I shudder to think of some of the implications.

• Link
• Report this comment

Despite all of the issues surrounding the efficiency of this Board and capabilities. What is Fast emerging as glaring concern is the Lack of Leadership and understanding of duties and responsibilities of The Intern Superintendent Michael Thurmond.

For some reason Mr.Thurmond thinks or implies he is responsible for the managing of the school Board. Mr Thurmond needs to spend a few hours in the Superintendent’s office reading and trying to find out just what are the Systems polices and duties are for the Superintendent. Instead of Flying by the seat of his pants just because he is a Lawyer.

The difference is as wide as APPLES and Oranges. Any First grader knows the difference between those two fruits..

This should be a glaring RED LIGHT for the entire community and the BOARD as well as SACS. it seems Mr.Thurmond’s inexperience and under qualifications will even further disrupt,enhance and contribute to an already further deteriorating situation. Mr.Thurmond has already proven that he is out of his depth and understanding of the issues, he is being charged with. This is the second time in two weeks he has made inaccurate and woefully uninformed statements as to what his responsibilities are.

As far as duties, Managing the School Board is certainly NOT one of Them. That would apply for any School System Superintendent. An aggressive search should be implemented ASAP before further damage and waste of Taxpayor funds are spent inefficiently.

• Link
• Report this comment

As a voting taxpayer, I have a real problem with a private agency having so much power over an elected school board, no matter how crazy and dysfunctional they are. Mark Elgart doesn’t like the look of you then he snaps his fingers and viola! you’re on probation! Seriously?! What is the purpose of basing accreditation on how well the school board gets along but shrugging your shoulders at poor school performance? Isn’t that the purpose of accreditation?! Personally I could care less how well the crazies like each other, I got a real problem with low academic achievement. It makes no sense.

• Link
• Report this comment

Beverly, It is possible that no one will give them the time of day on their “big nasty lawsuit” and it will (again) be thrown out of court. If I make a guess, I will guess that their federal court judge will reference the state decision and say “See you. Have a nice day.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pP_hqHg4Tw#t=0m34s

• Link
• Report this comment

But @Private Citizen I would say the marco reasons were precisely what governed (pun intended) Markie Mark’s actions with the APS school board…

• Link
• Report this comment

Mrs. Norman, SACS is like the traffic officer writing a ticket. The violation is “fiduciary duty.” In this scenario, the traffic officer does not have power beyond that, it then goes to the court/judge. Basic stuff, really. The thing is, the scale of the DeKalb situation is why so many people / agencies are involved. It is really a very good thing.

Yes, SACS can play two roles, like the officer who can impound and tow the car, too, take it off the road.

• Link
• Report this comment

Beverly, I tell myself that I will not call you Beverly because I think it is not right, but anyway, I see the whole world as a piece of graph paper, and then you apply cause and effect. If you want to make it three dimensional, apply the time / history component of where things come from, origin, evolution, and time lines. I should write an essay on it. One thing on local education, very little attention to care-taking history and sequence of ideas and where they come from. Many of the initiatives, rules and requirement, especially from the state, have no author. Some outrageous thing and it says “State DOE” at the bottom of the page. You don’t know if it came from George Soros or Pinnochio.

Hey a different subject. NPR is definitely being used as a quaalude / sedative on the populace. Turned on the radio in the car last night and they had some person in an interview talking about their warm fuzzy blanket. It sounds like a joke. I’m not kidding. That’s NPR’s function now, to keep people dumb and put them to sleep in the land of “feelings.”

• Link
• Report this comment

It will be fascinating to see the deal cut in the General Assembly.
Jason Carter and Shirley Franklin’s son Cabral are muttering about dire consequences if every black Democrat suspended from the Board is not replaced with another black Democrat.
Another move is to make the DCSS a refuge for out-of-office Democrat politicians – Michael Thurmond as interim superintendent, Thurbert Baker as the author of governance training, Denise Majette or Vernon Jones on the Board, etc., etc…..
Not one word about what is best for the students.

• Link
• Report this comment

Why do think they have 25 required “review” approval processes on the way to publishing a dissertation for .phd? The mechanism is done through funding. And the people doing the funding make telephone calls or write emails to direct things, when needed to direct and perpetuate their mode. Why do thing the USA thinks that the US defeated Germany in WW2 and those 168 million Russians who gave their lives crunching through the snow to kick Germany’s ass are not taught in US schools, the US gets to see the propaganda films made when the US showed up after the job was done?

• Link
• Report this comment

whoops. meant to say “butt.” I should probably update / improve my forms of expression.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Dr. Trotter, there is no “quick fix” to the DCSS quagmire. In this situation, I do not think you will win the argument that you leave this up to the voters. DCSS is in crisis mode, and needs swift intervention. As @Maureen would probably agree, this is a “no-win” situation. We have a dysfunctional board that brought in a politician to run the schools. The only sensible option would be for the governor to remove the six board members, not suspend them with pay, and insert six professional managers who live in Dekalb County to fix the governance issues. Lets not forget the fact that DCSS has a 59% high school graduation rate!

You would be ok leaving the current system intact? We have nine “fiefdoms” on the board – no one is looking at the best interests of the entire school system, and no one is thinking about the children. As one commenter said in another post, Thurmond didn’t put the teachers at the top of his meeting list when he took the job!

This situation is a real mess, and this is the time for the Governor, whether you support him or not, to show true leadership, and not let politics drive the decision. Have the courage to do the right thing,which is to intervene NOW. There are few leaders in our history who have done what is right, rather than what scores them political points. One example is John Adams sacrificing his second term by not waging war with France and saving the union. Another, lesser example is Gerald Ford pardoning Nixon, so the country could heal and not be torn apart by the distraction of a messy trial of a former president.

If we wait for the voters, we risk accreditation NOW and that is unacceptable, regardless of what you think of the methods of SACS. That debate is for another day – we would not be in this predicament if it wasn’t for an incompetent board. Remember that when you author your next personal assault on Elgart.

• Link
• Report this comment

“DeKalb was great in the 60’s/70’s,” was SACS involved? Does anyone know how regulation was done at that time?”

In the ’60’s and 70’s, DeKalb was a predominantly white upper- middle class county. That’s why they got the Fernbank Science Center. Emory and CDC wealthy professionals added to the mix. When housing integration accelerated in the late ’70’s, the demographics changed. This is well documented.

• Link
• Report this comment

Decatur is the Sandy Hook of DeKalb. Wealthy and influential citizens took over the independent City of Decatur school district (one elementary, middle, and high school) and turned it into one big charter for total control. If you aren’t rich enough to buy a house in the city school limits, forget it.

• Link
• Report this comment

All the DeKalb school board members slated for removal are MINORITIES!
This is OBVIOUSLY A RACIAL PLOY! Why does Maureen condone this, since she is safely within the City of Decatur limits?
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/21311574/dekalb-co-school-board-files-for-temporary-restraining-order-over

• Link
• Report this comment

I still don’t understand how the DeKalb Board could approve budgets that result in a deficit when those actions are against state law. Nancy Jester, a BOE member, showed them in accounting terms how they were underestimating recurring costs and explained this to them. The BOE had the numbers in hand to show they were in danger of running a deficit when they depleted the entire reserve fund. Articles were in the newspapers regarding DeKalb being the only metro system to have NO reserve fund. Moody’s downgraded DeKalb’s credit rating because of this:
http://www.crossroadsnews.com/view/full_story/19913910/article-Moody%E2%80%99s-downgrades-DeKalb-Schools-credit-rating-

This BOE knew or should have known based on the math that was accessible to them that they were creating a situation that was against the law when they took the school district into a deficit. Why are they not being investigated and possibly prosecuted for this?

• Link
• Report this comment

“This BOE knew or should have known based on the math that was accessible to them that they were creating a situation that was against the law when they took the school district into a deficit. Why are they not being investigated and possibly prosecuted for this?”

It has always been my contention in this situation that if the Board members were doing something illegal to cause DeKalb’s woes, then PROSECUTE THEM and if found guilty, LAWFULLY REMOVE THEM.

OBVIOUSLY, the DeKalb School Board has enablers, AND THEIR REAL MOTIVE IS TO REMOVE ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS from the law! This is part of the NWO takeover plot. JUST ASK “INVISIBLE SERF’S COLLAR.” Read the blog.

• Link
• Report this comment

@dekalbite
If the AJC isn’t on board with exposing any illegality of the Board’s actions, then they are one of the enablers….

• Link
• Report this comment

“Remember that when you author your next personal assault on Elgart.”

And @living I would suggest you consider that focusing strictly on the likes of Walker (no matter how much his shenanigans are reminiscent of Boss Hogg) and putting off the debate on Elgart and SACS for another day could be considered the equivalent of making sure the book gets thrown at a a fisherman who throws a beer bottle in the Gulf while we defer action on BP.

Take a look at Invisible Serf’s blog, and you might see just how dire the consequences could be if sunlight isn’t shone, and shone quickly on AdvancED.

• Link
• Report this comment

Well Maureen, @3:25pm the moniker is “Truth in Moderation not “Truth to Excess”

• Link
• Report this comment

Well bu2 Jester does appear to have a significant amount of common sense, and a degree of integrity to go along with it.

If that’s not the epitome of “minority” on this board, I don’t know what is…

• Link
• Report this comment

Without SACS, the parents of Dekalb would be powerless against the corruption and incompetence of the Board. This sad dysfunctional drama has gone on too long. Is there any evidence that this board, left to its own will serve the children or the taxpayers of the county?

Thank goodness that there is some force that in such extreme cases of destructive malfeasance that the Board can be replaced.

I would be very careful about feeding the fires of race and politics here. Jason Carter and the democrats are walking a fine line. It would be very easy for Deal and the state BOE to walk away and leave you to clean up your own mess. Imagine if the governor issues a statement on Monday to the effect of “you broke it, you bought it”. It would be politically easier for him but bad for the children.

• Link
• Report this comment

Without SACS, the parents of Dekalb would be powerless against the corruption and incompetence of the Board.

You right Wilbur; it’s not like parents have the right to vote or anything…

Get your point Wilbur, but if you want to experience real powerlessness let AdvancEd and their ilk get their hooks in with their agenda.

• Link
• Report this comment

MARY E….’Could that Governor, conceivably, remove members of that School Board from office so that students in that school district are indoctrinated into the Governor’s particular political ideology?”
____________________________________________________________________

Of course ….. We have not ,in this red state, still internalized what democracy is all about , have we?

• Link
• Report this comment

“Just look into where the fed money that was suppose to go to class rooms ended up but was spent on the boe building.”

True. There is the matter of the $30,000,000 they spent last SPLOST to build a beautiful new Central Office while schools have leaky roofs and torn up tracks.

The rules are made so that recall is extremely difficult. And certainly since they are elected by district, one district cannot do anything about recall in another district.

• Link
• Report this comment

Here are the seven Advance-ed standards by which schools are evaluated:

Vision and Purpose
Governance and Leadership
Teaching and Learning
Documenting and using results
Resource and support Systems
Stakeholder Communications and Relationships
Commitment to Continuous improvement

• Link
• Report this comment

Paulo977, 4:28 pm

“Of course ….. We have not ,in this red state, still internalized what democracy is all about , have we?”
==================================================

We must remain ever-thinking, conscious citizens in order to sustain our invaluable democratic republic for future generations, Paulo.

• Link
• Report this comment

DCSS is a HOT MESS and will continue to be a hot mess. The govenor should step in and dismantle the board and I hope that it happens like yesterday. DCSS just like all other school systems within the US are mandated by both the United States Education Department and their state’s DOE. Perhaps, WHEN the state takes over the system we can find some sense of taking education back to educating instead of politics. But, education has always been political even prior to Horace Mann and the passing of public edcation for all people.

• Link
• Report this comment

Besides the DCSB there are layers of problems from the organization of the county office all the way down to the schools. We need a superintendent from another successful district to come in and reorganize the school system.

We also need teachers to explain what all the problems are. Cheryl Atkinson did this and made some changes. I really don’t know what all the issues were with her.

We did not have any financial problems in DCSS until Dr. Hallford retired. After he left, the financial sovency of Dekalb went down the drain.

I wish that we could have Dr. Alvin Wilbanks, former Dekalb principal and superintendent of Gwinnett to come over and reorganize things for us. They have more students than we do and somehow they have got it together. They have a lot of minorities but somehow their intervention for at risk students is more successful than ours is. That is the first reason that we need someone that knows how to make things happen which is in the best interest of the students.

• Link
• Report this comment

Yep. The more I look at that google street view over in Decatur, IT LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BE IN SANDY HOOK!
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/1218/Sandy-Hook-shooting-s-glare-illumines-cracks-in-mental-health-care-video

• Link
• Report this comment

I like what a lady said at a board public meeting.

She pointed out that, if you work for a corporation and are fired, you normally don’t hire a lawyer to get your job back.

• Link
• Report this comment

Please conduct a real investigation into how Eglert came to power at SACS and how its the only show in this and many other towns in the country and you will see the truth, I dare you!!! Look what his decision to yank Clayton County’s accreditation did. It wreck the home values and made the economic conditions worse, when things were already terrible and hurt a lot of children. Many could not get scholarships or had to make concessions when it came to furthering their education. Boards and elected officials and any elected body functions poorly at times, jsut take a look at the state house, but no one threatens to unseat them over rumors and poor communication.

• Link
• Report this comment

@CompetenceNotDiversity

“Those who can will leave”
I have a suggestion, “head west young man!” It doesn’t get any better than Feinstein’s Promised Land. Lots of milk and honey…..if you play the market right. I hear ITT Educational Services is a hot stock right now. Just ask Blum Capitol Partners LP.

• Link
• Report this comment

“This is an EDUCATION system – not a job entitlement system”
Public education? You sure had me fooled!

• Link
• Report this comment

Here is Dr. Mark A. Elgart’s Advance-ed bio:
http://www.advanc-ed.org/executive-leadership

• Link
• Report this comment

One day — and I hope soon — we will look back on this era of public education in Georgia as the Dark Days of BackwardED. We will see clearly that public education in Georgia was SACed by the Vandals from Alpharetta. In my opinion, SACS has caused nothing but harm to the educational systems of Clayton, Warren, Sumter, and DeKalb. What will be glaringly clear to us then is that predominantly black school boards and systems were disproportionately SACed by SACS whereas the predominately white school boards and school systems (e. g., Fulton, Gwinnett, and Cobb) were allowed to engage in all kinds of unethical and illegal infractions with impunity from Elgart the Hun. We will, I hope, blush with embarrassment at the stupidity of turning over the approval or disapproval of our public schools to one biased man and organization. This epoch of public education will, I again hope, will be as embarrassing as looking back on separate water fountains in Kirven’s Department Store in Columbus, Georgia. Yes, I am old enough to remember seeing the two fountains right beside each other, one nice and well-built and the other small and dingy. This was “normal” back then…just as some think that it is “normal” to allow Prince Markie to prance around in his royal pajamas as he yelps his childish and immature disapproval of certain school boards because cannot “play nice” with each other. Please, never let Mark Elgart enter into Washington City because the members of the U. S. Congress and the U. S. Supreme Court never “play nice.”

I wonder if Mark Elgart’s children or nephews and nieces attended some of the war zones schools that he would only be concerned about “school board governance.” Why is he only concerned for this? Obviously, this is so easy deal with. The real rather intractable problems in public education might actually require someone to roll up his or her sleeves and get his princely attire ruffled and soiled. Plus, it’s really about control, isn’t it? I think that Prince Elgart is caught in the power that the General Assembly of Georgia stupidly gave him. Yes, the General Assembly was stupid in ceding this power to a person who seems rather rapacious in wielding disproportionately this power. Perhaps the Church Fathers of Georgia Politics knew exactly what they were doing, thinking, “What we can’t control at the ballot box, we will control through our little willing prince.”

• Link
• Report this comment

Please forgive the typos in my previous post. Hadn’t had my coffee yet. You guys have a good day!

• Link
• Report this comment

DIO: I am sure that ole Thom Jefferson is turning over in his grave over SACS’s threat to take away its accreditation there. I am sure that he is not a fan of Mark Elgart. Again, I think that SACS’s threat here was about the Board of Regents talking about firing the President of UVA. SACS = Still Advocating for Cronies (e. g., university presidents) and Superintendents.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Dr. John Trotter
Why don’t you put legs to your discourse?
AdvancEd (SACS) is a 501c3 CHARITY! I’m sure the IRS has detailed info on how they are running their organization. Please explain how a CHARITY, with VOLUNTEERS, can wield such power Constitutionally?

• Link
• Report this comment

So Thurmond and Johnson are going to bat for them and apparently they are trying to push through as much as they can in anticipation that they may be ousted by the governor. The word is they will try to raise our millage rate (we are at 24.75 so they can only raise it .25). They know the governor has called a press conference for 11:30 so they are rushing a meeting for 9:30 am – no doubt to approve money for their lawsuits. Nice to give the public less than 48 hours notice, but then the meeting is not about students or taxpayers. I emailed Dr. Johnson and my BOE rep my opinion of this:

“This just in:

February 23, 2013

NOTICE OF DEKALB BOARD OF EDUCATION CALLED MEETING

The DeKalb Board of Education will hold a called meeting at 9:30am,
Monday, February 25, 2013, in the J. David Williamson Board Room in the
Robert R. Freeman Administrative Center at the DeKalb County School
System’s Administrative & Instructional Complex, 1701 Mountain Industrial
Boulevard, Stone Mountain. Immediately following the called meeting, the
Board of Education will adjourn to the Cabinet Room for an executive
session, for the purpose of discussing legal matters.

The meeting agenda is attached. Meeting information can be accessed
online by going to: http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us, click on Leadership, go to
eBoard Home Page and click on the date for the meeting agenda\information.

Sincerely,

Dr. Melvin Johnson, Chair
DeKalb Board of Education

c: Members, DeKalb Board of Education
Mr. Michael L. Thurmond, Superintendent
Administrative Cabinet
Public, Press & Media Relations
Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, LLP
Alexander & Associates, PC

+++

Meeting Agenda

A. CALL TO ORDER
B. ROSTER
C. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
D. ACTION ITEM
1. Approval of Deficit Elimination Plan
E. ADJOURN TO EXECUTIVE SESSION
F. ANNOUNCEMENTS
G. ADJOURN”

• Link
• Report this comment

Restating my last comment because an important word got missed in the first sentence.

@Beverly Fraud, I did NOT insinuate that fixing the board will fix DCSS. There is NO magic bullet to reform the school system – it is indicative of the problems that most urban school systems are suffering from. However, part of the problem is governance, and it needs to be fixed. You can’t go blaming SACS for the problems of DCSS. They have done that themselves. Fixing a school system is going to be messy any way you slice it. This process is going to be painful and it will take time. But I will say UNEQUIVOCALLY that if the board members try to drag this out in the courts, they are only thinking of themselves and not the children. There is bi-partisan support for their removal – why they are “suspended with pay” is beyond me.

We need an intervention, and NOW. We also need some experienced educators helping transform DCSS, but like APS, no one will want the job when you have such a dysfunctional governance structure. It’s a vicious circle – and so very sad.

• Link
• Report this comment

Here is what we paid lawyers last year. We are on track to pay $13,000,000 this year. It appears that we must pay an additional $30,000,000 in law fees if we shut down that major lawsuit (or just go on accruing tens of millions – win win for lawyers and lose lose for DeKalb children):

SUTHERLAND ASBILL BRENNAN LLP $2,530,906 PURCHASED PROFESSIONAL AND TECH SVCS
ALEXANDER & ASSOCIATES $1,062,509 PURCHASED PROFESSIONAL AND TECH SVCS
KING & SPALDING $713,716 PURCHASED PROFESSIONAL AND TECH SVCS
ELARBEE THOMPSON & TRAPNELL $555,247 PURCHASED PROFESSIONAL AND TECH SVCS
GOODMAN MCGUFFEY LINDSEY & $57,743 PURCHASED PROFESSIONAL AND TECH SVCS
ALEXANDER & ASSOCIATES $402,589 PURCHASED PROFESSIONAL AND TECH SVCS
CF BROCK AND ASSOCIATES LLC $34,477 PURCHASED PROFESSIONAL AND TECH SVCS
WANDA S JACKSON PC $35,000 PURCHASED PROFESSIONAL AND TECH SVCS
FOLTZ MARTIN LLC $32,178 PURCHASED PROFESSIONAL AND TECH SVCS

Look at the agenda above and then look at who the lawyers are at the emergency “called” meeting.

Source for payments to legal firms 2012:
http://www.open.georgia.gov/
(click on Other Expenditure>Payments>use drop downs for 2012, Local Boards of Education, DeKalb County Board of Education, Funding source select ALL

• Link
• Report this comment

The question of why the DeKalb BOE has not been investigated is one that needs to be answered by D.A. Robert James. 2 separate Grand Juries recommended a special Grand Jury be established to investigate the BOE. Why has this not been done? Why has the D.A. continued ti ignore a Grand Jury recommendation?

Again, the State of Georgia is clear that the responsibility to educate public school students lies with the state. If State officials feel local BOE members need to be “impeached” due to dereliction of duty, then I believe the Governor has that right.

• Link
• Report this comment

That anyone believes this BOE is being unseated due to “rumors and poor communication” has no clue about what has been going on with DeKalb County Schools and its BOE.

• Link
• Report this comment

Well it’s clear Eugene Walker, aka Clown Central, can’t do much for the students of DCSS. But perhaps a contentious, nasty lawsuit, played out like a train wreck in the public eye can shed some much needed SUNLIGHT on Markie Mark Elgart and the minions of SACS.

Isn’t it ironic that the privateer supporters who passed Amendment 1 might end up doing their best good not by having students bypass school systems like DeKalb, but instead bypassing organizations like SACS.

• Link
• Report this comment

Trying to make SACS the issue here is clear deflection. We’re done with deflection whether it be the continued attempt by arrogant blowhards to “blame” SACS or the “race card” several BOE members still try to hang on to.

• Link
• Report this comment

Trying to make SACS the issue here is clear deflection.

To those who are making excuses for the board; yes. To those who see the big picture no!

Hard to accuse someone of saying they are trying to “deflect” when they regularly refer to the board as “Clown Central” isn’t it Dunwoody Mom?

Dunwoody Mom, I get your point but I would suggest checking out Invisible Serf’s Collar, and you might start to realize that DCSS is the “clear deflection” for what SACS is trying to do nationwide

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Truth in Moderation, Feb. 24, 10:24 am: “The only thing that counts, in a nation with the rule of law, is DID THE SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS BREAK ANY LAW?? Someone posted earlier that a state attorney said they did, regarding their handling of funds. THIS IS WHAT SHOULD BE PURSUED! WHY ARE THEY NOT BEING CHARGED?”

The law provides that the Governor can remove a local school board IF the state BOE recommends this. This in turn hinges on whether SACS is about to remove the county schools’ accreditation because of the actions of this local school board. Further, the grounds for reinstatement of the board members is whether or not they will improve the ability of the board to retain or reattain the schools’ accreditation.

So whether or not the board member has broken criminal laws is a whole other ballgame. I would think that it takes a lot longer to remove a board member on criminal grounds than on the limited one of hindering school accreditation.

This is not to rule out a later charge of criminal behavior………

• Link
• Report this comment

I noticed a comment by a legislator in one of the AJC’s news items today that finding another accrediting agency is under discussion. What about the Georgia Accrediting Commission, already in place, affiliated with UGA, and providing accreditation for schools throughout Georgia? Why isn’t that a viable alternative to SACs? I’m curious.

• Link
• Report this comment

SACS was recently kicked out of North Carolina. Texas accredits its own schools. I’ve talked to many legislative types that are chomping at the bit to get SACS out. That being said, it will be difficult given the quid pro quo between SACS and school executive administrators.

• Link
• Report this comment

It appears your posts have more to do with attempting to discredit Mr. Elgart and SACS and less to do with the education of DeKalb students. This is the Board that made DeKalb teachers the lowest compensated in the metro area and gave them unmanageable class sizes to balance the budget (or in fact to run a deficit which is against the law).

I’m assuming you don’t have very many DeKalb teachers in MACE. If so, what has your organization done for the teachers and students of DeKalb?

• Link
• Report this comment

“DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has learned that a federal judge has responded to a request to keep Gov. Nathan Deal from announcing the possible suspension of members of the DeKalb County School Board.
Sources said the judge signed the order over the weekend.
Deal is set to make some sort of announcement on Monday which comes after the state Board of Education recommended six board members be removed from office. The judge’s ruling allows Deal to make a decision, but that decision cannot be enforced until a hearing is held.
A Channel 2 Action News crew is trying to get responses from the DeKalb School Board, the governor’s office. Watch live reports on Channel 2 Action News at 6. ”
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/dekalb-school-boards-future-delayed-fed-judge/nWYSt/

• Link
• Report this comment

@ dekalbite: Why don’t you go to the MACE website and read the testimonials from the DeKalb teachers about the effectiveness of MACE? I am sure that you know how to get there. Ha! You let me worry about protecting and empowering the MACE teacher-members in DeKalb. I can assure that they appreciate MACE and MACE’s aggressive advocacy for them…one member at a time. MACE makes no pretense of changing the budget, policies, etc. ODE just goes through this charade, jumping through hoops as the school board ignores them. It is so easy to prance around at the Capitol and speak at the school board meetings, but it is so much work actually taking care of the individual teachers…one member at a time. The principals understand this. This is why principals are very leery of messing with MACE members.

MACE doesn’t represent students or parents. MACE only represents classroom educators…one member at time. Do you get the drift yet? By the way, MACE knows that you can’t have good learning conditions until you first have good teaching conditions. We have seen firsthand what happens to a school system which is taken over by SACS. The student discipline goes out the window. Since Clayton County was effectively taken over by SACS in 2008, the school system has precipitously gone straight to H@LL in a hand basket. The teachers are treated like dog poop and the prisoners are running the prison, if I may use this metaphor. A teacher files a grievance, and H. R. chief, Douglas (Doug) Hendrix apparently thinks that he can dismiss the grievance. Well, not if it is a MACE grievance. We have a practice at MACE that when a grievance if filed and Human Resources has the temerity to think that it can ignore the Georgia Law (O. C. G. A. 20-2-989.5 et seq.) relative to Certified Employee Complaints, then we just picket. We ask: “Fairly private grievance or a very public picket? You choose.” So, I presume that we will be in front of North Clayton High School and Lee Street Elementary School (second picket at Lee Street this year) this week and next week. Also, I am sure that we will pay a visit to Mr. Hendrix and new superintendent Luvenia Jackson on the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue. Hmm. So, you see, “dekalbite,” why the teachers like us so? We don’t despair and throw our hands in the air. We get results. Same thing for the teachers in DeKalb County.

I hope that this was responsive to your query?

• Link
• Report this comment

I hope SACS strips Dekalb county’s accredtitation on Monday, since a judge has enjoined the Governor from ousting the board and appointing new members. Walker has vowed to fight to the death (of the DCSS). If you live in Dekalb county, start thinking state chartered schools.

Dr. Trotter – your idictment of SACS smacks of not wanting to be responsible to anyone. Are you claiming that SACs has made up everything about Dekalb and is nothing but a witch hunt?

• Link
• Report this comment

“BECAUSE THE LOCAL SCHOOL FUNDING WAS PROVIDED BY LOCAL PROPERTY TAXES. THIS IS WHAT MAKES THEM A “PUBLIC” SCHOOL”

Not all school funding is from local property taxes, but I’ll bite. Let the State withhold all state funding from Dekalb county while this lawsuit is going on.

• Link
• Report this comment

I agree completely that SACS is out of hand; however (and this is a big “However”), to suggest that the DeKalb School Board should not be removed is ludicrous. The criminal mismanagement of this once-proud system is obvious to everyone. The SACS issue is a red herring. Dr. Trotter can continue to rant about the misuse of power by SACS. I will continue to wonder why it matters.

• Link
• Report this comment

Mountain Man, I am sure that you will get over it. Heck, you have the rest of your life to get over it. I am dead set against SACS. I have said it over and over that it is a phony, private organization eating like a typical hog at the public trough. It adds nothing to the Gross National Product. It is a leach and sucks off of the public teat. Conflicts-of-interest galore.

Mountain Man, I believe in the democracy. How ’bout you? Democracy or Oligarchy?

I am all for empowering the classroom educators to teach. Support them in discipline and realize that you can never have good learning conditions until you first have good teaching conditions. How can you teach the DeKalb children about democracy when they see their democratically-elected school board members defrocked and re-placed by kiss-ups appointed by the Governor?

Heck, let the voters take care of the situation. We do this for city councils, county commissions, the legislature, the President of the United States, and so forth. It’s just too much money involved. It’s all about the cheddar. Do you have some cheddar at stake, Mountain Man? Ha!

• Link
• Report this comment

@mountain man

“Not all school funding is from local property taxes, but I’ll bite. Let the State withhold all state funding from Dekalb county while this lawsuit is going on.”

That’s correct. But it wasn’t that way in the beginning. We decided to apply communistic ideals and “redistribute” the wealth through additional state funding to “equalize’ the “public” schools. Hence, I usually have referred to them as “government” schools because the public’s direct influence over their local schools and taxes has been greatly diluted. As to your suggestion, this is a far more Constitutional approach for the ills of DeKalb than to FOOLISHLY FURTHER REMOVE ANY LOCAL CONTROL THAT WAS LEFT, by abdicating citizens’ responsibility to influence their schools to an UNELECTED 501c3 CHARITY MONOPOLY!

And you think you are smart???????

• Link
• Report this comment

Shouldn’t we care if the law is unconstitutional? I’m as upset as the next person about what the Dekalb board does but I care about the rule of law. If we remove people we don’t like with a law that isn’t within the constitutional authority of Georgia or violates something under the US Constitution, we are in deep trouble. Any law can be passed but it doesn’t mean it is constitutional. We should care about that. The place for this to be addressed is the ballot box. Be careful before you trash the constitution. You might need it in the future.

• Link
• Report this comment

@dekalbite

Thanks for your research. LOL! Regarding the fact that AdvancEd has major office space in Decatur, wouldn’t that give the impression of a CONFLICT OF INTEREST regarding their audit of the DeKalb school system? Also, since Decatur has all of its public schools under a charter, has it been protected in any way from the actions of the current school board? Please give us your thoughts on this.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Heck, let the voters take care of the situation.”

Sure, I will agree to that. Let Dekalb county goes down the tubes because the voters are not smart enough to elect a decent board. But SACS is the agreed accrediting agency, so if they do not comply, then they need to have their accreditation stripped. To give parents options, the State government should put out an amendment that cities can form their own school systems (like they used to do). Luckily, the State has amended the constitution to allow charter schools at the State level.

Democracy at it best. Let them fail.

• Link
• Report this comment

But how can the broke U.S. compete with THAT, you ask? Well the Prez is a WIZ at finding money we don’t have. He just follows the GOLD BRICK ROAD! Not to be boring, the U.S. has responded to the challenge with a BAM! (Brain Activity Map). We plan to map EVERY SINGLE NEURON in the HUMAN BRAIN! That means we have to figure out how to light up the LIVE brain like a Christmas tree to record just what your brain looks like while you are looking at pictures of por…err comic books! Or what your brain looks like when you are telling off a Federal Judge in court. Or when you are LYING. You get the “picture”. These ACIVE BRAIN MAPS will be stored on super computers and will be the data sent to the EU for their “PROJECT SCARECROW”. I am sure your brain is now bursting from info overload!

Well, I promised documentation, so here it is:

Your Brain on Drugs: Gleaned from THE DECADE OF THE BRAIN v1.0
ht tp://arc hives.drug abuse.gov/pdf/mon ographs/105.pdf

This is your brain on neuroscience
on rappoport.word press.co m/2013/02/20/this-is-your-brain-on-neuro science/

An overview: Brain Activity Map Project
ht tp://en.wiki pedia.org/wiki/Brain_Activity_Map_Project

• Link
• Report this comment

The board did not approve a budget with a deficit. Ramona Tyson simply ignored the budget. If there’s anyone who broke the law, its the administration of the school district, Ramona and her now fired CFO.

Now the board didn’t pay attention and didn’t monitor properly, just like McChesney, Speaks, Bowen, Womack, Walker, Cunningham, Copelin-Woods, Redovian and Roberts didn’t monitor Lewis stealing. But incompetence is not a crime.

• Link
• Report this comment

OOPS! LOL
Should read “BRAIN ACTIVITY MAP”

BTW, to post I had to divide story into 3 sections. In case you didn’t notice, part 2 posted first, part 1 posted next, and then part 3. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THE LINKS. Our children are at stake!

• Link
• Report this comment

“Be careful before you trash the constitution. You might need it in the future.”

What is unconstitutional about this law? Someone needs to point out the exact language in the constitution that says elected officials may not be removed.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Do you really believe that they voted for the likes of Walker and crew? I am sure they were in the minority.”

Oh yes they did. The highly affluent Fernbank community where most of those Emory and CDC people live put Walker into office. They got a $19,000,000 new school and as much protection for the Fernbank Science Center (with it’s selective STT program) as they could. They also escaped redistricting when every other school that was overcrowded or under crowded was redistricted. They were not in the minority in their vote. They came out in force for Walker in a sparsely attended election. Fernbank is the most powerful community in DeKalb. They are smart, affluent, organized and plugged in politically. They always know which way the wind is blowing. Newly elected Marshall Orson comes from Fernbank. He is friendly with Walker, and Thurmond says Orson suggested he be the superintendent (didn’t you read Maureen’s interview with Thurmond?). You do not understand DeKalb politics.

http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/01/attention-losers-this-is-how-you-win.html

http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2010/03/letter-from-fernbank-elementary-school.html

• Link
• Report this comment

“@ “dekalbite”: Let’s see now…we have, I think, 180 school systems in the State of Georgia. Would ten testimonials from each system satisfy you? 1,800 testimonials? By the way, I saw at least seven or eight testimonials from DeKalb teachers, but who really expected you to be accurate, right?”

I found other “DeKalb” teachers who no longer work for DeKalb giving testimonials on the MACE webiste if YOU want to be accurate.

The point is – what have you done to keep the compensation for those DeKalb teachers who belong to MACE from being reduced by the Board to the lowest in the metro area? Why don’t you ask these DeKalb teachers who belong to MACE if they are glad you are advocating for those BOE members to keep their jobs? I would be most interested to hear the DeKalb Teachers who belong to MACE say they want the very people who gutted their pay and their classrooms to stay in office.

• Link
• Report this comment

Walker and Emory/Fernbank
I thought this article gave an interesting analysis of the relationship between Walker and the Emory area.

“Walker one four precincts in the Emory area. Not only did he win them, he won them by double digits.”

Here are the precinct numbers:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtoPT5XcHyhcdHhubi01NDRUR2hIWmxaYkh0eGN5amc&authkey=CLq968IF&hl=en&authkey=CLq968IF#gid=0

• Link
• Report this comment

To continue with Christy’s point. I want to know what happened with those textbooks. Howe and Perone are the two people with the most knowledge regarding that issue. Neither SACS nor the State Board ever talked to them about the textbooks. I would like to have internal affairs or somebody sit next to Howe and Perone for however long it takes to get to the bottom of the textbook issue.

• Link
• Report this comment

My only other involvement with SACS was with a single school review of a nearby kindergarten. It went exactly how you would imagine, on the ground review of the school, staff, management, etc. They were accredited, by the way.

This systemwide accreditation with focus essentially only on the board? Just not sure. Our board is dysfunctional, perhaps beyond repair, and a new election might not fix it. But SACS’s focus is essentially only on the board. They caused much of this mess, but to me, the many supers & central office caused even more. Until completely addressed, we w/n get this thing fully on-track.

So short answer – yes, SACS has too much power, at least how the wield it. But some form of accredidation is needed – other agency, school-by-school, certainly worth exploring.

• Link
• Report this comment

Someone or some group needs to investigate SACS! It’s true that the voters in DeKalb and other districts may need to recall some board members, but SACS has become the elephant in the room. SACS makes a complaint, parents get up in arms, the offending school system “pays off SACS” by doing its bidding…..SACS makes money and the school system that they have complained about goes back to its normal activities. SACS is a bully and someone needs to recognize this!

• Link
• Report this comment