It is time for taxpayers and parents demand that the DCSS Central Office be forced to make real cuts. The Transportation Dept. and Info. Systems are two bloated examples. The Sam Moss Center staff is extremely ineffective with the most basic of maintenance, such as HVAC, roofing and grounds. The Athletics Dept. desperately needs to have a forensic audit. Poor spending choices for worthless products such as eSIS and America's Choice. An administration which doesn't even have a list of all the facilities it owns. Nepotism is out on control at DCSS.
And as Cere has pointed out before, here is where the cuts have to be made first by the BOE, to Gloria Talley's Army: 72 "Instructional Supervisors" at a cost of almost $6.4 million - plus 473 "Instructional Specialists" totaling $23.9 million
Crawford Lewis (when not issuing letters to all DCSS employees defending a principal who changed test scores and is now a convicted criminal for doing so, and when not making up unnecessary new departments like Corporate Wellness led by Yvonne Bulter, with no previous experience in public health) is clearly not the person who should be leading the downsizing of DCSS. He created the bloated, wasteful mess as superintendent, and before that, as part of the upper management inner circle. Johnny Brown was on his way to serious downsize the DCSS Central Office, and the overpaid Central Office administrators turned on him, and convinced the weak and blind BOE to let him go.
How dare he propose that teachers take 5 percent pay cut, right after he demanded to the BOE an increase for his salary and ridiculously high expense account, and after he was allowed to purchase a DCSS vehicle for one-third of its book value. How dare you, Crawford Lewis.
DeKalb schools propose cuts in programs, teacher pay
By Megan Matteucci
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5:29 p.m. Wednesday, January 20, 2010
DeKalb County pre-kindergarten classes, magnet schools and art courses will be slashed and teachers will likely see another pay cut to offset a $56 million deficit in the school system.
The only other option is to raise property taxes, DeKalb Superintendent Crawford Lewis said Wednesday.
Either way, students, teachers and administrators will feel the pinch next year.
On Wednesday, Lewis outlined several budget proposals to help trim $56 million from next year’s budget, which starts July 1.
A loss in revenue from declining property taxes and state aid caused the shortfall, he said.
The school board will spend the next few months deciding whether to raise property taxes or slash employees’ salaries through furloughs or a pay decrease.
“No one will lose their job,” Lewis told the board Wednesday. “But some employees will be offered a different position.”
Lewis said his goal is to avoid a property tax hike by trimming programs which have low attendance.
"We’re trying to be sensitive to people who are out of work, lost their homes to foreclosure and are struggling,” he said.
At 22.98 mills, DeKalb already has the third highest school tax rate in the metro area, according to Lewis.
Lewis’ proposal calls for teachers to take seven furlough days next school year or a 5 percent pay cut, an annual loss of about $3,200 for the average teacher. Administrators would take 15 furlough days under the proposal.
Bus drivers, custodians and cafeteria workers would not be affected. Substitute teachers would have their salary cut from $90 to $80 a day.
Those reductions would be in addition to about $11 million in cuts to school programs, including magnet and Montessori schools, classes at Fernbank Science Center, standardized testing in first and second grades, single gender schools and Lithonia Charter School and DeKalb Early College Academy. Summer school classes would be offered online only and half of the 104-pre-kindergarten classes would be cut. The state lottery funds pre-K teachers but not paraprofessionals, Lewis said.
The superintendent’s proposal also calls for 45 administrators in the central office to be transferred to schools, where they will become teachers.
The proposal also calls for cuts in the ranks of paraprofessionals, assistant principals and counselors. Once positions become vacant, they will not be filled.
Some board members said they would rather see a tax increase than cuts to teacher pay and programs.
If the board raises property taxes 1 mill, teachers would only face two furlough days or a 1.25 percent pay cut. The tax increase would cost a homeowner with a property valued at $200,000, about $68 more a year.
Board member Eugene Walker suggested the board raise taxes 2 mills, which would raise the average homeowner’s tax bill by about $135 more a year.
The county commission is also considering raising property taxes.
Teachers said they understand everyone will feel the effects of the recession and they are willing to take a cut. But they don’t understand why their furloughs are coming at the same time Lewis is getting a raise.
“Dr. Lewis just doesn’t get it with this pay issue,” said David Schutten, president of Organization of DeKalb Educators. “We’re willing to pitch in, but that continues to irk all of the employees.”
Earlier this month, the board voted to raise the superintendent’s pay from $240,000 to $255,000 and extend his contract to 2013.
On Wednesday, Lewis defended his raise and pointed out that he voluntarily took a pay cut last year.
“I don’t know any other superintendent who did that,” Lewis said. “Nothing I can say would be sufficient for anybody. If the board thought I was not a good deal, they would have gone outside and hired someone else.”
Despite the proposed cuts for next year, teachers said they are happy not to have to take any more furlough days this school year. Instead, they will not get contributions to their tax-sheltered annuity.
On Friday, Gov. Sonny Perdue asked teachers across Georgia to take three more days off to offset a decrease in state revenue.
The three furlough days equal about a $10.5 million budget cut in DeKalb, the state’s third largest school district.
Last year, the DeKalb board halted contributions to all school employees’ tax-sheltered annuity. By continuing with that cut, the board will save $9 million for the rest of the school year, Lewis said. The remaining $1.5 million will be trimmed from other spending.
The tax-sheltered annuity contributions will be re-instated July 1, Lewis said.
207 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 207 of 207I don't know Ron Ramsey. I do know the school board historically spent over $100K annually for two outside lobbyists to promote the DCSS agenda when the legislature was in session.
IMO employing lobbyists on behalf of DCSS is another collossal waste of money since we're talking about State-wide legislative changes and DeKalb is just a nit in the big picture. Although on second thought this is another "friends-and-family" opportunity for someone to get $60K+ for a few weeks work.
Nonetheless, if this guy Ramsey is promoting the District's needs from the inside to his peers, and trading his votes for those which DCSS needs, this is likely a good thing and worthwhile for the cost of absenteeism.
Admittedly I have not seen Ramsey's agenda to verify if this is so. Since DCSS is paying him, I can only hope it's true... or based on his salary I'll have to assume he's somehow related to Crawford or a BOE rep. ;-)
Oh... and Weber's wife retired from DCSS I believe. I hear she's still involved with schools in other counties. CLew and BOE you should be be held accountable for losing such great talent!
So one school didn't do a work order, then what was the problem at all the other schools. Remember Murphy Candler my child is still having health problems. So all the leaking roofs, roaches, sewage smells, stopped up commodes, kitchen equipment not working and not having heat. So what you are saying is that the principal is not doing his job? I hope a piece of paper would not keep what needs to be done when it is about wheather my child get's what he/she would need in school.
I work in facilites, and don't understand: Aren't Sam Moss staff inspecting schools on a regular basis, instead of just relying on work orders? Where is the preventative maintenance?
There is no preventative maintenance plan, there isn't enough staff for it - or parts. For instance, there aren't enough air filters in stock to do a quarterly system wide filter change as prescribed in our own policies.
And without that "ticket" or work order, there is no accountability for materials or verification of the technicians providing any service. Employees need the work orders to validate the work needing to be done. It is the schools responsibility to submit those work orders.
Ron Ramsey is one reason why Pat Pope got away with what she has done and has lost the district millions in state funding. When are our children going to be put first, this they are the reason we have a school system and Lewis, Ramsey, teachers, all staff, have jobs.
Are you telling me that Cross Keys never submitted work orders for any of the work that needed to be done? That's pretty hard to believe. That's what they always say about computer repairs. A lot of teachers submit multiple help desk calls for technology and their problems never get fixed.
I am telling you that's what Dr. Lewis told us to our faces and was one of the reasons he used for firing Chelf. Ironic that he blamed Chelf for Lakeside's building - but has never blamed anyone else for the condition of their building. (ie: Cross Keys, Chamblee or MLK's stinky smell they can't seem to get rid of.)
In fact, I would go so far as to say that principals lay low as far as asking for attention - they don't want it. They want to fly under Lewis' radar and show support by attending all of his community meetings as he insists they do. (Ever notice how many principals and office staff attend a Chamblee-Dunwoody Parent Council meeting? Ever notice how many security officers tag along? Those CDPC & ELPC meetings are so dangerous!)
Lewis has a Napoleon complex. He once asked at an ELPC meeting, (when we were discussing the difficulty of firing bad teachers) - "do any of you principals in this room feel that you can't dismiss a bad teacher easily?" They ALL robotically replied - "NO"... we find it very easy to get rid of bad teachers.
Funny - I haven't EVER seen a principal fire a bad teacher. They won't even admit that they have a bad teacher in the system.
Believe me, good teachers have no problem seeing bad teachers let go.
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