Please do a blog on the opening of school from the persective of parents, students and staff. Today was the 5th day of the year that rooms went without air. There were large trash cans in the halls to catch the leaks. The men from plant services are spread out all over the county. Every time I see them they are really working. But we have old buildings that are in need of repair.
Someone took their eyes off of the school house. We are on the front line. If you are a principal, an AP a teacher, etc and work in the school you have a special trust.
I know that there is more accountability for everyone, but we seem to get blamed for everything.
We should be held to a high moral and ethical standard, but the people above us should be required to also have high standards.
What has happened to us?
We should be held to a high moral and ethical standard, but the people above us should be required to also have high standards.
What has happened to us?
From Mr. Bob Moseley, DCSS Deputy Chief Superintendent for School Operations........ Mrs. Ramona Tyson, Interim Superintendent, has received numerous emails about the ESEA School Choice Option at Chamblee Charter High School. Approximately 200 ninth grade students have selected Chamblee Charter High School as an option. Mrs. Tyson appreciates the input from parents. She is reviewing options with staff to determine if better options are available. Once final decisions have been made we will communicate with all parents. Please look for communication from the school district on this matter next week.
I can't explain just how distressing it is to be a 'receiving school' for AYP transfers. Really, is it fair to expect an already over-capacity, old, crumbling school building with one field and no auditorium to squeeze 200 new students into the schedule three weeks into the school year? Worse, these students are all taking classes on the block schedule and the receiving schools have the 7 period day. Students will add three new classes to their schedule, three weeks into the school year. Oddly, Arabia - our brand new, shiny, gleaming, gorgeous high school facility in south DeKalb is slated to receive transfers, however, these transfers will not see the inside of that gorgeous multi-million dollar facility. No - Arabia's AYP transfer students will be sent to an Arabia "annex" located at Lithonia High School.
Ain't that some stuff???
48 comments:
The CMS PTSA just sent this out to parents.
Title: Critical Overcrowding issues at CCHS
Chamblee Charter High School is now slated to receive 200-9th grade students under No Child Left Behind. The county has brought in 4 more trailers on the cafeteria side on Tuesday morning. The concern is how 4 additional trailers will be adequate to handle 200 students in a building that is already overcapacity??? Since none of the resources (trailers, teachers, textbooks, desks, etc) were in place on the first day of school the decision was made for the students to remain at their home schools until August 30th. So, if you have concerns about this plan, NOW is the time to write your school board member and the Interim Superintendent. I am listing their emails below. Jim Redovian is the District 1 representative (for the Chambleearea) and Dr. Pamela Speaks is our at large member. Some of the concerns as I see it are:
· CCHS is already overcapacity. How can we handle 200 more students??? Has the Fire Marshall approved this?? The halls are already hard to navigate during class change and the lunch periods are filled to the brim - how can we deal with 200 more students?? I am concerned for the safety and welfare of all the students.
· This is not a temporary situation. Since the students are 9th graders, this will be a problem for the next 4 years.
· There are limited choices for transfers but all 9th grade students were offered their first choice even though the county was not required to do that. There were other choices that could have been offered.
· Why was there no discussion of the plan before it was put in place - no community meetings, no discussion at board meetings. The county knew before last school year started that regardless of their test scores this year 8 high schools would have to offer choice and in the end 12 ended up offering choice. Given this, it should have been fully expected that there would be a large number of transfers and plans should have begun at the start of last year.
I think the county needs to put the brakes on this train wreck that is about to happen and reevaluate their options. At a minimum, they need to go back to the plan and implement it as it could have been, with a limited number of transfers to CCHS and the utilization of other options.
So if you too have concerns, please MAKE the time NOW to let those concerns be known. Time is of the essence. Please feel free to forward this on to friends who you think would be concerned about this issue.
I live in the district and demand answers Ms. Tyson! Your little interview on WSB is not enough since we heard the same quotes at the DCPC in the Spring.
This has also happened at Lakeside for years. What always happens is that a mad scramble is made to accommodate these students (plus the hundreds more on administrative and other transfers), the master schedule is changed, the toilets overflow, students get crushed in the hall, and they weave in and out of the building (is that safe?) all day long for classes. (My daughter had one class in the building and one in a trailer, alternating all day and she was given detention if she was late to a class so she lugged ALL of her books everywhere so that she didn't have to visit her locker.)
Then, as a year or two passes, this mad, giant, crushing freshman class of 575 or more, dwindles down to a small graduating class of 260 or so. See, these transfer students don't make it - very few are successful and they end up leaving - usually after one year. Then the cycle repeats again the next year with another crushing class of new freshman with hopeful parents who think this will be their child's saving grace because that's what they've been led to believe.
You can write the board all day long, but they will continue to dump on Chamblee, Lakeside, Druid Hills etc to appease the NCLB laws and the vocal parents from schools labeled "failing". The only choice you have (and you can easily choose this) is to purposely NOT make AYP.
Ugh. I wrote a long post that disappeared and I can't even remember everything I wrote.
I believe that Redovian and Speaks have been making a strong case that it isn't going to work to dump kids into Chamblee.
As has been opined on the blog earlier, I believe that the three week delay was a tactic to deter students from actually transferring. At the end of the day, most will be fairly settled in and comfortable at their home school by that time.
In the last year or two, at a board meeting, there was a discussion about AYP transfers. The staff person indicated that most transfer requests came from 6th and 9th graders who had no ties to their home schools. This three weeks will pretty much force that connection on these kids and their parents.
Hopefully, the home schools are doing their best to convince them to stay. Tutoring and extra services, funded by Title 1, would probably go a long way in doing this.
AYP transfers have allowed DCSS to avoid fixing what ails these schools. The most demanding parents are gone. Just like in the days of Frances Edwards, who would get any unhappy parent in her district an administrative transfer, the schools continue to decline.
If you are an AYP transfer seeking parent, you have every right to demand to know why this has been handled so badly. DCSS could chosen to close schools that consistently fail and reopen them using a model that perhaps would work better. But DCSS doesn't. The bare minimum is all they seem to be able to do.
The BOE must, must be transparent when it comes to administrative transfers. These come solely out of the Supt.'s office. Crawford Lewis used them as a political favor. Let's see if Ramona Tyson stops the gravy train.
DCSS needs to make public data on AT's. Not names, but numbers, break down by school, etc.
How can they possibly ever redistrict if they have no true idea of what the attendance from the actual zone really is? One time we estimated that 400-600 students at Lakeside are from outside the zone. More than that at Druid Hills.
Funny. And sincerely not meaning disrespect to our fine teachers... I was set back that 200 students who had a choice actually chose to stay in the system.
Well, I'll bet the principal's office had air conditioning. I've been in many schools where the air is not working, but I have never been in one where the administrative offices are without air.
Parents need to be up there every day. If your child has asthma or any other chronic disease, this is an unhealthy situation for them. Please contact the principal, your BOE member and Mrs. Tyson. Here are a list of the supervisors of the principals (the Assistant Superintendents) with their emails and phone numbers. It's up to date except apparently Ralph Simpson has been demoted due to his book scandal. I believe the rest are still in their positions. Unfortunately, you are the only advocate for your child except the teacher who is pretty powerless. Please call the administrators who can fix this situation. This is not a good learning situation.
Here is a link to the principals' supervisors and their phone numbers. Just look for your school:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/superintendent/area.assistants/files/EA4EB8BE405A46CD8F0F8B21C6E77DA8.pdf
Here are their email addresses:
Terry Segovis:
TERRY_M_SEGOVIS@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Ralph Simpson:
RALPH_L_SIMPSON@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Debra Wilson:
DAW1379@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Horace Dunson:
HORACE_C_DUNSON_JR@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Ken Bradshaw:
KENNETH_BRADSHAW@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Here is a link to your BOE members:
Click on the name of your member and you can email him/her directly.
Please email and call. This is the most effective way to obtain a good learning environment for your child.
I spent part of my day working in a hot and muggy 80 degree room. Some days the AC works and other days it doesn't. It's hard to look professional when you are sweating profusely.
"I spent part of my day working in a hot and muggy 80 degree room. Some days the AC works and other days it doesn't. It's hard to look professional when you are sweating profusely. "
The following figures give us a good idea as to why we should outsource our HVAC maintenance. I copied these positions directly off DCSS's PATS (Jobs listing) about 6 months ago. The HVAC positions were filled within 2 weeks. There are still teacher positions on PATS:
Position: Mechanic, Air Conditioner/Heat (HVAC)
Educational requirement: High school diploma or GED
Experience: 3 years
Salary: $43,111 to $58,665
Position: Teacher, Science, Language Arts, or Social Studies
Educational requirement: College degree
Experience: 3 years
Salary: $ 42,288 (salary for a teacher with 3 years of experience)
$ 58,248 (salary for a teacher with 20 years of experience)
$ 59,376 (salary for a teacher with 30 years of experience)
Below is the job description on PATS for HVAC personnel (DCSS currently has 5 openings):
“The Mechanical Maintenance Department is seeking a qualified HVAC Mechanic. The minimum requirements include a High School Diploma or GED equivalent. A minimum of three (3) years experience in HVAC installation and control systems is required. Two (2) years experience in industrial or commercial HVAC is preferred.
Position: Mechanic, Air Conditioner/Heat
Salary: $43,111.20 to $58,665.60”
Chime in teachers and tell us the service you get from HVAC. Their position requires a high school diploma (or GED) and 3 years experience. Most teachers will never make the salary they make.
Parents, if this doesn’t make you want to write your BOE members, I don’t know what will.
If you really want to know why Arabia Mountain was not required to accept NCLB transfer students in its beautiful new school, watch the August 2 Board Meeting. Mr. Gene Walker will explain that Arabia is very "special" and he commended the administration on their excellent handling of the school transfers.
What a backhanded slap to Chamblee, Druid Hills and Lakeside.
Chamblee High School's air conditioning broke today. Not surprised- not at all. But I feel terrible for the students and teachers.
Until parents complain, nothing will be done.
Not to say anything positive about NCLB--but the law mandates that schools offer tutoring OR transfers to students. It does not say that all this busing is the only solution: it just lets weak districts like ours take the easy way out.
DCSS chose not to improve local schools via better teaching/tutoring, but rather, to just schlepp kids around this huge county. Bad for them, for their communities, and for the schools that they now overcrowd. But it's easier than taking time and money to figure out how to raise up the performance of schools that didn't make AYP. No lasting legacy here, as would be the case with improving kids' home schools--just one more year of CYA.
When are parents going to demand that they out source hvac? They don't know what they are doing.
If a principal walks in too his/her office with no a/c. They get them a/c on the spot, even if they have to go out and buy a portable a/c unit. A teacher gets no attention or the children. Call the news media
Those of us who have been in DCSS for years are worn out. We've served on committees, Blue Ribbon Commissions, PTAs, school councils, parent councils. We've talked to school board members, legislators, administrators. We've been glad-handed, cajoled, had agreements slip through our fingers, and we've been lied to. We no longer trust ANYONE on the school board or the upper management of DeKalb County Schools.
We are the LAST people whose trust these people want to lose, because we're also the PR for the school system, for better or worse. Last December I had lunch with a mom whose family lives in Avondale Estates. Her kids attended the International Community school and the Friends School. She wanted to know my opinion on schools in the area. I was frank with her and counseled her to either send both her kids to private schools or move into the City Schools of Decatur attendance zone. Her family now lives in Decatur. This mom is a research scientist at the CDC and her husband is also a professional. Their kids are wonderful; they love school and are eager learners. Oh, and after the summer of publicity we've had, she called to tell me thanks for the advice.
These are the families we will continue to lose with the disastrous administration we have in place. But more alarmingly, we are going to lose wonderful teachers to private schools and school systems who can lure them. Forget the recession scare---these teachers are going to leave.
I am going to post a few teachers' reports on the nightmare that is Morcease Beasely and his regime of endless, mindless paperwork. I'll be ready to post it Saturday or Sunday. This man is taking away instructional time from our students, folks!
School Board, you have led us down a path of destruction out of which it will take YEARS to pull ourselves. Take responsibility and tell Ramona Tyson that she and the rest of C. Lewis' "cabinet" are done.
There is NO EXCUSE for ANY school to open with air conditioning that doesn't work. NONE. The fact that we start school in the middle of summer in Georgia means that it is VITAL that our teachers and children are provided with a safe and comfortable environment, free of dust and mold. If you can't even provide that, you can't be trusted to do anything else!
NCLB doesn't give school systems a choice about whether to offer tutoring or transfers. As the years of not meeting AYP add up, so do the consequences.
Once a school has not made AYP for two years, school transfers must be offered. After three years, transfers or tutoring should be offered.
DeKalb had a waiver that allowed the system to flip tutoring and transfers. The reality though is that DCSS has 8 or 9 high schools that needed to offer transfers and several more that would have had to do so if they didn't make AYP this year.
The main buzz at my school is the time it takes to do the required lesson plans each day. Most think that they will never be looked at and are senseless busy work. If the teacher's are not teaching what they need too shouldn't the administrators at their be the ones to know this and fix the situation?
As for AC I have too much of it. It's a chilly 65 degrees in my room. There is no way to regulate the air or heat. It's been this way for eight years. Reading the other posts I guess I'm lucky, I just keep a cardigan at work to keep me warm.
They've got a mess at Chamblee and don't know have a clue as to how to fix it.
Does anyone know if Obama's version of ESEA requires school transfers?
I've said it before and I'll say again, please, please, please don't let Dunwoody make AYP this year.
themommy is right, some of the complaints posted about NCLB are compliance related and DCSS has no choice but to follow. If DCSS did not follow those rules, they would be subjected to lawsuits. How much more do you want DCSS to spend on attorneys?
In reality the complaints should be directed to our US legislators since they brought us NCLB in the first place.
Anon 9:24. Most of us are painfully aware that this is a federal statute and that the school choice transfer provisions are federal law.
For years DCSS has known that it would hit the tipping point when there are simply no more places to transfer the students. With high schools, DCSS hit that tipping point two years ago and they should have accelerated the process to re-structure schools or open new schools or use the Title I funds to put tons of teachers in the failing schools to TEACH.
Next year the thresholds for math and English go up for high schools and the sitation will be much worse. Opening annexes and creating dangerous overcrowding situations in receiving schools is not a solution to this problem and I do not think it benefits the students who are looking for a better education.
Anon 9:56, I agree wholeheartedly with your post! There has been some poor planning with respect to some of those at the central office to the Chamblee situation. Hopefully it will be resolved shortly.
I spoke to someone at Arabia Mountain. They are full hence why their annex is located at Lithonia. They were a receiving school this year. Those students are consider to be a part of Arabia Mountain and must follow the same rules regarding uniforms and parents must volunteer.
NCLB is a joke. I bet the students who transfer to a "better" school still will not make the grade. Parents are quick to blame the teacher and the school for test scores. Until parents take some ownership of their childs education the transfered child will still fail the test. Parents are quick to say we are going to fix this but my precious angel is not the one that needs fixing. The schools will continue to fail until all parents are forced to be a part of the educational process.
We have many wonderful teachers but it does not matter when parents don't value education. You can't teach a child who is not willing to learn. You can't convince the child who is not willing to learn when the parent is not willing to participate and support the teacher. They would rather say the teacher does not like my child. If you have a supportive parent and a good teacher that child will be educated and go far no matter what the rest of the school is doing.
NCLB only allows a failing student to attend another school only to continue to fail. I guess this post is just preaching to the choir. Only parents who value education probably read this.
What really irks me is that DCSS has known they had failing schools on their hands. They only sat on their hands while the problems got worse. All I heard in the BOE meetings, everything is wonderful! The kids are happy, parents are happy, all is well! Well, things are NOT well, we have a very sick school system and the current leadership has had plenty of time to fix it.
They knew Chamblee High was a school full of high achievers, yet we've gone through 3 SPLOSTS only to be told that they would renovate in the next one. CLew told the students and parents at a dinner last year that all would be well for CHS when the next SPLOST passed. The leadership has certainly not helped SPLOST IV, voters just might pass it, but it will be tough if the current leadership is still in place.
Folks, as of today, nothing has changed! The same leadership is still in place. Things must change! Demand it! Fill their emails boxes, even if they don't reply, keep the drafts and continue to send the emails until you do get a reply! Talk to your state legislators, talk to the Grassleys of the world, he has been investigating the New Birth mafia. We must demand change, if not Independent School Disticts might be the only way to heal our wounded school system.
What about the parents who come in with affadavits? I would like to see the county check up on these people too, and prosecute if they are lying.
The Tucker community has been dumped with AYP transfers for years and again they are going to do an annex at Avondale MS. The first time at Columbia MS did not work and they dumped them into the building the next year!!!!
People are continually leaving the southern end of the district and coming to Tucker, Lakeside, Chamblee, Peachtree, Dunwoody. Why do they think our schools are better? It's because we have parental and community involvement in our schools trying to make it better. Unfortunately for the Tucker Community our schools are not completely reflective of our area since so many parents send their kids to private school.
Go back to community school concept and make parents, students and teachers accountable. Enforce discipline the same everywhere.
I wish our state would go to a full voucher system.
The multiple layers of bureaucracy within the DeKalb School System create an environment ripe for corruption, ineptness, and general apathy. An individual school competing for parent vouchers would not employ countless minions to create endless paperwork. Parents and teachers know what works and they know quality when they see it. But as the system stands, teachers and parents are pretty much powerless . . . complaints go unanswered or they are answered with rudeness.
The board members so frequently complained about will likely be reelected. In a voucher system, there are no boards.
In the current system, air conditioners don't work. In a voucher system, fear of parents pulling funding would lead to purchasing quality AC units that don't break every other day and maintenance through private firms that would bust their #$$#% to keep the business.
Complain complain complain or change change change.
Vouchers - It's time to change the rules of education.
re: I spoke to someone at Arabia Mountain. They are full hence why their annex is located at Lithonia.
This is our point. Chamblee, Lakeside, Druid Hill etc are OVER capacity, yet are forced to add trailers on the property to accommodate transfer students. No 'annexes' for them. The trailers still require use of the restrooms, cafeteria (Lakeside had 4 lunch periods at one time - is it fair for my child to have to eat lunch at 10:20 am in order to make room for your child? Is it fair for my child to have to have classes out in a dilapidated trailer in order to make room for your child inside the building?)
The other big - often overlooked - appeal to transfers is the $$$. DeKalb has elected the federal mileage reimbursement method. So here's the scoop - say you live in Lithonia - and you transfer to Lakeside (25 miles away). You get a monthly mileage reimbursement check for 5 roundtrips a week - at 55 cents/mile. That check? $550. for four weeks. Nice! Say you have TWO kids doing this - BINGO -- $1100 a month! And guess what - MARTA has a stop right in front of Lakeside - so they ride the bus for $50 a month and pocket the rest. This is happening people. I realize that there actually are good people looking for a good education for their child - but there are plenty who see this for the federal monthly entitlement bonus that it is.
I had no idea that people were being paid to reimburse non-existent transportation costs.
Vouchers.
DCSS has switched payments to be quarterly. If people need it differently, the system is paying MARTA directly.
The two people in today's Sunday edition still donot believe that they did anything wrong. Butler is crying that she will be vindicated. Did you see the amount of money that Butler misused from 2002-2009? Butler got over on DCSS like a fat rat! Still saying, she did it for the children of DCSS.Move over Pope, Lewis, Moody, Reid, Butler might be joining you guys in a cell.
Before applying for an AYP transfer, let's try to fix situations at the current schools. I assure you that the atmosphere at these non-failing schools are nowhere near as bad as the atmosphere at a thriving school. Is it because the teachers are better in one place....no. Most of these students never make it at their other schools due to discipline, so they transfer back to their homeschool and continue to cause havoc there.
Oh wow - quarterly mileage reimbursements! Those checks would be around $1500 per student per quarter if they travel 50 roundtrip each day. No wonder there's a line-up!
Do me a favor, everyone. If you don't subscribe -- go out and BUY tomorrow's AJC. No matter if you can read your neighbor's - buy one. We need to support them in their investigative efforts. They need to value us as supportive customers - and they will be inspired to keep digging...
Every Dekalb citizen should buy 1 tomorrow and every day the AJC gets us closer to having an effective system for all students--especially minority students who want a meaningful education.
A DCSS education, as conducted by these ill-prepared, ill-experienced, illegitimate AP, Principal, and Area Superintendents is especially catastrophic to socio-economically disadvantaged students who actually think if they pass with a D in class they know nothing of they employable....
This a case of racial cannibalism where a now socio-economically favored class sucks the blood of a socio-economically disadvantaged class within the same race.
If there is a hell, it will be too cold this cabinet!
A DCSS education, as conducted by these ill-prepared, ill-experienced, illegitimate AP's, Principals, and Area Superintendents is especially catastrophic to socio-economically disadvantaged students who actually think that if they pass a battery of classes with D's but did not learn anything in in these classes that they will be employable by virtue of the cheapened DCSS diploma that benefit only these cannibals' resume....
Does any one how Mr. Horace Dunson rose to such heights?
Who is he connected to by marriage?
He has been around a good while but his leap from classroom to administration was meteoric. In light of what I am learning now through this blog, I am now theorizing a Dekalb Board of Education connection---Any body can confirm?
Teachers, Teachers, Teachers:
If you are angry about these USELESS lesson plans and this escape-goating of teachers, spill the beans on every one who is letting it happen: Tyson, Moseley, Area Superintendents.
Not doing so will only make these a----les make your job impossible.
Instead of wasting your weekend on plans, tell us what you know so the AJC or the DA can take it and fix it...
Better yet, file it in a statement to SACS. We fully intend to monitor the "response" to SACS (due Sept 11) and commit a "response" of our own. The system had better be completely, totally, 100% honest and transparent in this prepared "response" because this document will be intimately critiqued by parent and community leaders "in the know".
From what I understand the hiring practice for AP or principals goes like this:
1. High Administrator "A" wants his/her special (friend, relative, lover) person hired/promoted.
2. Human Resource decides on the pool of candidates making sure "Special person of A" is better qualified then the other candidates through the screening process.
3. Interview panel composed of High Administrator "B" and 4-5 other panel members interviews "Special person of A" and his/her weaker applicants.
4. ..If the panel perceives "special Person of A" as the better qualified. No problem. Deal is done! Case closed!
( I am told that there a set of questions prepared by HR for the panelist to ask. From that set 5 to 10 questions are selected to ask every candidate. No follow-up question is permitted. Some panel members are floored by the ability of candidates to answer these questions and suspect prior knowledge of the set of questions)
5. Now if the panel is deadlocked, it becomes the job of the High Administrator "B" to advocate for the special friend. This is done very smoothly.
a. Because every lay (parents) person suspect that High Administrator "B" knows his/her stuff, they slowly change their vote and reservation.
b. Feeling too uncomfortable to argue with High Administrator "B" and sensing that the Special person will be their supervisor within a few days, the teachers on the panel just nod.
6. For so-called privacy reasons, every person on the panel is sworn never to discuss the files of the candidates and the reason why a particular one was chosen.
7. With APs and principals selected in this manner, how can our schools do well? How can master schedules be built? How can teachers be used wisely to meet the needs of the students? A school is indeed in a very precarious situation when the average teacher knows more pedagogy, more about discipline, and has much more intelligence then the school leaders?
8. Thus beholden for their high salary to their benefactors, how can the newly-minted AP or principal stand for right and morality in the face the cabinet's incompetence?
Does anyone know who the candidates for the Clarkston principal job were? Who the High Administrators "B" and “C” in this case were? One may have been demoted to AP now…. I guess there will be some loose lip if this High Administrator "B" did resign.
"Does any one how Mr. Horace Dunson rose to such heights?
He must have some good friends or relatives. Look at this video on grade changing in DCSS:
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/update-on-mlk-grade-changing-horace.html
Re: things SACS might be interested in.
Does anyone know whether a requirement for accreditation is that there be some form of formal teacher input/representation into decision-making by the BOE and/or Administration? DCSS used to have the Teachers' Advisory Committee, but under Dr. Lewis it ceased being a representative organization, and became just a group where each school sent its Teacher of the Year. Thus the group composition changed every year, and the former reps, who had been interested in representing teachers' interests, were never heard from again. But when they were there, the group often discussed controversial subjects, and Dr. Brown would go head-to-head with teachers when he wanted to. Dr. Lewis, Thompson, Mitchell/Mayfield, Moseley, etc, turned the group into a joke and a waste of time.
This year, has there been any word about the TAC? Teacher reps received no minutes from many of the meetings last year. Question: is a school district supposed to show that it listens to teachers or in some way incorporates their viewpoints into decision-making? Certainly teachers are shareholders in what DCSS does, and we should have some formal input. I'd like to see this followed up on, and would be glad to write a non-anonymous note to SACS on the issue if it is a legitimate one. What about the ethics of a work situation where the workers have nothing to say, in any venue? Can't be right.
ON WASTEFUL SPENDING:(this has been created to keep Mr. Beasley employed. What is the cost? What is the benefit? HOW was it introduced/rolled out to staff/ implemented other than the standard THREAT: DO IT OR ELSE?
"Then again, what do you expect when our head of academics, Morcese Beasley...loads teachers with mindless, time-consuming busy work, (VIA an INADEQUATE email server) and then dismissively and condescendingly tells then "there is no I in team but there is a U in unemployment"
PREMIER DCSS needs a complete housekeeping at the very top. Too much money has been wasted and there is little student progress to show for it. DCSS has been used as the pathway to fortune and to provide gainful employment for relatives, friends and sorority/fraternity buddies, as well as vendors at the expense of our children's education. Teachers are still very much intimidated and will remain so until there are some convictions and upheaval at the top.
"TRUTHFUL WORDS"
"Morcease Beasely and his regime of endless, mindless paperwork."
HOW MANY RESOURCES ARE WE PAYING FOR TO 'CHECK THE CHECKERS?' WHO IS CHECKING TO VERIFY THAT EVERY TEACHER IN EVERY SCHOOL IS POSTING? HOW WILL THIS BENEFIT DCSS? IT BENEFITS BEASELEY BY CREATING A DESK JOB.
I visited several schools of
smiling wonderful teachers
accepting bright-eyed children.
I am not saying all schools were
100% but the love and greetings
shown by teachers was overwhelming.
The buildings were clean and
the classrooms were beautiful.
Whatever is going on in Dekalb did
not take away from the professionalism shown by the
teachers.
God bless them.
@Anon 7:23
Are you by any chance one of the central office administrators who will now be observing classrooms each week? I had an unfamiliar administrator in my room today doing an observation. It wasn't like our traditional evals. The admin didn't know me or my students. Yet, this person is observing me. Why? When I asked for a copy of the eval, I was told there was no way for me to have a copy. What??? To whom does this observation get sent? My principal? Dr. Beasley? What is this new process? How will the info. be used?
I've heard rumors that Dr. B. is now controlling the hiring process. Apparently he gets a final say on who gets what position. So is HR doing away with the group interviews? Is Dr. B. going to use these observations to decide who to promote?
How has one man come in so suddenly and been able to commandeer so much power? Is Tyson answering to him now? Has she not seen the complaints? If you thought morale was low last year, just wait. It's only the second week of school and I'm planning my exit strategy!
Okay, Zepora and/or Sarah Copelin-Wood, your last remark was a quote from the wonderful Board Meeting last night at the wonderful 30 million dollar palace that you spent illegally using splost funds.
It's time for Dr. B. to go! Ramona what are you doing? BOE who hired this bozo?
No, I am a grandparent. I read this blog but I don't comment often.
I visited Oakcliff and McLendon, around 7:30 or so.
Just because of the news and stuff,
I visited a few Middle schools while in the area shopping.
I plan on visiting and taking a tour of the Mountain Industrial
office just because I am a taxpayer.
If you see someone you don't know, introduce yourself.
It may just be a tax paying grandparent.
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