Here we go. This post is only here to collect a laundry list of the needs we have in our children's schools. Feel free to list your school's name and the need for maintenance, construction or technology that you have had for a long time. Has anything been promised to your school? If so, has any part of that promise been delivered?
Let's hear it.
233 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 233 of 233Oh! Good idea, psc. However, didn't Marcus Turk state at the last board meeting that any proceeds from the sale of properties would go into the capital fund with the option of moving to general operations? It definitely does not go into the SPLOST construction funds, he did say that.
I'm not sure where Fran got the 2,200 figure - maybe from the original intent of the DHS Renovation/Addition. The project was scaled down from its original inception years ago. As has been stated before, the 3rd floor addition at DHS will house the Math classrooms and Math labs and the Mass Comm Academy - that is all. The former Math classrooms on the 1st floor were used to enlarge other, smaller classrooms. The Fine Arts addition, well, who knows what happened to that.
I think Cross Keys needs to take the path of a Technical School, DCSS has none! However, the students in Cross Keys district, that want to go down a NON-TECH route, can be combined with CCHS residents.
Now I know there are new numbers coming out from Dan Drake, regarding CCHS attendance zone population. Chamblee and it's surrounding un-incorporated DeKalb area is the second fastest growing area in Metro Atlanta, according to the ARC(Atl. Regional Comm.) The majority of the people moving here are younger families. However, if DCSS could give them a reliable alternative to private, more residents would go public.
There are parcels of land up and down the Peachtree Corridor (NOT GM) that are available, most likely DCSS would have to purchase several of them to get enough land to build a school of 2000 students.
An idea I expressed the other day is to buy the Chamblee Plaza parcel, build that area into a beautiful Athletic facility, new stadium, baseball field, other fields and parking! Then once that opens you take the existing athletic footprint at CCHS and build a new facility, when that is complete you can tear down the existing building and build that auditorium that is so badly needed. This way students can continue to attend school while building takes place and you upgrade the entire facility without much interuption. Tough job to plan? Yes! But let's also look at alternatives? MARTA Rail is just a 10 minute walk from campus.
Also a good idea! I hope the board is still having this level of open-idea discussion. I hope they haven't bought into the "fix up what we have" plan...
That said, I personally know of several families who have moved into the area just to be nearer to Marist. The traffic around Marist is so congested that these families have moved closer to the school just to gain personal time. I don't think these families would partake of public school ever - no matter how nice the facilities. I don't know how much they contribute to the growth numbers - but it's something.
Where is this ARC study you keep referring to?
The ARC study I have been referring to was part of the DeKalb County (NOT DCSS) 2025 Vision plan that our friend (sarc.) Vernon Jones commissioned.
These were also figures that parents used in trying to convince DCSS to keep Nancy Creek Open. I must wait for my wife to come home and give me the link, as soon as I have it I'll place it here on the blog.
There was also an article in the AJC and North DeKalb Neighbor talking about Chamblee and the growth. I'm sure it has slowed a little in the past year due to the economy. However, there are developments sprouting up all over our area, despite the economic downturn.
@Anonymous 11:22, that is a sound idea! I don't know if sonofawecomeonnow is lurking around but he has said we have too many strip malls in DeKalb (along with LIHTC apartment complexes). you would need about 25 acres for a school and I would think that would not be difficult to assemble.
While I don't doubt the figures from the ARC, historically speaking many families in that area have used many of the private school options in close proximity, at least after elementary school. I'm sure the data over the past 25 years will bear that out.
Point of clarification, DeKalb High School Technology North (relocated to Cross Keys) and South (on the GPC Panthersville campus) both offer 'heavy' vocational technology programs. DCSS recently announce a partnership with DeKalb Tech, enabling students to go to that school. Light vocational technology (allied health, computer technology, some building contruction) can be found at most if not all DCSS high schools.
I'm not sure if enough effective marketing has been done with respect to these options. With the heavy focus on college prep, these programs offer great alternatives for those that like to work with their hands and may not want to go to college immediately after high school.
PSC, thanks for the reminder of the South DeKalb Technical options.. I know the Metro Chamber of Atlanta has been begging Clew and now Tyson to get a North DeKalb Technical option. I think they are even trying to partner with some companies at PDK Airport. Apparently, there has been a shortfall of mechanics and technicians for aircraft maintenance in the Atlanta Metro Area for some time.
Cere, I just wish our BOE could have discussions like we have here, instead of the "what's in it for me" attitudes that we see too often from our BOE Reps.
That study you refer to was completed in 2006 back in a different economic time in our county's history. I doubt its relevancy in today's economy.
I'm sorry, but our vocational high schools are an antiquated embarrassment. Cross Keys has enjoyed a recent very nice improvement, but it's a far, FAR cry from what is offered in other parts of the country (where they admit that not all of their students are college-bound). In fact, these programs do not prevent a student from going on to college - core courses are covered here quite well.
Here's the FAB vocational HS in my hometown. They have a waiting list to get in!
http://www.pentacareercenter.org/
ANON 12:05.. Do you live in the Chamblee and surrounding areas? I still see plenty of growth. I'm sure the Apartment and Condo buildings they're building at Sembler(on P'tree) as well as the development at Johnson Ferry and Ashford Dunwoody, might be empty today but they are being built and I'm sure they'll try to fill them.
I just hope DCSS looks forward and hopefully assumes the economy is going to turn around. We must look forward, if DCSS continues down this current track, then maybe they folks won't move here, our property values fall and we'll be the laughing stock of the area. However, I have great hope in the citizens of DeKalb that they'll want to take back OUR school system and turn it around. Our livelihood depends on it.
That's why I am here to read everyone's thoughts. ARC is always updating their studies and I think they are working on updating the 2006 study currently, since the 285 Alive Thrive, whatever it is, depends on it.
Dan Drake mentioned at the DCPC meeting that a company called Metrostudy is doing analysis that will be used as far as determining closures, redistricting etc., He also promised that the information gleaned would be shared with the community.
From the Metrostudy website:
Metrostudy maintains the country's largest database of primary housing market information, using hundreds of dedicated field researchers and investing millions of dollars annually. Our researchers drive the streets of every platted new home subdivision, inspect every home site, and record primary data on housing activity every 90 days. You'll have the most complete and accurate information on undeveloped and vacant developed lots, housing starts and closings, product and pricing.
We then combine our research with secondary research -- data we obtain from other sources on future developments, demographics, job growth, and the economy. We then deliver all information to our clients via our line of Metrosearch products -- cutting edge computer applications so you can sort information, run reports, and create graphs and thematic maps on Market Maps you define, from one subdivision to an entire MSA.
http://www.metrostudy.com/what_we_do.php
Cere, I toook a look at the website. It is a FABULOUS facility. It should be noted that it serves 5 counties and 16 school districts.
In DeKalb, we have as a strong PreK - 15 public school option as anywhere else in the country. When you consider Emory University, which is a top 20 school, students in our county have tremendous education opportunities without having to leave the county borders.
I mentioned the recently signed agreement with DeKalb Tech. You can read about it at:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/newsroom/press/pdf/2010-09-02.2010-09-09.DCSS_Enters_Atriculation_Agreement_With_DeKalb_Technical_College.pdf
This is a relatively new facility in Clarkston (center of the county) that offers training in real world skills. Read about it yourself at:
http://www.dekalbtech.edu/about/
The choices exist for our students. I contend that they and many of our citizens lack awareness of them.
I'm glad we have Dan Drake on staff. At least we have someone that knows how to run the software, that DCSS bought years ago.
The leadership, that ran the numbers prior to Dan, was hard to trust. I will not mention his name since he still works for the system and he still sits on the front row of the BOE meetings.
"The choices exist for our students. I contend that they and many of our citizens lack awareness of them."
pscexb, you know as well as anyone that it is solely the responsibility of the DCSS Central Office to promote such programs. Their failure to properly make sure every parent in the county is aware of such options is just another Central Office failure. The BOE enables the Central Office to do whatever it wants to do, not what it needs to do.
Cere, let's promote the DeKalb Tech partnership and other such tech opportunities here. I guarantee more people will find out about it for the first time from here than anything that Jeff Dickerson and the Central Office could ever do.
@Anonymous 1:06 said,
pscexb, you know as well as anyone that it is solely the responsibility of the DCSS Central Office to promote such programs. Their failure to properly make sure every parent in the county is aware of such options is just another Central Office failure.
I wouldn't be that harsh because I know there have been outreach initiatives to create greater awareness. Unfortunately, this message has not stuck well in the community. In light of that, I believe there is a shared responsibility in that citizens should promote programs that could provide benefit to students, be it in their homes, HOA, place of worship, etc. To paraphrase a familiar saying, you can provide a citizen information, but you can't make them read and act on it....
I do agree that venues such as this provide the forum to promote opportunities available in our schools. There are many engaged participants here that will in turn share this information about career technology options with others.
Let's be fair here. The DeKalb Tech offering was just finalized. There was a press release put out by the school system.
Also, the responsibility for letting students know their options lie at the local schools. I can only speak for my children's schools, but when we have our yearly meeting with the counselors to discuss next year's schedules, all of the options are laid out for them. In fact, the Cross Keys offerings were offered as well.
Dunwoody Mom, actually DCSS has had collaborative agreements with DeKalb Tech for years. Unfortunately not that many people were aware of the options. You can see some of the options at:
http://www.dekalbtech.edu/academics/hs.php
I was part of a discussion as to how to help counselors create greater awareness of these options. Regretfully when you saw all that was on counselors plates for helping students in the school (usually about 350-400 students per counselor), one could empathize with them. Not an excuse but a reality of hitting the areas that gave the greatest return.
An idea would be to make career tech outreach a part of their MBOs. Then they would have a motivation to ensure this was done.
I apologize. I thought you were referring to the just announced Small Business Development Pathway.
I totally understand and have seen the overwhelming jobs counselors have. This gets lost in our conversations.
psc at 1:01 PM - yes, the Vocational HS in my hometown serves 5 counties and 16 districts but those are tiny districts that pool their resources. They are each only 3,00-6,000 students for a combined total of only about 35,000 students. (In theory, since DCSS is 3X as many students, we should be able to fund THREE such schools.) Bus service is available to all students in these systems to get to the tech high school and the students attend there all day for all of their courses yet they graduate from their home high school and I believe are entitled to play on their home high school sports teams (with their own transportation).
How is it that these small systems can band together to create and offer such a magnificent program (Which incidentally does have a partnership with nearby Owens Technical College) and DeKalb is SO unable to offer much of anything particularly unique to anyone? (Even DSA is under-enrolled and has little appeal.) Where is our $1.1 billion per year going? I guarantee that these 5 systems in rural Ohio do not combine for $1.1 billion in funds. They are able to offer a fairly broad assortment of offerings throughout the systems however. All of the schools have nice auditoriums with good music and arts programs. The home high schools also offer career tech classes, along with honors and AP.
Why can we not do this? I've been ashamed to show my family Lakeside high school. They are shocked at how dingy and crummy it is. And they are slack-jawed at the lack of an auditorium, music and art facilities and outdoor athletic fields.
Whew! Lots to catch up on after just a couple of days ...
@Sandy:
I thought you were referring to the first article on the mdrc.org on the small school initiative in NYC - it's the first .pdf file marked as "new" on the link you posted:
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/560/full.pdf
The Bloomberg article is the one I posted above. Here it is from msnbc.com:
Bill Gates' latest mission: fixing America's schools
Re: Career/Vo Tech
This is a REAL problem in my mind. Not only do we not have the dedicated type of school Cere referenced above, we are not fully committed to the two regional schools we do have.
The move of DeKalb Tech North was not just a relocation - it was in many ways a downsizing. While the CK facility is truly amazing, the offerings have slimmed and the dedicated resource that recruited for and promoted the programs was taken away because of a bureaucratic policy (Tech North is no longer a stand-alone school/principal and so lost the headcount).
What would you guess would be the most important "Tech" curriculum to include at the North region's only tech "school?" That's right, Information Technology. That entire curriculum is gone this year. The faculty is gone, too.
There is an AutoCAD class and that is great but that is drafting/architecture, not "IT." I have taken this up as my latest mission - Information Technology curriculum MUST be available to all the students CK serves from Dunwoody, Chamblee, Tucker, Lakeside, Druid Hills, Clarkston, and Stone Mountain.
In my current place of work, we have 22 open requisitions in IT positions we are struggling to fill. Admittedly, these are very senior positions but my point is that these young people ought to be the senior IT pros of tomorrow in the making and should have a solid start in High School. Ugh!
The other thing I believe strongly is that "Career Tech" subjects should be available to every high school student. Too much of what I hear folks say about Tech in DCSS seems to imagine the wood shops and welding shops of my high school days (daze?!) - that is not what CK Tech is! People have said things to me such as, "Oh yes, Vo-Tech would be good for those children" ... ugh, again.
The students can leave CK with a CNA and be ready to work in a hospital as our CKF Foundation Scholar did. They can leave with industry certification for Construction Engineering and other Engineering trades. The dental lab is a fully functioning dental office with x-ray machines and a dozen patient chairs operational - this is not wood shop and cosmetology (not that there's anything wrong with that and we have those, too!).
@ Kim Glocke
DCSS spends tens of millions a year on technology. Very poor return on our investment. PLEASE visit Forsyth, Atlanta, Gwinnett, Fulton, Dectur, Rockdale Schools or any other metro school system to see the technology training in those systems, and then compare it with DeKalb. So many of our students are shut out of the IT age due to the mismanagement of technology dollars.
Actually, DCSS is recognized by the state as having one of the top career tech programs. Decatur students also are allowed to take classes in programs.
I think this is another case of not enough publicity of the options and recognitions received. It should be noted this is a national problem with respect to the lack of awareness of this programs. Take a look at the DCSS Career Tech page and you will see the offerings available for our children.
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/instruction/careertech/
@Anon: "DCSS spends tens of millions a year on technology. Very poor return on our investment."
Right. But this is gizmos for the classrooms and offices. I'm not talking about have "gee-whiz" computers that few even know how to use and perhaps DCSS does not manage well. I'm talking about curriculum in Information Technology - Principals of Relational Databases, Intro to Software Architecture, Program/Project Mgt, Digital Privacy and Security ... these do not require brazillions of dollars in high tech hardware. They require instructors, business partners, texts, and readily available open source (no license fees) software.
@pscexb: "Actually, DCSS is recognized by the state as having one of the top career tech programs ..."
Well, yes. And last year the CK Tech students won many top honors in the region, state, and national programs like SkillsUSA, etc. My point isn't that what is (or was in the case of Information Technology) isn't good - it is that in one year during the transition to CK, DeKalb Tech North's offerings and resources were significantly cut.
How can this be considered positive? It cannot. I am going to do everything I can to raise awareness about the great programs offered but also about what has been lost.
I was truly stunned that the IT curriculum had disappeared. I was hoping to bring in a small army of professional contacts to run additional workshops or seminars for the kids in the IT courses. Zip. Nada.
This has to be brought back.
@ Kim glocke
"But this is gizmos for the classrooms and offices. I'm not talking about have "gee-whiz" computers that few even know how to use and perhaps DCSS does not manage well. I'm talking about curriculum in Information Technology - Principals of Relational Databases, Intro to Software Architecture, Program/Project Mgt...."
I know what you're talking about, but many DCSS students lack the basic knowledge of word processing, spreadsheets, simulation software, etc.
Here are just a few examples of what ordinary students and ordinary teachers can do:
1. Teachers and students can communicate electronically
2. Students can dial in to use specialized educational software
3. Students can drop assignments into drop boxes for teachers who then grade these assignments and provide timely feedback to students.
4. Students can access computers to take assessments that provide constant, frequent and timely feedback to teachers regarding objectives mastered (math, science, language arts, social studies - i.e. the content areas).
...And the list goes on...Believe it or not, I have seen all this and so much more happening in many metro area schools and around the country.
Some of DCSS schools have less than 40% of their homes with Internet access. Many students come to middle and high school with no idea of how to even use a spreadsheet program or word processing.
Not everyone is going to be an IT person, but EVERYONE needs to understand some basic programs (and I don't mean Facebook and Google email). Teachers and students with technology access can be much more efficient just like employees in a company when using appropriate technology. Currently, our teachers are bogged down with hours and hours of work that would be laughable in a business.
DeKalb Watch just had an entire posting on copiers. I found that amazing and very sad to be debating the relative ease of producing dittos for students in 2010. The conversation sounded like the 19080s. That's what is wrong with our instructional technology attitude in DCSS. Email, conferencing, Intranet networks, electronic drop boxes, dial in access to specialized software, personal space on the Intranet server, etc. should have made this a moot point.
The Career Ed labs in DeKalb are to be applauded, but the ordinary student and the ordinary teacher still operate in the 20th Century while we live in the 21st Century. I don't see technology in the ordinary classroom as gizmos, and neither do many math, science, language arts and social studies teachers.
Basic technology literacy lays the foundation for students to become interested in the specialized curriculum represented by Information Technology.
The basics you are referring to I call "office productivity software." Word processing, spreadsheet, email clients and presentation software are being taught in business courses. And I don't think "everyone" needs to be an IT person ... but with ZERO offering like those I mentioned in my post NO ONE will be an IT person.
If we are talking about Career Tech there are two fields I feel we should be committed to at this time: 1) Healthcare, 2) Information Technology. These are were the jobs are and have been growing for some time. We are offering our students a path through #1 but not #2 - I think that is a disservice to all stakeholders.
Lastly, I want to observe that you painting a picture of "either/or" and I do not see it that way.
Here's a specific example I mentioned to the our Career Tech Dept head ...
While the business courses are offering MS Office-type instruction/training, it would be of great instructional value to have Career Tech offerings that actually demonstrated "Office Automation" via Visual Basic (a programming language available and running in every MS Office install).
Every one of the new computers being deployed all over our schools that have MS Office could also be used to teach an intro course into programming concepts via hands-on work with the tools already there.
Kids learn and are inspired by doing "real" work - that is the main thrust behind Career Tech in my mind. Career Tech is not about kids who are not college bound. It is about more of our children mastering concepts by directly applying skills that foster and deepen conceptual understanding.
In this case, I'm talking about our kids having a chance to be introduced to concepts of Information Technology and applying them in very accessible ways with existing equipment.
Why wouldn't we open these doors for our children in the "Information Age?" No, they will not all be "IT people" ... but I can tell you that anyone who wants to go anywhere in business operations at any scale of business people must understand IT. It it embedded in almost every discipline now - including education!
@ Kim Glocke
"Lastly, I want to observe that you painting a picture of "either/or" and I do not see it that way."
Neither do I. I see great value in IT programs for DCSS. I was greatly distressed when one of our best Cisco certified trainers left for Decatur City Schools and was literally irreplaceable.
However, I have been in almost every school in DCSS and know the lack of technology basics in the classrooms. Many teachers would love to use technology to become more efficient, engage students, and increase student achievement.
DCSS should be able to provide training in IT and at the same time bring our classrooms into the 21st Century. We do not spend our technology dollars wisely. This is one area we can't afford to get wrong.
Don't mean to belabor the point but ... in Fulton Co in the 70's, we had typing classes. I took two semesters. We had keypunch - these were the old paper card reading computational machines that created "databases" by punching holes into paperboard cards (think "hanging chads").
The fact that I was exposed to these "info tech" courses as an eight and nine grader set me on a path of curiosity that would have been 100% unknown to me. If I could find those teachers or the admins who empowered them, I'd owe them a huge 'thank you' for opening that world to me.
"We do not spend our technology dollars wisely. This is one area we can't afford to get wrong."
With you 100%!
To change the topic, I can't believe that Dresden is getting a new principal and the county does not have the respect to let the teachers and staff know who it is until after the break. It would stand to reason that we should meet the new person before beginning our new semester. We have know for several weeks that our principal was retiring. I wonder what the hold-up is?
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