Sunday, March 27, 2011

Are jobs justified? DeKalb orders desk audit

While we've been fruitlessly searching for the original audit of salaries and job titles conducted by Ernst & Young for DeKalb County School System in 2004, Elaine Boyer and the DeKalb county commissioners have announced that they will be conducting exactly the same kind of study for county workers.

Below is the report from the AJC

Are jobs justified? DeKalb orders desk audit

Every DeKalb County employee’s duties will be scrutinized to determine if they are worth having a job.

The County Commission decided Thursday to hire an outside agency to conduct a desk audit. The first audit will be in the courts and public safety departments, which have the most staff, commissioners said.

Last month, the Commission voted to cut $33.6 million from the 2011 budget, but they have been reluctant to cut staff.

“We want outside independent people looking at this. I want to make it clear that we are not on a witch hunt,” Commissioner Elaine Boyer said.

Good for the commissioners. Now, let's demand the same of our school system. Our spending on employee costs hasn't been properly audited in most likely over 20 years. It's time.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/public-pension-crisis-threatens-886685.html

Ella Smith said...

Way to go commissioners!

Anonymous said...

Sandy, any luck? I'm amazed the media does not look into the original DCSS E&Y audit.

It's great that Boyer and the folks at the county are doing it. Hey Ramona, be a leader! Show us the original audit, conduct a new audit and then make public all the results. DO NOT DO what your predecessor did. Transparent, open school system, you promised us that almost a year ago!

Anonymous said...

Can the DeKalb County School System non-certified employees be next?

Anonymous said...

Uh, exactly why should I be impressed by *another* audit?

The county government had Georgia State do a study not too long ago which showed that close to 1,000 jobs could be cut. The county basically ignored the study, and instead gave the option of early retirement to way too many people, hired some of those people back and hired new people, but did no meaningful reorganization of operations.

Look at the census bureau findings which show population declines in much of central and south DeKalb. Look at the incredible drop in home values and then imagine what values will look like if the county does its job and appraises values fairly this year: More huge losses in tax revenue.

The commissioners don't want to raise taxes, so instead they tell all departments to cut their budgets. Except then they tell them "don't cut this," "save that," "make these changes."

I have no faith in the county commissioners to make the necessary cuts and downsize to a level in which they provide basic services efficiently.

And a huge part of the problem is that people in south DeKalb want to keep living like freewheelin Vernon is still in office and the bills won't be due until years from now. Meanwhile they want "this" and "that" now! All the while their home has lost half its value, half the homes on their street are vacant, and their neighbors owe thousands of dollars in past due property taxes.

Passionate... said...

Audits are fine, but following through with the findings is better! Is it possible DCSS?? Non-certified next, why??? By non-certified, you mean classified right: bus drivers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, cafeteria workers, custodians are all non-certified. What about cutting non-essential certified staff at AIC and WBBC? DCSS is still "top heavy."

Anonymous said...

Top Heavy is too kind of a term. They have way too many people at the Palace. Let's start with the Audria Berry Army! If you do not affect the school house directly then your position should be considered for termination.

Of course, Ramona will want to lay off the para's, bus drivers, custodians, Media Specialists the people that do the real work, while her predecessors Palace friends and family ride to the bank with big smiles on their faces. They should make a sweeping 15% decrease in staff at the Palace. Start with Jamal "Where's Waldo" Edwards. He got his job, got a big raise, didn't show up for his new job for 6 months and still has a job. Why?

Ramona we're growing tired and our checkbook is overdrawn. Time for change! I sure hope you do the right thing and not bankrupt us like our national politicians are working on.

Anonymous said...

Somehow the Kids Keep Learning, part 2:

The state announced the Governor's Honors finalists last Friday. 46 students from DeKalb were selected to attend GHP! This is a huge increase over 2009, when DeKalb had 23. (33 in 2008.)

Our GHP finalists come from Arabia Mountain, Chamblee, Columbia, DeKalb School of the Arts, Druid Hills, Dunwoody, Lakeside, Miller Grove, Towers, and Tucker.

pscexb said...

Great to see the list of students from DCSS that are finalists for Governor's Honors Program. The full list can be seen at:

http://admin.doe.k12.ga.us/gadoe/blogs/ghpblog.nsf/2/JSEE-8F2NB7/$File/2011GHPFinalistsPub.pdf

Sagamore 7 said...

Great link to the list of Students selected for the Governor's Honor Program!

Check out this little tidbit!

Lakeside High School (Dekalb County) = 11 students.

Marist = 5 students.

I do think Marist has about 200 seniors versus 392 seniors at Lakeside!

Lakeside has a higher % of students that made the Governor's Honors Program than a private school that charges over $16,000 per year tuition!!!!

Way to go Lakeside!

S7

Sagamore 7 said...

Great link to the list of Students selected for the Governor's Honor Program!

Check out this little tidbit!

Lakeside High School (Dekalb County) = 11 students.

Marist = 5 students.

I do think Marist has about 200 seniors versus 392 seniors at Lakeside!

Lakeside has a higher % of students that made the Governor's Honors Program than a private school that charges over $16,000 per year tuition!!!!

Way to go Lakeside!

S7

Anonymous said...

S7, while I'm proud of Lakeside's students, unfortunately that particular comparison isn't meaningful.

Each school district is allowed to nominate a certain number of students to GHP based on population. I believe DCSS is allowed to nominate around 135. I don't know exactly how it works for private schools, but only a handful of Marist students can be nominated.

About 700 finalists are chosen from approximately 2900 total nominees statewide, so DCSS beat the state average this year with 46 accepted out of about 135.

A better comparison with Marist: Marist and Lakeside were both in the 4A division of the state academic quiz competition on Saturday. Lakeside's team came in 2nd to Chattahoochee.

Sagamore 7 said...

Thanks for your explanation. Can you explain the nominating process or can you give a link to the policies and procedures?

Like I said, "Way to go Lakeside!"

Lakeside is supposed to play Marist at Lakeside in baseball tonight (pending rainout) and at Marist in soccer tomorrow.

Go Lakeside!

S7

Anonymous said...

What grades are your kids in? 10th and 11th graders are eligible, and the process begins in September/October.

Districts may set their own procedures for choosing their allocation of nominees. In DCSS, the students are first nominated by teachers at the school. If yours are interested, they should ask a teacher. The student has to fill out an application and the teacher has to fill in a recommendation form. Each school has a GHP coordinator (a counselor) who processes the forms, adds school information and transcripts, and sends them to the county. In November/December the county selects its nominees. The nominees from all counties then have state interviews in January/ February.

I got the 135 number for DCSS (actually 134) by going through the state interview schedule one year and hand-counting students from DCSS.

The official public information about the program is on http://admin.doe.k12.ga.us/gadoe/blogs/ghpblog.nsf/DailyBlog?OpenNavigator.

Anonymous said...

Druid Hills had 34 kids selected for state interviews this year, with 4 selected as finalists (they have had a much larger number of finalists in previous years).

Private schools have many fewers slots. As you can see, only a few from Westminster and Paideia (not due to lack of qualified kids).

Regardless, it is a real honor to be selected and a fabulous program. The state tried to cut it completely last year, and loud and coordinated protests from students and other advocates helped to keep it in the budget, albeit as a 4 week, instead of a 6 week program.

At most schools in DCSS, teachers nominate students (students do not ask to be nominated) and write a strong letter of recommendation in their behalf. The kids also fill out a lengthy application. At the state level, the students have an interview and meet other requirements (depending on the subject area in which they are auditioning). For math, they take a math test, for English, they write an essay, for art, they present a portfolio.

Anonymous said...

Sonof awcomeonnow stating:
In the past the comission has used "certain" firms to allow them and their friends to continue doing nefarious deeds unchecked.
One instance is the state mandated comprehensive land use meeting that occur every ten years, supposedly with public input.
A few years back a "certain firm" acted as the gate keeper for the good old boys by making sure that submissions weren't published,(or were "inexeplicably"
lost). The certain firm also handled meetings and schedules. Persons preparing to attend meetings at Dunwoody library on a Tuesday might be suprised to find out that they had been moved to the library in Stone Mountain village. Persons attending a meeting that was scheduled on a Thursday at another library might find the staff locking the facility up, with no knowledge of any meeting occuring.
I hope that the comission isn't up to it's old tricks: hire
"certain" firms to make sure that a smokescreen occurs.

Cerebration said...

More bad news for DeKalb:

Census could cost Fulton, DeKalb and even Cobb seats in state House

This should be interesting.

As the pace of growth cooled over the past decade in Atlanta’s urban core, its political power has begun to ooze out to the suburbs.

. . .

DeKalb and Fulton counties potentially have the most to lose. Data released earlier this month by the U.S. Census Bureau show that while both counties grew, the pace of their population increases fell well short of some of their suburban neighbors. From 2000 to 2010, DeKalb’s population increased by 3.9 percent, and Fulton’s rose by nearly 13 percent.

Both counties trailed the state’s overall increase of 18 percent, and the counties that ring them both generally saw much higher growth: Gwinnett County jumped 37 percent, Cherokee County 51 percent, and Forsyth and Paulding counties both gained more than 75 percent.


Click the link above to read the whole article. DeKalb stands to lose representation at the state.

Cerebration said...

Also, since there has been quite a bit of growth in Dunwoody and other parts of north DeKalb, reason says that the loss in legislative seats will be in south DeKalb.

Anonymous said...

Here's a minor correction to a previous post about GHP. Math nominees don't take a math test.

The selection criteria for each subject area are detailed in a document called "Governor’s Honors Program 2011 Instructional Descriptions and Criteria for Selection in All Areas."

http://admin.doe.k12.ga.us/gadoe/blogs/ghpblog.nsf/2/JSEE-88WRWH/$File/2011_GHP_Criteria_&_Description_Full_Document.pdf