Courtesy of the AJC:
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is scheduled to release its report on DeKalb Schools at a 2 p.m. press conference. The board will meet at 4 p.m. to review and discuss the findings.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-learns-accreditation-fate-858341.html
From the Agenda
1. Presentation of the SACS Findings
Presented by Mr. Thomas E. Bowen, Board Chair
The DeKalb Board of Education will hold a called meeting at 4:00pm, Thursday, March 3, 2011, in the J. David Williamson Board Room at the DeKalb County School System's Administrative & Instructional Complex, 1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard, Stone Mountain. Meeting information can be accessed online by going to: www.dekalb.k12.ga.us, click on Leadership, go to eBoard Home Page and click on the date for the meeting agenda\information. https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/meetings/viewmeetingOrder.aspx?S=4054&MID=18738
25 comments:
If you have a fan, don't bring it.
Do you really think they are going to touch DCSS? Don't hold your breath.
Too bad the findings were probably finished before Womack pulled a Charlie Sheen.
I am hoping that SACS tell DCSS to get its act together. Hire a qualified superindentent, place more qualified teachers in the classroom and lose the dead (and overpaid) weight at the Central Office. Then we call all chant together "I believe in fairies, I believe in fairies" and Tinkerbell will come back to life!
Will this meeting be televised or streamed live?
SACS was largely focusing on the dreaded CLEW and Pat Pope plus
(from the AJC article with my comments in( ) )
SACS is particularly concerned about the board securing a permanent superintendent (duh, I could have told you that. Mr Beasely front and center), implementing newly enacted policies and procedures (written by Ramona to protect the status quo), addressing ongoing legal matters (not enough work being given to diversity firms) and improving its governing effectiveness (bring back Rocky Roberts and follow the lead of compromised Tom Bowen and the rest who have relatives working in DCSS).
Sayonara? I have really enjoyed this blog and have the highest respect and admiration for Cereb and most of the contributors. You care for the children and are houghtful. But if SACS only does a whitewash or a hand slap then the blog may as well close down. SACS is the last and only hope for DCSS.
I'm not so sure how they will look if they give DCSS a Bye after what they did to Clayton and APS.... I'm expecting equivalent treatment. DCSS is in equivalent shape or worse.
http://www.csdecatur.net/tuition/
$611 per month = out of district tuition for City Schools of Decatur. Process open for outsiders during the month of March
I am so not defending this Board, but in Clayton and Atlanta, both boards both refused, by a majority vote, to change their bad behaviors.
What makes DCSS is tricky is that our board says the rigbt things. The problem is that they aren't generally doing the right thing.
As it relates only to accreditation DCSS is doing a pretty good job answering the SACS issues. The only outstanding one I'm aware of is hiring of a superintendent, and that process is underway. FWIW, I expect the report to be positive, with a nudge to get the hiring done.
I think many board members are behaving badly behind the scenes, the question will be were central office employees comfortable enough to share examples with the SACs people?
(Recently, I heard one central office employee describe a board member as a bully. I won't name names because it probably is true of many of them.)
Hoping that any nudge towards a superintendent does not lead to Beasley taking the role.
Board/district may have given good answers, but when you look at their behavior it's very questionable. Reminds me of kids in high school telling their parents that they are doing one thing and they turn around and do another. There behavior is not becoming of an adult and they have no business running DCSS.
I was at both Superintendant public forums and the MAIN theme for a NEW super was the following:
Someone NOT associated with the current system. An outsider.
This was rated higher than job experience or any other qualification.
I think we need to make sure that the search firm is keeping to this input from the public stakeholders.
Deadline to apply for Superintendent was Tuesday - wonder how many applicants they got or if they have to re-open the posting for a better pool of candidates. You can bet Beasley applied. Hearing some BOE members' support for him as well as Ms. Tyson's comments about how she is confident he knows instruction and can turn achievement around, look for him to be the next super. Same old, same old...
@ Anonymous 9:14
"But if SACS only does a whitewash or a hand slap then the blog may as well close down. SACS is the last and only hope for DCSS.'
Why would you say that? I'm counting on the legislators for DeKalb to do the right thing and let the citizens vote to reduce the BOE to either 5 or 7 members. This will mean an election that encompasses every BOE member.
I'm curious. Does SACS look at academic progress or academics at all when looking at accreditation - or is it simply related to how your board behaves? If it's the latter, then SACS accreditation means virtually nothing. I always had assumed that being "accredited" meant that you were able to provide a good education. Last time we were evaluated for accreditation, SACS apparently only really looked at our very best schools. That's really not a good assessment of the system overall. This system is quite inconsistent. I would think that would be a criteria for SACS - consistency in delivery.
If the whole thing rests on whether or not your actual board members can pass a "smell" test, then forget it. Why does no one ever seem to dig around to see if all of our nearly 100,000 children are getting a good education? I'm tired of all the focus always being on these 9 "adults" and the superintendent. SACS should be evaluating teachers, principals, students and parents.
Interviewing and then evaluating the board and the upper level staff is like asking the fox if he is being respectful to the hens.
I have to say...I am an involved parent. I work on my school's council, I volunteer in my children's classrooms. I've been advocating for my elementary school AND the one my children will end up at after the redistricting is finally finished. I have met with my Board member--3 times, by the way--and have written countless letters and attended countless county meetings. I'm prefacing with all this to make the point that our public school choice has been an important one to our family, since before we were even part of one.
All this to say...if this board hires a superintendent from within, my family will leave DCSS. No doubt.
In the real world..
An interim Super would be tasked to clean house before the permanent one was hired.
DCSS on the other hand had the FIRED and INDICTED former Super choose who the interim would be.
Then the BOE, in the dark of night, gave Ms. Tyson a huge raise which will enable her to have a very nice pension, as long as she stays with the system a few more years.
Time for a Palace cleansing folks but SACS is not going to help us. I think SACS could be part of the problem.
Bottom line DCSS cannot continue to operate with the current leadership. If the BOE decides to hire Beasley or someone else from the inside, DCSS is doomed!
SACS use to be about the nuts and bolts of schools and less about policy and governance.
They use to care about things like adequate buildings, clean bathrooms, certified teachers, solid instruction, etc.
In the last decade, their focus changed tremendously.
Hard to see which approach is better for children..
Anyone seen the report yet? I hope they don't "lose" it for 7 years
The press conference is right now. I am guessing the AJC will have something up shortly, depending on how long/how many questions, etc and if they started on time.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/sacs-orders-dekalb-to-859629.html
8 items to improve 6 of which were in progress by the time the report hit final draft.
The only two that are going to be hard to complete is making the board govern more effectively although we have some improvement and resolving legal issues. How can we do that any faster than the court will do them?
Morcease Beasley doesn't have a chance to be the next supt. The dude can't even speak grammatically correct English. He has a side business as a consultant and is also a pastor trying to start a church. There is no way any school district would hire this clown to lead a system.
@ 10:20 PM 3 March
Three of the BOE members have similar qualifications to Mr Beasely. Those three and probably Bowen want to keep the status quo job machine going (relatives are working for DCSS or some agenda. Only one more vote needed.
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