The latest sources of transparency from DCSS

Good news! I have found several new sources of solid, interesting and relevant information coming from DCSS. First, kudos to Ramona Tyson and her staff for posting so much information about the search for the new superintendent. Go to the home page of the school system's website and click on the Superintendent Search at the top. You will find a whole host of information, along with the original questions, the original video of the forum and citizen commentary after the public interviews.

Additionally, Nancy Jester's new website is fast becoming a nice repository of important information. As Nancy shares in her newsletter, she has posted details about the new staffing formula (STAR). I will post a picture of that chart below, but to access Nancy's website, click here. The files are located in her blog.

Click to enlarge

Nancy also has new documents posted about the Chamblee HS construction project. You can access this info by clicking here.

One item of importance mentioned in Nancy's newsletter is this statement,

"As you know, the Georgia Legislature has considered various pieces of legislation that impact the DeKalb BOE. As the legislative session proceeded, a letter was sent to the DeKalb delegation that opposed the various bills that were under consideration. I have received numerous inquiries about this letter and my position. I did not approve, review or sign this letter. My signature is a digital image that is used on proclamations, etc. I have expressed my concern about this letter to the Board Chair."

(FWIW, Nancy then gives her own, very cogent reasons why she personally does not agree with the legislation.)

I'm very glad to know that Nancy did not participate in sending 'the letter', but I am greatly distressed that our board chair thinks it's perfectly acceptable to compose and create a letter with a strong opinion on a controversial topic, and then electronically paste in each member's signature and send it to the head of the DeKalb delegation – implying solidarity on the issue. (Click here to read the original post on the letter.) This is the same board chair who last year, assured Sarah Copelin-Wood that her comments against the Citizen's Planning Task Force and attempted strong-arming in their decisions would be swept under the rug.

Below are two emails from the exchange between Tom Bowen (chair) and Sarah Copelin-Wood, discussing her meddling in the hard work of the Citizen's Planning Task Force last year. (Click here for details in the original post.)  Although it seems like old news, these emails are hard proof that our board chair is far more concerned about public perception than about the truth. Oddly, Tom and others cited the Task Force's inconsistent opinions as a reason to dismiss their findings – even as they were aware that the inconsistency was due to a board member's strong pressure.

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----- Original Message -----

From: bowent7522@... Tuesday, May 04, 2010 4:58:28 PM

Subject: Re: Your Reference To Me In Article In AJC

To: SARAH COPELIN-WOOD

I was asked the status and I said the board had not had any time to discuss it given all we had going on with the budget and other things.

My preference is to not take it on at all and let it go away. It will be a bunch of he said, she said. Only thing we could do is add to the policy on citizen committees but that would just attract more attention.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

******************************************

- Original Message ----

From: bowent7522@... Tuesday, May 04, 2010 5:32:27 PM

Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Your Reference To Me In Article In AJC

To: SARAH COPELIN-WOOD

No investigation and nor do I want one. Especially now that we changed the plan with the four schools and we aren't going to use the findings anyway.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

******************************************

Add to this his recent decision to send a personal letter with all nine electronic signatures on a subject important to his own political aspirations, and we have a chair who thinks he can manipulate perception. That is just plain wrong.

Has Tom Bowen lost his mind?

Prepare for flameout.

In addition to setting agendas and running board meetings, chairpersons also have the responsibility of appointing committees and their chairs. Tom Bowen, recently voted as Chairman of the DeKalb County School Board for a second term, is about to appoint his committee chairs. Bowen has recommended the following members to the Budget, Finance and Facilities Committee.

Jay Cunningham, Gene Walker, Donna Edler and Don McChesney.

And Jay will be the chair.

I kid you not.

Jay Cunningham. The very same Jay Cunningham who pled guilty to stealing money (over $12,000) while working as a manager at McDonald’s.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-school-officials-record-690212.html

And his ethics were called into question for selling pizza to schools.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/table-appears-set-for-558491.html

For more on Jay’s financial woes, read this article at the Champion News online.

"Financial problems plague school board member"
http://www.championnewspaper.com/news/articles/780financial-problems-plague-school-board-member-780.html

According to court records, board member Jesse “Jay” Cunningham has at least 15 open court cases against him—most of which involve payroll garnishments to pay creditors. Of the cases, four were filed between 2002 and 2007, five in 2008, one in 2009 and five last year. In addition, there are seven cases involving Cunningham that are listed as “closed.”



The garnishments in the open cases exceed $173,000. Records show that his board member check has been garnished by Ford Motor Credit in seven of the open cases. As a board member, Cunningham is paid $23,400 annually.



Other organizations bringing garnishments against Cunningham last year include Delek US Holdings and Mapco Express. Delek is the parent company of Mapco Express, a convenience store. Money from these checks has gone to pay garnishments by Georgia Receivables, a collection agency attempting to settle a debt from Nice Cars Inc.

In addition, it appears that Jay has a slight problem controlling his temper.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-school-officials-record-690212.html

In the more recent allegations, Cunningham was accused in 2008 by a male friend of his wife of punching the man in the head outside a church on one occasion and of pulling a gun on the man on another occasion. In a separate allegation, a DeKalb school parent told police she believed Cunningham threatened her at a meeting of cheerleading boosters in 2009. Police wrote reports on all three of the alleged incidents — the reports were obtained by the AJC — but Cunningham was not charged in any of them.

And what about Gene Walker? Yes, this is the same Gene Walker who took a $20,000 campaign donation from the Sembler Corporation when running for school board, while also serving on the DeKalb Development Authority, the same Authority that Sembler was requesting over $50 million in tax credits, 60% of which come from the school taxes and would need to be confirmed by the school board. Worse, Walker failed to report the donation until after he won the election.
http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/officials-failing-to-disclose-320745.html

DeKalb County school board member Gene Walker, for example, raised about $20,000 in 2008 from campaign donors associated with the Sembler Co. as it sought a multimillion-dollar tax break from another county board that Walker chaired. Walker disclosed those donations two days after winning the school board seat.

Yes, the same Gene Walker who while serving as a state senator, was charged with sexual harassment of an employee, a charge that the state settled for $190,000. That’s $190,000 of the people's money.
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=165732

The sexual harassment lawsuit pending against state parole board member Gene Walker isn't the first time he's been named in such a case. The Associated Press has learned that the state quietly paid $190,000 a dozen years ago to settle the first lawsuit in which Walker was accused of sexually harassing a secretary.

Tom Bowen, in appointing people with such hideous financial records to a finance committee has obviously lost his ability to protect the interests of the DeKalb County School System. Could it be time for a recall? Enough is quite enough.

PROPOSED STANDING COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
https://eboard.eboardsolutions.com/meetings/viewmeetingOrder.aspx?S=4054&MID=18321

Budget, Finance and Facilities
[C] Mr. Jesse ‘Jay’ Cunningham
Ms. Donna G. Edler
Mr. Donald E. McChesney
Dr. Eugene P. Walker

Business, Community and Government Relations
[C] Ms. Sarah Copelin-Wood
Ms. Nancy T. Jester
Mr. Jesse ‘Jay’ Cunningham
Dr. Pamela A. Speaks

Instruction and Board Policy
[C] Dr. Pamela A. Speaks
Ms. Sarah Copelin-Wood
Ms. Nancy T. Jester
Mr. Donald E. McChesney

The vote on the committee assignments will be tomorrow at 11 am.

New State Board Ethics Policy

Many of you who are running for school board or who are already on school board participated in an online "webinar" recently regarding the state ethics policy currently in the process of being written. In 2008, the Commission for School Board Excellence was asked by the State Board of Education and State Superintendent to examine Georgia’s public school systems’ board governance. Among other recommendations, the Commission recommended that the State Board “convene a Task Force of education leaders and organizations to address the following three areas of school board focus:
 board roles and responsibilities
 state-wide school performance standards
 comprehensive board member education and proficiency

There are some really strong statements in the resulting policy, called, Standards for Effective Governance of Georgia School Systems, which is still in draft form. Below are a few randomly selected paragraphs from the draft.

“Schools are major public institutions in our democracy. They serve the public and are a key link between democracy and education. School board members are critical to the principle of public accountability. Public schools are the ultimate in grass roots democracy.”   
– The Commission for School Board Excellence (2008)

An effective governance model familiar to corporate and public sector leaders is the Board Governance model. The board model of oversight for public education permits public scrutiny and lies at the heart of the school board of governance. Citizen “ownership” is fundamentally different from traditional management. . . . 

School board governance is based upon the trusteeship ideology that the board works as one body representing the entire community. Imbedded in the concept of board action on behalf of a larger group of citizen owners, is a shared focus on results, a good faith and honest effort to fulfill the oversight role. Governance of a school board acts for the owners to ensure that the current executive officer fulfills the mission of the organization and ensures its future sustainability. This understanding of a legal and logical entity held accountable is at the core of the American business model. The entity is run by executives, and those executives are accountable to the shareholders through a board of directors.  . . . 

To quote John Carver, “board governance represents ownership one level down, not management one level up.” School boards, as with corporate boards, must ensure that the school system fulfills its mission while ensuring confidence in the process of governance. Boards, individually and collectively, must model leadership integrity and instill confidence in the governance team. Effective boards ensure good stewardship of funds, demonstrate ethical behavior, plan for and support system-wide student achievement of accepted standards. Along with mission alignment, it is common on most for-profit and non-profit boards that certain behaviors are expected: professional courtesy, open and enlightening discussion about future plans and requirements for results from current outcomes and operations.  . . . 

In order to reinforce the notion of partnership and address the vague and often confusing language that currently exists in this area, the standards employ the term governance leadership team to identify the leadership group composed of the board and superintendent. This group is distinguished from the management leadership team, which is usually composed of the superintendent and senior school system administrators.  . . . 

A final principle associated with the standards is the evolution from a compliance-based model to a performance-based model. Simply stated, the Task Force amended the process that is often used to develop standards for job performance. The traditional process typically examines the roles and responsibilities of persons in the role and describes the desirable behavior associated with these roles and responsibilities. The Task Force, recognizing that a new level of performance is needed from school board members, took the approach of considering how the role of the school board member should evolve to meet the demands of the current social, political, and economic context, and developed prescriptive language for the standards. In other words, the Task Force moved from simply describing what is, to prescribing what should be.  . . . 

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Interesting. I am encouraged by the vision this task force seems to have for the future of school board governance. It seems that the main takeaway is that we need to move our boards away from the management process of being reactive to being proactive.  We need leaders who can visualize the future and hold school administrators accountable to defined goals. We need school systems that focus on students and their needs and achievements, not on administrative tasks, construction management or specialty programs.  We need a new plan—this has become an emergency.