FOUND! DCSS Has The Money for Education Excellence

Folks, it is time to stop giving DCSS leaders and the BOE the benefit of the doubt.

They are flat-out “raiding the cookie jar” – taking what they can from us and from our children.

Their chutzpah is amazing! This is not happening by accident – and they clearly feel no shame.

DeKalb is a majority Black county. DCSS is a majority Black school system run by majority Black administrators and a majority Black BOE. This is a Black-on-Black outrage, if not an outright crime. Disadvantaged children in DeKalb County, most of whom are Black, have no chance. As long as DCSS leaders, the BOE and their friends-and-family “get theirs” they simply do not care what happens to the children.

I have spent nights and weekends pouring over DCSS employee payroll information from 2008, 2009 and 2010. While the state is to be commended for putting this information online, a lot of work was required to get it to a point where the data can be sorted and analyzed:

• An online document with nearly 17,000 rows had to be downloaded to a CSV document, then converted to an Excel spreadsheet.
• All of the dollar figures had to be converted from CSV fields that read-as-text to Excel fields that read-as-currency using a separate text editor. Not as easy as it sounds!
• Significant, multiple data entry errors originating in the online information had to be corrected in order to properly sort and analyze the data.

This is an unfinished project. But, I want to share with you what I know so far, based on the 2010 payroll as published on Open.Georgia.gov. I have not had time to go to this level of detail for 2008 and 2009.

Mission Critical

Administrators, Teachers and Other Professionals – $453,840,260

9,227 school-based professionals* who have direct contact with students.

Support Staff – $12,912,876

334 school-based Support Staff **(who keep the schools running) for the 9,227 professionals (above) and DCSS’ 96,000+ students. These support staff are paid as secretaries/clerks when in reality many are trained professionals in their fields and should be paid as such.

*(This does not include vocational/nursing assistant/health tech instructors and administrators or psycho-ed personnel.)
** (This does not include custodial staff because it was impossible to determine how many were school-based.)


NOT Contributing to Mission

Central Office Clerical – $12,889,567

376 Central Office Secretaries/Clerks supporting 39 Superintendent/Deputy/Associate/Assistant Superintendents/Directors and their overstuffed departments. This includes:

• Betty Guthrie ($74,100), secretary and gatekeeper to HR Czar Jamie Wilson ($166,008) who refuses to publish his business number.
• Cointa Moody, now indicted on RICO charges, who made $79,546 as Pat Pope’s secretary – that was more than the Superintendent’s secretary! This begs the question – which arises again and again and again – what did Pat Pope and possibly others have on Crawford Lewis?

Other Central Office Secretaries/Clerks

• 6 making more than $71,000+ (including Frankie Freeman)
• 2 making more than $60,000
• 17 making more than $50,000
• 6 making nearly $49,000

Miscellaneous Activities $4,414,673

145 people. Doing what?

• Interesting, familiar names on this list. Are they related to anyone we know? It’s hard to tell because DCSS and the BOE will not reveal the names of family members on the payroll.
• Of the 145 here, nearly 33% received more than $50,000 from DCSS in 2010; 41% received “salary-sized” payments.
• Five received more than $100,000, including Ralph Simpson who topped the list at $122,928!

Outsource to Gain Performance and Savings:

Finance – $2,133,111

27 Business Services personnel, including 7 auditors who aren’t, really.

• Heading up this department is Marcus Turk ($166,008), the guy who told Crawford Lewis “no” to using his DCSS P-card (credit card) illegally and inappropriately – and then Turk approved paying the bills, anyhow.
• Turk had to know about Lewis’ illegal activities that eventually earned him a RICO indictment.
• No Open Checkbook as long as Turk handles the money.

Human Resources – $2,483,990

35 HR personnel.

• This includes DCSS retiree Robert Tucker ($57,168) who does Ronald Ramsey’s ($114,057) “job” three months (January, February, March) of each year while Ramsey busies himself with commendations, recognitions, condolences and congratulations (32 in 2011) in the legislature as a state senator ($16,007). Of the 16 mostly forgettable bills Ramsey co-sponsored in 2011, only one made it to the Governor for his signature.
• Tucker also is eligible to collect a pension from Georgia’s Teacher’s Retirement System.
• Apparently, Tucker is one of many DCSS retirees who retire and are brought right back as “contractors” making a full-time salary in addition to being eligible to collect a pension from TRS.

Security and School Safety – $9,812,575
 
213 Security Personnel.

• This massive group of school-based security officers, along with administrative detectives, and their two overpaid directors ($214,752) have not been able to prevent thefts – most of which appear to be “inside” jobs. Nor have they recovered hundreds of stolen laptops.
• What is the dollar value of all the theft from DCSS in 2010 and so far in 2011?
• Why have none of the thieves been brought to justice? At least one was caught red-handed.
• This cost does NOT include the fuel and maintenance costs for the cars these folks are given to drive to and from work.

Technology Services – $13,337,208

246 Technology Services personnel.

• These are the people who are unable to bring DCSS into the 21^st Century of technology and who already outsource even the basics.
• Why isn’t DCSS using the sophisticated, free, open source Open Office software? It’s FREE, completely compatible with Microsoft Office, comes without the bloatware that must be removed from Office and works better in many ways.

Food Service – $18,090,861

1009 Food Service personnel.

• There are 8 – count ‘em – 8! – food service administrators; 4 make more than $70,000 including Joyce Wimberly who makes $110,187.
• Do your kids eat the food – or is there a lot of waste? Outsource for tasty, nutritious food your kids will eat – for lower cost and less waste.

Transportation – $31,926,958

1198 Transportation personnel.

• Would an expense this size be necessary with smaller neighborhood schools?
• DCSS also has other options under AYP instead of transferring students across the county and providing bus transportation for that crisscrossing.
• The budget for magnet transportation (no longer legally required) was saved by the BOE -- instead of saving parapros at neighborhood schools.
• Transportation to Fernbank’s Scientific Tools & Techniques science program for 160 freshman delivered from their homes to Fernbank and then from Fernbank to their home schools costs a fortune.
• NOT included in the above costs are the constantly rising costs for fuel and maintenance.
• Does DCSS also pay mileage costs or MARTA costs for transferring students who select that as their transportation option? How much additional does that cost?

NOTE: The payroll costs shown above do NOT include the cost of benefits that DCSS also must pay.

Did You Know:

Did you know that DCSS 2010 revenues were approximately 3% more than expenditures for teachers and paraprofessionals? That is actually a lot of money! Did you know that DCSS spent only 40.8% of its funding for teachers and paraprofessionals? Teachers and paraprofessionals are Mission Critical!

DCSS has a staggering number of substitute teachers – 1,450! – with a total payroll of $9,161,313!

We could dismiss at least half of the Central Office clerical staff, never miss them, and gain nearly $6.5 million for education. (In the business world, there are very few secretaries anymore. With the advent of computers, most managers have easily been able to type their own communications and answer their own mail for years now. Most can also answer their own phones and check voice mail.)

We could dismiss all who are paid for “Miscellaneous Activities,” never miss them and whatever it is they do, and gain nearly $4.5 million for education. 

We could dismiss ALL of Crawford Lewis’ inner circle, never miss them and gain more than $3.6 million for education. 

What if we could outsource Finance, Human Resources, Security, Technology Services, Food Service and Transportation (greatly scaled down) for 80% - 90% of the 2010 personnel cost for these areas? We would have an additional $7.7 million – $15.5 million to spend on educating our children well. DCSS could give disadvantaged children the education they deserve to have a decent life. DCSS could give ALL DeKalb children the education they deserve to become productive and contributing citizens.

That’s an annual windfall of $22.3 million – $30.1 million!

And, folks, ALL of these savings are just from right-sizing payroll!

Without the Open Checkbook we have repeatedly called for, we cannot even begin to identify the millions more dollars in legal costs and other questionable payments buried deep within the budget. Yet.

“Too Many Chiefs and Not Enough Indians”

DCSS has “too many chiefs and not enough Indians”. The figures below show why certified teachers must vacate the classroom and stop teaching our children in order to get ahead in DCSS. These numbers come from the state Report Card web pages. They reflect the number and pay of certified personnel in the DeKalb County School System as well as a comparison with the other metro Atlanta school systems.

8,200+ DCSS employees hold current certificates with the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, almost all being teaching certificates, yet only 6,374 are fulltime teachers.

Looking at Average Annual Salary (benefits NOT included), Average Daily Salary, and numbers of certified personnel over the last three years, Teachers (and therefore students) have borne the brunt of cost cutting in this recession. The result of a constant reduction in teaching positions rather than sharply decreasing admin and support personnel has been increased class sizes and decreased student achievement.

These figures illustrate that the way to make the most money, have the most job security, and bear the least responsibility for student achievement is to get out of and stay out of the classroom.

*Note that Support (no supervisory duties) personnel work only 7 more days a year than Teachers, yet they make over $10,000 more in Average Annual Salary than Teachers.

DCSS Certified Administrators, Support Personnel and Teachers - Number of Employees and Average Salary 2007-10
	Administrative 2007-08	Administrative 2008-09	Administrative 2009-10
Number	550	534	524
Fulltime number	541	528	518
Average Annual Salary	$88,255	$91,297	$90,901
Average Contract Days	227	226	225
Average Daily Salary	$390	$404	$404
	Support 2007-08	Support 2008-09	Support 2009-10
Number	963	939	974
Fulltime number	880	857	911
Average Annual Salary	$63,202	$65,654	$64,891
Average Contract Days	198	198	198
Average Daily Salary	$319	$331	$329
	Teachers 2007-08	Teachers 2008-09	Teachers 2009-10
Number	6994	6887	6739
Fulltime number	6631	6539	6374
Average Annual Salary	$52,728	$54,587	$54,413
Average Contract Days	191	191	191
Average Daily Salary	$277	$286	$285

Since Teachers are the employees who instruct our students and are TOTALLY responsible for making AYP, it seems obvious that DCSS has lost its focus.

Many posters have said their BOE members want statistics before they will admit our administrative and support group is overstaffed and overpaid while our teacher group is understaffed. Please refer them to these statistics the state has required DCSS to provide. These statistics have been subsequently posted on the state DOE website by the state of Georgia DOE Information Technology group.

Mrs. Tyson needs to begin and the new superintendent needs to continue to right size our ratio of Staff (admin and support) to Teacher personnel as well as right size the pay schedule for the admin and support group. Maybe this will encourage the BOE to press Mrs. Tyson for that missing 2004 Compensation audit. Perhaps Mrs. Tyson and the BOE will understand why they should have authorized an up-to-date Compensation audit last spring conducted by an independent accounting firm with no ties to the school system administration or the BOE.

Comparing the DCSS 2010 numbers of certified personnel to other Atlanta metro area systems, we have a lower Teacher to Staff ratio than any other metro system with the exception of Atlanta Public Schools, a system that is arguably not a model of fiscal responsibility. In other words, DCSS’s 4:1 Teacher to Staff ratio means that for every five DCSS teachers, we have one employee who is certified to teach, but does not do so.

In simpler terms, 20% of our personnel certified to teach do not instruct a single student.

Look at this comparison of DCSS with the other metro systems (be sure to click on the Personnel and Fiscal tab):

DeKalb Schools:
A. Enrollment: 96,678
B. Fulltime administrators: 518
C. Fulltime Support Personnel: 911
D. Fulltime Teachers: 6,374
E. Staff to Teacher Ratio: 4:1

Gwinnett Schools:
A. Enrollment: 158,438
B. Fulltime administrators: 644
C. Fulltime Support Personnel: 674
D. Fulltime Teachers: 10,484
E. Staff to Teacher Ratio: 8:1

Fulton Schools:
A. Enrollment: 88,446
B. Fulltime administrators: 370
C. Fulltime Support Personnel: 553
D. Fulltime Teachers: 5,919
E. Staff to Teacher Ratio: 6:1

Cobb Schools:
A. Enrollment: 106,574
B. Fulltime administrators: 411
C. Fulltime Support Personnel: 757
D. Fulltime Teachers: 7,773
E. Staff to Teacher Ratio: 6:1

Clayton Schools:
A. Enrollment: 49,381
B. Fulltime administrators: 282
C. Fulltime Support Personnel: 272
D. Fulltime Teachers: 3,565
E. Staff to Teacher Ratio: 6:1

Atlanta Public Schools:
A. Enrollment: 47,944
B. Fulltime administrators: 470
C. Fulltime Support Personnel: 364
D. Fulltime Teachers: 3,728
E. Staff to Teacher Ratio: 4:1

What happens when an organization like DCSS has “Too Many Chiefs and Not Enough Indians?”

The result of directing a disproportionate percent of our certified admin and support personnel into non-teaching positions has been and will continue to be detrimental for DCSS students in terms of student achievement, the ONLY reason for our school system to exist. Until Mrs. Tyson and the BOE address this situation, our students’ achievement will continue to be the lowest in metro Atlanta.

(Source: the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement web pages – links provided in this article – click on the Personnel and Fiscal tab)

Ron Ramsey (with updates)

Updated

This is where the Central Office gets itself in trouble:

"Creator of “DRUMLine Live“ Don Roberts gives direction to cast"

-

Don Roberts is now the instrumental coordinator for the DeKalb County School System and creator of the show “DRUMLine Live”.

Dallas Austin, producer of the 2002 movie “Drumline,” approached Roberts to consult for the film while researching bands in DeKalb County.

Roberts tweaked the concept for a theater setting and was picked up by Columbia Artists Management.

The 38-member cast of “DRUMLine Live” is currently working its way through a second U.S. tour and has completed two tours in Japan and Korea.

After working on the movie, Roberts said he knew he wanted to continue to bring the band experience to audiences.

=====

This is great for Mr. Roberts, and I hope it has proved to be artistically and financially rewarding for him. Really, congrats to him!

But as we've seen with Yvonne Butler, Ralph Simpson, Morcease Beasely, and the worst offender, Ram Ramsey, when someone is an administrator for the DeKalb Co. School System, with second and third jobs, it should in no way affect the forty hour work week we expect from them and pay them for. And DCSS administrators are supposed to work 12 months a year.

I hope that Mr. Roberts' responsibilities for Drumline Live in no way interefere with his job duties as the instrumental coordinator for the school system. I hope that he does not spend one second during his work day, other than on his lunch, to do Drumline Live business, I hope he doesn't use a DCSS computer or DCSS phone to do so. Taxpayers pay him to be our system's instrumental coordinator. Period.

We've seen what happens when administrators like Yvonne Butler spend so much time out of the classroom during the school year to promote themselves, make money, etc. for other endeavors. Even while being paid full-time by DCSS. "Bookgate" only became a public scandal because we here on this blog pushed it (http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2010/08/book-gate-update.html).

-Still not sure why Ralph Simpson was allowed to remain a highly compensated DCSS administrator while Butler was fired. It pays to be buddies with the bigwigs.

-

Ron Ramsey's Office of Internal Affairs was aware of the Butler and Simpson situations, but failed ignored them. I guess that makes sense as anything Ramsey did would seem hypocritical with his multiple non-DCSS responsibilities. Ramsey has one of the top five positions in the school system, yet he is out three months of the year at the state senate and also runs multiple family businesses.

-

Morcease Beasely, who by all accounts has the second most important job for the 26th largest school system in America: He's in charge of academics!! But how fully committed can he truly be to that incredibly important job when he's also a pastor trying to build a new church, and according to his website, is a consultant, author, leadership coach, etc. And he sells an online check registry (?): http://apassionforleadership.com/home.

-

It's also telling that it is system administrators who have these prominent other jobs and duties. Would the Office of Internal Affairs approve of teachers doing the same? Or does the Office of Internal Affairs have a "Kiss Up, Kick Down" philosophy (http://tportis.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/understanding-the-psychology-of-the-kiss-upkick-down-leader/)?

-

I think we all know the answer on how Ramsey and the retired but still making bank Robert Tucker would treat teachers in the same situation as Butler, Simpson, Beasely and Ramsey himself.

+++++

original post

This is your DeKalb County School System's Director of the Office of Internal Affairs.

And if you live in DeKalb in District 43, this is your state senator.

1) 2007 Salary: $115,000 -- 2009 Salary: $140,000
Hey county teachers, how many of you saw a $25,000 raise in 24 months?

2) No prior experience in public education administration.

3) The DeKalb Delegation has been meeting with the public twice a year over the past 5-6 years to update county residents on the legislative session and pressing legislation, and more importantly, to listen to county resident concerns.

Ramsey has not attended any of these public meetings.

4) Ramsey, as state senator, has not written or passed any substantial legislation.

5) He and his family own multiple businesses. So in addition to his full-time DCSS position, and a state senate position that is full time for at least three months of the year, he has multiple businesses to operate. I can only hope he doesn't use his DCSS phone or computer to perform any senate or personal business.

6) Ramsey receives $17,342 a year as a state senator. However, he also receives a per diem every day the state senate is in session, or if he goes to the Gold Dome out of session for senate business, of a generous $173 per day.

The per diem was originally meant for legislators who live far from the capitol and can't drive home at the end of a day in session. Ramsey gets the same per diem for at least 40 days a year, approx. $7,000 (the actual number of days is most likely double), plus the annual salary and benefits.

7) Under Ramsey's tenure as head of DCSS Internal Affairs, the unprecedented happened: The system's Superintendent and Chief Operating Officer were indicted under the RICO Act for criminal enterprise. Despite red flags such as the Lewis vehicle purchase, Gasgate, the Lewis trips to the Bahamas and Ritz Carlton even after warned by Marcus Turk not to pay for them on p-card, the awareness that Vincent Pope was a subcontractor on DCSS projects, etc., the Office of Internal Affairs completely failed in its directive.

8) The other DCSS scandals that occurred under Ron Ramsey's watch are too numerous to list: paying New Birth for rent for a charter school when there are a number of vacant DCSS properties, the Yvonne Bulter/Ralph Simpson Bookgate, the Frankie Callaway grade chaging scandal, the hiring of a Human Resources Diector with a criminal past, MIS' Jamal Edwards (son of former BOE member Franics Edwards) not being in his assigned school for six months with pay before parents finally had enough, etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on. The list of nepotism hires in the system is a very long one.

9) Even though he is retired with a full pension, taxpayers also pay Robert Tucker to work at the Office of Internal Affairs, in a position that can be summed up as Ramsey's right hand man. A few years back, the AJC did a story on the number of retired DCSS administrators who still worked for the system, the "double-dippers". The Board of Education promised to end the practice. Except in Tucker's case, obviously.

10) This is the most unbelievable aspect of Ron Ramsey's career to me: 40,000 residents of this county live in Dunwoody, over 5% of the county's population. When Dunwoody wanted to become a city, as is their right, when we already have a number of cities in the county (Chamblee, Doraville, Pine Lake, Decatur, Lithonia, Stone Mountain, Avondale Estates, Clarkston), Ron Ramsey calles for an economic boycott of Dunwoody????

And unthinkably, neither the DeKalb Delegation nor the Board of Education publicly reprimanded him for this humilating action. Action like the boycott demanded by Ramsey would hurt sales tax revenue which hurts DCSS SPLOST revenue. Perimeter Mall is located in Dunwoody...would Ramsey rather have shoppers go to Lenox and Phipps?

http://www.thecrier.net/articles/2008/02/05/front/cod.txt

State Sen. Ronald Ramsey (D-DeKalb) angrily charged that the legislation was “done in the dark.”

“We will have an economic boycott against the entire Dunwoody community and the PCID,” he said.

Simply mind numbing that the DeKalb Delegation and the Board of Education did not publicly reprimand Ramsey for his irresponsible statements.

-

Should we be satisfied with Ron Ramsey's performance as head of DCSS Internal Affairs? Even with a new superintendent in July, will the system actually change much with Ramsey and Tucker in place? The Board of Education has some decisions to make. We suggest they address these important credibility issues before they make any more cuts to the classroom or ask communities to endure painful (possibly unnecessary) redistricting. 

DCSS as Mrs. Potato Head?

Yes, it is time to break out my tired, old analogy for DCSS "Central Office" once again. This time, I'm featuring Mrs. Potato Head due to Title 9 considerations and because we have a new, interim Superintendent who is also of the "fairer sex."

Additionally, the word on the street was that there has been some quiet house-cleaning going on since she took office. With some diligent and simple key performance indicator analysis, we should be able to see the impact to the "bottom line" each year. Let's hope Mrs. Potato Head is helping Mr. Potato Head drop a few pounds in all the right places!

As I did last year, I downloaded the DCSS salaries reported by State of Georgia "Transparency in Government" web site to attempt to come up with a "Central Office-to-School House" ratio based on the job titles. Even with the help of Ella Smith, life-long public educator, this was a daunting task due the number and vagueness of the DCSS titles.

The good news this year is that the number of reported titles has fallen to 149 from 181 and I have devised a method for all readers of this blog to help with the accuracy of job titles classification as "Central Office" or "In School." For me, anyone who does not actually work in a school house has to be lumped into "Central Office." Sorry bus drivers and other providers of essential services - still not "In School!"

I have posted the spreadsheet as a Google Doc online and notified the editors of this blog how they can update the job title classifications to help us get an more accurate picture. The benchmark we documented for 2008 salaries was 24.987% of salaries went to "Central Office" titles and we'll see what we get this year for 2009 in a team effort.

If you want to participate in the review of job title classifications, simply download this spreadsheet (required MS Excel 97 or later or OpenOffice Calc) and post job title classification changes in the comments of this post. With all the teachers and other employees of DCSS lurking here, I hope this will give us a clear picture of which job titles are actually in school houses versus elsewhere.

You will also find in the spreadsheet workbook a third tab that contains three years of DCSS summary expenditures from the Georgia DOE. This is data that pscexb pointed out last year as available and I wanted to bring it back updated to the table for discussion. While I do see that "General Administration" has dropped during the past year, I also see a drop in instructional spending - less than ideal.


I would love to keep seeing General Administrative costs go down while maintaining instructional spending. We'll also need to watch the Maintenance Operations expense to see if it can be reduced. After all, as more newly renovated or constructed buildings come online I would hope our maintenance expenses would take a downturn. And, if our BOE and Superintendent get serious about consolidation and re-districting, we should see these maintenance expenses decline for many years to come as our Byzantine collection of properties declines.

I think that watching the numbers is something that this blog can do annually. Personally, I think DCSS should be posting this type of management analysis as  part of their governance and fiduciary responsibility. It isn't that hard to come up with a few key performance indicators and disseminate them. For now, take a look at the job titles in these reports and post to the comments when you spot a job title you know to be "In School" and I'll update the spreadsheet.

When were done with our exercise in a few days, I'll update this post with the completed data and a ratio. Let's make this an annual Christmas tradition as our gift to DeKalb County residents. Merry Christmas!

It's Deja Vu All Over Again!

Check out this report from CrossRoads News on the bloat in the central office of the school system - then do a double-take at the date the article was written.

Downsizing necessary as school system grapples with revenue shortfalls

by Ernest Brown 07.23.08

Downsizing or rightsizing the labor force in an organization is a reality in today’s economic climate. It is not surprising that the DeKalb Board of Education requested that Superintendent Dr. Crawford Lewis review staffing levels at the Central Office.

There has always been a concern by many that our Central Office is top-heavy, hence part of the motivation for this request. Dr. Lewis unveiled his preliminary findings at a called Board meeting on June 30th.

The school interviewed several firms to help assess the staffing levels and overall performance. Evergreen Solutions LLC (www.consultevergreen.com/) was selected to perform this service. Dr. Linda Reico, president of Evergreen, co-presented their initial findings with Dr. Lewis.

Following are some of my recollections of major points discussed:

• There are approximately 1,300 employees in the Central Office. This represents approximately 10 percent of all DCSS employees.
• Salaries currently make up approximately 91 percent of the general budget. SACS suggests salaries should be between 87- 93 percent of the budget. The target set by DCSS is 86 percent.
• There is a hiring freeze for “non-essential” positions.
• Forty-two Central Office positions have been identified for possible elimination. This could result in an annual savings of $2.64 million.
• Considering an Early Retirement Incentive Option that could take effect July 1: Targeted employees would be those who have completed at least 30 years of service. It has been determined this would impact around 170 employees. If this program is approved, it could result in an annual savings of up to $2.3 million.
• Staffing levels should be further studied in the Transportation, Public Safety and Security, Public Relations, Plant Services, and Student Relations departments.
• The Athletics program is not “self-sustaining,” and an evaluation may be needed regarding the number of sports teams currently supported.
• Employee salaries and benefits need to be balanced with financial constraints. Dr. Reico mentioned that DCSS has been “generous” over the years with respect to annual increases and that may need to be reviewed.
• Determine where technology modernization and applications could reduce labor costs. Four-day work weeks should be considered during the summer months. There should be cross training of Service Center employees.
• A Compensation and Classification study is recommended. The last one was done in 2003 and these are typically valid for 5 years.
• After the presentation, board members asked questions to get a better understanding of the initial finding along with the costs for proceeding. One member noted that while staffing algorithms should help guide each school, common sense should be used based on the needs of that school.
• The number of assistant principals at each school seemed subjective to some. Another raised the question whether early retirement should be offered prior to the completion of the Performance and Management Audit.

Two studies proposed

Evergreen submitted a proposal of $475,000 for a Management and Performance Audit. It was estimated this could be completed in four to five months, hence delivered by Thanksgiving if begun during July. They also proposed a Compensation and Classification study for $350,000. This could start in December and would also last four to five months.

Both could be done for $775,000 if the Board used Evergreen, representing a savings of $50,000.

The Board was advised the Compensation and Classification study should be opened to other vendors for consideration before proceeding. Dr. Lewis committed to have a recommendation for a vendor by the August work session. The Board will vote on the Management and Performance Audit at the July 14th meeting.

Dr. Lewis began setting expectations with the Board that the entire process could take three to five years to reach the target of 86 percent. He requested consideration that the study be expanded to the entire school system, not just the Central office.

Dr. Lewis also indicated he would meet with CFO Marcus Turk regarding how the audits would be funded and would present that to the Board.

Hiring an outside firm to help with this process is the right thing to do because reduction-in-force efforts are occasionally met with some litigation. Having proper documentation along with making these decisions based on industry best practices and standards would reduce that likelihood.

With possible cuts to the labor force, expectations should be set with stakeholders that there could be cuts in service. If everyone understands and accepts this possibility, it should be easier to deal with the outcome of this process.

Ernest Brown lives in Lithonia. © crossroadsnews.com 2008

The Audacity is Astounding!

As if spending a million dollars on computers for the board and administration in the NEW Mountain Industrial Center offices wasn't enough - now this memo was sent out to DCSS employees -

====================

INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM

====================

To: All DeKalb Employees

From: Shannon Williams Assistant Director of Staff and Student Health and Wellness

Through: Mrs. Gloria Talley, Deputy Superintendent, Teaching and Learning

Subject: Wellness Center - Opening

Date: 23 November 2009

DCSS Employee Wellness Center

The Wellness Center is FREE for all employees.

You must present your DCSS employee ID badge upon entering the facility. Please bring a towel and water bottle for your workout.

Opening December 1st

Hours: 3:30 pm - 8:00 pm Monday - Friday

The Wellness Center is equipped with the following:

• 1/2 court basketball

• Weight room

• Cybex select machines

• Free weights

• Cardio room

• 5 treadmills

• 4 elliptical trainers

• 4 stationary bicycles

• Training Equipment

• Medicine balls

• Resistance Bands

• Aerobic steps

• Exercise balls

Although there will be staff member available for basic questions concerning equipment use, we do not have certified trainers to assist with individualized programming at this time.

Free group exercise classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 5:30 and 6:30!

The Wellness Center is located at the following address:

Mountain Industrial Center

1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard

Stone Mountain, GA 30083

(please drive to the back of the building and look for the signs).

If you have any questions, please contact Shannon Williams via First Class

or 6-0142.


========

We all know who this facility was built for. Not the teachers of DeKalb County. I would really love to know where they got the money for all the equipment (I'll bet there'll be another furlough day coming up). I would love to see a sign in list each month to see who really is using the equipment. This is very - VERY upsetting to those of us who scratch and bite to get any kind of equipment for STUDENTS in our schools and have witnessed the decrepit old crap they have to use at Cross Keys, Lakeside and others. Or how about the athletes at Avondale who are working out in a trailer - or in the grass outside the back door? Excuse me while I go have a good cry.