What the Budget Cuts Mean

http://www.ajc.com/news/government-waste/ajc-special-school-central-533227.html

AJC Special: School
central offices costly

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Gloria Talley, deputy superintendent for teaching and learning with DeKalb schools, explained the many functions the central office performs.

“Let me tell you what we do,” Talley said. “We recruit and hire teachers. We write their checks. We train teachers in current practices and current strategies. We monitor teachers. We monitor principals. We assist principals in how they work with teachers. We have textbooks to purchase. We write curriculum. We have technology to oversee and to help implement.

“There’s a testing component that we need to oversee. There’s planning that we assist our schools with, and data analysis to help schools make decisions. That list doesn’t even include student security and safety.”

She continued: “I don’t want to get into the debate about how many bodies you need to run a central office because people sit on different sides of the fence. I believe that schools need support and that’s what we’re here for.”

Cobb County

106,079 Students

$34,470,248 spent on General Administration

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DeKalb County

96,907 Students

$49,159,245 spent on General Administration

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Yep, it's all about you and the Central Office, Gloria Talley.

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In an unbelievable display of insouciance, completely ignoring the reasons why there was a $100 million budget deficit and what led to it, the DCSS Central Office led by Ramona Tyson, and approved by the Board of Education, cowardly made cuts to the lowest paid staff and new teachers, you know, the people who actually work in the classroom and school house, where the students are.

In fact, the only administrative department/division that had any substantial cuts was the public relations division. And the one reason why this division had administrator layoffs is that Board of Ed members and the highest ranking Central Office administrators (Tyson, Bob Moseley, Gloria Talley, Marcus Turk, Ron Ramsey) felt the PR staff allowed the media to report too many negative stories on DCSS, whether the stories were deserved or not. The BOE, Crawford Lewis, Tyson, etc. got egg on their face, so the PR staff was gone. Of course, the only upper level PR administrator who did not lose her job, Philandria Guillory, is the daughter of a powerful former board member, Frances Edwards. Funny how family members of board members fared well in the budget cuts.

The most telling budget cuts comes from the the systems IT department, aka MIS, Management Information Systems. Ramona Tyson was the administrator in charge of this department while it grew from a small support services department to a massively bloated and ineffective monster of a department, with hundreds of employees and a $20 million annual budget. The annual budget doesn't count the millions spent on eSIS. And many parents and taxpayers don't know that even with hundreds of employees, MIS relies on Dell for much of the real technical dirty work of installations, server maintenance, etc.

The cuts made by Ramona Tyson to MIS are the lead proof on how she doesn't get it, no one else from the Central Office gets it, and that the Board of Education has never "got it". What cuts were made to MIS? Well, a few CTSS employees were let go. Who are the CTSS'ers? The employees who provide front level support to teachers and staff in the school building. Did any MIS administrators have to worry about the budget cuts? Nope, Tyson took care of her own.

Because the MIS Dept. has little quality control, yes, there are stories on how some CTSS'ers are unprofessional and unhelpful, like son of Frances Edwards, Jamal Edwards, who went six months not being seen in his assigned school. But the majority of CTSS'ers were productive employees who tried their best to serve their assigned schools and navigate the ridiculous MIS procurement and equipment replacement process. Again, it's telling that whenever a Central Office administrator wants a new computer, he/she receives it in a flash, while many teachers, especially in elementary schools, have ten year old desktops and smart boards that don't work because Tyson picked a brand with incredibly expensive replacement bulbs. You should see the technology, especially flat screen TV's, in the new Central Office HQ at Mountain Industrial.

So the budget was balanced, with some early retirement, but the bulk of the cuts came from the school house, with teachers and in school support staff being let go. The source of the bloat, and the decision-makers who spent millions with no return on investment from #$%^ like America's Choice, eSIS, etc., are still in place with their six figure salaries and their complete lack of understanding of what the school house needs, or that some older schools are falling apart. Tens of millions are spent anually on Instructional Coaches or Supervisors or whatever Deborah Rives (former DCSS regional super who now works for America's Choice) and Gloria Talley call them are still out of the classroom assigning nonsense busy work to actual teachers who actually teacher our children.

The bloat is still there. The massive upper management is still in place. Hundreds of administrators, managers and staff who have nothing to do with the classroom are still there. My hope is the new superintendent will instantly recognize this and clean house. But without a new Board of Education, that will be extremely difficult and unlikely.

I'd like to hear from you where the real budget and personnel cuts should have been made, and what we can do as parents and taxpayers to out those focus back on the student, teacher and school house!!! Post away!