DeKalb schools report $40 million surplus in construction funds
he board is now determining how to utilize that extra money. Suggestions include expanding the Coralwood Diagnostic Center, which serves special needs children, roof replacements, more parking and additions to replace trailers. The $40 million may only be used for capital improvements.
The SPLOST program, which runs from 2007-2012, is expected to raise $513.4 million. So far, the district has contracts for about $463 million in projects, said Barbara Colman, the district’s interim capital improvement program operations officer.
The school board also has the option to use $58 million in interest-free federal stimulus bonds. The board must decide by Oct. 4 to accept this money, said chief financial officer Marcus Turk.
However, some board members are reluctant to approve the bonds.
“The ultimate person who will pay for these funds is the taxpayer,” board member Don McChesney said. “I know we’re all in a situation that when everybody dangles money in front of us, we just grab it. But we need to make it clear to the taxpayer that this is money they will have to pay back.”
What does having an extra $40 mil from SPLOST mean? It means that the Board of Education, Tom Bowen Chairperson, never ever FREAKING paid attention before. It means that Central Office administrators, such as Bob Moseley, Marcus Turk and Ron Ramsey, never paid attention before. They allowed one person, Pat Pope-Red, to hold power over hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
It is a nice surprise to hear Don McChesney mention "the taxpayer". You won't hear our BOE members mention that term often.
If this BOE wants SPLOST IV to pass, there better be transparency, and I mean every penny, every contract, every change order, posted online with a chance for public comment. No more last minute switches or changes that allowed (alledgely) Pat Pope Reid to get away with mischief that led to an unheard of, unprecedented RICO indictment.
The BOE has $40 mil to play with Gene Walker is salivating). They better be pretty damn darn careful on his they spend it. We're watching.
290 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 290 of 290No Duh, Currently DCSS expects parents to sit down and shut up. All to often we are met with...
-"That's the way it's always been done."
-"You have no idea what you are talking about!"
-"All is well at the Central Office."
-"Isn't my new desk beautiful?"
-"Parents are just background noise."
-"Moseley knows everything and he doesn't care what you think."
-"Dr. Thompson is a Doctor of something and she knows what is best for your child."
-"Isn't America's Choice great!"
-"I'm so sorry your kids had to sit on the floor."
-"Not enough books to go around, take a look at this copied page, oops, copier is broken."
These are just a few my wife and I have had over the past 6 months. We're off to the DCPC to ask Ms. Tyson why they are hiding so much from the stakeholders? Plus, we plan to tell her if they want our trust, to have ALL the audits placed back on the website for the public to see. Remember OUR tax dollars paid for those audits.
AUDIT. AUDIT.
Speaking of transportation, as unbelievable as it may seem, though not published anywhere, DCSS is running a shuttle from Dunwoody to both KMS and CMS. It is suppose to be a secret.
Anon. 8:29 AM
This is nice! Where does this shuttle pick up? I had no idea that the Dunwoody parents wanted their kids to go to KMS or CMS. SOME of these parents were the same that refused to be zoned into schools inside the perimeter.
I don't quite understand, what's wrong with the NEW 4th & 5th grade Academy? What's wrong with Peachtree Middle School?
That Jim Redovian, he's the greatest!
I'll be unable to attend the DCPC. Will there be a transcript of the meeting? Can someone please report back here exactly what Tyson and Beasley say? I also want to know if Moseley edits the questions asked? Big Bob is famous for going through the cards and only asking the questions that are relevant to THEIR messaging.
I had an important meeting come up this morning, so I appreciate any information we can get from the DCPC. I would also like to throw in my support for a Charter Cluster or Independent School District, I know there are some meeting after the DCPC to discuss. I'm in!
Yes I am venting but as parents you should know. Our wonderful eSIS program lost all the grades that our teachers in our building have been working on for almost four weeks. The grading period ends September 8. How does the county think we can input the grades back in in a timely fashion.
Please vent! You have every right to when it involves YOUR tax dollars. eSIS has been a disaster. We had a teacher at my school spend all last weekend inputing her lesson plans, grades and other things only to have it disappear within 24 hours.
Ms. Tyson, I know you're busy being Super now, but who did you leave in charge at MIS? Servers being moved without anyone knowing, equipment woefully in disrepair, lot's of computers not ready for school. What the heck has MIS been doing this summer? I know you changed the logo on the home page and redesigned the home page, making it even more difficult to navigate. Besides that what's up with eSIS?
These sneaky things like the transportation mentioned are reasons why DCSS and the current administration and board members will never be trusted by those who know and care about the children.
Magnet Transportation was supposed to end ; However, the DCSS BOE voted to continue these services at the expense of all taxpayers and children in the county. I cannot recall which members were strongly opposed to ending this non required service but I believe that there were 3 - Jay? Sarah? Jim? - Someone refresh my memory
I'm sure it was a backroom deal by Jay Cunningham and Jim. I can't recall if Jim voted for or against. I do remember Jim talking about how expensive it was, I can't remember how he voted for the transpo budget line item.
It's fascinating to me that too many of the responses here, at least the ones germane to $40 million for infrastructure improvement, have been exactly the "me vs. you" division that allows the NBBOE (New Birth Board of Education) to thrive:
"give the money to Chamblee! no, give the money to Dunwoody! no our football players need new lockers in Avondale!"
The 2nd commenter had it right: "before any one school gets attention, fix the basic [and we're talking really basic--HVAC, leaks, mold] needs at every school." Chances are that will burn up $40 million right there. Long term, as Cere tirelessly points out, the infrastructure challenge has to start with redistricting--only after that can we decide which major improvements (not the same thing as deferred maintenance) are indicated.
Arguing 'give it all to my school' only makes us look like we see the whole picture as little as some of the Board does.
I had no idea that the Dunwoody parents wanted their kids to go to KMS or CMS. SOME of these parents were the same that refused to be zoned into schools inside the perimeter
Please quite perpetuating false information. It was DCSS, not the Dunwoody community that stopped the talk about zoning inside the perimeter.
Very good point 11:17! I've been saying all along that nothing is going to change until the leadership is different. From the BOE, to the top levels of the DCSS management team. I feel they all need to be replaced with folks that have the needs of the students, teachers and the taxpayers in mind.
Currently, there are really no discussions taking place about the 40 million. I'd like to know how anyone, especially the CFO, Marcus Turk, didn't know there was 40 mil hanging around last year when they were revising/dropping projects for SPLOST 3?
Mr. Drake, the new DCSS demographer, needs to get the attendance zones balanced, the schools with the most important needs, like leaks, mildew, mold and old HVAC equipment needs to be addressed second and then we can discuss what the Vision forward will be, and that Vision needs to be established by THE NEW SUPER, not the current leadership. We need a fresh new path drawn up by leaders with no friends, family, frat bros., sorority sisters, or church members here in DeKalb. It's time for a fresh start!
Sunlight on DCSS and their leadership, will be like a disinfectant. It's time to get squeaky clean if DCSS expects to have buy-in by the taxpayers of DeKalb. We're talking 1.2 Billion (WITH A B) dollars. You can't tell me we can't have a great system with that kind of money in the check book!
Hey 12:20! Great point! Who in DCSS started that talk? There have been several of us in the Chamblee, no mans land area, wondering the same thing.
I hate that DCSS and the BOE, Jim Redovian included, tried to pit the friends and neighbors of Dunwoody and Chamblee against each other!
That needs to stop, especially if we join forces for an Independent School District or Charter Cluster, since it most likely will take the tax base of both communities to support something like that. With 6-7 Elementary schools, 2 or 3 Middle Schools and 2 High Schools, we'll need to put our tax money together to build a great school district, where our needs can be met, instead of the friends and family of the current leadership, who have squandered millions of OUR tax dollars.
It wasn't Redovian. It was Franzoni and a group called Unity of Community that made I-285 the Berlin Wall of DCSS. However, there were also Montgomery parents quietly arguing against sending all the mutli-family housing on Ashford-Dunwoody their way.
DCPC was ok, Ms. Tyson got interupted with a bunch of questions about CCHS so Beasley's time was short. He plans on having 3 meetings in Sept for parents to hear his plans/strategy/concerns. If he said the dates, I didn't catch them.
Basically, he is looking for minimum proficiency in each classroom. When a parent challenged him on staffing issues, he and Tyson brushed off those concerns. The parent asked why not deploy certified teachers that are central office employees into the schools. They then said, what certified teachers, oh you must mean the instructional coaches, well they are actually employees in the schools. The ICs support the teachers, so therefore they must be supporting the children. It was BS.
Anon. 1:38, Thanks for the Update.
It's amazing, that was years ago. I love the name however, Unity of Community, (except for those inside 285.) I added the last part.
I have to say though when we were at Nancy Creek, Franzoni helped us expose the BOE Chairperson's kid, Jamal Edwards, who was hiding out in the school for 6 months, after getting a 15k raise and a new job in MIS. We then got a new principal, who was great and she even moved with us to Montgomery, we're grateful to have her.
During the attempt to save Nancy Creek, we knew there were parents at Montgomery who were concerned about the multi-dwelling kids attending the school. With Nancy Creek closed to residents, in the area (who didn't win the lottery), those kids are attending Montgomery and have been welcomed and thriving! We're at 665 students today and growing, especially with the continued growth of the new development on Donaldson & Johnson Ferry.
Our principal has even asked for two new "Learning Cottages" aka trailers. Just think if they had kept Nancy Creek as a neighborhood school there would not have been the necessity of trailers at Huntley Hills or Montgomery, water under the bridge now.
One thing is for sure, our kids loved Nancy Creek and they love Montgomery now. We have some wonderful schools inside 285 today. Parents and teachers are engaged and we're doing just fine! Now if we could only get our DCSS leadership to listen to the stakeholders, like the parents and teachers, things could be even better!
@anon 8:39 a.m. My sarcasm twists in the wind!
The reason I chose "No Duh" is because that's the way I always feel after talking to a DCSS administrator. I can ask a perfectly logical question and be told a perfectly logical answer -- it just won't be the answer to my question!! And you nailed the answers perfectly. I have always thought, "Well, no duh."(Don't think I've ever said it out loud, but Lord knows I may have.), I would then say, "But what about the question I asked you?" and they would repeat what they just said.
Hence, my silly moniker. My own (and now your) private joke.
This week it was mentioned at a departmental meeting that the county had lost over $300,000 of the new technology that was rolled out last year. This includes the new laptops, smart board projectors, digital camera and computer monitors. From the description of the thefts it sounded like it was done by someone with inside knowledge. The thief knows where the security cameras are, where gear is and is said to have a key to the metal carts the laptops are stored in. We have the largest security department of any school system in the state. An ongoing crime operation like this would seem to attract attention of the county police and even the GBI. It's time for DCSS to go public about their loses and it's time for some heads to roll in security.
"Before Lewis departed DCSS, was he not talking about re-assigning certified CO personnel and certified support personnel to the schools to teach? "
On paper, this may look like a good idea, but in reality, many of these certified CO folks ascending rapidly to the CO because they were not good teachers and couldn't handle kids in the classroom. Do we really want they administrators teaching our kids high school math and science????
As DCSS begins to clean up some of the ethics mess why are teachers forced to sit (past working hours no less) in the guise of a staff meeting while a commissioned sales person hawks their services. The Board needs to put out a policy so that this needs to end. Over the years I've heard sales pitches on herbal medicines, investment opportunities and what not all on company time(or overtime). I don't know how these people are working their way into the schools or why their sales pitch is part of a mandatory meeting? This is the type of thing the professional stardards people need to address.
I don't even know where to post this, but Gwen Keys has resigned as district attorney to take a job with the EPA.
"Fleming's departure comes just months before the corruption trial for former schools' superintendent Crawford Lewis and former chief operating officer Patricia Reid."
Unbelievable.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-da-resigns-to-604731.html
"Next time you go to your child's school, ask the teachers how many of them know how to use the Promethean boards as anything other than a screen.
___________
Where I work, teachers received high quality training on the use of the Promethean Boards. Many are using this new technology very effectively. This is a versatile teaching tool. Promethean Planet provides access to a large collection of flip charts that can be used with students. Unfortunately, you won't learn how to use a board like this, if you don't have one to work with.
Students in my school really enjoy using the ActivExpressions hand-held units to answer questions. The teacher asks a question and the students key in their answer. It is an easy way to see if your students understand the material.
Everyone is so impatient with the implementation of these IAB boards. It is going to take some time to get every teacher up to speed. How long would it take you to learn to use not one, but several new online applications while actively teaching six hours a day? I don't know very many people who are able to learn so quickly that they instantly become experts.
I might be cynical, but what does the departure of Keyes-Fleming mean in regards to the Clew trial? I know Cabinet Member and Education Secretary Arne Duncan is good friends with Crawford Lewis, they had been seen together several times before the charges came down.
Is this a preemptive move by the President, to see if the Keyes-Fleming staff can handle the trial? Does this delay everything, until we elect a new DA?
Can an attorney tell this group what happens now?
I know I might be cynical but can the Asst. DA handle this case? Nothing surprises me, when it comes to DeKalb County!
The Promethean Boards are great! The kids love them and most of the teachers at my school know how to use them. Out PTA has handled all the replacement bulbs, which are very expensive and they have helped in the training.
This is a great tool for the classroom!
It was an Asst. DA handling the case anyway. I can't recall his name at the moment, but unlike Gwen Keys, who was elected, the staff is hired and that is probably a good thing, in terms of credentials.
I wonder, though, how her position is filled? Maybe they will bring back J. Tom Morgan for a while? That would be awesome.
My guess is the next DA will have ties to Leadership DeKalb or New Birth or maybe both. Cynical I know.
@ Anonymous 1:59 pm
"When a parent challenged him on staffing issues, he and Tyson brushed off those concerns. The parent asked why not deploy certified teachers that are central office employees into the schools. They then said, what certified teachers, oh you must mean the instructional coaches, well they are actually employees in the schools."
...Dr. Beasley needs to add that not one of these 80 Instructional Coaches costing DCSS around $8,000,000 a year in salary and benefits teach a single child.
I guess Dr. Beasley forgot that there are 60 coordinators that cost DCSS around $7,000,000 that are not in schools, but sit in the Central Office and they also do not teach a single child.
Instructional Coaches and Instructional Supervisors are but a small fraction of the DCSS non-teaching personnel who hold Georgia teaching certificates.
Ms. Tyson and Dr. Beasley do not seem to know the numbers of non-teaching DCSS personnel that hold teaching certificates. Go to the Georgia DOE webpage below to see that DCSS has 1,473 non-teaching employees that hold teaching certificates (versus 6,500 teachers).
534 are Administrators residing in our 140+ schools, the Central Office, or in other departments.
939 are in Support personnel.
I think parents are correct in asking Dr. Beasley why children are sitting in classrooms with 30+ other students when we have almost 1,500 non-teaching personnel who are certified to teach our children.
This Georgia DOE web page lists 6,800 teachers, however Ms. Tyson cut over a hundred teacher positions so the correct number for teachers is closer to 6,500. At the same time, Ms. Tyson cut less than 10 non-teaching certified positions:
http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&CountyId=644&T=1&FY=2009
If parents do not get the vote out for new BOE members, Ms. Tyson has gained permission from the BOE to place 36 students in high school math, English, social studies and science classes and up to 39 in any other high school class.
See DCSS BOE meeting 6/22/10 "Class Size Flexibility Resolution" - .pdf document entitled "Proposed Class Sizes for 2010-2011":
9-12 (E/LA, Math, Science, Social Studies, World Languages) 36
9-12 (all other subjects) 39
Gwen Keyes is stepping down as DA. Wonder how that will affect the trial of C Lew and P Pope.
@ Anonymous 7:16 PM
I have known Crawford Lewis for more than 30 years. I am unaware he is "good friends" with Arne Duncan. What appears to be friendship are simply managed, well-placed photo ops. Crawford always knew how to appear to be someone he is not.
Lewis was a speaker at an America's Choice symposium which featured Arne Duncan as the keynote speaker. That's the only 'relationship' I'm aware of - it's pretty obscure.
Wow, we have a lot of non-teaching personnel NOT teaching kids. I am sure some of these are incapable of handling kids in classrooms, hence the move to The Palace. However, if someone, who holds a teaching certificate and is unable to handle teaching our kids, shouldn't that person be fired? What are 939 support personnel doing? I'm sure the 140 include principals and asst. principals, but 939? wow. I hope Tyson and Beasley goes to the state website to find out how many people work for them. I can't believe they don't know.
In regards to Ms. Tyson, she didn't know a son of a former BOE chair had not reported for his new job for 6 months, until parents ratted him out to his boss, Ms. Tyson.
Tyson and Beasley, I know you are busy, but you should know what your employees are doing, especially the ones who work for you directly, like teachers, instructional coaches and supervisors, as well as "support personnel"
@ Anonymous 8:43 pm
"What are 939 support personnel doing? I'm sure the 140 include principals and asst. principals, but 939? wow. I hope Tyson and Beasley goes to the state website to find out how many people work for them. I can't believe they don't know. "
The 939 are not principals or assistant principals. The principals and assistant principals are counted under 534 Administrators. Go to the Georgia DOE website to see these figures. Ms. Tyson and Dr. Beasley know these numbers. DeKalb Schools gave these numbers to the Georgia DOE. These numbers were required by the Georgia DOE as part of the data that taxpayers are entitled to know.
http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&CountyId=644&T=1&FY=2009
If parents do not get the vote out for new BOE members, Ms. Tyson has gained permission from the BOE to place 36 students in high school math, English, social studies and science classes and up to 39 in any other high school class.
This is going to happen regardless of who is on the board, because the cuts from the state are going to make last year's cuts look like child's play, I am afraid.
I was at a meeting today where the state representative mentioned the possibility of layoffs at the state level nearing 7000!
Of course, all this depends on who is elected governor and the make up of the state legislature. Elect all republicans and we can expect no new sources of revenue, perhaps with some kind of change, be it a democratic Governor or a democratic controlled state house or senate, we can see some small changes in revenue sources that could perhaps offset some of the declining revenue.
DCSS has a LOT of special needs children. There are a LOT of support personnel to support these children. Federal law protects these children by ensuring adequate learning opportunities are available for them. Some of the support personnel include psychologists, counselors, and case workers.
You want a big lawsuit on your hand, try cutting back these people even more than where the levels are now. The district has to pay for contract psychologists because they don't have enough on staff.
Some of you need to understand the true needs of the school system and students before spouting off what can and can't be cut. Most of you would cut services/personnel that would end up costing the school district more in the long run.
Correction to 7:36 pm post:
"This Georgia DOE web page lists 6,800 teachers, however Ms. Tyson cut over a hundred teacher positions so the correct number for teachers is closer to 6,500. At the same time, Ms. Tyson cut less than 10 non-teaching certified positions:
http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&CountyId=644&T=1&FY=2009 "
So sorry. There are 6,886 teachers listed on the Georgia DOE website as working for DCSS during 2008-09. Lewis cut teacher positions by 275 for the 2009-10 school year, and Ms. Tyson cut them another 100 for the 2010-11 school year. So we lost almost almost 375 teacher positions since 2008-09. That's how we degraded to around 6,500 teachers. If you've been reading the papers 6,500 is the number that DCSS has been giving to the media. Meanwhile DCSS has approximately 1,500 employees certified to teach that hold non-teaching positions. DCSS lost virtually none of those positions.
From the ELPC meeting minutes:
Ms. Tyson spent some time clarifying information about DCSS employees. She noted that there are 15,859 employees of whom 13,873 are FT and 1986 are PT. She noted that 14,620 are school based employees and 1239 are in the central office which translates to approximately 7.8 % of central office employees. Of the central office employees, 982 are paid out of the general budget with local dollars and 257 are paid with federal dollars. Proposed budget reductions include the lay-offs of approximately 152 central office positions by 6-30-10.
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2010/08/revisiting-past-comments-from-ramona.html
I find it interesting that we have 14,620 school-based employees - and we're told that we have 6,500 teachers - so - my math tells me that means we have 8,120 "other" school-based employees (those who are not teachers) - MORE non-teachers than teachers??? ... really?!!
hmmmmm
At my child's relatively average size elementary school, there is a principal, asst. principal, counselor, media specialist, 3 custodians, 4 cafeteria workers, 1 speech therapist, 5 special ed paras, 1 pre-k para and 3 kindergarten paras. That is 22. That doesn't count the school psychologist, occupational therapist, social worker and lead teacher for special ed who are all shared with other schools.
There are 28 homeroom and specials teachers.
The first time I did something for staff appreciation for PTA, i was amazed at how many non-teachers are in the building.
Oh, I forgot the secretary and bookkeeper which brings the non-teachers to 24. There is also the pt technical support person as well.
@ Anonymous 9:35 pm
" DCSS has a LOT of special needs children. There are a LOT of support personnel to support these children.....You want a big lawsuit on your hand, try cutting back these people even more than where the levels are now....Some of you need to understand the true needs of the school system and students before spouting off what can and can't be cut."
When you say a LOT, could you be more specific? Please use precise figures when making your case. See the numbers below that show that other metro school systems similar in demographics have considerably less non-teaching certified Support Personnel than DeKalb Schools even though they have a substantially larger percentage of special needs students.
Atlanta Public Schools and Clayton County Schools are similar in demographics to DeKalb Schools although Clayton Schools has a greater percentage of lower income students than DeKalb Schools.
The most recent Georgia DOE data (2008-09) regarding certified Support personnel shows that:
Atlanta Public Schools
1. Atlanta Public Schools lists 370 certified non-teaching Support personnel for 3,728 teachers - about 10% of the teacher total.
2. Around 12% of the Atlanta Public Schools students who took AYP tests are classified as Students with Disabilities (special needs).
Clayton County Schools
1. Clayton County Schools lists 276 certified non-teaching Support personnel for 3,768 teachers - about 7% of the teacher total.
2. Around 11% of the Clayton Schools students who took AYP tests are classified are as Students with Disabilities (special needs).
DeKalb County Schools
1. DeKalb County Schools lists 939 certified non-teaching Support personnel for 6,886 teachers - about 14% of the teacher total.
2. Around 9% of the DCSS students who took AYP tests are classified as Students with Disabilities (special needs).
Conclusion:
Clayton Schools has a greater percentage of Students with Disabilities, but 50% less certified non-teaching Support personnel than DeKalb Schools.
APS has the highest percentage of Students with Disabilities, but 28% less certified non-teaching Support personnel than DeKalb Schools.
DeKalb Schools 939 non-teaching Support personnel who hold teaching certificates should be brought in line with other school systems with similar demographics.
Source: Georgia DOE: http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=211&StateId=ALL&PID=61&PTID=67&CTID=215&T=0&FY=2009
@ Anonymous 10:25 pm
Ahhh....So you've discovered that the classroom teacher is an endangered species. Now you see why making AYP (and Dr. Beasley's intense pressure) rests on the shoulders of very few school system employees. Is it any wonder so classroom teachers migrate out of the classroom and into other positions as soon as possible? This is not good for students, but we have made it extremely unattractive to be a classroom teacher. All of the responsibility for your children's academic progress, and yet they are the lowest on the totem pole.
People seem to forget that our government and schools are not employment agencies. We have many people on pay roll that we really do not need at all levels of government. It is time for these people to go, and not raise taxes unnecessarily to all to give over inflated salaries to a few.
If my taxes weren't so high, I'd have more money to spend in the private sector to create jobs.
@ Anonymous 11:09 pm said,
DeKalb Schools 939 non-teaching Support personnel who hold teaching certificates should be brought in line with other school systems with similar demographics.
Good find however as a good friend told me once, you don't simply sit in an ivory tower and make business decision simply by looking at reports and numbers. Anonymous 10:25 pm laid out the non teaching personnel at their child's elementary school. Based on your comment, could you make the decision to say that school needs to get rid of 2-3 non teaching personnel without checking the school and understanding what (if any) value those employees bring to the school?
4 itinerant employees were identified. Would you increase the number of students they serve across additional schools and perhaps begin providing drive by services? What if one of your children was receiving services from one of those staffers? What if you reduced the number of kindergarten paras resulting in less time for small groups with the lead teacher for children that need more time? Maybe you could eliminate the cafeteria workers and have food delivered with the non teaching staff serving the food? But now that could impact the classroom because I'm sure teachers would be seething with that idea.
I cannot provide precise numbers but I can say I've been in many DeKalb schools and found myself saying, "I didn't know we provided those services for students". I do believe an audit should be done of personnel to eliminate fat but some fat is good if it can help in the classroom.
9:34 says....all republicans and we can expect no new sources of revenue, perhaps with some kind of change, be it a democratic Governor or a democratic controlled state house or senate, we can see some small changes in revenue sources....
Translation - democratics in office = increase in taxes. DeKalb's taxes are already amongst the highest in the state. There isn't some magic wand the governor will wave and new revenue sources will fall from the sky. Let's hope Barnes doesn't win, I can't afford to pay more taxes to the county or the state. Can someone please tell me what Barnes did last time in office that improved education and helped teachers?
Please stop with the republican v. democrat political chatter. It's divisive.
I am not sure what democrats and republicans have to do with education, as both parties have screwed up our education system.
Parents and tax payers need to wake up and see that our tax dollars are not being used wisely. Each time the government offers a school or the state money for educational needs, usually costs the district or state money. The money offered in the name of education reform does not cover what the district or state is supposed to do with the money they receive.
Also most people working in the government (school districts as well as local, state, and federal government) make significantly more than the private sector. We have had posters show this time and time again.
Our children deserve to have an education that is more than an inch deep and a mile wide. Our children deserve the opportunity to deeply understand material. Our children deserve to develop a love of learning that allows them to build on what they learn each year. Our children deserve to be told the truth about their efforts and reap the grades that they earn from these efforts or lack of.
Our schools are in trouble because of the democrats and republicans alike. It is up to parents to put politics aside and demand a better education for their children.
The new standards that are being touted the savior of education across America, will do nothing more than require schools to spend more money and allow companies that make learning materials for schools richer, as if NCLB, Reading First,and other programs of this ilk have not done this enough already.
Until parents rise up and demand better for their children across America, our children will be sacrificed for an inferior education. Our children demand better than the status quo, and leaving education to our politicians simply isn't working.
@ Anonymous 10:15
"Can someone please tell me what Barnes did last time in office that improved education and helped teachers? "
Yes. I can. He deceased class sizes for students - "18 to 28 students, depending on the grade.”
He did not raise taxes to do this. He just lowered class sizes and the superintendents (much to their dismay) had to trim on the non-teaching admin and support areas. The superintendents were very unhappy, but they had no choice.
I truly believe this is the only way DCSS will tame the enormous bureaucracy of admin and support (1,239 Central Office personnel and 7,300 Support personnel compared to 6,500 teachers.) Only if the state mandates smaller class sizes will the superintendents pare down on the non-teaching employees.
Currently, Perdue gave the superintendents and the BOEs the ability to waive class size requirements. As soon as they could the DCSS BOE raised high school math, science, social studies, and language arts maximum class sizes to 36 and all other high school classes to 39. If you say class size doesn't matter, you've obviously not been a teacher in a class of 36 or 37 or 38 or 39. Try it sometime. How miserable for our students who are crammed into rooms where they literally can't move.
I didn't like Barnes. He was arrogant and didn't involve teachers in any decisions. But he reduced class sizes and I've never seen the DCSS Central Office so "skinny". I'm sure DCSS "upper management" was happy when Barnes left office leaving less restrictions on the number of admin and support they could add - a favorite place for family and friends.
I agree with the above. Reducing class size with no additional state funding is a guaranteed way to shrink the central office.
If you lower class size without state funding, the board of ed will just raise taxes. The unneeded employees won't go anywhere unless we get new leadership who puts the quality of education children receive above the jobs the district creates.
not sure if you can take the Republican vs. Democrat mantra out of this debate. The school system is suppose to be non-partisan, however if you look at the DCSS leadership, most are democrat.
The two legislators that want to help DCSS are democrat, I would have preferred if Mary Margaret Oliver, who I respect, had maybe added a Mike Jacobs to her coalition, at least a couple of republicans from the DeKalb delegation would have helped her have more buy-in on their plan to help DCSS. I just fear that there is another agenda since there was not a republican included in her plans.
Look both parties have stained hands when it comes to education, but Georgia has a balanced budget amendment in the state constitution. So the cuts have to happen across the board. I'm not happy with the huge class sizes, but I am also not happy with the waste I see at the Central Office. $2k chairs, $5k desks, $35k lighting systems, etc... In a time of budget cuts, the last thing that needs to be cut are teachers. I really feel each Dept. at the Central Office could cut their budgets by 10% to 15%.
Pensions are also killing the system all over the country. Until I see some cuts at the Central Office, I will fight any tax raising by the BOE.
Cerebration and others, if you want a blog topic that will surely generate a lot of discussion, take a look at the new reports placed on the School system Planning page, specifically those that show school enrollment and the number of school age children in the attendance area. I think people will be surprised with some of the data. You can find this at:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/planning/
Look at the last two links on the page.
Annon 9:38...thank you for this link. Where in the world did some of these numbers come from. For example, the numbers for Lakeside High School. Indicates less than 300 non-resident students of the over 1800!
This must have been calculated using the new math curriculum!
FAIL
I don't think so. It is possible that a bunch of Lakeside parents are using fake addresses, but for the schools I am familiar with, the numbers are exactly where/what I expected.
.
Well that is darn interesting. So if you add up all of the "ins" and "outs" you find that there are 4,563 high school students not attending their neighborhood high school (the"outs"). You also find that of all of the regular, neighborhood high schools, there are 1,222 who have transferred "in".
That leaves 3,341 students attending other DCSS schools? Private schools? DSA? Eliz Andrews? Destiny? Alternative? Wow.
One more item caught my eye - we have tabled the addition to Lithonia, however additions are still planned for MLK (which is apparently lacking 673 students who reside in the attendance zone, but do not attend MLK. They might not need an addition.
We seem to have some buildings with students rattling around in them - and other buildings busting at the seams. But no one wants anything to change.
Personally, I can see the value of merging Chamblee with Cross Keys. Pour those construction dollars into one awesome campus. Chamblee only has 706 resident students and Cross Keys only has 1,105. Together, they aren't any bigger than Lakeside
Oh! I forgot! About 1,200 or so of these missing 4,563 students could be at Arabia! So, maybe Arabia is relieving over-crowding? In fact, maybe Arabia is creating too many empty seats at nearby high schools?
Someone addressed STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES and making sure their needs are met. Special Education in Dekalb needs scrutiny. as it relates to budget decisions.
While small Resource classes for Language Arts and Math remain in place, SOCIAL STUDIES and SCIENCE small classes have been cut from the middle schools. Why??? The system gets MORE FUNDING FOR EVERY SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENT IN A REGULAR CLASSROOM. Plus, it helps the budget to do away with small classes for those subjects.
The goal should be to help students move up to the general education classroom, but this does not mean they should be pushed and their individual educational needs ignored. While some students may do well, there are far too many who still struggle and do not have the skills to be successful in a large group in Science or Social Studies.
These numbers are only public school students.
Cerebration said,
*Personally, I can see the value of merging Chamblee with Cross Keys. Pour those construction dollars into one awesome campus. Chamblee only has 706 resident students and Cross Keys only has 1,105. Together, they aren't any bigger than Lakeside *
Picture this, DeKalb County purchases the GM site but does a land swap with the school system for the Cross Keys and Chamblee properties. Assuming the GM site passes environmental tests for a school, the school system places a school, football stadium, and multi use auditorium that is large enough for graduations. The school can hold around 2200 students. At the same time, Dunwoody is enlarged to hold about 2000 students.
This would require moving the magnet program to another school that has space, perhaps Avondale???
Did anyone notice that Kingsley elementary school has a small resident attendance population? Why couldn't redistricting be done in the Dunwoody cluster to use that space? If the considered this along with making better use of the seats at Dunwoody elementary, they should have enough seats.
Only 706 resident students at Chamblee? I knew it was low, but not quite that bad. If I were DCSS I would not even think about building a new school just for Chamblee attendance area. The idea of a brand new facility for the Cross Keys and Chamblee area has some merit and needs to be explored.
It is actually 681 resident students who attend Chamblee High. Look at the resident attendees line. The 706 includes the 25 Chamblee resident zone students who are not at CCHS.
Cerebration, I'd be a hypocrite if I did not agree with a question you have raised consistently, especially since I've seen this data. Converting Arabia Mountain to a neighborhood school with an attendance zone could help provide relief to Lithonia, Miller Grove, ML King, and Southwest DeKalb and perhaps save some dollars on school enlargement projects. Residents in southeast DeKalb may have to ask if the district can afford to keep a theme high school in light of the needs of other children in the district. I may need protection after making this observation :).
As many have said on this blog, we may come to a situation soon where no school can send students to others (AYP transfers) thus the only public school option will be their neighborhood school. Going on that premise, you have to ask if the neighborhood school has enough space for the resident students that live in that attendance zone. It looks as though Lakeside, ML King and maybe Dunwoody could still be enlarged.
Some of the small elementary schools may need to be consolidated also. Minimums may need to be set with respect to the building capacity to allow for this. In situations where there are 3 small schools close to one another, citizens may need to consider replacing them with 2 newer schools or expanding 2 of the existing schools. The condition of the building should factor in to a recommendation.
I'm sure the residents in the Chamblee and Avondale attendance areas are asking questions about there futures with respect to the high schools. I came across some history on Chamblee HS that some may not be aware of. It was scheduled to be closed and consolidated into Dunwoody in the early nineties. Residents in that area were happy with that move. Placing the high achievers magnet in Chamblee saved it from closure. Ironically, we may need to consider moving the magnet program to follow through with the proposal from 20 years ago.
pscexb made the comment at 10:17am. My session forgot who I was...
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the press pre-opening of Cross Keys. The school is improving exponentially! The campus is enormous and airy... and could almost be set up like a small college campus - with different buildings for different programs.
The vo-tech programs are really amazing. And the kids I know who are "high achiever" magnet types, generally also really enjoy working on cars (which is a very high tech endeavor these days)...
We could create something really unique as a high school experiment on the Cross Keys campus.
@ Anonymous 6:30
"Did anyone notice that Kingsley elementary school has a small resident attendance population?"
Kingsley is a conversion charter school.
"Do I reduce my kid's opportunities so other people's kids can have them, just because they have an aunt, uncle, mom, grandma or mom's friend in the Central Office?"
It is not either/or. It must not be allowed to be either/or.
Here is the problem - policies must be fair to all over time, not just at a given time to a few. Our standard can't be the goodies go to those who have the most "pull" at a given point in time. This is barely removed from the "separate but equal" days of old.
All children deserve fair and equal educational opportunities and we all must insist that this over-riding goal be the balance against which we weigh buudget decisions.
I am a red, white, and blue capitalist in most market place decisions we as a community must make. But I'm communist when it comes to educating our youth (< 18 years).
If we are by nature and politics not able to offer equal opportunity to each child that shows up at the door of a DeKalb school, we should shutter the system and send the money saved back home with each family to use at their local church or other private school of their choosing. Not $5,000, not a percentage, all of it including sales taxes!
This is what is at stake in the politics of our public system and we have failed miserably on this in DeKalb. Here's my metric for success of public education in DeKalb ...
I am blind folded and dropped off inside a DCSS school. I should not be able to distinguish one from another in terms of amenities and general conditions. A student is dropped into any given high school should have access to the same curriculum as their peers in any other school.
We cannot mandate success for each student. We can and should demand our system provide comparable amenities and programs at all schools.
In terms of our high school plant, I will know the leadership adopts this perspective when I see a map that shows the future sites of DeKalb's twelve high schools. We need twelve or so, not twenty or so. There is no good reason why we don't have such a plan. It is irresponsible to not have such a plan.
Broken record out ...
Hmmm. Gee, this is weird, I've never disagreed with you before, Kim!
I think just the opposite. At least for high school. Schools should be vastly different like any good market product - restaurants, movies, museums, cars... One size does not appeal to all. We should offer high tech/math and engineering focused schools, arts and drama focused schools, vocational/jobs focused schools, etc... In fact, I would have to ask, do we need attendance lines at all? What if we just created some very interesting schools that offered a variety of methods and a number of types of "culture" and let the applications fall where they may? I would imagine that most people would choose a school closest to home even so. However, some students would choose to travel to another school if it fulfilled their learning needs and desires.
Attendance zones are very much dinosaurs. If you believe in free enterprise, then have faith that the free enterprise would make for better schools just as it makes for better consumer products. After all, aren't students actually "consumers of knowledge"?
Actually, I don't think we disagree ... :)
I think we have the same vision but disagree about how to make it happen. I think to get to what you describe first requires we get to what I describe.
How would your vision differ from what we have today with Magnets, Themes, and Choice schools dotting the County? How would you make these programs "fairly" accessible to all - buses? Transportation re-imbursement?
I just don't see how we can afford the diversity of school programs when we can't even manage to afford basic, quality facilities for the plain, old attendance area high schools.
... and also for the sake of discussion, why wouldn't we just then turn it all over to private operators?
I got cha. The point is, we'd have to offer nothing BUT terrific options for theme-type schools. No bad schools would survive. If there is little interest, then shutter them. They go out of business. And don't think this would delete programs like DSA, it just would make DSA incorporate into a larger campus-like high school, with the arts as a "major"...
So, yeah, maybe these schools would be more or less privatized - charters? I know some kids that would do very well simply taking all of their classes online. They are tortured in a high school building. There are just so many different ways to gain an education and our 1950s model has to be dismantled.
Since we're at a crossroad, why not go ahead and become radical leaders in new thinking?
It's like Yogi Berra says, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"
Hey Kim,
I agree with you 100% ! You're such a great guy and, like many of us, think of the school system globally. Do you think that all of the high schools should offer all of the same things at each school, or is there room in your thinking for one big magnet that, like North Springs in Fulton, combines the arts, science and math, and is big enough to offer sports? To my knowledge the magnet there doesn't receive additional funding, but the facility is wonderful.
I would support such a school, as well as a state of the art vo/tech school---but only when ALL high schools have clean buildings, state of the art technology, and equitable funding across the board.
Thoughts?
Bizarrely, I think DCSS had the model I'm imagining fairly well captured at Cross Keys even if only in miniature ...
We have a thriving traditional high school that happens to house the northern region's Career Tech programs in the completely new "made-over" 4th wing. The Career Tech programs are available to all the students of Dunwoody, Chamblee, Tucker, Clarkston, Druid Hills, and I think Stone Mountain via bus.
For all these students, but especially those at CK, there are great programs in Auto Tech, Construction Tech, Computer Tech, Health Science Tech, and, yes, Cosmetology. Why we could build a plan to offer similar formats for other specialty schools co-located with traditional schools escapes me.
Again, for me, the goal is to establish a high benchmark for equal amenities and programs for all of our students. I've convinced myself the way to achieve this is with a larger format school.
I would like to see four regions in DeKalb made up of three high schools each. Each school would house a completely tricked out traditional high school with between 2,400 - 3,200 students. Each high school would also house a dedicated wing for a specialty program (Fine Arts, Science, Mathematics, Technology). The most centrally located high school (among the grouping) would have perhaps two such programs.
Within each region, students would have access to three or four specialty programs at neighboring schools for half-day programs while those that remained in at their "home" school programs full time could go 100% traditional or mix in the local flavor of specialty offered at their school house.
Any given regional leadership could petition to begin a new program but with the caveat that if it is successful it must be packaged and offered at the other regional hubs as well. At most, any region should lack a given new program no more than 2 years. Until a "beta" program was available in other regions, "remote" region kids have the right to enter the new program as seats allow.
All those in favor, say "Aye!" The "ayes" have it now let's get busy!!!!!
... the key to all of this in my mind is the larger physical plant to leverage operations and capital dollars as well as expand attendance zones.
... All we have done with SPLOST III in my mind is to kick the can down the road ... that even goes for Tucker and Arabia ... the formats are too small and the attendance areas (at Tucker, anyway) are too small.
... or, how crazy is this ... what if the programs that could move (Auto Tech is not mobile due to hydraulics/power, etc.), rotated among the schools within a group. I see no reason why Mathematics and Science couldn't be moved every five years or so.
"Aye!" "Aye!" I dig it! Add an auditorium for performing and musical arts and you're there!
Cere: "There are just so many different ways to gain an education and our 1950s model has to be dismantled."
I agree with you on that point - I am frustrated by the lack of flexibility we have in our school admin politics and in our communities' vision of public education. On the question of magnet and choice programs, I am a supporter in theory but believe it cannot and should not be implemented by system that has not been able to prove it can manage the simpler task of traditional high schools.
Let DCSS build a 10-20 year vision like I mentioned above and they'll have my attention and support for a plethora of "choice" programs. But not with the current admin structures and not with the current plant ...
Hear Hear! Soooooo.....are you speaking at the school board meeting on Tuesday, Kim?
A performing arts auditorium would be feasible for every school if we had 12 and not twenty high schools. Just think, had we done this 15 years ago we would need the palace at Bryant to host the BoE mud wrestling matches - they could be professionally hosted at each high school!
"... are you speaking at the school board meeting on Tuesday, Kim?"
Not this time! I'm focused on Cross Keys' YMCA Soccer registration drive to ensure its inaugural season is a huge success! For more info, go to:
www.CrossKeysSoccer.com
Thanks for asking! :)
I tend to go to speak when either: a) I want to bring the achievements of CK area students to their attention and, b) When I have a specific, actionable proposal prepared to advocate for like the YMCA partnership.
These "big picture" discussions are much too big for a three minute statement and I'm not sure what action I would be advocating for ... "stop doing it the way you've always done it and get a strategy?"
Fair enough. Thanks for all you're doing for the kids at Cross Keys! I know a couple of the teachers there and they really are an amazing bunch!
I used to be a big supporter of Kim's idea that all high schools should offer a wide range of programs from special ed to high achiever programs. ....Then my children hit high school. I agree that all schools should have basic and equal facilities with adequate technology, excellent teachers, and a clean, healthy and safe building. However, I have learned the painful lesson that all high schools (even the big ones) cannot afford to offer some of the very high level AP and math and science courses. The same goes with vo-tech courses and truly high quality arts courses. However, getting rid of the infernal block schedule would go a long way to increasing the "rigor" at many high schools.
And I am not a fan of huge high schools like Gwinnett. Many of my co-workers have students in Gwinnett and they hate the huge schools (except that they can sponsor more sports teams). They say too many students, especially if they are shy or quiet, just fall through the cracks.
But until the feds do away with NCLB and AYP, I don't see DeKalb moving the high achiever magnets or creating a free standing math science magnet.
The big school versus small school debate always comes back to "shy kids fall through the cracks." I do not understand this opinion.
My niece was a very, very shy girl growing up and she went through North Gwinnett High School. She thrived and earned the presidential scholarship at SCAD. She was very studious, a book-worm in fact, and decried the emphasis on sports at the school. She had no trouble whatsoever with her education or maturing.
Someone please explain to me how a school the size of North Gwinnett is harming the "shy" children in that community? I haven't seen it in my personal experience and I haven't seen it in my niece's experience, in her brother's or in their neighbors' and friends' experience.
I don't mean to be argumentative but I honestly have not heard one concrete example of how larger schools have harmed a child's opportunities to learn and develop. On the contrary, every thing I see with my own eyes tells me these schools have more to offer to EVERY child that attends one.
Let me add my standard disclaimer: I prefer smaller schools. I don't think we can afford them (just look around DeKalb). I think the reasonable solution is to move to a larger format to save money and offer better facilities and more programs.
I'm with Kim on this one. A larger school has more resources (financial, administrative, teacher and student)to be able to offer a wide variety of classes and extra-curricular activities that appeal to a wide range of students. Does the smaller high school have enough students and faculty interested to sponsor a top-notch debating team? What about a photography club? A robotics team? How about an AP course in Macroeconomics or Chinese Language and Culture? A small school may feel more personal because individual staff members know a larger percentage of the student body, but it doesn't mean that it is serving the needs and interests of the student body better than a large school. The kid with less "mainstream" interests is more likely to find someone else (student or teacher) who shares those interests in a larger setting.
Many years ago, when our oldest was probably just in kindergarten, we were with friends from Houston, TX. Their oldest was in high school and was taking Chinese! Keep in mind that this was before learning Chinese had become trendy.
I came home and looked at our local high school and discovered that it didn't have as much to offer. Of course, the high school in Houston was much larger.
It is a complicated subject, school size, but I will tell you that I know that many DCSS children are missing out on opportunities because our high schools are small.
One other consequence of school size in DeKalb is the need for so many school level administrators. While I certainly realize Dr. Lewis is part of the reason the reason the quality of many school house administrators isn't as high as it should be, the sheer quantity of how many we need is not helping.
Molly and Kim are on money about this. Molly's examples are great. I know of many kids who struggle to find their niche in high school.
I also think we are spending to much on athletics. This would change if we had bigger high schools.
DCSS spends too much on athletics?Really? Ask the kids at Cross Keys if that is true? Ask the kids at Avondale if this is true. Have you seen the athletic budgets at the huge Gwinnett High Schools you all are salivating over?
Do you realize the amount of money that is raised by the individual school booster clubs in this county to keep their teams even remotely competitive with some of the bigger athletic programs in the area?
I agree with the administration point as well. Think about it, we have so many very small schools (DSA, Destiny, DeKalb Early College, Wadsworth, Avondale HS, Gateway to College, Leadership Prep, DeKalb Alternative, Eliz Andrews...and all the small ESs listed in the consolidation post) that each have their own complete set of administrators, use their own buildings, create their own bus routes, etc... So much of this could be consolidated. If they were part of a larger comprehensive school then they could have their own counselors, but they would not need their own principal, AP, cafeteria staff, bus service, etc...
Large schools can easily be set up as smaller schools within a larger campus.
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