Monday, May 9, 2011

From within the system or from outside the system, that is the question!

Attention SCORES parents, Fernbank parents, Bouie Theme School parents, Dunwoody parents, Sagamore parents, Evansdale Parents, Livsey Parents, Flat Rock Parents, McNair Cluster parents, Magnet parents, Avondale parents, etc (Please, please cut and paste this blog post and send it out to your various email lists.)

Do you know that there is a superintendent search on? Do you understand the implications of this search may be far greater and longer lasting than any impact redistricting might have on your child and their education?

Our board members are hearing virtually nothing from citizens right now. With the amount of effort that went into redistricting, I suspect that everyone is just exhausted. Not a great time for people to poop out!

With each passing day, many of the board members are apparently forgetting the overwhelming demand that the system hire an outsider. If we want the friends and family program that is the DeKalb County School System to change, we must have an outsider at the top.

You can use the link on the left to email the board or here are their email addresses ready to be cut and paste into an email.

THOMAS_BOWEN@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
SARAH_COPELIN-WOOD@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
JAY_CUNNINGHAM@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
don_mcchesney@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
PAM_SPEAKS@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
nancy_jester@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
donna_edler@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
EUGENE_P_WALKER@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
h_paul_womack@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us

Let our board members know what we expect and what this system needs.

11 comments:

shark bait said...

Done, thanks for the reminder!

Cerebration said...

This is super important people. Make your thoughts known. The board needs a big push to remind them that the majority of citizens in the survey responded that we want an outsider to clean house and focus on academics. Ramona has done a good job of putting out fires, but she is not going to clean house and she has very VERY little experience in academics (she only taught business ed at Lakeside for two years.)

themommy said...

Your note is plenty long -- that is about the most some of the board members can or care to read.

Dekalbparent said...

Got similar reply ("in agreement") from Don McChesney, and one from Donna Edler thanking me for my comments.

I am happy to have received such prompt responses from mu BoE!

themommy said...

Gene Walker is still complaining about no one from DeKalb being appointed to the Governor's advisory committee. He has his facts wrong -- there isn't someone from every system on that committee.

Who voted for him?

SHS said...

Yes! MAKE YOUR THOUGHTS KNOWN!!

I completely agree with Cerebration about making your thoughts known! However, let me strongly encourage you to use ReadNotify on your e-mails to BOE members so you will know that
(1)the e-mail was received and
(2)if it was opened (how many times and for how long)and
(3)if it was forwarded (how many times).

Go to www.readnotify.com. You will be able to send 25 e-mails with readnotify.com tagged onto the mailing address -- at no charge -- and the recipient will not see it. I started with the basic subscription ($24) and found it to be a godsend! I find ReadNotify to be so useful that I pay for an annual premium subscription ($36).

One of the best things about ReadNotify is that it provides Certified Proof of Posting - irrefutable digitally signed certificates which you can use to prove that you sent what you did, and exactly when (including court-of-law usage instructions).

Dekalbparent said...

@mommy

I DID NOT VOTE FOR GENE WALKER.

Anonymous said...

I would assume the BOE is looking for a Supt. hopefully that is suitable for DeKalb. I am not sure what "an Otsider" is. I hate we didn't go after Dr. King. I guess that "he is" or "is not" an "outsider"? I ONLY care that we get a Supt. who can move us forward and be concerned about all of the students. I would rather have Ms. Tyson or Moseley than just a "Joe Blow,' to be run by McChesney, Wommack and Speaks. When is Jester going to ask ONE question that is not pertaining to "My School...My District". Can we ever have a "My DeKalb"? The Board needs to get their act together and leave the politics for the next election. When are the new member going to training so they can learn their roles. We have students who deserve much more!

themommy said...

I don't think we can presume that King or anyone else is not in the running. I don't think we know where they are at all. Negotiations take time. I think this board is struggling with which way they want to go.

I do think this board, as seen in the discussion over discussing the budget last night is fairly well divided. Disagreements are fine, but the budget committee clearly moved ahead before the majority of the board was ready -- something that isn't a good idea.

Cerebration said...

Yes, and Gene Walker's battle cry since arriving on the scene has been to simply raise taxes. The school system has plenty of money - over $1.2 BILLION a year. Raising taxes will only serve to pay for continued mismanagement of resources. What we need is a system leader who really understands budgets (clearly, Crawford Lewis and his board at the time did not) and who also understands what it takes in the classroom to educate children - which is the entire purpose of the school system. Instead, the school system (and this is true for many large systems nationwide) has served as a jobs program for friends, family and well-connected along with a place to dole out nice contracts to the "lowest bidder".

Ramona has been part of this failing system for her entire career - she doesn't know what it takes to educate children - she only taught for two years, then went to work for IBM promoting the Writing to Read program, which was summarily dumped by all who used to use it.

We need someone smart and strong and devoted to educating ALL children - not just those in pricey neighborhoods or those whose parents are well-connected.

Susan Curtis said...

Okay, folks, I keep emailing the Board, and I'm getting responses from the same few people, but Donna Edler always has the same thing to say "Thank you for your comments." While I appreciate any response, the fact that I keep getting the exact same one from Ms. Edler about 5 minutes after I email EVERY TIME makes me think she has an automated email response. Anyone know?