With so much wrong with the DeKalb County School System, it appears that there's a grass roots effort to organize the parents. Please share this approval rating poll with every parent you know who has children in the DeKalb County School System. The more representative the response to this poll is of the county as a whole, the better equipped this group will be to organize and be an effective voice demanding change and accountability.
The poll, which is a Google form, can be found by clicking here.
If you feel out of the loop about all that's going on in the school system, click here for a great quick start guide.
Once again, invoke every email list and social media network you have to spread the word!
Thanks for breaking the silence and caring about DeKalb's students.
http://bit.ly/dcspoll
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/08/05/can-someone-shake-dekalb-school-board-out-of-its-fog-so-it-can-see-mounting-problems-in-schools/
For information on the parent's group, click here to read about them in "The Patch".
The only issue I have with the poll, which I think is a great idea, is that you are trying to limit the responses to people who currently have children in the system. All taxpayers and all parents in DeKalb should have a voice that counts in matters of the school board. We need make sure we are reaching out to everyone because the waste of taxpayer dollars should be a concern to us all. And, there are parents who are no longer in the DCSS because they have elected private school because they dislike the public option. And, there are parents who have children who are not yet school age that may wish to comment, or parents with recent graduates or kids who dropped out. This school system affects all of us. The parents in the system may be afraid to speak out. There is fear of the school system finding our who you are and possibly retaliating against you or penalizinng your child. We need others to speak up FOR them, because many are too afraid to say how they really feel.
ReplyDeleteAll taxpayers need a voice in this. Our taxes are going up 24% and that's going to be tough on my fixed income. Most of this money goes to schools. I am a very strong public school supporter, but I'm also aware that the current performance of the DeKalb School System administration and BOE has led to such low student achievement that my house would be hard to sell to anyone with children who want to use the public schools.
ReplyDeleteThis administration and Board has had a very negative impact on property values. Many young families will not move to DeKalb solely on the basis of the schools. All DeKalb taxpayers are being impacted.
Meanwhile, we are paying thousands a year in property taxes to support a school system that has more admin and support personnel than teachers.
No accountability on the part of the administration and Ms. Tyson had kept the same personnel making the same poor decisions.
As a parent who recently opted out of sending my children to Dekalb County Schools, I think anyone paying Dekalb County taxes should be included in this poll.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I want to thank the creator and contributors to this blog. It's a terrific source of information about the unfortunate and continuing misdeeds of the administration and BOE. I marvel at their flagrant abuses of power, nepotism, corruption, and incompetence that we, as taxpayers, still tolerate.
It would be interesting to create a survey that would offer some insight into the numbers of parents who have removed their children from DCSS in the past few years. I suspect the loss of these families has helped contribute to the downward spiral of test scores and I suspect the numbers have accelerated under the Lewis/Tyson regimes.
ReplyDeleteGood point. I'll send an email to the people who created the poll and suggest that they add a category "no children in public schools, just a DeKalb Taxpayer"
ReplyDeleteOr just select the school that would be your school if you had kids in the system...
ReplyDeleteWhat I think they are looking for is geographic diversity.
Thanks for your support of this poll! In response to your great suggestions, the options have been expanded to include private/homeschool, future parent of a student, and taxpayer with no school aged children. We're off to a good start of responses after just a few hours.
ReplyDeleteNow, in return, I ask you to let everyone far and wide know about this poll! We must achieve geographic diversity to be effective as someone wisely pointed out. Exercise your email, social media, blog and other networks with the link to the poll.
Thanks in advance for helping to break the silence! If you have any other suggestions, email parentsfordcs@gmail.com.
Anon 7:14 Dan Drake at DCSS has the number of children in each school zone that 1) go to the home school 2) go to another DCSS school 3) go to school in another county 4) homeschool 5) private school. I don't know if he has the data as it has changed over the years. He has been here at least 3 years, so he would at least have that.
ReplyDeletequick concern. I recognize that the question is about the system, however, asking the school can be misleading. I am fairly happy with my kids' schools, but this does not mean that I think the system is doing a good job. Indeed, I think the schools that are succeeding are doing so in spite of the system administration, not because of it.
ReplyDeleteTo be effective, a grass roots effort needs to be diverse geographically. If only one section of the county is represented on this survey, then the author of the survey will understand how limited his/her data is.
ReplyDeleteThe survey, as I read it, is meant to be your assessment of the system.
To alleviate confusion, the following language has been added to the school question:
ReplyDelete"This is only to ensure geographical diversity of responses and is not an evaluation of a specific school."
While not a perfect indicator given that attendance outside of school zones is not uncommon, it's what we've got to work with.
Once again, in between comments, I'm sure you all are sharing this poll with your friends.
Of interest: I'm told that our board chair, Tom Bowen has so little faith in DeKalb Schools that he sends his own 6 year old son to private school! I heard it from a reliable source, but can anyone confirm?
ReplyDeleteSo many things have been tried. I give the individuals who are doing the approval rating poll "props".
ReplyDeleteThe first thing we need is a new school superintendent. The board are still divided on issues like this in my opinion. They do not want a 5-4 vote on a school superintendent. The longer they wait the worse the reputation of the DeKalb County School System will be regarding applying for the job. Our students are the ones suffering.
Why isn't Champion Middle Theme School on the form?
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask how we know that this poll isn't some way for DCSS to gather information on people who complain about the system. But then the poll was updated to reflect input from the readers of this blog, and the first thing I thought was, "No way DCSS could read, respond, and take action on something that quickly." Sad but true!
ReplyDeleteMr. Deal, clearly you give DCSS too much credit!
ReplyDeleteRegarding Champion Middle, the list of schools was pulled from this page:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/schools-and-centers
Is this page not representative of all schools? Please advise if there are omissions or an additional list that should be added.
I believe that Champion Middle may be listed as The Champion School. Are they the same? This is DCSS alphabetization style, apparently!
ReplyDeleteIs this the same group that is meeting on August 24 at The Marlay, in Decatur, at 6:15 pm?
ReplyDeleteFor information on the parent's group, click here to read about them in "The Patch".
ReplyDeleteA small, but growing group of concerned DeKalb County parents have organized within the last week to help correct what they believe is a corrupt and troubled school system.
The group, Parents for DeKalb County Schools, is comprised of about 100 parents - about a half-dozen from Brookhaven - who are fed up with what they feel is a poor-performing school system.
“This is the second school year in a row that the school system does not have a permanent superintendent in place,” said Gil Hearn, the group’s organizer. “The tax payers should be extremely concerned that our ability to continue to attract residents and businesses to the county are going to be impacted by all that’s going on.”
yes, it is.
ReplyDelete