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Friday, December 2, 2011
Friday Fun
In this TED presentation, Philip Zimbardo explains how the time paradox influences every decision you make. Are you a past, present or future thinker? This is a very good talk to share with high school students.
Does anyone know the status of Dr. Audria Berry and her assistant A. Davis? I heard they were terminated on Monday. There names are still listed on First Class.
I have never found that first class is cleaned up so fast. Like, when I know teachers who have retired or quit, their names still show up for quite a while. (I have a friend who was a para and she quit at the end of the school year, and for months still got the blast emails that went to all employees.)
I just figured it was another example of the inefficiency of DCSS.
Just heard this morning that Angela Pringle was sent back to a school house. Can any body confirm this? Lewis got her after she had been removed at Meadowcreek and I know she has been seen at New Birth. Now our children are with a lady at Arabia who has never even been a teacher but maybe there is hope. All I can say if this is true is please don't stop Doc A!
Since first class is driven by payroll data, it should update within a few days at most. It's been a long time since first class kept anyone on for over a few days after they separated from the system - not since they used automatic payroll data to drive the process as opposed to manual into by the CTSSs.
It will be interesting to see if Ralph Simpson of DeKalb "Bookgate" had his salary cut as he was demoted to an Assistant Principal August, 2010.: "The district cut Simpson’s salary from $115,405 to $89,599, and Thedford’s from $105,615 to $93,168, district Chief of Staff Alice Thompson said"
Mr. Simpson is probably hanging in there until retirement. Taxpayers will be on the hook for 60% of his highest two years. In 2010, he was earning around $123,000 (base salary). That means he will retire on $74,000 a year if he can hang in there until he reaches his 30 year mark.
Why does the state Salary and Travel audit list Simpson's salary as $123,000 in for the 2009-2010 school year, yet Alice Thompson lists it as $115,000 when she spoke to the AJC in an article published August, 2010 (well after the 2010 school year ended)?
Do these upper management personnel even know what non-teaching personnel are paid?
This promised Compensation audit cannot come soon enough. And taxpayers MUST demand that the salary schedules for every position are published online like ALL of the other metro school systems.
Taxpayers must be able to compare for themselves what an Assistant Principal or Maintenance or Secretary is paid in other school systems with the pay in DeKalb Schools.
How has DeKalb gotten away with not publishing the slaty schedules for 8,500 employees for so long while EVERY other school system (even APS) publishes them? Human Resources has 60 employees. This is just a matter of publishing the data on the website.
This is why I harp on the fact that our school board has so much to do they have No Business introducing new (controversial) topics like cell towers (or Military Academies or such things). Streamline and fix what we have and then offer up new suggestions for discussion.
I agree with you Cere. Cell towers and other non-education related initiatives are a distraction from the main concerns DCSS should be addressing right now and are creating opposition from property owners (especially those who don't have children in DCSS but will be adversely affected by the erection of a cell tower). They always want to say "Cobb" and "Gwinnett" have cell towers but I believe the quality of education students receive in those systems are quite different from in Dekalb County. The school board and superintendent have SO MUCH to do with just making sure all students are properly educated, schools make AYP (if this is an appropriate measure of the quality of education), salaries are appropriate for the job, etc. My sons just returned to college from Thanksgiving break and spoke about how they were not prepared for college (they are a Junior - studying Public Policy and a Senior- studying Engineering at a prestigious university out-of-state because we wanted to see how their DCSS education compared with the other students' education. No where near-- although they have availed themselves of resources to help them "make up" or learn what they were supposed to learn at the high school level - they did not have to take remedial courses. They were educated in the South Dekalb DCSS schools. There were some other students from DCSS at the same university who did quite well since they were educated at Chamblee but they (my sons) refused to travel across the county for a "good" education and were determined to make sure the education they received was adequate- but it wasn't. Well now they are saying they should have gone to other schools.
Also, Cobb County has the procedure for cell tower selection on its website. The principal, not the school board, initially determines if there is an interest. If no interest, no cell tower. Then the principal notifies the school board. The principal notifies the community at large and holds information sessions to gauge interest. After taking the community concerns into consideration, it may or may not be forwarded to the school system. This probably evolved after several lawsuits. You would think DCSS would have looked to see what the process was at other school systems they seek to emulate before embarking on such a controversial project. Now Cobb and other counties look at more lucrative and non-controversial ways to raise revenue. Cobb leases space on the school marquees. They say this is more lucrative and less controversial than a cell tower (AJC Sept. 2011 article). Douglas county is looking at allowing advertising on school napkins, etc. (Nov. 2011) Our school system decided to go with something that no one does anymore, at least not without a lot of controversy.
Speaking of former Chief of Staff, Dr. Alice Thompson, do you know what she is doing now to earn her $120,000+ salary? Rumor is that she was shuttered or shuffled to a non-position at the other end of AIC. Away and out of the everyday action. IMO, here is another person that has 30+ years, was loyal to the Crawford Crew, and needs to go!
How about the former principal of Dunwoody HS? He's rumored to be spending his days in a "rubber room" at full pay. Or maybe they call it "special projects". Either way, he's not working much or at all, but being paid a full salary.
Anon 4:13: Are you speaking of Steve Donahue? I thought he was Executive Director of Plant Services. Was there not a reason for him being removed from his principal position? Did that come back to haunt him? He certainly did not have the experience for ED of PS.
Kevin Harris (Ph.D.) was the former Principal at Dunwoody High School. I believe he was highly recruited and hired from the Atlanta Public School System, by non other than Crawford Lewis.
Kevin Harris, Ed. D. was not recruited by Lewis. Harris was released by Lewis et. al. Non-renewed his contract June 30, 2011. It was noted in central office that Lewis did not like Harris. Harris is fine I spoke to him recently and have checked in with him monthly since he was non-renewed.
Is anyone else worried that the teachers will be coming back from Christmas the same day as the students? How does the board seriously expect teachers to be ready to teach students without that planning day to get syllabus, classroom and books ready? When will students who missed finals because people think Christmas break starts on the 14th get to make them up? Too much happens on that planning day to leave it as a furlough day.
DCSS web site Click on "Staff" in grey band at top Click on "CommunityNet" on bottom left Click on "First Class Directory"
Just type in a name (or part of a name) and hit return. Also it shows resumes, etc. But many are not updated, as it is the responsibility of the employee to do so.
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Does anyone know the status of Dr. Audria Berry and her assistant A. Davis? I heard they were terminated on Monday. There names are still listed on First Class.
ReplyDeleteI have never found that first class is cleaned up so fast. Like, when I know teachers who have retired or quit, their names still show up for quite a while. (I have a friend who was a para and she quit at the end of the school year, and for months still got the blast emails that went to all employees.)
ReplyDeleteI just figured it was another example of the inefficiency of DCSS.
Dr. Brantley is the new impressive head of MIS.
ReplyDeleteHe can update first class and answer your questions.
Please send him an email and keep us posted.
Just heard this morning that Angela Pringle was sent back to a school house. Can any body confirm this? Lewis got her after she had been removed at Meadowcreek and I know she has been seen at New Birth. Now our children are with a lady at Arabia who has never even been a teacher but maybe there is hope. All I can say if this is true is please don't stop Doc A!
ReplyDeleteSince first class is driven by payroll data, it should update within a few days at most. It's been a long time since first class kept anyone on for over a few days after they separated from the system - not since they used automatic payroll data to drive the process as opposed to manual into by the CTSSs.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see if Ralph Simpson of DeKalb "Bookgate" had his salary cut as he was demoted to an Assistant Principal August, 2010.:
ReplyDelete"The district cut Simpson’s salary from $115,405 to $89,599, and Thedford’s from $105,615 to $93,168, district Chief of Staff Alice Thompson said"
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-fires-2-demotes-592425.html
The new Salary and Travel audit will be coming out. It will be interesting to see if they really cut his salary to $89,599.
Mr. Simpson is probably hanging in there until retirement. Taxpayers will be on the hook for 60% of his highest two years. In 2010, he was earning around $123,000 (base salary). That means he will retire on $74,000 a year if he can hang in there until he reaches his 30 year mark.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if those two would have ever made anywhere near that much money anywhere else on the planet.
ReplyDeleteWhy does the state Salary and Travel audit list Simpson's salary as $123,000 in for the 2009-2010 school year, yet Alice Thompson lists it as $115,000 when she spoke to the AJC in an article published August, 2010 (well after the 2010 school year ended)?
ReplyDeleteDo these upper management personnel even know what non-teaching personnel are paid?
This promised Compensation audit cannot come soon enough. And taxpayers MUST demand that the salary schedules for every position are published online like ALL of the other metro school systems.
Taxpayers must be able to compare for themselves what an Assistant Principal or Maintenance or Secretary is paid in other school systems with the pay in DeKalb Schools.
How has DeKalb gotten away with not publishing the slaty schedules for 8,500 employees for so long while EVERY other school system (even APS) publishes them? Human Resources has 60 employees. This is just a matter of publishing the data on the website.
This is why I harp on the fact that our school board has so much to do they have No Business introducing new (controversial) topics like cell towers (or Military Academies or such things). Streamline and fix what we have and then offer up new suggestions for discussion.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Cere. Cell towers and other non-education related initiatives are a distraction from the main concerns DCSS should be addressing right now and are creating opposition from property owners (especially those who don't have children in DCSS but will be adversely affected by the erection of a cell tower). They always want to say "Cobb" and "Gwinnett" have cell towers but I believe the quality of education students receive in those systems are quite different from in Dekalb County. The school board and superintendent have SO MUCH to do with just making sure all students are properly educated, schools make AYP (if this is an appropriate measure of the quality of education), salaries are appropriate for the job, etc. My sons just returned to college from Thanksgiving break and spoke about how they were not prepared for college (they are a Junior - studying Public Policy and a Senior- studying Engineering at a prestigious university out-of-state because we wanted to see how their DCSS education compared with the other students' education. No where near-- although they have availed themselves of resources to help them "make up" or learn what they were supposed to learn at the high school level - they did not have to take remedial courses. They were educated in the South Dekalb DCSS schools. There were some other students from DCSS at the same university who did quite well since they were educated at Chamblee but they (my sons) refused to travel across the county for a "good" education and were determined to make sure the education they received was adequate- but it wasn't. Well now they are saying they should have gone to other schools.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Cobb County has the procedure for cell tower selection on its website. The principal, not the school board, initially determines if there is an interest. If no interest, no cell tower. Then the principal notifies the school board. The principal notifies the community at large and holds information sessions to gauge interest. After taking the community concerns into consideration, it may or may not be forwarded to the school system. This probably evolved after several lawsuits. You would think DCSS would have looked to see what the process was at other school systems they seek to emulate before embarking on such a controversial project. Now Cobb and other counties look at more lucrative and non-controversial ways to raise revenue. Cobb leases space on the school marquees. They say this is more lucrative and less controversial than a cell tower (AJC Sept. 2011 article). Douglas county is looking at allowing advertising on school napkins, etc. (Nov. 2011) Our school system decided to go with something that no one does anymore, at least not without a lot of controversy.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 9:44
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of former Chief of Staff, Dr. Alice Thompson, do you know what she is doing now to earn her $120,000+ salary? Rumor is that she was shuttered or shuffled to a non-position at the other end of AIC. Away and out of the everyday action. IMO, here is another person that has 30+ years, was loyal to the Crawford Crew, and needs to go!
How about the former principal of Dunwoody HS? He's rumored to be spending his days in a "rubber room" at full pay. Or maybe they call it "special projects". Either way, he's not working much or at all, but being paid a full salary.
ReplyDeleteAnon 4:13: Are you speaking of Steve Donahue? I thought he was Executive Director of Plant Services. Was there not a reason for him being removed from his principal position? Did that come back to haunt him? He certainly did not have the experience for ED of PS.
ReplyDeleteSteve Donahue was at Peachtree not Dunwoody. He was promoted from that position.
ReplyDeleteNo. Kevin somebody. The last principal before this one at Dunwoody.
ReplyDeleteKevin Harris (Ph.D.) was the former Principal at Dunwoody High School. I believe he was highly recruited and hired from the Atlanta Public School System, by non other than Crawford Lewis.
ReplyDeleteYes, and dismissed from Dunwoody but not placed anywhere else that anyone knows of. And still collecting a paycheck somehow.
ReplyDeleteKevin Harris, Ed. D. was not recruited by Lewis. Harris was released by Lewis et. al. Non-renewed his contract June 30, 2011. It was noted in central office that Lewis did not like Harris. Harris is fine I spoke to him recently and have checked in with him monthly since he was non-renewed.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone else worried that the teachers will be coming back from Christmas the same day as the students? How does the board seriously expect teachers to be ready to teach students without that planning day to get syllabus, classroom and books ready? When will students who missed finals because people think Christmas break starts on the 14th get to make them up? Too much happens on that planning day to leave it as a furlough day.
ReplyDeleteHarris was relieved of his duties at Dunwoody in June of 2010 - after Lewis was gone as Super.
ReplyDeleteThe 2010 salary report shows that he made a tidy sum especially if it was for 6 months!
ReplyDeleteHARRIS,KEVIN PRINCIPAL
$94,632.00
@ Anonymous 11:18
ReplyDeleteIf first class doesn't have him in the directory he is gone.
The only Kevin Harris left is a paraprofessional.
I wold be more concerned abut people who were supposedly terminated still showing up on the payroll.
It sounds like this guy moved on to greener pastures.
How do you access the DeKalb Directory on the new web site?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 1:18 am
ReplyDeleteFor the DCSS Directory go to:
DCSS web site
Click on "Staff" in grey band at top
Click on "CommunityNet" on bottom left
Click on "First Class Directory"
Just type in a name (or part of a name) and hit return. Also it shows resumes, etc. But many are not updated, as it is the responsibility of the employee to do so.
Perhaps Audria Berrry is being paid throughout her contract but asked not to report to the Central Office - kind of like a buyout.
ReplyDelete