Taxpayers Need to Demand Transparency

Why are DeKalb Schools Salary Schedules not published online and accessible to all taxpayers?

Much has been written and discussed about the opacity of DeKalb Schools with respect to salary schedules and employee job functions placement on those schedules.

DeKalb Schools Human Resource Department should be publishing the salary schedules for all job categories. DCSS is the most opaque school system in metro Atlanta regarding employee salaries. DCSS has had a webpage for many years where Human Resources purports to publish salary schedules. Please note that DeKalb taxpayers can ONLY select to see the DCSS Teacher Salary Schedule.

DeKalb County Schools:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/administration/humanresources/salaryschedules.html

Now look at the other metro area school systems. Note the many salary schedules available to taxpayers online so they can compare their school system's administrative and support salaries with other metro school systems. While an Compensation Audit is necessary, taxpayers should have access to the information that the auditors have. In ALL of the other metro systems in Atlanta, detailed salary schedule information for admin and support personnel is published online for taxpayers. Click on some of the links below to compare the salary information that the other counties and cities in metro Atlanta provide taxpayers versus DeKalb Schools.

Fulton County Schools:
https://portal.fultonschools.org/departments/Human_Resources/Pages/Salary_Schedules_10_11.aspx

Forsyth County Schools:
http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/129410616211729590/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=116857

Atlanta Public Schools:
http://www.atlantapublicschools.us/204220122111936667/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=55734&2042Nav=|&NodeID=484

Cobb County Schools:
http://www.cobbk12.org/centraloffice/hr/compensation/schedules.aspx

Gwinnett County Schools:
http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/careers/careershr.nsf/010d64ffdfc63566852571dc0061d644/5d1dfad1cd332b0b852571e0006cb5c7?OpenDocument&0~Careers&6~QuickLinks

Decatur City Schools:
http://www.csdecatur.net/hr/salary-benefits

Clayton County Schools:
http://www.clayton.k12.ga.us/administration/humanrsc/TeachSalSchd.asp

Rockdale County Schools:
http://portal.rockdale.k12.ga.us/about/fs/hr/employbenefits/Pages/default.aspx

Marietta City Schools:
https://hr.marietta-city.org/getfile.asp?type=5&id=0

Human Resources has an obligation to the taxpayers of DeKalb County to publish salary schedule information for all employees. After all, taxpayers are paying the salaries of every employee in DeKalb County. This needs to be NOW - not later. Human Resources has these salary schedules. It is a simple matter of uploading them to the DCSS website.

If Ms. Tyson wants transparency, this is the place to start since she has stated salaries and benefits make up 90+% of DCSS expenditures.

The latest sources of transparency from DCSS

Good news! I have found several new sources of solid, interesting and relevant information coming from DCSS. First, kudos to Ramona Tyson and her staff for posting so much information about the search for the new superintendent. Go to the home page of the school system's website and click on the Superintendent Search at the top. You will find a whole host of information, along with the original questions, the original video of the forum and citizen commentary after the public interviews.

Additionally, Nancy Jester's new website is fast becoming a nice repository of important information. As Nancy shares in her newsletter, she has posted details about the new staffing formula (STAR). I will post a picture of that chart below, but to access Nancy's website, click here. The files are located in her blog.

Click to enlarge

Nancy also has new documents posted about the Chamblee HS construction project. You can access this info by clicking here.

One item of importance mentioned in Nancy's newsletter is this statement,

"As you know, the Georgia Legislature has considered various pieces of legislation that impact the DeKalb BOE. As the legislative session proceeded, a letter was sent to the DeKalb delegation that opposed the various bills that were under consideration. I have received numerous inquiries about this letter and my position. I did not approve, review or sign this letter. My signature is a digital image that is used on proclamations, etc. I have expressed my concern about this letter to the Board Chair."

(FWIW, Nancy then gives her own, very cogent reasons why she personally does not agree with the legislation.)

I'm very glad to know that Nancy did not participate in sending 'the letter', but I am greatly distressed that our board chair thinks it's perfectly acceptable to compose and create a letter with a strong opinion on a controversial topic, and then electronically paste in each member's signature and send it to the head of the DeKalb delegation – implying solidarity on the issue. (Click here to read the original post on the letter.) This is the same board chair who last year, assured Sarah Copelin-Wood that her comments against the Citizen's Planning Task Force and attempted strong-arming in their decisions would be swept under the rug.

Below are two emails from the exchange between Tom Bowen (chair) and Sarah Copelin-Wood, discussing her meddling in the hard work of the Citizen's Planning Task Force last year. (Click here for details in the original post.)  Although it seems like old news, these emails are hard proof that our board chair is far more concerned about public perception than about the truth. Oddly, Tom and others cited the Task Force's inconsistent opinions as a reason to dismiss their findings – even as they were aware that the inconsistency was due to a board member's strong pressure.

***********************************************

----- Original Message -----

From: bowent7522@... Tuesday, May 04, 2010 4:58:28 PM

Subject: Re: Your Reference To Me In Article In AJC

To: SARAH COPELIN-WOOD

I was asked the status and I said the board had not had any time to discuss it given all we had going on with the budget and other things.

My preference is to not take it on at all and let it go away. It will be a bunch of he said, she said. Only thing we could do is add to the policy on citizen committees but that would just attract more attention.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

******************************************

- Original Message ----

From: bowent7522@... Tuesday, May 04, 2010 5:32:27 PM

Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Your Reference To Me In Article In AJC

To: SARAH COPELIN-WOOD

No investigation and nor do I want one. Especially now that we changed the plan with the four schools and we aren't going to use the findings anyway.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

******************************************

Add to this his recent decision to send a personal letter with all nine electronic signatures on a subject important to his own political aspirations, and we have a chair who thinks he can manipulate perception. That is just plain wrong.

The Ethics Debate: Which plan will work best for DeKalb?

Today's AJC is reporting that the DeKalb school board is toughening it's ethics policy. Apparently, the school board, motivated by DeKalb school board ethics legislation proposed by State Rep. Kevin Levitas (District 82), has revisited writing it's own policy. The new version will allow board members to punish each other.

The AJC reports:

Under the proposed policy, board members can initiate an investigation against another member if they feel the individual violated the district’s code of ethics or conflict of interest policy.

The accused would be allowed to provide evidence to defend themselves at a public hearing. If found guilty, the board could discipline the accused member, including ordering them to apology or contacting law enforcement.

The proposed policy requires board members to be respectful, follow state Open Meetings laws and attend training. It also prohibits board members from withholding information from each other, voting on jobs for their relatives and taking gifts valued at more than $50.

The school board took its first look at the new proposed ethics policy Monday night and will vote on it later this month, board chair Tom Bowen told the AJC.

We have discussed this topic often here at the blog:

Kevin's bill was discussed back in November.

Tom Doolittle once contributed an article to the blog that clarifies a lot of information on the subject.

Paul Womack wrote a letter to the editor on January 21 endorsing the need for an ethics policy.

And soon after, Open & Transparent wrote an opinion piece about the need for an ethics policy for the DeKalb School Board.

One of our regular contributors had this interesting take on the subject:

I appreciate the school board ethics proposal. However IT, like the current proposal for STATEWIDE school board ethics (SB 84)—does NOT regulate ethics for superintendents (employees).

The Levitas proposal for DeKalb only DOES regulate employees.

Why are they proposing this now? Look at the obvious reasons that the school board should have already initiated an ethics probe on Lewis and possibly Pope. The problem is they are using the possibility (or not) of the criminal investigation as their hurdle to cross.

You can bet they have no plans (and no mechanism without Levitas’s bill) to investigate any kind of conflict of interest (or misuse of funds) for Lewis and Pope if the DA fails to prosecute.

This is a huge part of the story—and would educate people to push the board to:

(1) Immediately push to get the “sealed” files so they can ascertain the nature of the investigation
(2) If the investigation doesn’t include ethical violations (too small compared to RICO) and the DA doesn’t win, then the board would have already initiated its own proceedings—proving to the public they are answering criticism about protecting Lewis.

Weigh in - what do the rest of you think?

Kevin Levitas promoting ethics on the school board

With sincere apologies to John Heneghan, Kevin Levitas is my new hero! As reported in this week's edition of The Champion, Kevin, a state house representative from District 82 in DeKalb, has introduced some important legislation that will impact our school board and certainly our schools. Called "The DeKalb School Board Transparency Act", the legislation would subject our board members to an ethics commission designed to prevent conflicts of interest such as the one Gene Walker had this past year which sparked a lawsuit against him and the Authority filed by the Board of Education.

Walker, while serving as the chair of the DeKalb Development Authority, used over $21,000 in campaign contributions from the Sembler Company to win a seat on the DeKalb County Board of Education. Ironically, he did this at a time when the school board was discussing whether or not to endorse a Development Authority planned $51 million tax abatement for the Sembler Company. This action, seen as a huge conflict of interest by many voters, was the pivot point for finally bringing an ethics law for the board to the fore.

Walker vehemently defended his two positions, but eventually resigned from the Development Authority. He is quoted in an earlier interview with The Champion as saying, “It’s a dead issue with me.”

Now, in the recent interview with The Champion (linked at the top of this article) Gene has tried to minimize and brush the proposed legislation aside, calling it "frivolous".

"Walker said he has never spoken to Levitas about the legislation and called the lawmaker’s efforts “frivolous.” Walker has said he resigned from the authority because he and other authority members felt he had become a distraction. Walker said he did nothing illegal or wrong and disclosed contributions he received from Sembler.

“Every contribution I receive I report on a financial disclosure statement, and universally, every place, transparency or full disclosure is the anecdote for the appearance of a conflict of interest,” he said. “There’s much more important things [Levitas] should be working on.”


As has been reported at Atlanta Unfiltered, although Gene Walker did disclose the Sembler $21,000 campaign contribution, he only did so two days after winning his seat on the school board in a runoff. When questioned about the delay in reporting, he is quoted in the article as saying, “I was trying to win. My time was better invested in shaking hands than in filling out forms.” Georgia law requires candidates to report contributions promptly so voters have access to that information before casting their ballots.

Laws such as this one posed by Levitas are vital in order to give power to the people - where it belongs. We simply have to be certain that our representatives are looking out for the needs of the people - especially when our children are concerned.

Kevin has to pre-file this legislation and garner enough support at the State to make it law. Please, contact your local DeKalb legislator and let him or her know that you want this law passed. If you are not certain who your elected officials are, click here and you'll be given all of them, from Obama to your state rep.

Thank you Kevin!