Dr Atkinson -- hard at work!

Dr. Atkinson, true to her word, is making the rounds. She is working very hard to make a connection with the communities she serves and is looking to them to inform her vision moving forward. She has already held a State of the System Address at the Emory Lavista Parent Council meeting at Henderson Middle School, a strategic planning meeting at the main office that involved community input and has visited several schools. We were also informed by David Schutten's iPhone text message to his ODE listserve that she has extended offers to several new key administrators:

1. Kathleen S. Howell as Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction.

2. Kendra D. March as Deputy Superintendent for School Leadership and Operational Support.

3. Gary Brantley as Chief Information Officer.

4. Walter Woods as Executive Director of Communications.

Below are some video snippets of her comments to the ELPC crowd. (Brought to us by Jonathan Cribbs of the Patch.)




As mentioned, Atkinson also held a strategic planning meeting, which had a "community engagement" portion on Tuesday evening. Read the report on this meeting in the AJC:

New DeKalb superintendent draws big crowd

Below are some additional email reports from attendees. I'll add more as readers send them in ( reparteeforfun@gmail.com ), or those who attended, please leave a comment in this post.

It was a pretty typical exercise with 30 minutes of "orientation" speeches and then break out into a room with a facilitator to answer 5 questions and then everyone vote on the answers that matter most to them.

It's important to note that none of the facilitators were DCSS staff so people were told to be free to be honest. [One of our reporters] was part of a group of 20, including some well spoken students from Arabia Mountain. There were a pretty high percentage of teachers who were also parents, and also in the main auditorium [we would have liked to have had more non-teacher parents in attendance]. The concerns raised were pretty much the same as what was described in the article, and also pretty much the same as the discussion from the Charrettees of last fall's redistricting exercise.

A good start by Dr. Atkinson

Dear DeKalb Parents, Staff, Students, and Community Members:

Today begins a new chapter in the history of the DeKalb County School District (DCSD), and it is a privilege for me to be part of the legacy. I am honored the Board of Education has entrusted me to focus our District’s efforts on student success, and I am confident that by working together we can reach our goal.

In the next few days, I will provide the Board with a 90-day transition plan to fully assess the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of the District. I will use those first 90 days to listen and learn from the community, parents, teachers and principals.

My plan is to visit each school and speak with each principal. I plan to meet with the civic community and to gain their support for a comprehensive plan that will put Students First. I plan to meet with parents, students, teachers, parent-teacher organizations, representatives of teachers’ groups, board members, elected officials, and key business leaders. The message will be the same everywhere. If we band together, keep our eyes on the goal, and put Students First, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.

In the first 90 days, a complete assessment of the senior instructional team will be conducted to help uncover ways to begin working immediately to enhance student success. A complete assessment of our financial priorities will be conducted with a focus on shifting more of our resources to the schools and classrooms. More ways will be learned to enhance instructional capacity, operational processes, personnel quality, and financial priorities of the District.

The challenges are great, but I firmly believe that by working together and putting Students First, we can reach our goal of building a world-class school district. With the support of the community, parents and the Board of Education, we will be the catalyst for improving the academic skills and lifetime opportunities of our students.

The citizens of DeKalb County expect quality education, and the children of DCSD deserve nothing less. I am committed to educational excellence and ask that you join me in achieving this goal throughout DCSD.

Sincerely,


Cheryl L. H. Atkinson, Ed. D.
Superintendent

Dr. Atkinson made her public debut this morning

Maureen Downey has an excellent report on Dr. Atkinson's first public meeting this morning. Maureen tells us the following:

In her first meet-and-greet Saturday morning with the community, DeKalb school chief finalist Cheryl Atkinson came across as open, tough, seasoned and ready for the challenges of the fractured district.

Twice, to applause both times, Atkinson said she had no problem letting people go who are not performing. She also won applause when she said that education takes place in the classroom, not in the central office.

(You gained the sense that the DeKalb parents in the audience believe there is too much dead weight in the central office as the applause was reflexive whenever Atkinson talked about changes at that level.)

“My focus will be on our students and student success first with adults and political issues taking a distant second. Children must come first. Our decisions, my decisions, must first and foremost focus on what is good for all children. My intention is to create an internal structure that will allow effective educators to focus on the core mission improving academic performance. We do not have the luxury of allowing non-academic related issues to consume the attention and focus of all our educators,” she said

She also earned applause when she said that she didn’t believe in teaching to tests, but she did believe in preparing for them, including raising the performance of high school students on the college admission tests, the SAT and the ACT. In Kansas City, she pushed and obtained ACT testing for every student during the school day.

There is much more. Read Maureen's blog post by clicking here.

Dr. Atkinson's Lorain District's scores improve

Today's Morning Journal in Lorain, Ohio tells us that the districts test scores have improved in 18 or 24 categories and passed 4 of the 24 categories (up from only passing one last year).  This is good news for Dr. Atkinson and for DeKalb parents who were very concerned about our proposed new superintendent's home school test scores.

Atkinson pointed out that the district was working hard to build a better high school student in the past couple of years.

With a higher focus on the basics, such as math, students entering high school have been improving over time.

“If we do what we do well,” she said, “then everyone is getting better and once they get to high school, we should see a bigger difference.”

Right now around 80 percent of students entering kindergarten are not prepared, according to Atkinson.

When Atkinson took the position of superintendent, higher standards were put in place to help the district grow.

“I’m excited with all the issues that we have rooted are now growing,” she said. Issues addressing student curriculum, getting children into school, and helping students succeed, are a few of the things she set out to address.

“We’re not perfect,” Atkinson stated. “But, we’re a lot better.”

Meet and Greet and Contract for Dr. Atkinson

New Details added --

Based on the link below, 30 minutes is being allotted for question and answers. The whole presentation is planned for an hour. I think when the original 3 were here, they each had 50 minutes or so to introduce themselves and answer 10 questions. You can click on the link below to submit your questions ahead of time or show up early, between 8:45 and 9:45 am to do the same.

http://oldwww.dekalb.k12.ga.us/superintendent_search_public_input.php

Meet and Greet (from the press release)

The DeKalb County Board of Education is pleased to announce that the board’s finalist for superintendent, Dr. Cheryl Atkinson, will visit with parents, community members and others on Saturday, Aug. 27 at 10 AM. Dr. Atkinson will share her vision for the school system and meet with parents, community leaders and other DCSS stakeholders.
“We’re pleased to introduce Dr. Atkinson to our community of parents and concerned citizens,” said Thomas Bowen, chairman of the DeKalb County School System. “It was Dr. Atkinson’s desire to come immediately to share her vision with our parents and citizens, but she is rightfully focused on the start of the school year in Lorain, Ohio, where she remains superintendent.”
Dr. Atkinson will give a brief overview of her vision for the school system and answer questions submitted by community members. “We are confident that once DeKalb residents get an opportunity to hear directly from her, our parents and community members will be impressed with her creative approaches to increasing academic performance,” said Bowen.

Contract is linked here...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mv8cuU6C3Y8sMVYtTXU1ULbrtylJVzbq3W-wocgKXjk/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1

Some contract highlights:

• Term of three (3) years, commencing on September 15, 2011, and ending on September 14, 2014


• Annual base salary of two-hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars ($275,000.00)


• A one-time advance of thirty (30) vacation days


• An expense allotment of twenty-six hundred dollars ($2,600.00) per month to cover routine expenses incurred in connection with her position, and the SUPERINTENDENT shall not be required to submit reimbursement requests for such expenses.


• In addition, the BOARD shall reimburse the SUPERINTENDENT for all other reasonable expenses incurred in connection with the performance of her duties, as authorized by BOARD policies and as permitted by State or Federal law.


• In lieu of furnishing DR. ATKINSON with an automobile, gas for the automobile, maintenance on the automobile, reimbursement for mileage, and insurance for the automobile, the BOARD will provide DR. ATKINSON with a travel allowance in the amount of seven-hundred and fifty dollars ($750.00) per month.


• A PDA, home fax machine, office and home internet access, laptop computer, and other electronic devices, of the BOARD’S choosing, for effective modern communication


• An allowance for reasonable and necessary expenses incurred by her in connection with her relocation


• Reasonable, temporary housing in the District at a cost not to exceed two thousand dollars ($2,000.00) per month, for a period of up to six months


• Legal protection

And then there is this very interesting clause under Termination for the Board's Convenience:


The BOARD, upon a three-fourths (3/4) vote of its members, may at its option unilaterally terminate this Contract for its convenience by giving the SUPERINTENDENT a minimum of ninety (90) days written notice of termination at any time. In the event of such termination, the BOARD shall pay to the SUPERINTENDENT severance pay, either all of the aggregate salary she would have earned under this Contract from the actual date of termination to the termination date set forth in this Contract, or a sum equivalent to twelve (12) months of the annual base salary as stated in Paragraph 4 of this Contract, whichever is less.

Exactly how many is three-fourths of nine? OR three-fourths of seven?

Defining Cheryl Atkinson

This video, which we think was filmed when she was interviewing for Superintendent of the Cleveland System, certainly gives us insight into the sincere nature of Dr. Atkinson. Her heart is obviously in the right place and she says the things we love to hear - that she values teachers and that we need change. But does she (or even, could she) really grasp the nature and size of the change required in DeKalb? Is she strong enough to dilute the power of the Friends & Family in the system? The very same people who have wasted our tax dollars and allowed our children's test scores to fall into the abyss are now the ones claiming to execute "triage" on their own results. Does she find that logical? Does she really believe that it's a good idea to place the responsibility of reform in the same hands as those who created the need for reform? Does she have the experience, wisdom and the inner compass to see clearly through the fog to the truth? Can she hear through the cacophony of strong voices advocating for their own power bases? Can she recognize the path that will show the way to a successful future for children?

Below is a chart from the Ohio Department of Education revealing the results of student testing in her 8,000 student district in Lorain, Ohio over the past few years. It's a mixed bag of progress, some areas advanced, some didn't.

Click to view larger

Then, there is a list of accomplishments posted all around the internet promoting her successes.  You may have already seen this list:

• Raised graduation rate from 75.9% in the 2006-07 school year to 84.7% in the 2009-10 school year in spite of poverty level rate increasing.
• State accountability for value added model (year’s worth of growth) increased from only one school making a year’s growth to all schools meeting a year’s worth of growth or more. 
• Implemented full immersion Mandarin Chinese (only one in the state of Ohio in public school setting) and full immersion Spanish pre-school program.
• Increased the number of foreign language course offerings at the high school.
• Lorain staff and students have taken educational tours of China, visiting primary, secondary and higher institutions of learning through a partnership with the Office of Chinese Language Council International.
• Implemented Success for All, comprehensive reading reform model for grades K-8: after two years of implementation, data illustrate an increase of student reading levels. Baseline data for the 2008-2009 school year indicated that 43.63% of K-8 students were reading at or above grade level. June 2010 data show 59.45% are currently reading at or above grade level, an increase of 15.93%!
• Implemented one-on-one laptop initiative (all students grade 6-12 receive a laptop with textbooks loaded for their use during the school year).
• Garnered a partnership through effective use of grant dollars, with NASA to implement a NASA Aerospace Lab for $189,000; and implemented the SEMMA program, a K-8 STEM curriculum partnership with NASA.
• Successfully consolidated two high schools into one comprehensive high school.
• Implemented Magnet Schools Program within the district to include the following themes at the elementary level: Science, Art, Literature, Math through Music, Gifted & Accelerated Academy; for middle schools: Accelerated Academy; Interactive Simulation (Animation), and Art; at the high school level: high school academies in STEM, the Arts, and Business and Entrepreneurships.
• Continued to expand the preschool program which increased enrollment and collaboration with Head Start by 26%; instituted a pre-school center in partnership with Head Start; promoted preschool participation which resulted in a 28% increase in the number of students demonstrating readiness for kindergarten.
• Secured funding to provide ACT for all juniors at the high school level to take during the school day (one of only two districts in the state of Ohio); imbedded ACT Prep Courses as a part of extra curricular offerings; and created a process to imbed ACT academic skills as a part of our required curriculum.
• Established and implemented inclusion as the district intervention model.
• Established a district-wide student uniform policy.
• Established two alternative schools addressing student behavioral and academic needs.
• Secured more than $18.6 through grants from state, federal and foundation programs to enhance the academic program.
• Garnered full tuition scholarships for high school graduates totaling more than $7 million.
• Instituted energy savings program which resulted in a savings of $2.9 million.

She is listed as a Broad Superintendents Academy 2006 graduate here. However, she is not listed on the official website of 2006 Broad Superintendents Academy. An aside: We found out that Ray & Associates have done training sessions for Broad.  They are connected.

We're also glad to see that she has kept up her teacher certification (See Florida certification webpage). This is more than Johnny Brown, Crawford Lewis, Morcease Beasley or Gloria Talley did.

Atkinson, Cheryl Lynn 534187 Bradford Elementary Education, (grades 1 - 6) Professional 7/1/2010 - 6/30/2015

We have done some quick system comparisons:

FY 2011 Budget of Lorain City Schools: $94,664,548 (DeKalb's is over $700 million)

Total Student Enrollment: 7,626 (DeKalb has over 98,000)

Student Demographics - Lorain
30.87% Hispanic, 28.01% African American, 27.96% White, 12.75% Multi Racial, 0.43% Other

85.6% Economically Disadvantaged, 17.8% Students with Disabilities, 3.2% Limited English Proficiency

Student Demographics - DeKalb
Black 71.3%, Hispanic 11.75%, White 10.7%, Asian 4.4%, Multiracial 1.6%, Native American, 0.25%

EMPLOYEES Lorain:
955 Full‐Time

EMPLOYEES DeKalb:
Approx. 13,000+

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Items Of Concern:

Lorain City Schools -- on Academic Watch

AYP Status: NOT MET

Performance Index: (0-120 point) 78.1 points

Number of State Indicators Met out of 26: 1

The only passing category out of 26 is 11th grade writing.


Big Red Flag: 

Atkinson answered “No” to Question #5 on her DCSS application: “Have you ever been involved, or are you currently involved, or do you anticipate involvement in litigation either as the plaintiff/complainant or defendant/respondent?” Yet, there was the case of Aliceson Humphries who filed suit against both the Lorain Board of Education and Cheryl Atkinson. She should have answered "Yes" and provided an explanation on a separate page, as required, about this federal lawsuit. It was recently settled, but lawyers were involved. Aliceson Humphries’ lawyer was Avery Friedman. The lawyer for Atkinson and the Lorain School System was most likely Atkinson’s landlord. Beyond answering "no" on the DeKalb application, it also appears that Dr. Atkinson didn't share the fact that the Lorain school system was named in the discrimination lawsuit with their board.

Additionally, below is one of three pleadings found online at PACER.gov where Cheryl Atkinson is the defendant. Obviously, Cheryl Atkinson has been a party to a bankruptcy with an adversary, which is a lawsuit, technically.

Click to enlarge

Further, there seems to be a possibility of another lawsuit looming on the horizon regarding an alleged change Atkinson made which enabled a lesser qualified student to claim the honor of being valedictorian for Lorain’s high school. The honor of being valedictorian also usually includes some significant financial awards such as full-ride scholarship offers. The full story has not yet come out in the media and it is unclear if legal action is being pursued. Click here for an article about the valedictorians in question. More research must be done to get to the bottom of this issue.

Ray and Associates, Inc. clearly states in their application package that several current letters of recommendation are required. Only one letter is provided by Atkinson and that letter is not on official letterhead. In fact, her recommendation is from the editor of the local newspaper.

She has several errors, or typos on her application to Atlanta Public Schools (click here to review). For example, she gets the title wrong for Broad Superintendents Academy. It is not Broad Urban Superintendency Academy. She actually made the error twice on the Honors and Awards page of her vita because she listed Broad twice in the very short list of honors and awards she has received. She even misspelled superintendent.

Reviewing the list of honors and awards, the first thing noted is that approximately half of what she listed is undated. She lists, undated, the "Vivian Burk Leadership Award", (sic*) but carefully neglects to note that it is from her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. *She spelled Burke’s name incorrectly. It is “Burke” with an “e.”  There are other errors in her applications that seem small, but make a statement about carelessness and inattention to detail.

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So, pros and cons side by side, is Cheryl Atkinson the best choice to lead our school system into the future? We are impressed with her image and her sincere demeanor.  We like the one-to-one laptops, digital books and small, steady increases she made in some areas of achievement in Lorain. However, Lorain has only one high school and fewer than 8,000 students. We are concerned that she has no experience leading an enormous, unwieldy, troubled system like DeKalb. We're concerned that she has some legal issues that we feel need further investigating. And we're concerned that she will not be able to penetrate the very powerful adult-led friends and family system and make systemic changes necessary to become an educational leader.

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According to the AJC, In a journeyman-like career, she has worked in 12 school districts in six states since 1982, including Georgia's Rockdale County. Records show she and her husband filed for personal bankruptcy in Norfolk, Va., in 1997. The filing was terminated in 2000.


Atkinson holds a bachelors of arts and a masters of arts in elementary education from the University of North Carolina, and a doctor of education in education administration from Virginia Tech.


In a prepared statement, Atkinson said, "My passion is to give all children, regardless of background and circumstances, a quality public school education."

The DeKalb board will publicly vote to install Atkinson as its new superintendent following the 14-day waiting period in late August, though the exact date hasn't been set.


FILES

Read the contract here.
Read her Atlanta Application here.
Read her contract here.
Read her dissertation here.
Read an annotated DCSS application here.

The 11 Alive News Team broke the story about the court cases.  View one of their reports here.

News reports from Ohio (history on Atkinson)
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2008/06/05/lorain-super-looks-forward-to-second-year/
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2009/06/05/school-chief-in-contract-violation/
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2009/06/18/school-chief-gets-5-year-extension/
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2010/12/23/lorain-school-board-complaint-won’t-be-investigated/
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2011/03/31/administrator’s-federal-lawsuit-against-lorain-schools-is-settled/

Lorain Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-4-Better-Lorain-Schools/114922035213499

Background on Dr. Atkinson, the latest superintendent finalist

Does the name Dr. Cheryl L. H. Atkinson sound familiar? It should. She was one of three finalists in the Atlanta superintendent search in June (none was chosen). In fact, she was also a finalist in the Cleveland, Ohio superintendent search in April. This is her third time at bat in 6 months.

Below is a collection of info found via a quick Google search:

Here is her bio from the Lorain City Schools website:
http://lorainschools.org/modules/tt/profile.phtml?profile_id=123733

About Lorain City Schools:
http://lorainschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/2326143/File/about_us.pdf
http://lorainschools.schoolfusion.us/

FY 2011 Budget: $94,664,548

BY THE NUMBERS 2010‐11

Student Enrollment: 7,626

3,711 Students in Grades K‐5
1,504 Students in Grades 6‐8
2,411 Students in Grades 9‐12

Student Demographics

30.87% Hispanic
28.01% African American
27.96% White
12.75% Multi Racial
0.43% Other

85.6% Economically Disadvantaged
17.8% Students with Disabilities
3.2% Limited English Proficiency

SCHOOLS AND PROGRAMS
10 Elementary
3 Middle Schools
1 High School
3 Alternative Option Programs

EMPLOYEES:
955 Full‐Time
680 School‐Based
275 Non‐School Based
‐ 533 Teachers
‐ 38 Administrators
‐ 109 Paraprofessionals

http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2009-2010/DIST/044263.pdf

For some background on Ohio's standards: There are 26 categories and six academic status designations.

The six designations in Ohio are
• Excellent with Distinction
• Excellent
• Effective
• Continuous Improvement
• Academic Watch
• Academic Emergency

Lorain City Schools -- on Academic Watch

AYP Status: NOT MET


Performance Index: (0-120 point) 78.1 points


Number of State Indicators Met out of 26:  1


The only passing category out of 26 is 11th grade writing.


Oddly, even though they literally failed in 25 of 26 categories, they still had an 84.7% graduation rate. That is incongruent and should be investigated further.


Superintendent’s message from the Lorain School System website:
"Listen to the clarion call for educators. We have the salient opportunity to report the excellence in education to all stakeholders. It is incumbent upon us to educate every child at the highest level. Our actions, through leadership, must insure equity, which represents both the powerful and the powerless.

According to Dr. Atkinson, Achievement is up in Lorain City Schools.
In spite of a $14 million deficit in June of 2007, achievement in Lorain City Schools has consistently been improving. Seven indicators on the Ohio achievement assessment test improved. In the 2007-2008 school year 7th grade Writing increased by 13% and the graduation rate increased 2.6%.

In 2008-2009 the district continued to see even greater student success by increases in 14 achievement indicators, highlighted by 4th grade Math increasing by 9.9%, 11th grade Reading increasing by 10% and a 2.3% gain in graduation rate. This year was the first time that Lorain City Schools received the rating “ABOVE”, which means a year’s worth of growth on the value added State Accountability System.

In 2009-2010 the district “MET” a years worth of growth. 9 indicators increased in 5th grade Math with an 8.5% gain and 8th grade Reading with a 7.8% gain. The districts graduation rate increased by 3.9% bringing the graduation rate up over the last 3 years from 74.7-84.7.

We educate all children at high levels. We can. We will.

(The data below is from the superintendent's page on the Lorain website.)

2007-2008
4th Reading Increased by 1.8%
7th Writing Increased by 13%
8th Math Increased by 1.1%
8th Science Increased by .5%
10th Social-Studies Increased by 5.4%
11th Writing Increased by 1.2%
11th Math Increased by 1.6%
Graduation Rate Increased by 2.6%

2008-2009
3rd Math Increased by 1.7%
4th Reading Increased by 7%
4th Writing Increased by 4.3%
4th Math Increased by 9.9%
5th Reading Increased by 2.3%
5th Science Increased by 7.5%
7th Reading Increased by 4.5%
7th Math Increased by .40%
10th Writing Increased by 3.6%
10th Social-Studies Increased by 1.7%
10th Science Increased by 5.3%
11th Reading Increased by 10%
11th Writing Increased by .60%
11th Social-Studies Increased by 3.2%
Graduation Rate Increased by 2.3%

2009-2010
3rd Reading Increased by 2.2%
5th Reading Increased by 1.8%
5th Math Increased by 8.5%
5th Science Increased by 1.6%
6th Reading Increased by 2.0%
6th Math Increased by 3.4%
8th Reading Increased by 7.8%
8th Science Increased by 2.1%
Graduation Rate Increased by 3.9%

This is the bio Maureen Downey had published about her when she was identified as a finalist in the Atlanta search:

Dr. Cheryl L. H. Atkinson has been the Superintendent of Lorain City Schools since August 2007. During her tenure, she has implemented a comprehensive reform model, Success For All, which has increased Ohio Achievement Test scores in reading for all elementary and middle schools. Dr. Atkinson has also moved the district forward technologically by implementing an electronic grade reporting system, Progress Book, giving parents daily access to their children’s grades. In addition, all students in grades 6 through 11 have been issued E-books instead of traditional textbooks. Students now have all their textbooks loaded electronically on a laptop, which enables them to access the current learning tools and technologies they need to compete in the 21st Century workforce.

Dr. Atkinson was formally Deputy Superintendent of the Kansas City, Missouri School District, a district with more than 38,000 students and more than 70 schools. She also served as Associate Superintendent for School Administration and Regional Superintendent for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, a district with over 125,000 students in over 150 schools.

Dr. Atkinson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Learning and a Master of Education in Elementary Education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She earned her Doctor of Education in Educational Administration from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. She has been married for 21 years to Terrence L. Atkinson, Sr. They have three sons.


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Below is a screen shot from the Ohio DOE website showing Lorain's test scores over time: (Collected and sorted by a DCSS blogger)

Click to view larger