much ado about nothing

How many games and how much trickery will the public tolerate? How long will we remain so gullible? What will it take for us to reclaim our tax dollars and our school system?

The SPLOST pushers made a big issue out of the 'fact' that due to the passage and (unclear) wording of SB 79, voting "Yes" on SPLOST was the only way to flip the entire board! Well, that was oh so two weeks ago my friends. The smoke has cleared and things have changed.

Mary Margaret Oliver (one of my favorite legislators)... is introducing a bill that attempts to clarify the election process for the DeKalb school board. Certainly, this is something the DeKalb Delegation supports, right? Or maybe they're just chuckling over in the corner as they watch legislators wriggle out of the mess they've created. (The Delegation did not approve or participate in the original bills.) Here's the reading right out of the gate:

First Reader Summary A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend an Act establishing in DeKalb County districts from which members of the county board of education shall be elected, approved April 12, 1963 (Ga. L. 1963, p. 3424), as amended, particularly by an Act approved April 2, 2002 (Ga. L. 2002, p. 4536), so as to provide for a reduction in the members of the board of education from nine to seven; to provide for education districts for such members; to provide for the manner of election and terms of office; to provide for the continuation in office of certain members; to provide for related matters; to provide for submission of this Act under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended; to provide for effective dates; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.


Read the entire bill here.

To us, it says odd seat numbers stay, even ones are at risk or gone. This has us keeping Cunningham, Walker, Edler, Woods and Jester--and puts McChesney, Speaks, Bowen, and Womack out unless they run for one of the new districts after they're redrawn (which is done every 10 years according to the U.S. Census). Jay and Gene would both keep their seat--but since they're practically neighbors, it would be pretty easy for the district to be drawn in such a way that they both can't represent it. Oddly, Gene holds a 'super district' seat, one of two that we were told would disappear in Mike Jacobs original bill, but here it looks like he's secure. Pam holds the other super district, but doesn't live near anyone else, so she might wind up competing for one of the new districts. Bottom line--all seven board seats will not be replaced in 2012 as promoted to pass SPLOST. We are going to have to get out of this either in baby election steps, or bold administrative gambits on Atkinson's part--which depends on Atkinson's character and priorities.

Add to this the fact that barely 24 hours after the passage of SPLOST, the head of construction, Barbara Colman, submitted her retirement papers. She's done. We now have to find a new construction manager for SPLOST through 2017. Wonder who that will be? I would suggest hiring an owner's rep as the staff liason and then contracting the construction management. Except, that is what we did in SPLOST II and it got us involved in a $100 million lawsuit (always say that with at upturned pinkie at the corner of your mouth) - costing us over $15 million in legal fees and committing us to another $20 million (and mounting) in legal fees to be paid after the 'trial'... all paid from the general operations budget, the budget slated for school operations. The budget from which we pay our teachers. The budget that ironically - needed major cuts in school staff in order to remain in balance (gee, I wonder why!)

So, here we are. Threat #1 for not supporting SPLOST is about to be taken off the table. How long until Threat #2 (the one where the board will have to raise property taxes if you vote "No") will also be a broken unspoken promise of the past? Gene Walker has been chomping at the bit to raise property taxes since he set foot on the board. How long until they announce "We can't use SPLOST for general operations, so we'll need to raise your property taxes or we'll have to start cutting teachers." Mark my words. Gare - own - tee. The county just raised their portion of the property taxes due to steep declines in values in some parts of DeKalb. And county taxes are only 40% of your tax bill - just how much more will you have to pay when the next promise is broken?

Time to clean house.

I noticed the #1 word of the Merriam Webster's People's Choice Favorites is "Defenestration". It's appropriate here.

Defenestration: a throwing of a person or a thing out of a window; or a usually swift expulsion or dismissal

Get going Atkinson. You are really going to have to hang tough in order to truly run this school system and not become a puppet of this very controlling board as our last two supers. Time's a Wastin'!

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UPDATE:  Below is a map we received a while ago showing the 'proposed' (not final) new board districts, evenly divided according to population numbers from the 2010 U.S. Census.  The proposed legislation above recommends keeping the people in the 5 seats in green and the remaining two 2 seats (totaling 7) will be up for election in November, 2012. However, as you can see from the map, the 'saved' board members overlap in their new districts and we have a gaping hole in the middle with 3 open districts and 1 in the SE but only 2 seats available on the board. (The pink area is Decatur City Schools I believe.)  Additionally, Tom Bowen lives in the new district 5 so if reelected, he could take up one of the two available seats, and Pam lives in new district 2 possibly taking the second available seat, while Don and Paul could each win the seat in their home district. Now you have 4 board members competing for only 2 available seats. How do you do that? They each legally live in one of the new districts and are up for reelection - is it fair to place someone from outside their district in that seat?

One option is to assign the board reps from the south end to these new districts (negating the rule that you must live in your district), or create strangely shaped, wobbly semi-vertical districts.  However, this still creates for unfair competition, these 5 will never have the political challenges the others will have to fight for a seat. Additionally, going this route leaves us with electing 5 board reps every other election and only 2 the others, rather than a more balanced 4 and then 3.

Emory Lavista Parent Council hosts Fran Millar, Mary Margaret Oliver and Joe Martin - Part 1

First, before I write a single word about this very informative meeting, let me give major props to the Hospitality Committee and parents at Hawthorne Elementary. I have never seen such an enormous, delicious spread of food at a school-related meeting! They created a welcoming reception for our meeting participants, organizers and attendees.

Friday morning, January 28, the Emory Lavista Parent Council held a very informative meeting focusing on two related topics: “The 2011 Legislative Update” brought to us by State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (Dem, Decatur, House District 83) and State Sen. Fran Millar (Rep., Dunwoody, Senate District 40) and “How State Funding for Schools Really Works” as explained by Joe Martin, past Executive Director of the Georgia School Funding Association and recent candidate for state school superintendent.

First, Mary Margaret Oliver (MMO) and Fran Millar highlighted the education-related bills before the legislature this session. SB 84 which outlines ethics for school board elections, has been in effect for two years and states that school boards must create an ethics policy (our school board is still tweaking one) and also says that school boards are limited to seven members unless under local amendment or federal court order. MMO pre-filed HB 22, a locally written bill redrawing attendance lines for the DeKalb school board. Currently the bill is written as dividing into five districts, but it could change to seven. (She took an informal poll and a show of hands in the room preferred five.) In addition, now State Rep. Mike Jacobs has filed HB 63, a statewide bill on the topic that sets school boards at seven members. Although, according to the AJC, "it applies only to school boards in counties with a Homestead Option Sales Tax and education tax -- which is only DeKalb -- and mandates a seven-member board", his bill must pass the House and Senate statewide.

Fran Millar informed us that without the federal stimulus, states would not have been able to balance their budgets and schools would have seen even deeper cuts. There is a funding hole that has not closed so prepare for more major cuts to education from the state. Fran announced that there is a new committee charged with conducting a two-year study on revising the QBE school funding formula. In addition, he would like to see better flow between K-12, technical colleges and universities. He would like to see more opportunities for technical and vocational studies as well as allowing students to Move On When Ready, as evidenced in his B.R.I.D.G.E. bill.

The lottery funds do not benefit K-12 as many people believe, they are spent 2/3 on Pre-K and 1/3 on HOPE college scholarships. Both say that the HOPE scholarship will definitely be revamped. Recommendations include perhaps creating a flat amount for college grants or funding only 80% of tuition or making the scholarships to needs based or perhaps distributed according to a sliding scale. In addition, neither legislator wanted to change the GPA from 3.0 to 3.5 (saying it would only encourage more grade inflation), but adding an ACT or SAT component would be a good idea.

(next post: Joe Martin’s presentation at the same meeting)

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You can view Lynn Jackson's presentation on state school construction funding here:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/www/documents/vision-2020/facilities-committee-meeting-presentation-(2010-10-21).pdf
The video of the meeting is found here:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/vision-2020/master-plan

Legislative breakout meeting a success

GA PTA/Legislative Forum for the DeKalb Council of PTAs hosted a very informative meeting last week. What follows are some notes collected from those in attendance.

Ruth Primm was in charge. If you subtracted the legislators present (about 20 -- no Ron Ramsey -- it seemed like most of the Reps/Senators from DeKalb were there, including new ones) -- and the Ga Council of PTA folks -- there were relatively few people there (30-50 -- Nancy Jester went and Ernest Brown and no one else with "school board ties").

Marcia Coward did an intro -- Ruth did an overview of the legislature -- we have 3 branches of government -- a governor/state house and state senator and judiciary -- the senators and house members serve for 2 years each -- there are 180 house members and 56 senators -- they meet for 40 legislative days in the session -- these are not calendar days -- this is not a full time job -- they get paid about $18k per year -- they get some per diem - they spend a lot of time.

She discussed the GA PTA "platform" -- no money to private school -- all to public school. Total educational budget has been reduced over the past few years even though it is about 41% of the overall budget (and 56% if you include everything) - she mentioned that since 2003-04 the budget has been reduced by $75 billion -- GA PTA wants to restore these funds -- at the same time, population has increased (e.g. due to Katrina kids), there have been problems with the adequacy of the funding cuts; priority on health and safety. She encouraged everyone to let legislators know how you feel.

Then Fran Millar (currently Rep, soon to be Sen) spoke about the BRIDGE bill (the subject of the AJC article)-- it's to get guidance counselors to address the students we're losing because they get no guidance - primarily in middle school -- mandatory -- trying to minimize the drop out rate -- especially for black males. He gave Martha Reichrath's phone 404/656-2804 as a point person for questions. The BRIDGE bill acknowledges that not everyone is college-bound and that we need an educated work force. He stated that, "math is currently not working" (it is changing). The question was asked if they plan to conform the diploma choices and "rigor" to this bill and he said "yes".

Otha Thorton, GA PTA Legis. Chair spoke -- big GA state wide priorities are to support adequate funding and race to the top money.

We then divided up into groups based on our senate district. We had about 25 people in our room and we addressed all sorts of issues important to us -- ranging from educating illegal immigrants to math to vouchers to the need for the state to step in to investigate and take over -- to do we need the county at all -- to why do we not have a consistent building plan (why do we always start from scratch with buildings) -- to splitting the district -- to the toothless ethics policy -- to needing help to get the board changed over. We took a straw poll on how big the school board should be on Mary Margaret Oliver's now pending bill: 7? No votes -- 5? All hands up ... then 0? Everyone in favor... it was funny actually.... someone plead to remove the "I" from the ballot -- issue raised about investigating internal affairs -- thanks for removing the CRCT from 1st and 2nd grade --- debate over how "representative the board" is -- who can remove them and any way to do something about criminal behavior.

Regarding Fran Millar's BRIDGE bill.

The AJC article on this new legislation is called, New bridge to a brighter future, is written by Brad Bryant and Fran Millar and explains that this "Legislation is now being put in place in Georgia high schools that focuses on students receiving quality career advisement and links the high school course work with their future college and career goals."

It further informs us that "The implementation of the BRIDGE (Building Resourceful Individuals to Develop Georgia’s Economy) Act — House Bill 400 — will become an integral part of a student’s educational plan this year. The BRIDGE Act will help students and parents work together to enhance their child’s education to reach their goals and dream career.

The most critical part of this recently signed law is the requirement for all students in middle and high school to receive annual career guidance and advisement to choose a career area, create an Individual Graduation Plan and graduate high school prepared to go to college or enter the work force.

The new rigorous performance standards and graduation requirements found in our Georgia secondary schools better prepare our students to enter life after high school graduation.

A qualified work force will attract strong, stable companies and industries to Georgia."

This was from the January, 2010 Georgia PTA Legislative report
HB 400: BRIDGE, Building Resourceful Individuals to Develop Georgia’s Economy Act. Department of Education is to develop programs so a student can get courses at the home school, a technical college, a two or four year college, a work site as an apprentice, and other approved settings. Middle grades advisement shall provide counseling, advisement, career awareness, career interest inventories to evaluate each student’s academic skills and career interests. In grade 8, students shall select a preferred focused program and study and develop an individual graduation plan (IGP) with parents. High school students shall have annual reviews of the IGP which are to include academic core subjects and course work in math and science OR humanities, fine arts, and foreign language, OR sequenced career pathway courses; include IEP components if applicable. Senate amends: Individual Graduation Program is for all students. The Individual Graduation Plan will be a lot of work but may be very beneficial in tracking every student’s achievement in attaining graduation credits. This bill was VETOED in 2009 when it was attached to SB 178 and is back as a stand alone bill. PASSED House PASSED S. Education & Youth