A recent article in the AJC says the following about Dr. Atkinson's plans for the next few months:
Atkinson called it “a new day in DeKalb,” on her fourth day on the job in leading Georgia's third-largest school district.
“Victory is in the classroom,” she said. “It will take the entire community to ensure success.”
Formerly of Lorain, Ohio, Atkinson said she would call on the DeKalb community for guidance. The Tuesday night meeting was part of her 90-day "entry plan," a study of the school system's strengths and weaknesses. After the brief introduction, the audience of roughly 300 people was broken into smaller groups and led to several classrooms where facilitators sought ideas.
While Atkinson called on the community for ideas, the Tuesday participants noted that they represented a fraction of the parents and teachers in a school system with 99,000 students.
Atkinson will contact more people. She’ll meet with administrators, teachers, students, parents, government leaders and civic and business leaders. She plans to ride school buses. She'll review reports, studies, resumes and job descriptions. The school system will host a survey on its website.
The results of the research will be revealed in four months. Atkinson plans to present her findings to the school board in January, and the school system says she'll use the information to identify key staffers and potential new hires to form her leadership team.
To that end, this blog will offer our own "Virtual Suggestion Box". Please add detailed suggestions, plans and observations in the comments of this post which we will share with Dr. Atkinson in a few months. Be succinct. Be specific. Be helpful and kind. We really do have a chance for a new day to dawn and we expect that our bloggers will exert every effort to help make that dawn break.
