Commissioners Story Makes Front Page News AND School Board Meeting Recap from April 9

Click headline to view this full story which includes short rundown on some items from the

April 9 School Board meeting. 

Click the caption link to view the interactive version of the CrossRoads print edition. 

http://www.crossroadsnews.com/view/full_story/18055161/article-Commissioners-give-thumbs-down-to-cell-towers-at-school

Update regarding the April 9, 2012, school board meeting. 

FIRST:  There was discussion regarding the building of iPad study labs at two of the county's lowest performing schools using Race to the Top dollars provided by the federal governement.  The total cost = $439,458 paid to Apple Computers, a single source vendor (no competitive bids).  Great questions were posed about the reasoning behind using technology to improve school performance rather than other concepts like lower student / teacher ratios.  In the end, thought, the items went to a vote and was approved.  It did sound like there was a demand for follow-up and reporting on performance before and after the labs start up to look for any correlation between the use of the technology and the performance of the students. 

The Superintendent said that if teachers were hired then they would likely have to be only on staff for the length of time of the grant.  That's a pretty bold statement to make since she was speaking about cutting them, even if they had been effective.  Makes you wonder why the iPad technology isn't considered in the same light... if it can't contribute to the learning, then why keep it?  Or, even more to consider, if the federal grant is the only way the school can afford the iPads and later they become outdated, then who will pay to replace them?  Or, even more urgently, who will pay if one or more of these items which are, duh, wireless, happens to walk off?  Nancy Jester made a great comment that went something like this:

"We have a habit in this distrcit of saying that we are self-insured when we're not.  Self-insured only means we are responsible for our own debt if something is lost or stolen.  And if we haven't budgeted anything in case that happens, we're really just saying we're not insured at all."

SECOND:  There was talk about an eavesment needed by Georgia Power for the Atlanta International School on Briarcliff at North Druid Hills Road.  Those wishing to legally oppose the cell towers should find out about any public hearings that will be helf for the construction of this eavesment as it is likely to be tied into the additinal power and access roads needed to service the cell towers.  If the county approves these eavesments then that is a good indication that they plan to approve the cell towers, no matter what it says in the newspaper and no matter what they said in their letter.

Just because it appears that some people have stepped up to do the right thing, we cannot count on them to follow-through.  The cell companies have more money than God and are willing to throw it around to get what they want out of our communities.  They can be very influential and can stretch the truth to suit their own needs. 

If you have not done so already, please voice your concerns to your Board of Education member, you elected Board of Commissioners member and your school principal, whether or not your school is currently under consideration for a cell tower.  We need to be pro-acive so that these issues cannot "slip by" anyone ever again.

GTCO-ATL will submitting another Open Records Request in the next day or two in order to gain more insight into whether or not the T-mobile meetings qualify as the pubic's chance to provide input into the decision.  We will post any new information,  or copies of our letters on this website.

THIRD:  Whether or not we are able to help the citizens of DeKalb County stop the cell towers on our school grounds, we hope we have at least provided some attention to the way the school board members can get lazy at their primary job of education our children.  When they are all caught up in their big-time construction projects and satisfying major business goals for their friends, they lose sight of why they are there in the first place. 

It was great to hear Jesse Cunningham speaking up for MLK and the fact that they have been overlooked so many times with the SPLOST dollars and he didn't want to see that happen again.  It was great to her the Superintendent reassure Sarah Copeland-Woods that ALL the students are important and that a committee should not have to have every district represented on it by way of a board member or community member who severs, but that every committee member should be doing their job to ensure a quality education for children at all levels and in every school.

Eugene Walker and Paul Womack were quietly giving the evil eye to each other which is typical.  Walker even said "thank you, Mr. Womack, for that most unwelcomed input" when Womack spoke out of turn. Pam Speaks should learn to speak up more often because when she does, she usually has very valid concerns and good questions.  She just approaches her comments from an apologetic standpoint right off the bat which erodes the confidence she might gain if she were willing to be more direct.  She DID ask about other ways that community members could speak up if they were opposed to the cell towers and had just not been informed (like we were telling htem was the case).  Unfortunately, Womack and Steve Donahue led that question astray as they pretended to understand the process and what T-mobile would do next.  What happened, in reality, was that there was no other way to speak up .  The July meeting sealed the deal and the board does not want to look back. 

However, they did  discuss OTHER forms of technology not dependent on iPADs and therefore not reliant on cell towers!  That was good!  Perhaps it means that they are less than optimistic about the county approving the cell tower appplications!  We can only hope!   Well, that and we can keep asking the questions until we get some answers.  Our focus right now is about how our hopes for a bill to ban cell towers has morphed into a survey question designed to trick people into saying yes so they can give the CEO the thumbs up to approve the cell towers, um, we mean.... telecommunications towers.  We're asking the Governor to VETO this ridiculous referendum for its faulty wording and it's abiliy to undercut the power of our commissioners to speak on behalf of theit own districts.

And Nancy Jester was on fire!  It was obvious that she is getting tired of asking for information and answers and not getting anywhere.  It was obvious that others, like Mr. Cunningham, are tired of the staff being humiliated when they come before the board and don't have the answers.  The overstaffed administrative office of this school board should be nervous.  There are a lot of angry parents and taxpayers out there who want someone to blame.  While the school board is the most visible, they also rely upon a lot of their information from the staff.  If the staff isn't pulling its weight AND  they are overpaid AND they have duplication of responsibilities AND they are providing no answers or outright misinformation - then we have a BIG problem with more waste of our money. 

The closer we get to the July election, the more people need to get ready to pack their things and go.  We need new perspective and people who are not tied to the "friends and family" network.  Start thinking about whom you can encourage to run for the job of school board representative now so that they will have time to step up and toss their hat in the ring whenever that time comes!