Is Atkinson Risking the Safety of Our Children?

See how happy Dr. Atkinson is?  She's announcing her digital plan
to the Chamber of Commerce stating that our children will no longer
be saddled with all those heavy books to carry home.  Yeah, like that's the
biggest problem we have here - kids taking too many books home.

(click headline for full text.)

This fall, more than 8,200 students at seven Middle Schools - 

Cedar Grove, Chamblee, Lithonia, Peachtree, Redan, Stone Mountain and Tucker 

 –  will receive Lenovo Netbooks loaded with all of their textbooks.

"Gee, Wally, do you think these ebooks might account for that missing money the SACS folks were so worried about?"

There are some disturbing facts coming to light regarding the connection between Dr. Cheryl Atkinson and her push for e-books without a shred of educational mission attached to it. 

It's one thing to think you have a good idea and want to implement it as soon as possible.  It's quite another to have a mission that you will stop at nothing to complete even when you know that will have little or no positive impact and will likely waste a lot of money - other people's money that you have been entrusted to oversee.

You either have to be an idiot who seeks to contribute to his/her own demise OR you have a lot of people in your corner so your fears of failure are greatly minimized.  OR, you are being paid very well to stick to the plan. 

While we are not big fans of Dr. Atkinson, the Superintendent of DeKalb County Schools, we also do not think she is an idiot.  So, we're guessing that there must be a lot of zeros waiting on a paycheck somewhere down the line for her somewhere.  And it probably is a check she will cash somewhere like North Carolina or even China, but it's not looking very likely that it will be a bonus check from the taxpayers in Georgia.  Right now, we're trying to pay her to LEAVE before she can do any more damage.

So, here's the scoop:  Superintendent Dr. Cheryl Atkinson presented the State of the System address on Monday, Dec. 3, with the DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce.  She shared the DeKalb County School District’s (DCSD’s) plan to go digital, which must be music to the ears of the SACS committee that deemed our schools to be "woefully behind" in technology.  She laid out a plan that would have the integration complete by the end of 2013, right in line with the SACS timeline of year-end to turn things around for the sake of the children. 

The irony:  She did all of that BEFORE the SACS announcement was made.  Gee, do you think someone might have tipped her off about the contents of the SACS report?  Or, perhaps someone asked SACS to help justify the mission to go digital by including some comments on technology in the report so that the idiots will think it was based on real complaints from real parents.  Yeah, good one.  Too bad we have a former corporate research manager on our team, so we know how those little gimmicks work.  Someone should have told Atkinson that it would have worked better to make her announcement in response to SACS rather than jumping the gun and expecting us to believe it was all coincidence or, worse yet, a stoke of her own brilliance.  Yeah, right.  Not buying it.  Next?

More scoop:  Now, let's go back to her arrival in DeKalb, amid the controversy that was still being stirred up over the cell towers.  She was asked about it over and over again and her answer was always the same.  Dr. Atkinson, spokesman Walter Woods frequently reported to us, does not want to talk about cell towers because that was "before her time."   Yet, even after hearing lots and lots of complaints, she still signed contracts in December for the towers so that officially made it "during her time."  Still, no comment?

The irony:  Get this ... Our board members just happened to work out a cell tower deal and get it rushed through a vote all in the good name of Lakeside High School and helping out their dropped call issues and there was little to no fighting over it or questions about it?  Wow!  To top it off, they just decided to forget about the money entirely.  Then, they really lucked out when, only a month later, a Superintendent candidate was announced who just so happened to have a track record for going digital?  Wow, she could probably use those towers that we just approved for no reason at all, couldn't she?  Amazing!  

Gee, do you think there might have been a plan in place to bring in the towers, fire the  teachers, raise the taxes and then convert the schools to digital while claiming that the board members can no longer advocate for their own areas?  

And, all those people with the super high property values that had to appeal their property taxes?  Well, they got their values locked in for two years, so their neighborhoods will appear to remain stable while the rest of us will suffer the lowered values associated with a system on Probation.  It's okay, they can afford it.  It was a problem only the rich neighborhoods had and they will get to keep their good schools because even though they voted in favor of cell towers, they will not actually be getting any for themselves.  Nice, huh?  

Even Lakeside, the school that had all the problems with dropped calls is not likely to get a new tower since they already tried a few years back and learned that they couldn't have one due to the fact that their school was built on donated property that can't be used for commercial gain.

The scoop:  Dr. Atkinson wants us to think the cell towers have nothing to do with her plans, but she is perfectly alright with talking about Netbooks and her plan to go wireless, just like she did in her last school district?  

The irony:  Netbooks are the smaller, cheaper, inferior, less-efficient, lighter-weight versions of laptops that came out right before IPads and the tablets took over the marketplace.  In other words, they didn't sell very well; they don't work very well and someone likely has a few warehouses full of them that they literally cannot give away fast enough.  

Yet, our Superintendent is perfectly okay with holding one up over her head in front of the business community as if it were the Holy Grail.  The "Netbooks" will solve the problems we have all been complaining about:  the children of DeKalb County are saddled down and burdened by the sheer number of heavy books they are bringing home at night.  

Has she looked at any of the test scores or graduation rates recently? Because anyone who has looked at the results of our education system would clearly see that bringing home too many books at night is clearly NOT the biggest problem here.  Being able to actually spell the word "Book" or use it in a sentence might be a little closer to the truth.  Maybe the ebooks will have spell  check on them.  Yeah, that ought to help the kiddies with their learnin' n' stuff. right Jim Bob?

What's the problem with e-books?

Lenovo campus in Bejing, China.  Your SPLOST dollars
hard at work, DeKalb County.

The question should be, "what exactly is the benefit?"  Because whether you read from a page in a book or off a screen on a dimly lit, poor quality, light-weight version of a laptop no one wanted to buy at Office Max out of the Clearance bin for the past two years in a row, does it really sound like a brilliant idea that will lead our children toward better test scores or greater incentive to stay in school?  

Or, does it sound to you like someone somewhere is going to pocket themselves a nice handful of SPLOST dollars while the kids get the shaft - again?  

Even worse, has anyone stopped to think about the risks these children will be taking as they test pilot the demonic plan of the evil Dr. A on a select group of children?  And, why didn't they ask the new STEM middle school, Henderson Middle, to participate?  After all, they are supposed to be the "technology" middle school, hence the "T" in "STEM," right? And they are the feeder school to Lakeside, the ones that wanted the cell towers so badly that they called their school board members instead of their wireless providers for help.   Hmmm.... makes you wonder, doesn't it? 

Here are a few concerns we have:

1.)  We can't keep kids from stealing computers that are bolted to the floors in rooms that have windows with locks on them, but now we're going to give them access to wireless devices that can be slipped into a backpack or folder in the blink of an eye?  Nah, no problems on the horizon there.  

2.)  Warnings have been issued about the aggressive and flagrant thefts that have been happening in Atlanta lately.  Thieves have been walking right up to adults in broad daylight in front of spectators and yanking their smart phones or iPads literally right out of their hands, sometimes even at gunpoint.  So, now we are going to put these things into the hands of our children and expect them to walk home from the bus stop?  Are we really going to let this happen to these children?

3.)  It's not like we have a bully problem at our schools already or anything.  

4.)  Everyone knows how responsible middle school students are when it comes to their books and taking care of their backpacks and jackets we send them to school with every day.  We never have to worry about things getting lost, or stolen, or beat up. 

5.)  Laptops emit the same form of radiation a cell towers, the issue that voters said by a 62% majority that they did not approve of for our schools.  But, laptops are not mounted 150' overhead.  Kids are expected to put them in their laps while they read their textbooks at school and at home, for literally  hours and hours each day.  

6.)  Technology never fails and tech support is so easily accessible in our schools already.  

Wow, after this Atkinson initiative goes through, kids can literally say, "Mom, please, don't make me study any longer.  All this homework is killing me," and they might be right.

So, who does this help?

Lenovo is a brand of "netbooks," an IBM-compatible that's manufactured in China.  Yes, that's right, your tax dollars are going to support a Chinese company.  But, worse than that, Lenovo is a brand that expanded its U.S. business by moving hundreds of jobs out of Atlanta and over to North Carolina, the state where Atkinson also has worked previously and still has connections.  It's also the state where our board Chairman Gene Walker attended school at Duke University and where our board's former vice chair, Paul Womack, donated $1 million dollars of his own money to brain tumor research, also at Duke University.  Isn't that odd?  The same type of cancer linked to cell phones and wireless devices and cell towers has been the recipient of Womack's personal contributions.  Guilt money, perhaps?  

Exactly WHAT are Lenovo netbooks, you ask?  That's what we wanted to know and here is what we found out about them from Wikipedia:

*  Wikipedia summary of Netbooks:

Netbooks are a category of small, lightweight, legacy-free, and inexpensive laptop computers. A legacy-free PC is a type of personal computer that lacks a floppy drive, legacy ports, and an ISA bus (or sometimes, any internal expansion bus at all), usually in exchange for USB ports which are used to connect the peripherals instead of the legacy ports. By 2011, the increasing popularity of tablet computers (particularly the iPad)—a different form factor, but with similar computing capabilities and price range—had led to a decline in netbook sales.   

As a result of two other products:  MacBook Air and the Intel Ultrabook, the only stongpoint that is left to a Netbook is it's cheap price point.

Netbooks lose in the design, ease-of-use and portability departments to tablets.  They lose in the features and performance field to ultrabooks.

Oh yes, and the kicker:  Netbooks are frequently given FOR FREE to customers who signed contracts for cell phones.  

So, did we get the Netbooks for free?  And, if so, where will the SPLOST money disappear to?  And what will be the cost to our children?  

Again, NOTHING this administration ever does appears to have a shred of its purposed based on improving education or helping neighborhoods grow stronger in DeKalb.  How much more of this incompetence can we take?  

Read  more about Lenovo here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo

ARE YOU MAD, YET?  Good, then keep reading because we soon be announcing an important meeting scheduled for Jan. 8, 10 am. - Noon.  Save the date now and we'll give you the details on our site and our Facebook page by Monday, Dec. 31!