Will Atkinson Get the Last Laugh?

Rumor has it that Dr. Cheryl Lynn Howell Atkinson may be leaving as soon as an Interim Superintendent can be named.  Of course, it won't be very hard for our  renowned and esteemed school board to find a suitable replacement.  In fact, we never really got rid of our last Interim Superintendent Ramona Howell Tyson.  Between the two of them, we've been collectively pooling our hard earned money in order to pay them more than a half million dollars per year, plus two new vehicles and who knows what else.

And, if it sounds too controversial for the board to return the reigns to the person who was selected by still under indictment after all these years Crawford Lewis (former Superintendent looking at an upcoming trial on RICO charges), then we've got the equally as qualified (which is not saying much) and equally as hated heard of H.R. Kendra March chomping at the bit.  So, don't worry, GTCO-ATL friends, we're sure this nightmare reign of terror will all be behind us soon.

But, then again...

You can never really count on anything going the way you expect it to when you are dealing with DeKalb County's Schools.  From forcing good teachers out of jobs while giving promotions and fancy titles to people who do more harm than good, we truly are like the Titanic except our ship just will not sink.  Somehow, there continues to be pockets of resistance or perhaps we should say gullible people willing to put their own necks on the line because they believe that somehow they are different.  The lies they are being told are not lies at all.  The people they know would never sell them out, or change their minds or double cross anyone. And, even though it has happened over and over and over again, there are still people who believe that this time it will be different.  They might not come right out and support the board, but they are not exactly speaking up to tell the state board to get rid of all of these board members either, are they?  Even though that is the only recommendation that the state board can make - remove all or none, there are still folks out there who want to talk about which ones are the worst and which ones should be saved.  They do not understand that by trying to make a case that some should be saved, they are more likely going to convince the state board that we have something here worth saving.

Trust me, we don't.

When the corruption has reached the point where you do not know who you can trust, who you can speak with, or what will happen next, it is time to blow the whistle.  And we are far, far beyond that point already.  When jobs become more important than insuring the children in this county have a future, then we have something desperately wrong that is happening here.

When good families and good teachers are being drive out of schools intentionally, something bad is happening, something very bad.  And once all those good people who have time to call out the things they see are all gone, then who will be left to look after the children?

More time will only make things worse.  And we cannot allow this same board make another dreadful decision about hiring a new Superintendent.  It took us nearly two years for the last one and look what we waited for.  A board appointed by the Governor will, at the very least, be accountable for hiring someone who is acceptable to the Governor.  And, the state does not want to see us lose any more money almost as much as we don't want that to happen.  They need us to produce so they can have the flexibility to skim off the top and redistribute our funds to the rest of the state.

If DeKalb goes down, Georgia will go down with us.  We're already at the bottom of the list for education.  We're one of the nation's poorest states and highest on the corruption scale.  We cannot possibly take more bad press or we might not ever recover.

The time is now.  If you have not done so already, please consider an email or letter to the state Board of Education to explain your circumstances in order to personalize this decision for them.  They need to understand that there are real children involved.  And these children have been waiting long enough.  It's time to end all the games and put a better plan into action.

It is time that we work to unite our county and help the children, not line anyone's pockets no matter what they promise they can do for us.  The more corrupt, the deeper our county will fall.  Then when we have no money left, we will all be in the same place without any hope for digging out.

Georgia ranks 45 out of 50 states for graduation rates.  We only graduate 67% of the students who enter high school as Freshmen.  And, DeKalb is at the bottom of that list, too.  Here are the rates among the Atlanta area districts:

Here is a look at 2011 graduation rates in the Atlanta area:

• Atlanta Public Schools -- 52 percent
• City of Buford -- 82.3 percent
• Clayton County -- 51.5 percent
• Cobb County -- 73.4 percent
• City of Decatur -- 71.4 percent
• DeKalb County -- 58.7 percent
• Fulton County -- 70.1 percent
• Gwinnett County -- 67.6 percent

And from School Watch Blog:

Below are the published 2011 graduation rates for DeKalb High Schools:

DeKalb School of the Arts:   97%

DeKalb Early College Academy:   93%

Arabia Mountain:   86%

Chamblee Charter HS:   82%

Dunwoody HS:   81%

Redan HS:   79%

Stephenson HS:   79%

Miller Grove HS:   74%

Stone Mountain HS:   73%

Tucker HS:   72%

Columbia HS:   67%

Southwest DeKalb HS:   67%

Lakeside HS:   63%

Druid Hills HS:   62%

Lithonia HS:   59%

Cedar Grove HS:   57%

Clarkston HS:   55%

MLK Jr. HS:   54%

McNair HS:   53%

Cross Keys HS:   48%

Towers HS:   44%

Avondale HS:   40%

Elizabeth Andrews HS:   21%

Gateway to College Academy:   7%

Alternative School:   6%

Alternative Night School:   2%

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From the AJC "Get Schooled" blog (In part)... on 1:57 pm February 1, 2013, by Maureen Downey

... 

"Folks are telling me that it’s Atkinson’s choice to leave and that the school board was surprised. The delay in announcing her resignation, they say, is due to finding an interim school chief.

The school board has met in executive session over a personnel issue this week, and meets again Monday, according to this announcement: “The DeKalb Board of Education will hold a called meeting at 1:00pm, Monday, February 4, 2013, in M-201 at the Robert R. Freeman Administrative Center at the DeKalb County School System’s Administrative & Instructional Complex, 1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard, Stone Mountain. 

The called meeting will adjourn to executive session for the purpose of discussing legal and personnel matters.”

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