DeKalb County, GA: Are We Dropping the Ball Here?

DeKalb County School Board to Hold Elections May 20, 2014

... and how "the state" is dropping the ball that was only recently placed so squarely in their court. 

Is DeKalb County and the state of Georgia
dropping the ball on education?

After nearly losing its school system accreditation, one would hope that  DeKalb County had finally charted a better course for itself.   Yes, one would hope.

Perhaps a little help from the state that was called to rescue the failing district, you ask?  Well, not this session, apparently.   The Georgia state Senate and House sessions ended yesterday, but did not pass a single bill that would do anything  positive toward preventing another governance backslide to take us and other districts right back into hot water.  They did not pass a single bill that would help parents and teachers warn the rest of the county if things start to go downhill again.  They didn't pass a single bill to address the SACS concerns or the corruption charges that the former superintendent pleaded guilty to in a plea deal.

“We did nothing for kids, but we passed a gunbill,” said Republican state Sen. Fran Millar.

Could another SACS review and yet another board removal be in our future?  Let's hope not, but hope is about all we have left.

What happened to "the state," you ask?  The helped education overall by promising a larger budget from state funds.  The largest in seven years, says Gov. Deal.  But, legislatively, they actually made it more certain that the system will remain exactly as it exists today.   Here are the ideas that came forth that we noted and what happened to them:

• DeKalb Delegation Chairman Sen. Emanuel Jones:  There was no legislative support from Senate Republicans for a bill offered by Sen. Emanuel Jones that would have established clear ethics and appropriate sanctions for violation of those codes.  It didn't make it past crossover day.

• Reassignment of Political Boundaries by Rep. Mike Jacobs:  A bill was offered to remove the two super-districts from the political zones, leaving some areas of the county feeling they have absolutely no representation whatsoever and creating the need for appointed members to run against each other in some districts instead of being able to continue the positive work they have accomplished together.  By design, the non-politically motivated appointees must now begin campaigning against others in the community, some former board members or spouses of former board members, and some must even become political opponents by running against each other, like it or not.  And regardless of who gets elected for the term starting in January, they will all be required to remain on the board until their terms expire at the end of the year.  This really can't be good in terms of their ability to focus on getting the job done, can it?  What do you want to be that there will be at least one disgruntled soon-to-be former board member on that board for seven months AFTER the election who will find it very difficult to agree with everything the rest of the group is doing.  

• Sen. Fran Millar sought to incorporate more land:  And, in District 4, Central DeKalb County, morale and bitter dispute are ready and waiting for whomever gets elected.  This session saw three high schools (one former, two current) attempt to incorporate the same commercial land to allow them to become cities.  They all failed.  

A bill for a City of Lakeside got the closest to having a referendum approved, but their map went all the way up to the back side of rival Tucker High School and sought to incorporate 40% of their historical community.  Now, they must share a school district and pretend like the entire city squabble has been about things other than the desire for better schools.  And they must find a way to elect a school board member who will represent both of them equally.  Good luck with that!

Also, residents are now trying to determine how to justify our Tucker Parent Council's own President, Michele Penkava, who has more than a fair share of Lakeside allies to be completely unaware of the controversy her role as the sole Tucker representative has caused, while school issues were all but ignored.  Penkava was even found to be the finance manager for a Lakeside school board candidate who won the last election, Jim McMahan.  In a race that had two Tucker residents running for the office, the Tucker Parent Council President runs the campaign for a Lakeside candidate.  Go fig!  This is the same McMahan who later turned around and "forgot" that Tucker led the district in graduation rates for traditional schools at a meeting of the Northlake Business Alliance.   

There still remains lingering questions about why another group, Tucker 2014, who were the advocates introduced at the final information session held by Tucker business leaders turned out to be a paid FOR PROFIT consultant group. 

 Here is an article from the USA Today about this city controversy.  It all worked out okay in the end with no new cities, but it also distracted the entire county from concentrating on the school system.  Way to go, Lakeside City!

• DeKalb Delegation House Chairman Rep. Howard Mosby offered a bill that would have created a study group to help DeKalb out of its troubles and assist the Interim CEO with his request to take a year break from cities and come back with a plan that would allow cities without harm being brought to the county as a whole.  It was not passed out of committee. 

• Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver asked for her bill to be passed that would create a more clear process for cities to follow in the future.  It also did not make it past the critical crossover day.  

• Sen. Tom Taylor sponsored a bill to allow cities to form new school systems, but he withdrew it amid the controversy surrounding the floundering cities and their squabbles.

Right back to square one, parents fear.  

The pitting of one area against another, one side of a neighborhood against the other, north against south, racial divisions, socioeconomic issues from the onset.... can't you see it all ahead?  Won't anyone do anything to stop it before it starts all over again??

One concern is the way the school board's election borders were not determined until the Friday before the qualification period would begin, leaving those on limited incomes with little or no time to raise funds in order to submit their names to election officials.

The most volatile and controversial topic in the county and, possibly, in the state was the Governor's removal of the school board and appointment of his own replacements through an appointed committee, with oversight by two controversial figures.  One of those figures being Brad Bryant, who was a former board member, former board chairman, former superintendent and former state superintendent.  His name may sound familiar because he also spoke recently in favor of Lakeside City, which explains why they had two people from their area placed on the appointed board.   Bryant even spoke about the fact that the Lakeside area actually has a large number of politicians already representing them.

Hours of hearing testimony was taken on the topic of new cities for DeKalb, by the House Governmental Affairs Committee without a single question about whether or not the schools might be affected.  No one mentioned that new cities will do exactly what SACS said is the problem - creating further divides in the county rather than encouraging communities to work together for the common good of the whole system.

Q:  What did the cities say about the schools?  

A:  Nothing.

Q:  What did the schools say about the cities?  

A:  Ditto.

And where was the appointed board and new Superintendent in the face of all this chaos?  Good question.  There were no comments made about how impossible of a job the school system will become when the bulk of its money is stripped away. There was seemingly little or no concern that the rest of the  unincorporated parts of the county will be forced to pay their own way and the way for the thousands of refugees brought to DeKalb each year.

Well, the climb up the ladder in the kiddie pool sure was fun.  How did you like it?  Now it's time for the ride right back down that giant slide into the great wide abyss of educational mediocrity.  After all, someone has some housing inventory they really want to turn over and they are the true constituents in our area and we all know it.

Misery and despair are so good for business, if your business is politics.  For everyone else, it's "better luck next time!"

Here are the candidates for the school board seats with our top choices (at this point) highlighted in bold.

DeKalb County Board of Education – Qualified Candidates
District 1:   Stan Jester
District 2:   Don McChesney, incumbent Marshall Orson 
District 3:   Jerrie D. Bason, incumbent Michael A. Erwin, Jarrod Jordan, Atticus LeBlanc, Willie R. Mosley, Jr
District 4:   Incumbent Karen Carter, incumbent Jim McMahan, John Oselette, Ella Smith
District 5:   Pia “Chaz Afzal” Bhatt, Jesse “Jay” Cunningham, R. Alexander Fitzhugh, incumbent Thad Mayfield, Vickie B. Turner
District 6:   Bridgeman Bolger and incumbent Melvin Johnson
District 7:  Kim Ault, Lee V. Dukes and incumbent Joyce Morley