Gov. Deal Announces New Board Members for DeKalb County

Thanks to Maureen Downey from Get Schooled for getting this information to the public so quickly!
 For her full report, click here.

The new members of the DeKalb County school board, who will be sworn in at 1 p.m. today are as follows:

District 1 (formerly Nancy Jester's district)

John Coleman
Coleman is a strategic planning manager at Invesco. Previously, he held a variety of leadership roles at McKinsey & Company. He also serves on various nonprofit boards. Coleman has a master’s in Business Administration from Harvard and a master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. He resides in Atlanta.

District 3 (formerly Sarah Copelin-Wood's district)

Michael Erwin
Erwin is a U.S. Navy veteran and has been a research assistant at Duke University Medical Center and the University of South Carolina. He has worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Services and is past chair of the NOAA fisheries committees on fish species and fish diseases in Maine and South Carolina. In 2008, he earned a Ph.D. in Biological Science from the University of South Carolina. He has been a member of the faculty at Georgia Gwinnett College since 2009 and teaches undergraduate students in biological science. He graduated from North Carolina Central University with a bachelor’s in Biology and a master’s in Biological Science. Erwin resides in Decatur.

District 5 (formerly Jay Cunningham's district)

David Campbell
Campbell is a senior manager with Georgia Power, where he supports the company’s energy conservation efforts. He is a certified public accountant with managerial experience. Campbell received a degree in Business Administration from Albany State University. He is a former chair of Leadership DeKalb, a member of the DeKalb 100 Black Men and an active member of St. Phillips AME. He formerly served on the Stephenson High School Council and resides in Lithonia.

District 7 (formerly Donna Edler's district)

Joyce Morley
Morley is the chief executive officer of Morley and Associates and is a nationally known public speaker and trainer. She is a certified counselor, a trained mediator and serves on several local and national governance boards. Morley has a doctorate in Counseling, Family and Worklife from the University of Rochester. She received her specialist’s and master’s degrees in Counseling Education from the State University New York College at Brockport, and a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the SUNY College at Genesco. A Stone Mountain resident, Morley has lived in DeKalb County for more than 22 years.

District 8 (formerly Dr. Pam Speaks' super district)

Karen Carter
Carter serves on the faculty of Georgia Perimeter College where she is chair of the Business and Social Science department. She received a bachelor’s degree in Speech Communications from Denison University and a law degree from Ohio State University. Carter has served as a classroom teacher and has held several senior administrative roles in the field of education. She is a graduate of Leadership DeKalb and is an active community volunteer and a PTSA member. Carter is a resident of the Lakeside Community.

District 9 (formerly Dr. Eugene Walker's super district)

Thaddeus Mayfield
Mayfield is a senior partner with FOCOM, Inc., a Georgia-based business development firm. He holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Mercer University and received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Tougaloo College. He co-chaired the successful Friends of DeKalb Education SPLOST IV Campaign and is an active member of several business and civic organizations in the metropolitan area. Mayfield is a resident of Lithonia.

Cell Phone Tower Bill Fails to Crossover in GA

THANK YOU to Get the Cell Out Followers!  

You Helped Defeat This Cell Tower Bill!

The controversial cell tower bill sponsored by Don Parsons (R - Cobb County) which looked like it was headed to the House floor was stalled thanks to the emails received by legislators from their constituents late week!  We thank the followers of Get the Cell Out - ATL who helped in this effort to prevent this attempt to dodge local control of cell tower siting and proper  permitting procedures!

Posted: Mar 08, 2013 6:49 PM EST
By Paul Yates, FOX 5 reporter

A bill centered on cell phone towers failed to advance by Crossover Day at the Georgia state Capitol.

Demand for more cell tower capacity continues to grow and placement of the towers continues to cause battles.

The proposed legislation would have given counties and cities a 150-day deadline to act on new cell tower applications.

Click photo of our cell tower map to watch the FOX video of this story!
To see a map like this for the cell towers near your home or school, go to: 
www.antennasearch.com.

"There have been people that have said, you know, this bill would allow the cell companies to just go ahead and put up cell towers without even getting permitted by the cities and the counties. It doesn't do that at all," said Rep. Don Parsons (R-Marietta), the bill's sponsor.

But after winning easy committee approval, the bill stalled.  It did not get to the House floor By Crossover Day -- the deadline for most bills to pass the house or senate -- and have a chance for final approval.

Todd Edwards represents county commissioners at the Capitol.

"We want to thank the General Assembly for recognizing the continued meaningful importance of counties and Georgia communities and the cell tower siting process," Edwards.

Local governments warned that the measure would diminish their ability to regulate cell tower locations.

"Should there be any impediments unnecessarily – impediments at the county level -- I think we can work with our members and the wireless communities to address them," Edwards said.

But Parsons says local government delays have the effect of curtailing expanded service to consumers.

"It's very important and I wish that we could have gotten it done this year, but it's something that we'll be working on very hard next year," Parsons said.

Under legislative rules, the bill could still be attached to another measure as an amendment but the odds are against that being done successfully.

Will Gov. Deal Succumb to Old Fashioned Georgia Cronyism?

Pressure on to fill DeKalb school board

Posted: 6:58 a.m. Wednesday, March 6, 2013

By Greg Bluestein and Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution  From today's AJC:

Wanted: Six new DeKalb County school board members willing to untangle the needs of one of the state’s most troubled school districts. Must be politically savvy, knowledgeable about finances and educational policy and palatable to Republican leaders. The pay is $18,000. No election required.   (...)  

“They should be looking for individuals who understand the community and who, if appointed, will be viewed by the public as competent, capable and committed to student achievement,” said state Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta. “It is also critically important that this process be inclusive and not driven by politics or cronyism.”

*********  But, can Georgia do the "no cronyism" thing?  We have some serious concerns, especially after seeing and hearing this phone conversation, sent by a group called "Better Georgia."  ******

Transcript of the telephone call:  (to listen to the audio of this portion of the call, click here.)

Taxpayer: I understand. Since we’re on the phone and we have broached the subject I’d like to know where you stand on, do you believe Chip Rogers is worthy of that position?

Sen. Gooch: No, sir. I’ve told a few other people this and I’ll tell you the same thing. We’re in the Legislative branch. As you probably understand the three branches of government at the federal and state level.

We budget for the entire state government but we don’t tell the governor who to hire and who to fire. That’s his job, totally.

We don’t have any responsibility for hiring and firing employees.

Now I could cut $150,000 out of that budget if I had enough votes to go with me. We could have amended that budget and we could have taken $150,000 out of the Georgia Public Broadcasting budget but they probably would have cut somebody else’s job, to be honest with you. In fact, they probably would have cut three or four employees and kept him.

Because we don’t have any control over who they would have fired. That was more of a political move on the Democrats’ part.

Taxpayer: I understand that was a political move on the Democrats, and I understand what they were trying to get at. And I understand the fallout that could have happened.

What I’m trying to get across to you is that I would appreciate if you would bring some political pressure to bear on it. Get some of your Republican cohorts, or fellow senators and talk to Nathan Deal. Say that this is making us look bad. Because it does, it makes Georgia look real bad when that kind of cronyism is going on.

Sen. Gooch: Well, we sent that message to him privately. We don’t do it in front of a TV camera because of respect for him and his position.

You don’t go down here and fall down on your sword on things you really can’t change and you want to fight the fight that needs to be fought but that wasn’t one you’d want to fight in front of a TV camera.

That’s one you’d talk about behind closed doors.

And to be honest with you, Chip Rogers and I — I wouldn’t call us friends but we were acquaintances for two years.

He was the Majority Leader in the Senate. I respected him. He was a conservative from Cherokee County. I got along with him well but there were a lot of disagreements I had with him and one was the way we ran the Senate for the last two years.

It wasn’t functional at all.

So we moved him out of that position in December — November. And that’s when he decided to quit.

And he took the job with the governor’s, you know, influence there on that Georgia Public Broadcasting.
So we didn’t support him doing that.
The Senate did not support it. The House did not support it.
But it is the discretion of the governor who he hires and who he puts in places like that and all his appointments.
Some appointments he makes we have to confirm in the Senate but most of those are board appointments like the DOT or the Board of Regents or so forth.
But that’s not one we had any control over.
We can show our displeasure by it but if we do it in a disrespectful way then he can come back on us in other ways and punish us or put us in a bad position in our district.
We tend to pick our battles. As bad as it was, the way it happened, it does smack of cronyism. And it wasn’t a smart move on his part.
But I don’t …

Taxpayer: Well, I guess the political fallout is for him then, huh?

Sen. Gooch: That’s right, that’s exactly right.

And I just want to let you know I’m embarrassed by that remark that my aide made and it shouldn’t ever happen. That’s just not the way I operate. If you know me personally, you know that’s not me.

Taxpayer: I’ve actually met you.

Sen. Gooch: OK.

Taxpayer: I have nothing against you, it did perturb me coming from a public servant. And so I decided this person needs to be told that ‘I’m the boss.’

Sen. Gooch: I respect that greatly. I understand where my position is. I am a voice of the people in the 51st district and I respect that process so I would never respond to an email like that. 

Taxpayer: well I appreciate your time and calling me, Sen. Gooch and you have a great day.

Sen. Gooch: I appreciate it. Bye, bye.

The audio presented in the video above has not been edited in any way. The telephone conversation was cut down to only the portion that addresses Gov. Nathan Deal’s appointment of Chip Rogers. To listen to the entire, uncut telephone conversation, visit this link.

***********  Let's hope the commission Gov. Deal appointed to recommend the appointments are smart enough to do the right thing for the children and not for the politicians or we'll be right back in front of a judge, or worse - SACS - in no time.   SACS has said they are willing to work with the new board, but only if there is a genuine effort to make real reform and real change that is in the best interest of the children of DeKalb County.  Let's hope this nominating committee gets it right.  And, then let's hope Gov. Deal is wise enough to know whether or not they got it right before  he makes those appointments to our board.  And, if he doesn't, let's hope that our voters understand how urgently we need them to show up at the voter polls in July 2014 to make sure WE, the VOTERS AND TAXPAYERS, can get it right for ourselves!  *****************  

Here's how to apply!

Reminder:  Here's how to apply, by 5 p.m. TODAY for the open board seats.  EVERYONE lives in ONE of the SUPER-DISTRICTS, both of which are up for grabs.   If you are not planning to apply, please inform everyone you know who is duly qualified with common sense and book smarts, and appears to like children at least more than they like their cell phone, so that they might consider it.  Thank you!

Applicants should send the following information to dekalbschoolboardnominations@georgia.gov:

1. Legal name, contact information and home address

2. District seat for which one is applying

3. Resume or brief biography

4. Statement of interest

The panel will accept applications until TODAY (MARCH 6) at 5 p.m.

  

Help Us! Give the School Board the Boot!

Ever wanted to feel empowered?  Ever wanted to do something that would be good for the community and get a rush of altruistic self-righteousness?  Want to do something positive to help bring up the value of your property or even lower the crime rate?  Then please, HELP US!

We are working hard every day to improve the quality of our school system and call out the corruption before it drags us all down.  This Thursday the state Board of Education may be able to help us make an important change in Dekalb by recommending to the Governor that he remove the entire school board.  

Here's how you can help us make sure that happens:

SIGN:  DeKalb County Resident Betsy Parks has done an outstanding job of gaining signatures for her online petition that ask the Governor to please give the school board the boot!  The petition goal is 1,500 and it is almost there!

WE ONLY NEED 9 MORE SIGNATURES!  If you have not signed the petition, please take a moment to do so RIGHT NOW:  

CLICK HERE TO SIGN PETITION!

WRITE:  Tom Taylor, District 79, has volunteered to hand-deliver personal letters from DeKalb residents to Governor Deal and/or the State Board of Education.  Rep. Taylor’s Chief of Staff, Page Olson, will be collecting letters at her home now through Tuesday, February 19, 2013.  Olson lives at 1148 Redfield Ridge in Dunwoody.  She’ll have a box at the top of her driveway for you to deposit your letter(s). Make sure that it is marked to go to either Governor Deal or the State BOE — or, better yet — send a personal letter to each.  Rep. Taylor will hand deliver to both offices on Wednesday morning, February 20, 2013.

Note:  your letters can be from you, your children and can be as short or long as necessary.  And, they can be ANONYMOUS   Please consider taking advantage of this offer by Rep. Taylor if you have information that you think is important to uncovering the corruption so our children can count on the adults in this school system turning their focus back to their education.


WATCH:  Scott Holcomb, District 81, intervened to make sure that the first hearing for the DeKalb County Schools BOE before the State Board of Education was streamed live so it could be watched online at home and at work by all interested.  This was especially good news for those who could not attend the hearing in person because of jobs and children.  Scott also took responsibility — without being asked — to make sure that the upcoming second hearing, scheduled for 8 AM, Thursday, February 21, 2013, would also be streamed live on the Department of Education website.  Thank you, Scott!

Here is the link:  http://www.gadoe.org/External-Affairs-and-Policy/State-Board-of-Education/Pages/Live-Webcasts.aspx

Petition to the Governor - SOS (Scrap Our Schools)

A Link to the Full Report by SACS Placing DeKalb Schools on Probation

 

Governor Deal,S.O.S.  

S.O.S. (Scrap Our Schools)

Asking "the state" to step in and take over our schools is
like asking a murder suspect to preside over the funeral of
the victim.  Sadly, what other choice do we have?

DeKalb County taxpayers are fed up and asking Governor Deal to step in and remove our entire Board of Education.  Please click this link to add your signature to a countywide petition.

Scrap Our Schools!

Sometimes there is no way out unless you go straight through.  Unfortunately this is one of those times. There are no easy ways to fix the widespread problem.  

The growing  sentiment in the communities here is that the corruption inside the schools is so bad and so far gone, that there is nothing that can be done. 

If our own leaders do not understand their roles and the public has no other recourse to get their numerous, frequent, urgent issues even listened to, much less addressed, then there is very little that anyone can do.  The only system that works is the one that has been built behind the scenes by people who are looking to recoup their investment dollars.  Short term investors wanted to flip  a lot of houses, then the bubble broke and they were stuck holding the deeds, so to speak.  And now we are all paying the price. 

The SACS Report says that proper channels are often not followed, but does anyone know what the "proper channels" might be?  Every proper channel that a parent may try to follow does not work.  Or, what works for one parent may not work for the next.  There is no rhyme or reason for many of the things that go on and a lot of animosity is created in the school house when there appears to be a program of social promotion going on.  Those who are given power or authority over anything, no matter how small, believe they deserved it and do not want to share their secret with anyone else.  A parents that one might think is totally happy with the school will end up removing their child for other parts unknown suddenly and without explanation.  A teacher or principal who talked about their love of the area or their long term plans at the school will be called to a meeting one Friday,  pack their things and moved to another part of the county on a moment's notice.  

Hopes are raised and dashed and those who are caught up in the system have been crying out for help for years, so much and so often that the media has even become bored with their stories.  Every school is run differently.  Every school has been in turmoil at some point because of the sheer level of neglect, mismanagement, theft and fraud that is commonplace here.  For SACS to suggest that there are "proper channels" that can be followed is a joke.  Anyone who has tried is fully aware that the "proper channels" do not work.  And the fear of retaliation is a lot more than just fear.  Retaliation does take place and could have dire consequences for your child and your family.  Using a proper channel will not result in anything proper.

Above, just one example of how the money
does not reach the classrooms.
When will DeKalb stop funding corruption
and start paying attention?

Victims of our own demise.  There is no organizational chart.  We have no job descriptions.  We do not get answers to questions about staff that has been reportedly been cut.  We know what we pay in taxes.  We know what we see with our own eyes inside our schools.  We know that someone, somewhere is getting their hands on our money before it can reach the children.  And, not just our money, the same is true for federal dollars, SPLOST dollars, donations, contributions, even retirement savings of teachers or dollars intended for Jerry's Kids.  (Yes, they even took the dollar that a child donated to buy a shamrock on the wall for Muscular dystrophy.)

There appears to be no other way to help our children that to stop funding this beast.  Force all of those who are ripping us off into unemployment and hope they move away, disband and find something else to do with their lives that will not harm so many innocent lives.  

Rip the bandage off the wound.  It is time to amputate.  A broken arm cannot repair itself especially when it is attached to an entire system of broken bones.  It simply cannot be done.  Put us out of our misery.  Get rid of the board, get rid of BOTH Superintendents (Tyson and Atkinson).  Get rid of the financial leaders, the lawyers and the teachers who are left here.  Get rid of the PTA, the boosters, the canned education programs and please do not bring up the idea of cell towers.  We may have failed to educate close to 50,000 children over the past 10 years, but we do not want to give our kindergarten children cancer on top of everything else we know we will be putting them through.

Send out the vouchers.  Give us alternatives.  Bring on the bus drivers.  We can see the writing on the wall.  Where will they send us?  Gwinnett?  Cobb?  Or will we just keep them all at home?  Anything is better than what we are doing to them now, keeping them in a constant state of fear, as we force them to move around, start and stop different forms of learning and testing, change their bus routes, their buildings and make them travel so far from home to get the exact same level of treatment they could have received wherever they just came from.  We rug right out from under the feet of the children every time they get close to feeling secure with their surroundings.  It's inhumane, pointless and sad. And, it is one of the very few factors that research has proven to actually affect a child's school performance.  Stability of home life and stability at school are necessary for a child to be able to focus on learning, not just surviving the social challenges that come with every change we put them through.

We do not care about the gadgets and gizmos or how many Smartboards you are stockpiling.  They are all meaningless without human beings at our schools who will care for our children when we cannot be there.  

Chairman Walker and Superintendent Atkinson make big bucks for
folks who also make big mistakes.   Friends and family funding may be
coming close to an end. 

A lot of jobs need to be lost and property values must suffer.  We have to starve out those who attempt to hang on, hoping for a free ride at our expense and off the money we intended for the the children.  We're tired of working to watch selfish adults squabble and fight over the right to waste our money.  

We can no longer  promise to stop talking at the end of our allotted two minutes, nor can we adhere to your warnings about not shouting obscenities.  We can no longer sit quietly and watch you parade onto a big stage, or watch you getting out of your chauffeured vehicle.  You are failing us.  You are failing the children.   Instead, of wasting our time playing your games, we will boycott your self-serving performances that you have likely scripted and rehearsed.  Rather, we will stay home and watch you speak in front of an empty room.  We will not accept you as the leaders of anything.  We will boycott your board meetings and find alternatives to your faulty system.  

The petition is just one way of telling the DeKalb BOE how you feel and asking the state Governor to please remove the people he can under his authority.  

It does not give a plan for where we go from here.  Does anyone have a plan that will work considering what we have accepted as normal for the past decade?  You can help ask the Governor to "step in" but who knows what he will do, or what anyone can do, to help.  We all built this wall around ourselves, refusing to believe that we could be part of the problem.  Now, we will have to find out if we can be part of a change or just the victims of our own failure.  

Regardless how we got here, one thing is clear:  We will all go down together. 

PETITION TO THE GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA - SCRAP OUR SCHOOLS!

http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-nathan-deal-and-georgia-state-board-of-education-review-sacs-findings-if-accurate-replace-the-dekalb-county-school-board

Comments from just one of the recent petition signers in DeKalb County:

Governor Deal,

As the parent of two children including one who will be attending pre-K soon, I have followed the thoroughly dysfunctional proceedings of both the Dekalb School Board and administration with disbelief and horror in the four years since I moved here. I never got the feeling that the education of our children has been high on the priority list of any of our high level school leaders. Accruing power, maintaining a fiefdom, doling out favors, and ensuring relatives/friends are hired/promoted even when their qualifications are suspect have unfortunately seemed higher on the list than maximizing the educational opportunities for their charges. As a result, we have millions in legal fees, a former superintendent on trial for corruption, a thoroughly demoralized teaching staff, and clear evidence of a decline in the quality of education our children are receiving. 

The budgeting irregularities are inexcusable for an entity that spends almost ¾ of a billion dollars of our tax dollars a year and, if found in business on the NYSE, would likely result in sanction by the SEC. Given the deep-seated structural problems of both the administration and board, Dekalb School District is too big not to fail. Decisions appear to be made on whim without evidence of long range planning. Millions of dollars of supplies cannot be accounted for while local schools are gluing deteriorating textbooks back together lest they run even shorter. You cannot redirect a leviathan – you can choose to allow the destruction it will wreak or terminate it. While I have respect for at least one member of the board, I feel that state option to remove the board must be implemented to impart the gravity and egregiousness of the situation to the school administration and the entire county, nay the state. We cannot accept such rampant failure or our state will continue to lead from behind in education.

This must be addressed today. Children do not have the luxury of waiting around for two or three years to see if the situation can be rectified by normal channels. Their education is NOW and anything else sets them and our entire state behind. How can I recommend to any colleague with young children to bring their talents to Emory or Georgia Tech or move a business here when our school systems (Dekalb, APS, Clayton, etc) are in such disarray?The leaders of Dekalb have failed our children and teachers for too long.

I am not a fan of bureaucratic control but I would put the school system into receivership if I could. I fear that nothing less than this draconian measure or dissolution of the district into multiple smaller, more responsive districts will be sufficient to break the entrenched culture of personal gain and systemic negligence we have today.