No kids here but we do care since we own property we will need to sell in a few years!!

Once the BEST school system in Georgia, and every professional was guided to place their children in the DCS. Years of unethical, incompetent, illegal, and poor educational services, sinking test scores...the system keeps sinking into quicksand. The current BoE and Dr. Adkinson are just a long line of people who tell the public what they think we want to hear. The schools are in deplorable conditions, parking lots full of pot holes, staff is treated unprofessionally, teachers are leaving, families are going private, or moving out of DCS. Children in poverty are left and RTTT $ is being spent on anything other than teachers and children (PhD private university tuition for 9 principals). Dr. Adkinson and the remaining BoE reps are continuing the sinking and failing practices, ie. SACS. The children, parents and residents of DC cannot continue this way. There is no urgency by Dr. Adkinson and the Board, for anything. What will it take? The longer we wait, the more $ it will cost all of us. The modern rip-off by superintendents in many school systems is to do a terrible job, and leave with a long $$ contract to be paid to them. It is costing us millions to pay for litigations, paid-out contracts, and tuition for PhDs for the highest paid administrators in DCS. DCS is unbelievably top heavy with expensive administrators. Too much nepotism, too!! Look at their admin. charts and compare to other systems. They are all feeding from the $$$$ tits of the taxpayer. Out with Dr. Adkinson!

I agree that the current board needs to go, and some drastic changes need to be made to contract policies and other operating procedures. However, it is extremely important to not just call for removal of the existing board but rather to START ORGANIZING for a better board and a better system.

Toss them out TODAY! Where is this online petition. I want to sign it. Everyday. At least once a day.

I removed my FOUR kids from the Dekalb Co. schools years ago and enrolled them in the Catholic school system in DeKalb Co. I encourage all parents to do the same. Some way you can come up with the money to pay tuition for the cost of a great education. Think of your child's future.

Hard to believe there are only 500 signatures. This county was ahuge factor in the Charter Commission Yes vote, primarily on the basis of this one school system's performance. I spoke with many people who said they would normally not vote for more government, but they needed an easier way to get more charter schools in operation to save DeKalb (only).
So here's your chance voters--vote again.

OK--515 and counting...even with TV coverage? Gimme a break...should be 10,000.

There are two petitions that need to remove the DCSS board. Please sign and share! Please take 30 seconds and join us. 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

Several problems with this petition. The school board needs replacing, not banishment. If I am not mistaken, we voted in replacements who have not had a chance to make a difference. They should, at least, be allowed to represent their constituency. Another issue is the power hungry manipulative characters who have peopled the Superintendent position for at least a decade, including the present kingpin. She should also be replaced, as she represents no real change from her dishonest, selfish, and moderately racist predecessors. Finally, an issue not being addressed is the appropriate involvement of a school board as an accountability agent for the superintendent and administration. As I understand it, our board is offending SACS for overstepping its bounds (which seem to be limited legally to the hiring and firing of the superintendent). There is no accountability in the system to reign in the power of the superintendent. This needs to be addressed, as well. If power corrupts...

It's true Sally--we need a Catholic school system for DeKalb County. The folks across the hwy and down Briarcliff have been great neighborhood schools. What a beautiful and dutiful environment it must be to be able to go to school there. Do you think we can petition the Diocese to build space for average and below average students too--as long as we're in the mood for petitions.

Tom we left Lakeside to go to Pius. It is a pleasure to send my kids to school and it should be the same in DeKalb. It can be if we remove the board and pay attention. This effort won't help my kids but its the right thing to do.

No doubt that it's a pleasure to go to school there, Betsy. It's a "pleasure" to go to school at any affluent school.

However, the notion that DeKalb schools can be that way is absurd. It's hard to believe I have to emphasize this, but I ask, what happens when over 50% of students qualify for assisted lunches and aren't prepared for school? Is there really any possibility that it will be a "pleasure"?

Board members don't have to be imbecils and crooks to make this a highly challenged school system--school systems in poverty are a nationwide problem--not just school systems run by fools.

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We are an army family and we moved more times than I want to count. I don't think the statistics for qualifying for assisted lunches changed much from state to state but other states did a much better job. Pius is not an affluent school, we have often reference ourselves as the "little Catholic school in the hood". Are there affluent people that send there kids to school with mine? Yeah, but your missing the point. The leaders put the kids first and they waste very little if any resource. Wish DCSS was expected to do the same. Its time they were removed and we started holding them accountable as private Catholic schools and many public schools around this country do every day!

You're right H.A., the faster we replace all of the people we can blame, the fewer we'll be ABLE to blame. Then it just comes down to the fact that there is nothing that can be done for a population that has been and continues to be disenfranchised socioeconomically.

It's amazing how many people who wouldn't have voted for this governor in a thousand years--and think HE"S a crook-- are asking him to come in and save their home values.

Tom, the principals of the Catholic School system in Dekalb can be applied throughout the county: qualified teachers and administrators, minimum overhead and bureaucracy, accountability, rigid standards and a focus on service and education. Instead we have political opportunists, profit seekers,social engineering, no standards, no authority to discipline or run their schools. Administrators who call down to parents to tell them they are not team players when they complain about inappropriate hiring or safety concerns. Those things don't happen in the area Catholic schools . Re the 50% on federal assistance, how many really need it? the schools are profiting from this program so work to get the numbers up. The disenfranchised socio economic group is a foil to maintain a corrupt system and take advantage of the group you claim is disenfranchised. The answer is not more money or promoting one group over another, it is standards and accountability for the administrators, the teachers and the students.

DeKalb School Board member, Ms. Nancy Jester states: "How ironic that I may be removed from office exactly because I discovered and made public the financial misdeeds of the third largest school district in our state," which is a very real potential outcome from Gov. Deal's review. Here is a link to Ms. Jester's complete statement:

http://whatsupwiththat.nancyjester.com/2012/12/26/my-thoughts-on-the-advanced-sacs-report/

Can you imagine the caterwauling that partial Board removals, or advancing any current member to replace Chair Walker would create? In a classic illustration of "Be careful of what you wish for," Gov. Deal may be forced to purge the entire Board to avoid a new controversy.

I am encouraged that, like Grady Hospital, the DCCS situation will benefit from the antiseptic of sunshine, public outrage, and simple sustainability of the status quo.

As to the local City school option, everyone should realize the difficulty of this legislative effort to change our State constitution. I believe the discussion of local school efforts, however well intentioned, have already served a useful purpose in highlighting public disgust, mistrust, and outrage at the School Board.

If State lawmakers take on this issue, and it passes a super-majority, we still have to figure out how to pay for plant and equipment, upfront. Maybe that sort of bond would pass in Dunwoody.

What happened in Clayton? Was the current, new Board appointed or elected?

We have sunk that low! We have had a succession of school administrators who have cleaned out the coffers, and are asking for more. Litigations are extremely costly, wasting RTTT $ is very costly! No supporting teachers, and not educating our children is very costly. Productive citizens moving out of DC is very costly! Cities spinning off is very costly! Can we all spell GHOST TOWN? Not fixing SACS requirements will be equivalent to our own DCS Cliff! Get rid of bad people and keep good ones! We know who they are.

One link brought a page that wants me to change my Browser, why is that?

Dekalb County School board need REAL investigation or replacement.

http://dekalbschoolwatch.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/spec-review-report-for-dekalb-county-final-copy.pdf
This link works for me too. If it makes your blood boil after you read it sign the petition. 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

This thing's finally getting around to grassroots. I just receieved a link to the petition with 630 current names via a neighborhood e-mail distributuon. My guess is we'll start seeing it takeoff. Still shocked that two area websites, Patch and Schoolwatch wouldn't have generated more signatures just on readership.

Tim McGrath - response...
Charter schools select their kids very carefully. Long waiting lists, interviews of kids and families, detailed review of test scores and grades, discipline files, and IEPs. If SWD, you may forget it! ELL, you can forget it! Parents who don't speak English, you can forget it! Children in Poverty Ok if meet all other criteria...Free & Reduced $$, Title1 $$$ Ok, RTTT $$ Ok for charter schools. Poverty pays for charter schools. They rely on those funds from gov. Once they select their students, private schools select their kids, then the rest go to public schools. If DCS writes those kids off, and only uses the $$$ allocated for their education, then their futures look rather bleak! Remember, children do not pick their parents nor their circumstances. We as adults have a greater responsibility in public education. Please move the superintendent and Board prez out! now!

When drowning the first thing you have to do is save yourself. You can't save others if you're drowning. If the parent(s) don't care to participate in their child's education, and many don't, then their life will continue to spiral down

H.A. you are right. All of the public schools should educate ALL of the students. Tell me what should we do with the kids who continuously disrupt the classrooms? DeKalb County is too scared to paddle anyone anymore. In school suspension (ISS) is often a holding pen with no consequences. Parents who won't show up for parent teacher conferences will be at the school in ten minutes if they think you "disrespected" their child by making them follow the rules.
Out of school suspension puts the school at risk from losing federal dollars, too many absences and the school doesn't get paid for "educating" that student.
The schools would be in better shape if they refused federal money and its conditions.

TomL.
What a spineless principal you had. There are many of them who watch out for #1 only. Should have been taken to task. Sounds like he is still working for DCS. Repeating spineless acts, again and again. They are protected or they would not get a way with such unethical behaviors.
Glad you landed on your feet in a much better school. Public school systems like DCS lose many excellent teachers while protecting such marginal spineless admins. DCS is full of such stories, and that explains the poor quality of DCS. Hard to believe, but DCS used to be The Best system in GA, not too long ago. What are we waiting for? All 4 wheels are off the Cadillac, and it is sitting on blocks. We need an extreme makeover, asap!