Mr. Thurmond, Thank you for your honest back and forth with citizens at this morning's Emory LaVista Parent Council meeting. I attend a lot of meetings and your willingness to stay in the conversation is a refreshing change. Many of your subordinates have a record of walking out instead of dealing with difficult questions. Every time I hear you speak I become a more ardent supporter. You may be the right person to be superintendent at this time. I particularly appreciate your attitude of getting to know how things work before attempting to make any big changes. Hopefully, you are a fast …

Judd Owen lives in Decatur with his wife and two children. He has served on the enrollment committee and annexation committee for the City Schools of Decatur. He teaches political science at Emory. The first of a two-part series. By Judd Owen Decatur Metro directed readers last week to a brief story in the print edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting that Decatur City Manager Peggy Merriss had said “potential annexation of two heavily commercial areas outside the city limits has apparently died quietly in the legislature.” I have been keenly interested in the push for large-…

The Governor is wrong in his decision to suspend members of the DeKalb County Board of Education. The DeKalb School District has been placed on probation by a private accrediting institution called SACS which holds considerable sway in the education community.  SACS has made a multitude of allegations, some of which I agree with, but all of them were developed unilaterally in a shrouded process.  The leadership of SACS is not elected by the public, do not have to conform to open meetings and open records laws, and are not subject to constitutional due process as they sit in judgment of public…

To the Lakeside City Alliance, Most of us in the proposed area to be annexed by Chamblee understand the frustrations that are driving the Lakeside City Alliance to attempt to study "whether the formation of a new city is both necessary and feasible to provide local control to our community." However, I am concerned not enough "study" went into delineating the preliminary boundaries of a city of Lakeside beyond arbitrarily following lines enclosing ripe commercial properties on an existing map. Not much thought seems to be given to the areas that make up the communities that are split apart by…

By Tim Cairl Ever invited friends or family over for dinner and planned out an entire meal? Set off to the grocery store; list in hand, only to discover that several key ingredients were missing? This is the position in which our local communities may find themselves in only a few short years. The surge in local incorporation efforts has led to a cookie cutter approach to cityhood. This rolling and cutting of the county tax base is dangerous to the security of our school systems and support services such as 911 and police as well as sewer and water services, just to name a few. Legislation …

By Virginia DuPre Within the professional circles that work with domestic violence, the definition of emotional abuse includes: making the abused feel crazy, playing mind games on the abused, controlling what the abused does--who they talk to/limiting involvement and access to others, making light of the abuse, not taking the concerns about the abuse seriously, saying the abuse is not happening, shifting responsibility from the abuser to the abused--blaming the abused for the wrongdoing. DeKalb County is guilty of all of the above in its actions toward its citizens. House Bill 22 introduced …

By Eliot M. Arnovitz, Brice Ladson and John Ladson The City of Decatur again has faced widespread opposition from residents of nearby unincorporated DeKalb to annex their properties into the City of Decatur. This is convenient for the city, since it doesn’t want to add more children to an overcrowded school system, and because annexing residential properties can present a net loss for city coffers. The city wants a net gain, so its leadership unveiled a scheme last week that even big fans of Decatur have denounced in public forums as unbridled government overreach. At the recommendation of …

It’s easy to get caught up in the rush of after Thanksgiving, Black Friday sales followed by the ease and enticement of cyber Monday discounts. The trend of internet shopping and overnight urban camping in front of retailers entrances is perhaps an irreversible reality of today’s consumerism. Yet, last year ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer launched a series, “Made in America,” that focused on American manufacturing and our economy. The series made me think about possible economic implications for Georgia. What if our state and local governments, along with our school systems, leveraged …

The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners recently took a big step to make DeKalb County greener. Last Tuesday the board voted to eliminate the initial $30 sign-up fee for curbside recycling. It’s time for more DeKalb residents to recycle. While our county is among the leaders in recycling in metro Atlanta, still only 21 percent of the eligible households in DeKalb recycle. The county has a goal to increase recycling to 40 percent, the national standard. In addition to dropping the recycling registration fee, we’ve also established a modest marketing campaign to reach more citizens. It’s my …

If you live in the DeKalb County Board of Education's District 4 – or even if you know someone who does – please make a note that this coming Tuesday, Aug. 21, is a very big day. It is the date of the runoff election between two candidates for the board of education, the incumbent, H. Paul Womack, and his challenger, Jim McMahan, a parent with children at Sagamore Hills Elementary School. Here are the area voting precincts: Briarlake Elem, Brockett, Brockett Elem, Dresden Elem, Embry Hills, Evansdale Elem, Hawthorne Elem, Henderson Mill Elem, Hugh Howell, Lakeside High, Livsey Elem, Midvale …

Yes! You voted no! Thank you, DeKalb County voters! So far, 71,690 voters have agreed! No cell towers on our school grounds! Victory by 60 percent or more! The resolution may not have legal bearing, but it has a moral lesson that should not be ignored. And, that leads us to the next order of business: the nine approved schools that have now been reduced to eight total signed lease agreements. When will T-Mobile get the message that we do not want them to build cell towers on our school grounds? When will they exercise the "out clause" that only they can do and escape any futher financial …

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, SACS, is the organization that holds the accreditation process for DeKalb County School System. As a school board candidate for District 4, I am studying the rules and regulations of board membership and ethics are a particular area of interest given the recent history of the school system. Current board members have made comments, in conversation and in a campaign forum, that made me sit down hard and think about what they said: "A school board member is not allowed to enter a school without the express permission of the superintendent." I've …

You recently published an article on Michelle Hiskey's Saporta Report profile of Intown Ace Hardware and its approach to potential challenges faced by the proposed Walmart Supercenter in Suburban Plaza. Thanks for your continuing coverage of this important community issue. Included in Hiskey's article was a clarifying note from Walmart's director of community and media relations, William C. "Bill" Wertz.   Here's the note from Hiskey: After this story was published, Wal-Mart's Director of Community & Media Relations, William C. "Bill" Wertz, notified me of this correction: "There will be a …

I'd like to add my two cents to the Suburban Plaza debate. First off, let me tell you where I live: south of Memorial Drive off Midway/Peachcrest. A few years back we had a big ruckus over the Walmart Supercenter that went in where the mall used to be. We picketed. We wrote letters. We petitioned. Ultimately, Walmart came and did just as they pleased without building any sort of mixed use like they promised they would. The closest we got to "mixed use" is that a SunTrust bank opened up where the supposed condos were going to be. Nothing else was done. In other words: We got screwed. The …

On Wednesday, the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners delivered a letter to county CEO Burrell Ellis recommending that he instruct the Office of Planning and Sustainability to deny building permits for cell towers proposed on county school campuses. No Briarlake Tower, a group formed by parents, PTA members and neighbors of Briarlake Elementary School, would like to express its appreciation to the board of commissioners for responding to the concerns of its constituents. In contrast to the ill-considered obstinacy of the board of education, the commissioners' clear commitment to existing …

North Druid Hills-Briarcliff Patch welcomes letters from readers. Send them to jonathan.cribbs@patch.com.While I am not a fan of Walmart, this area desperately needs tax revenue and revitalization. Suburban Plaza is dying, and this area needs to jump-start with a major retailer. I would love to see a mixed use development with unique stores there, but the demographics don't support it. If the support were there, it would be going there as opposed to Clifton Road across from the Centers for Disease Control. Residents opposing the development need to get over it because, truthfully, the bad …

North Druid Hills-Briarcliff Patch welcomes letters from readers. Send them to jonathan.cribbs@patch.com. This week, U.S. Sen. John McCain derided the "Tea Party Hobbits" in Congress blocking debt ceiling legislation.McCain should have said the Mad Hatter Tea Party belonged in Alice in Wonderland. McCain wronged the Hobbits. Hobbits are the opposite of the Tea Partiers. It is the "Tea Party Siths" that are the real face of our true enemy.J. R. R. Tolkien said Hobbits' main virtue was that they had no interest whatsoever in political power. They were the only ones who could be entrusted with …

As me and my son Ali were walking towards the car, Ali said to me: “You know Dad, today is the last day of my school!” His face was glowing with happiness, and his voice was full of excitement, but I was feeling a little gloomy. Glimpses of the last four years kept crossing my mind one after another. Over the last four years, every morning, I have driven my kids to Medlock Elementary School, and during those years, I have heard the same phrase so many times but never felt the way I had felt yesterday. My daughter Iman graduated from Medlock Elementary in 2008, and my son Ali finished first …

North Druid Hills-Briarcliff Patch welcomes letters from readers. Send them to jonathan.cribbs@patch.com. Should it be the responsibility of one school community to improve the educational standards of another? In a Feb. 13 letter to the editor, George Miranda, a former Lakeside High School parent, said he thought the Lakeside High community was elitist and promoted their self-serving, socially-economic advantages over those from clusters with less-than-stellar academic performance. He said redistricting was a noble effort for the community, and Lakeside High community students could …

North Druid Hills-Briarcliff Patch welcomes letters from readers. Send them to jonathan.cribbs@patch.com. I'll be excoriated by my neighbors for saying this, but it is plainly obvious once we all agree to rid ourselves of the self-delusion insulating us from the truth: My neighbors are attempting to preserve their elitist, socioeconomic advantages. The fact is that Lakeside High-area schools are seriously overcrowded – in particular, Oak Grove Elementary School.People who can afford to live in the district have moved into it, which up until the housing bust was peppered with infill housing. …