i want a refund on my school-related tax money...it's been flushed down the drain by these clowns

Yep, 250 bucks an hour.

Hello m, how was Europe?

Want a special hamburger?

Much better than your lame drama.

m, there are many Brookhaven residents that have missed this particular persona you used to use. Hey, looks like you have gained a little weight!

Please pass the yellow mustard!

Like one misses a migrane?

Actually, David, They aren't. A few don't even have college degrees. Apparently the qualifications required to sit on the board include some PTA involvement and a pulse.

Alex, that's an insult to people with pulses. The PTA turned corrupt years ago. In fact, they might even be leading the change in the corrupt power structure to reverse itself from top/down to bottom/top.

Well that sheds some light on things!

Ms. Raven, not really, I simply posted this to be factual, and I assume your response was understandably to let off steam. Two in the old picture were worth voter elimination. One was with no agenda and worth keeping. Of the three new BOE members, one is with a heavy agenda for his neighborhood and that is why he was voted in. Hopefully, we will not experience his distractions on the BOE.

You may find this of interest if you are not already aware of it:

http://blog.donfordekalb.com/2013/02/19/197/

Please pass the yellow mustard!

Can we sue for a refund? I'm being dead serious. Class action anyone?

Unfortunately we are not paying (taxed) for educating our kids, we are lining the pockets of all the administrators, wasting money on "new systems", inflated construction cost, administrative staff outside the schools, legal fees and more. The GOOD teachers are ones not getting paid. Legalized extortion of the public.

Same here. Can we REFUSE to pay the school portion of our taxes? What could happen if we did? Since they refuse to spend our money on education, we should be able to refuse to give it to them. Maybe I will send a note along with the next check and ask the state to just keep it in their own slush fund because I'm tired of paying into the local one and then having to watch these fat cats parade around town drunk on the public dime. What a disgrace.

Ga Mom,
It would be nice if the statute included more clearly focused, actionable disciplinary infractions and a method for remediation of the infractions....but that was not the intention.
Unfortunately, there is not an effective recall procedure in GA (and the current construction of the General Assembly pretty much guarantees there never will be).
Unfortunately, when voters do not pay close attention to Candidates for election, this sort of stalemate is the result.

It would be nice, but you are talking about the South Dekalb folks here. Do you think they are really going to vote to remove them?

city yes,
Really?
Citizens do not deserve the right to vote if that vote runs counter to 'your' best notion?
I find it more than a little outrageous that a governor who LOST in Dekalb County is given free rein to 'select' a board for this county.
Precisely what qualifies him to make such a choice?

No Eddie - you like the folks in South Dekalb put the board in there. They are the uninformed voters. What makes you think they would be able to change to anyone better?

CY,
Who am I to question your deep comprehension of what is appropriate as opposed to what is sought by 'those people'.
How is our new 'white bantustan' going to aid in solving this problem?

Ah Eddie..doing what a good liberal does when he has no argument and resorting to playing the race card. Nicely done. Look, I don't care if the board is black, white, purple, orange, green, yellow, or pink, they are incompetent. They are uneducated and they are incompetent. And yes, I'll say it - while they are all guilty, the ones that are the biggest problems are the ones that happen to be from the south side of the county. So, why would we entrust the people who put them in their roles in the first place and continue to keep electing them to do anything different? They all need to be removed. All of them. Incompetence is incompetence. If you want to play the race card in this, then go ahead, but that does nothing to solve the problem. But then again, why would you want to solve a problem? Then you'd have nothing to complain about.

Georgia Mom. The 19th century Georgia constitution for white men provides no protection for minors, women, or diversity. If the issue were adults voting on county officials to preside over 21st-century adult issues, then the adults would have the right to pick any officials they wanted. But this issue is about adults voting on county officials to preside over K-12 issues, with the students in the K-12 classes being disenfranchised minors. If either the state BoE or the case's judge has any compassion for our youth, the DeKalb BoE will be toast. The decision will be one of real equity, not smoke-screen constitutionality.

Mr. Warwick,
I'm afraid your comment is lost on me. While protection verbiage may be lacking in the state consitiution, the BoE members were certainly elected by men, women and diverse registered voters - and maybe even some unregistered voters. After reading Mr McChesney's blogs, I have a better understanding about the possible (probable) unconstitutionality of the existing law. I just long for the good ole' days when there was pride in a job well done and shame in taking advantage of a situation. I still don't understand from which pot the BoE is grabbing the money for all these legal expenses. Is there a specific account that is basically a bottomless pit? I posted earlier about $10,000,000 in 2013 legal expenses. Unfathomable if accurate!

CY,
I wasn't playing the 'race card' except to point out the newly inflated chests here in the 'white bantustans' and the artificial assumption of having a greater interest in our children than 'those people' on the other side of OUR COUNTY do for THEIR CHILDREN.

Let's see how shady pulls this one off. Just because a new, probably unConstitutional law ALLOWS him to pick school board members (even in counties that did not vote for him) I will feel better when both he and the newly selected 'board' shoulder all the burden for whatever ails the Dekalb County School System from this day forward.

a lot of signatures in a very limited amount of time. Cobb county attempted one a few years ago after a board member put a cell tower contract on the evening's agenda just hours before it was to be voted on. That board member was almost recalled, but it was very difficult because the people were trying to stop the cell tower at the same time. The board member ended up not running for re-election and one of the parents who brought a lawsuit against him ended up being elected to replace the outgoing board member he had been fighting with over the issue. The board was supposed to pay the legal fees and were refusing to do so, which was making the new board member's scheduled start date a bit uncomfortable because he might be asked to vote on the approval of his own legal fees. He mentioned how awkward that would be. Heck, our board members do that all the time here! But, the worst part... Paul Womack knew all of this BEFORE he brought the cell towers here and still went through with it. He said the item went over well in Cobb because only one neighborhood was really outspoken against it and they didn't even have a child at the school. Anyway... we couldn't recall Womack because there is some limitation about how close to the next election you can be before they tell you that you can't have a recall and should just wait for the election.

They have been busy for the last year and a half, inventing a new government because it was too difficult for them to fix what was ailing the existing one.

Mr. Eddie, they never even tried to make productive changes to our existing government. They were fixated on creating their new elitist city. Sen. Fran Millar, Rep. Mike Jacobs and Rep. Tom Taylor clearly have no interest in addressing serious issues such as education that affect DeKalb County. Why? Because it does not fit into their plan to create another education district for Dunwoody and Brookhaven. Or, on a grander scale, the re-create Milton County with its own education district.

Please pass the yellow mustard!

Mr. Burger,
I am in total agreement.
I just wish there was adequate heat being directed on those in authority who decided it was best to ignore the real problems.

DWM,
Now that would be a breath of fresh air!!
While he was chair of Education, he was hewing to the nutcase view of education proposed by his mentor. Look what that has gotten for us.

county commissioners have no authority or dealings with the school board. The schools report to the state. It's misleading that they are named by county, but actually have more power than those in the county government. They can even avoid building codes and zoning laws to the detriment of our communities if they can prove what they are doing is for education only an not for profit.

He could be working on some way to save the scholarships for the kids who might lose them if their schools lose accreditation in December. Or some type of voucher program so we can actually get the per student average that taxpayers are intending for education and then use it on a private school where our kids will actually get an education.

I started to leave a comment but decided not to But the problem starts at the top like with our King. Oh damn that is a comment, Nevermind

I can think of someting but I could be wrong

don't try to figure it out @a parent. ignore, ignore, ignore the troll.

Ms. Raven, so what did you think about Mr. Thurmond’s comment at his Oak Grove meeting today? Think he ruffled a few feathers?

Cheerwine and a special hamburger?

DWM,

An athiest amen to that!

By the way, what legislation has Senator millar actually shepherded to passage (other than the 'white bantustan' legislation)?

Which one of your 37 personailities here is undecided? Please be specific, male, female, gay, straight, etc?

I would like to see the same happen to all BOEs too! It's time for real improvements in Ga schools. The crap that teachers put up with in class and with the parents &!administration is pure BS. Poorly raised students, disrespectful students and parents, and lack of disciplinary actions followed through to keep problematic students from disrupting learning. There is a great rise of empathy from students who don't CARE about learning. They aren't afraid of receiving a zero, being suspended or written up, it just doesn't matter to them.
How do you make students care when they don't and in many cases their parents don't care either!!

Rob, I normally don't get personal on the threads and I've read many of yours and jimmie's back and forth conversations but I post as EGA and only as EGA. Have a good day.

Enuff,

Now having shady remove all the boards would provide just the National publicity necessary. But it would show the rest of America how NOT to solve such a problem.

Don't get me wrong, I have no attachment to the current board members, but what's new. I watched the effectiveness of the DCSBOE wane, wax and wane again until I timed out of being required to pay close attention earlier in this decade. Dekalb County certainly is not alone in having numerous problems in education operations and governance. Dekalb County is nowhere near the bottom in test scores, SAT scores or college admissions. So why are they in the crosshairs rather than the schools who ARE at the bottom?

And what qualifies the governor (whoever it may be at a given time) to rout and replace any School Board?

Let's make sure the 'cure' isn't worse than the disease.

I guess you are trying to be coy, obviously your decision is to back a yet unannounced primary oppo to Sen. Millar.

Fran has seniority on the Retirement Committee, and that affects many thousands of Georgians. Fran was hand picked by Gov. Deal to help select the new DeKalb County School Board.

It's fine to politick for a candidate, but opportunistic to use the DeKalb School miasma to gain a toehold against an incumbent.

Charlie Harper has a very clear view of the implications if Gov. Deal were to accept a recommendation to relieve the DeKalb Board of it's duties:

http://www.peachpundit.com/2013/02/20/state-must-make-long-term-commitment-to-troubled-school-systems/

Mr. Max, Sen. Fran Millar may have spoken about issues with DCSS, but he has not been a leader when it comes to making any kinds of positive changes to the system. For that matter, the same can be said with regard to the dysfunctional DeKalb County government. However, he has made plenty of time to speak, lobby, and be a pitch man for new cities that dilute and divide the county to the point to where ultimately, the county and cities will be negatively affected at some point in the future.

DWM expressed disappointment in Sen. Fran Millar’s involvement in more important issues than creating new cities. Maybe it is time that we sent him down the road and put someone in office that is capable of taking care of the citizens business instead of creating cities for a select few.

Want a special hamburger with thin sliced onions, pickles, extra yellow mustard and a Cheerwine?

You're right,---years of messy moves, curriculums and crooks---and it's been past time for it to collapse. I'm trying to escape myself. It couldn't have been any worst unless they planned for it. Which I believe this debacle is by design! One bad move after the next, someone had to know a collapse was coming. Even the students have lost the hope and vision of success in a failing school system!!