Get Schooled

By Ernest

March 9, 2005 09:27 AM | Link to this

I thought the increase should be between 50-75% so this seems on target. The ‘shock’ of the 100% increase request following the recent superintendent change is probably why legislators were not as generous. All other increase requests were granted.

State Rep. Stephanie Benfield suggested perhaps a policy be put in place to evaluate and possibly adjust salaries on some regular interval. I think this has merit.

FWIW, Marietta school board members will get a 100% increase though their base salary is around 3600 and they are a much smaller system. I understand Gwinnett school board members recently got over 100% increase albeit without the publicity the DeKalb school system received.

By Beckham

March 9, 2005 10:06 AM | Link to this

If you want a quality education with educators that sincerely care for your children, try Landmark Christian School; where every student is prepared to impact the world for Jesus Christ!

By yesiamworried

March 9, 2005 01:36 PM | Link to this

While I think some raise was merited, the Gwinnett school board governs the largest school system in the state — as a whole their students do better (even their minorities and poor) than in DeKalb and they are growing at a far faster rate than DeKalb. As an example, 33 percent of economically disadvantaged 4th graders “failed” the Reading CRCT in DeKalb while only 26% of the same group “failed” the Reading CRCT in Gwinnett.

While the raise follows the position, not the person, it is hard to support in part because these people haven’t done a very good job of improving academic achievement.

By Ernest

March 9, 2005 01:58 PM | Link to this

yesiamworried brings up a GREAT point with the comparisons of Gwinnett to DeKalb however regarding test scores, you have to admit to the differences in the overall demographics in the counties. IMO, it’s hard to make comparisons like this and make judgements from them.

Regarding the raise again, my point really was that there seems to be more ‘scrutiny’ on DeKalb with regards to issues like this than other counties. A while back, WSB-TV ran a story on salaries in DeKalb and how several demoted principals retained their salaries in different positions. As I understand, this is something most school systems do. If I am wrong on this, someone please correct this.

By yesiamworried

March 9, 2005 02:30 PM | Link to this

I compared poor students because that is a pretty uniform population. I think that Gwinnett gets as much scrutinity, the AJC actually has 2 reporters covering the Gwinnett school system, as Dekalb. It is just that we naturally notice media coverage of our system more.

(Plus Gwinnett has had the same Superintendent forever, kind of keeps you out of the news)

By Ernest

March 9, 2005 03:23 PM | Link to this

So can you tell I’m a ‘little’ sensitive to how DeKalb is sometimes portrayed in the media??? :) Admittedly, sometimes it is deserving but my perceptions from the media are that DeKalb is the only school system having problems…

By yesiamworried

March 9, 2005 04:08 PM | Link to this

I actually think that the Atlanta media does a basically terrible job covering the schools and education in Georgia. I also think that metro school systems are very secretative and they can get away with things because no one from the media is paying attention. (don’t forget the whole erate situation in the Atlanta city schools.)

My greatest desire is for reporters to ask hard questions, in Dekalb’s case, where is all the money going, why is it costing so much more to build schools than estimated, why we have such inexperienced principals at the high school level, why we are spending millions more than other systems transporting kids all over the county, why we have nearly empty schools near overcrowded ones. Oh the list could go on and on. So while DeKalb may be scruntized, things could be much worse.

By JIMMY MORRIS

March 21, 2005 10:51 AM | Link to this

SCHOOL BOARDS SHOULD ONLY BE REIMBURSED FOR THEIR ACTUAL EXPENSES FOR ATTENDING MEETINGS. THIS IS COMMUNITY SERVICE WORK AND THERE SHOULD BE NO SALARY FOR IT. SCHOOL BOARDS SHOULD BE MADE UP OF AT LEAST SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT PARENTS THAT HAVE CHILDREN IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM THEY OVERSEE.