Get Schooled

By jim d

April 25, 2006 12:49 PM | Link to this

What does it really matter Patti? I’m not sure about Dekalb, but feel that Gwinnett is already loaded with crooks. Tell Ware to head up here, he’d fit right in.

By yesiamworried

April 25, 2006 12:51 PM | Link to this

DeKalb county parents and taxpayers have the school system they deserve. It is a shame that children are suffering because of the apathy of parents and taxpayers. The school board stinks. One school board member has family members working for the system for a total of nearly $1 million a year in salaries.

(Note: I’m deleting some info posted here and passing it onto the reporter to investigate… Patti Ghezzi)

The sad thing it that so much is racial in DeKalb but it is African-American children who are suffering the most. Come on, everybody wake and demand accountability. Throw all the bums out, sleep out the board! Our children deserve better.

By Susie

April 25, 2006 12:53 PM | Link to this

Lovely.

By Laura

April 25, 2006 12:56 PM | Link to this

It’s all a racket.

Our superintendent came from a company that sells a reading program. Guess what reading program the district bought after they hired that superintendet.

This is why we can’t give any more tax money to schools.

By Amazed (Independent Woman)

April 25, 2006 01:14 PM | Link to this

It’s a crime that a criminal was hired to head up the HR Department. However, it’s no suprise. I see it happening all the time. Not just criminals, but people who pad their resumes.

I think Jim is right, the other school systems are filled with criminals - even some who have never been convicted.

The problem in this case is not the fact that Lewis was friends with someone in the firm, because most high profile positions are usually given to people who know someone from the inside. Where I work 90% of the people we have hired “lately” knew someone inside of our company. Even if there had been a bid, they might have chosen this firm and still hired this guy.

You can’t rely solely on one organization to do everything. I would think that someone inside Dekalb would have used an “independent” firm to do a background check, before hiring “ANYBODY”. This should not be the job of the search “FIRM”. The firm could do a background check, but Dekalb should already have an independent firm who “ONLY” does background checks for employees.

By SNY

April 25, 2006 01:20 PM | Link to this

That is truly sad. It’s no wonder our children turn out the way they do.

Hi, Susie.

By Robert

April 25, 2006 01:25 PM | Link to this

In the Corporate world, search firms are used. However, the company only relies on these firms to find candidates. The company will still do their own background check, etc.

DeKalb County should do 2 things at this point: never use that search firm again, and fire the HR person that was in charge of this slot (it was their role to do the check for DeKalb County).

By dan

April 25, 2006 01:48 PM | Link to this

Yes SNY, it is the school systems fault that our children turn out the way they do????? I really wish you could read what you write. It is quite entertaining. I hear the same kind of excuses from the kids I teach. I have a sign on my door that reads “He that is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else” I could name 10,000 reasons why our children turn out the way they do and not one would be be because the dekalb school system hired that guy.

By anon

April 25, 2006 02:22 PM | Link to this

I think SNY has a point. While I think Dan is right to have the students take personal responsibility for their work, we can’t use the mantra of “personal responsibility” to overlook, or let off the hook, the systemic failures that do indeed lead to a lack of success in Georgia.

In general, a person is almost always better off with the “personal responsibility” approach…but sometimes part of that responsibility is the willingness to point out when our systems of government fail us…after all the Constitution starts off with WE the people…

By SET

April 25, 2006 02:49 PM | Link to this

Hmm.. Wonder if this was a race hire??

Unless the contract with the search firm included backgrounding of the candidate the district has no one but themselves to blame for this negligent hiring.

If someone cares to do so it is not difficult to prevent lying psychopathic candidates from getting into your organization. You turn them over to a competent backgrounder to interview and vet.

If you refuse to do this, like President Clinton did when he moved into the White house (he blocked backgrounding because it was time consuming and inconvenient) you get this kind of trouble and worse. I believe a certain intern would have been blocked by backgrounding. Not because the candidate was a bank robber, but because the candidate had issues (by history) that made the candidate not compatible with that work environment.

I resigned from the board of a non-profit shortly after having to argue with new board members about our practice of pulling credit bureau reports on hiring candidates. I decided that these people didn’t “get it” and I wasn’t going to hang around for the inevitable. Then new board members worried that vetting employees would impinge on the candidate’s “privacy” rights. Mind you we were handling a lot of other people’s money and information in the course of our business. The agency eventually went under.

Some people are amatuers and don’t believe or understand in what it takes to run an organization and avoid scandals - like this one. They should not be in positions of responsibility because they are irresponsible. That is how scandals such as this occur. Someone let it happen.

In the offices I work in volunteers have been blocked because of behavior patterns revealed by credit bureau reports. These are just the start, public records review come next. Restraining orders are not a good sign. We actually pull the supporting declarations and read everything. (even if the candidate is the “victim” we learn plenty about his/her lifestyle)

And it’s never just one thing, it was always a well defined pattern of behavior. We try to be realistic when dealing with young people and compare candidates with like cohorts.

But lying, cheating and stealing is too much to tolerate.

By Nel

April 25, 2006 03:00 PM | Link to this

Since the Superintendent requested this firm because he has a prior relationship with the company founder/owner this was a no brainer leave them alone. At least with reputable search firms, you compete for the assignment against other firms and you are required to check the validity of the statements of education at least on every person submitted. Some clients require the firm do the background checking, but typically it is incumbent upon the client to do background checks. It is a stain on the Superintendent and his judgement that he used personal associations and didn’t verify this man’s background. Despite what the search firm said, the system fell down on the job by not doing some checking of their own. They could have checked the degree within 5 minutes and spending less than $10 online with the schools he listed before they even interviewed him. Now they are investigating whether he had access to personal information of other employees of the system. All this back-scratching is putting our children at risk, and we are paying more property taxes every year for the privilege in Dekalb.

By Nel

April 25, 2006 03:15 PM | Link to this

SET: there have been enough scandals regarding college coaches and corporate executives “padding” their resumes that corporations are very alert on this subject. Pity that government still spends our money to benefit cronies and family. I wonder if they will demand a reimbursement of the fees paid.

By Just Me

April 25, 2006 03:25 PM | Link to this

We moved from DeKalb Co. because of the school system. Thank goodness we had an opportunity to leave before my oldest 3 yrs old. The system we are in now is exactly where my boys belong.

By SNY

April 25, 2006 04:23 PM | Link to this

I was referring to the examples that the adults are setting, not the fact that some children don’t want to learn. Stop being so sensitive. Face it, if kids find out that there is a quicker, sneakier approach they are going to try to learn that approach to take it. Is it ultimately their decision, yes. But why not lie on your resume, “the school system let people do it.” It is right - no, are some people going to feel that way - yes. That’s all I’m saying.

It’s sort of like the drug dealer in the neighborhood. Why go to work everyday, all day when you can go on the corner for 2-3 hours a night and make more money. I’m just taking a realistic look at what SOME kids may say to themselves. I wasn’t saying that it was the teachers fault. Get a grip!

By MMM

April 25, 2006 04:37 PM | Link to this

Thanks Patti, I have heard rumors of school board nepotism as well and would love to see it in investigated in a forthright manner since I have no idea what the facts are. I thing that there are some well intensioned members of the board, but we need competent leaders that don’t act like mini superintendents. It is tempting to feel that I (or most of the members of this blog) could do that job better, but the sad fact is that an elected board that come from assigned districts is more calculated to highlight and mirror the present problems than to work together to fix them. I credit the superintendent with attempting to deal with the issues in a forthright and transparent manner—he fired this guy—reversed himself at lakeside when an investigation indicated the info the original decision was based on was flawed, etc.

By Pompano

April 25, 2006 04:39 PM | Link to this

When these types of things happen in the Private sector, people lose their jobs.

Just another example indicating how our government is not qualified to educate our children. But it’s apparently better to waste money on unqualified staff (which likely describes a high percentage of the dekalb school system)than to empower parents to make decisions.

By Lee

April 25, 2006 05:00 PM | Link to this

Dekalb taxpayers better hope someone was on the ball and hired this guy contingent upon passing a background check or they will be on the hook again in a breach of contract lawsuit….

By Lee

April 25, 2006 05:24 PM | Link to this

In reference to Patti’s first sentence “School boards rely heavily on search firms to bring them candidates for school superintendent…”

I hear over and over how these school systems justify their six figure salaries to administrative personnel by comparing to a similarly sized private company. Well, most successful companies I know have a succession plan in place so if they lose a key employee, they have someone in line to step into place. One reason you have an Assistant Superintendent is to groom them for eventual transition into the Superintendents job. If they aren’t competent enought, the school board needs to demote or fire them and promote someone who is capable.

When my small, semi-rural school system went the search route and hired someone from out of state, only to have them move on to a larger system when their contract expired, I figured out that these people were merely getting their “ticket punched” and often leave the system in worse shape than when they arrived.

Give me someone who lives in county and is passionate about the kids any day. You can have all the Phd’s who only plan to stay in that position until they can move to greener pastures…

By SET

April 25, 2006 05:46 PM | Link to this

Great story, I just looked at it again.

You don’t let an outsider start a job such as this until the background is finished. Backgrounding - at least preliminary screening - doesn’t take that long. A fingerprint check to rule out that your candidate is an impersonator (and find hidden criminal cases) may take the most time depending on the state. In my experience a personality such as this hire seems to be would be easily red-flagged by simple computer-based screening if he consistently used his real name.

Having such a creature on the job is a huge example of negligent hiring. The appointing authority appears to have decided that backgrounding is something you do after you let strangers into your organization. Could it be that they just don’t know any better? Maybe they are living in Mayberry RFD?

Welcome to the brave new world. At least no one was raped or murdered. The main damage is the scandal and harm to the reputation of the organization and it’s management. Usuallly somebody is fired for an embarrassment such as this.

Who will be fired for this? Does this constitute “For Cause” termination of the Superintendant? (We’d have to read the cush contract these people usually have. Cause may be limited to felony during work hours…)

Did the contract with the search firm provide that the firm was responsible for all or some (or none) of the vetting of the candidate? I’m curious. Generally that’s asking the fox to guard the henhouse. Since the search firm has a motive to arrange the marriage (the fee) it is incompatible to require them to vet the candidates also.

It all starts with (in)competetent Board and Management of the District.

By SET

April 25, 2006 05:46 PM | Link to this

PS.. And we rely on management such as this to teach the children and keep them safe.

By yesiamworried

April 25, 2006 06:54 PM | Link to this

There is a big concern that this man may have had access to employees (and students) personal information and may have done illicit things with it. Think major identity theft potential here. Also, he was on the job for 6 weeks — did he hire anyone that he shouldn’t have. Others with criminal records.

It is amazing to me that this story isn’t getting more play. I chalk it up to the fact that in DeKalb people just don’t care.

Dr. Lewis’ hands are pretty dirty with this one. [I’m deleting part of this comment and forwarding it to a reporter for investigation… Patti Ghezz] Very disappointing.

By V for Vendetta

April 25, 2006 08:55 PM | Link to this

Wow, this happened in Dekalb? No way! Get out of here, you must be joking! Things like that don’t happen in Dekalb!

Unfortunately Jim is right, Dekalb isn’t alone. Gwinnett and all the other metro districts are just as bad, if not worse in some cases. Funny, I wonder how things would run if they actually, oh I don’t know, hired talented ex-teachers to run the schools instead of people who know NOTHING about education. The system is a joke, if this were a computer, we would have pressed control/alt/delete a LONG time ago.

By Taxpayer

April 26, 2006 08:14 AM | Link to this

DCSS could have opted to use the State of Georgia’s search service, which would have done everything that Lanta Group was SUPPOSED to do — but for about $35,000 less.

By Jesse's Girl

April 26, 2006 10:35 AM | Link to this

You know….historically, criminals in organized crime ( while their pasts are absolutely checkered ) have had extaordinary business saavy. Perhaps, DeKalb should give this fellow some time to ingratiate himself. Honestly….hasn’t this county tried everything else? And it isn’t as if he wouldn’t fit right in. I’m sure Vernon Jones has already had him over for cocktails!

By Robert

April 26, 2006 10:53 AM | Link to this

One comment to everyone bashing all of DeKalb County….. there are success stories in this school system and it is unfair for you to bash the entire system. Some successful high schools are Dunwoody High, Lakeside High, Druid Hills High, and Chamblee High (as well as the DeKalb School of the Arts). These high schools are regularly ranked nationally and they also have some of the highest SAT scores in the State.

The employees at these schools work hard and are proud of their accomplishments. It is very unfair to these hard working educators for you to bash the entire system!

By Ann

April 26, 2006 01:08 PM | Link to this

Why be surprised people, after all this is DeKalb County. We elected Cynthia McKinney for heavens sake. I live in DeKalb, in the 4th Distrcit at that, but neither of my two kids ever attended one day of school here, they attended private schools. The shcool board in DeKalb is loaded with nepotism as well as friends hiring friends, a recipe ready for disaster. How could all this not be discovered? This is a shame, the kids deserve better than this. I smell something rotten here, we may need to look into how well this guy knows someone on the staff of Vernon Jones. Something is not right here, in a big way. br careful though, that board will yell racism at the top of their ling if one bit of their hierarchy is upset, mark my words on that one, we learned the hard way!

By Taxpayer

April 26, 2006 01:10 PM | Link to this

Robert, I can’t speak for others on this blog, but I have problems with the upper levels of administration in the DeKalb system, not the teachers, principals, etc. who actually DO the work. I have a child in one of those “success stories” schools you listed, and I can tell you this: the school succeeds IN SPITE OF the DCSS administration, which seems to specialize in placing stumbling blocks in the path of those who are trying to educate children.

By Parent of student

April 26, 2006 04:03 PM | Link to this

Robert, those schools have something in common-DCSS administrators send their kids there, one is a charter school which allows for more autonomy, and one is used to showcase DCSS’most talented kids. Did you notice the location of all these schools? Sad but true that we have disparity in our county. I moved just so my child can go to Lakeside in 2 years

By Ernest

April 26, 2006 05:04 PM | Link to this

I somewhat agree and disagree with several of SET’s comments from 5/25 5:46. Fact of the matter, many of us are probably aware of circumstances similar to this, where someone was hired that had ‘skeletons’ in their closet. Once the school system became aware of this, they terminated the guy immediately. They should have done due diligence in performing a background check prior to his starting. I’m certain there will be a more formal procedure in place to ensure something like this does not happen again.

I don’t think anyone else should be fired for this. The embarrassment from this situation is probably punishment enough. As I think back to the George O’Leary situation a few years back (padding his resume), I don’t recall anyone asking those who approved his hiring to be fired. In fact, his situation was discovered by the media. Notre Dame addressed it immediately and moved on. George has done quite well for himself since that time.

The information regarding nepotism in the school system is interesting. I hope there is balance to any story on this. Again, many of us know of situations like this, in both private industry and government.

If citizens of DeKalb County want to fire someone, they can go to the pools en masse as several Board positions during this election season. This can be a true indicator of how ‘enraged’ the community is IF we use our power at the ballot box.

By Ernest

April 27, 2006 08:55 AM | Link to this

Obviously in my posting I meant go to the polls not go to the pools as several positions are up. Wouldn’t want anyone to think I’m suggesting we drown anyone :).

By Robert

April 27, 2006 09:04 AM | Link to this

Ernest -

Your comparison with O’Leary is not a fair one. However, as I recall, the HR person at GA Tech that was responsible for reviewing and fact checking resumes was fired. So, why isn’t the DeKalb County person that made the same mistake?

Also, there is a huge difference between “skeletons in a closet” and outright lies on a resume. The guy faked his own college degrees for goodness sake! That is not a skeleton!!!

To Parent of Student:

My point was that the entire school system of DeKalb County should not be bashed when there are good parts, regardless of where those good parts are located!

By Robert

April 27, 2006 09:07 AM | Link to this

To Parent of student:

Also, people want to split DeKalb County schools into North as good, and South as bad. However, one of the worst performing schools is in the North part - Cross Keys High!

By Ernest

April 27, 2006 11:02 AM | Link to this

Robert, not to say that you are incorrect but I don’t recall anyone from GT or Notre Dame losing their job regarding O’Leary. In fairness, I will research that. I’m not sure why you don’t think it was a fair comparison since it also involved incorrect/incomplete information on a resume.

I do question whether there was a DCSS employee that researched this particular resume. It may have been an ‘assumption’ that everything was cleared by the search firm. That’s why I suggested the business process be changed to ensure an internal review of resumes is performed. Remember, business processes are ALWAYS changed when holes are found.

By JD

April 27, 2006 11:07 AM | Link to this

I have not posted anything on here in months but I see that not much has changed in the blame game. I find it very funny that we look at the schools such as Chamblee, Lakeside, Dunwoody and Druid Hills and make blanket statements as if those teachers are working harder than teachers as McNair, Avondale and Clarkston, etc.

Most teachers work their behinds off and you cannot simply look at test scores and say, “Hey their test scores are high, those teachers and good at that school and they really work hard.” The truth is the teachers at the low performing schools work just as hard if not harder because of the obstacles they must overcome on a daily basis. Many of you parents that post on this blog are shortchanging yourselves. If you have a child that is a high achiever, please pat yourselves on the back because you deserve most of the credit, not a teacher or school system. Do you really think its that easy, just change school systems and your child will become a better student?

I’ve been teaching for 11 years and its sickening the way parents think that teachers are the biggest reasons why a child fails or succeeds. Brookwood is a high achieving school but if you changed staffs between Brookwood and Cross Keys, the SAT scores at Brookwood would still be high and at Cross Keys they would still be low. These great teachers that many of you want to talk about at these high achieving schools would not last a month at some of these low achieving schools.

We need to start realizing that we all need to be held accountable, superintendants, teachers, principals, students, counselor, but most of all “Parents.”

I agree the school systems need to be revamped starting with the school boards where board members have no educational background but yte, make decisions that impact our students.

In the end the biggest problem is that society as a whole does not respect the teaching profession. No one tells a surgeon how to operate or and embalmer how to embalm a body but everyone has an opinion on education even though they have never majored in the field.

Parents run too many schools. The school systems are afraid of parents, if Dr. Lewis decides he wants to transfer the principal at Lakeside, that is his right. He does not need permission from parents. Principals are transferred every year so this is nothing new but it is new when it happens at prestigious Lakeside in that affluent neighborhood! Please remember that Lakeside has high test scores because the parents make sure that their kids value and treasure education.

By Taxpayer

April 27, 2006 11:43 AM | Link to this

JD, I applaud and respect you for being a teacher. I could not do it, so I don’t try to tell others how to do it. Instead, I support my child’s teachers through donations, notes of appreciation, volunteering, etc.

I don’t know how you got off on the topic of Lakeside’s principal and the transfer issue. If you will recall, that transfer was made because of incorrect information. I assume that you would want someone to stick up for you if you were wrongly accused or fired/demoted based on incorrect information, right?

As far as the success of Lakeside or any other school, I agree with you that it is far more dependent on the home environment and parenting than anything else. You can have the best teachers in the world at a school, but if the students are coming in without any respect or desire for learning, they will fail. Parents are their kids’ first teachers, and if the parents don’t do their work, then the teacher can’t do his/her work.

By Robert

April 27, 2006 12:24 PM | Link to this

JD - In no way was I inferring that teachers at the “good” schools work harder than those at the “bad” schools. What I was pointing out was that it is unfair to say all of the DeKalb County School system is “bad” when there are some high performing schools within that school system.

By JD

April 27, 2006 02:17 PM | Link to this

Taxpayer I mentioned the situation at Lakeside to simply say that Principals are transferred all the time and unfortunately sometimes this happens in the middle of the year. Someone mentioned the Lakeside situation in an earlier thread on this blog. Maybe that example was not a very good example but what I’m saying is that as a whole , parents run too many schools. This is an across the board problem. Many parents go running to the school board when a their child earns a grade they do not like. I’ve seen grades changed so that seniors will walk simply because of pressure from parents. I will never teach another Senior English class because when students fail there is never enough support from the County office.

Robert I totally understand what you are saying. You are absolutely right. I just want people to realize that teaching is going on even at the low performing schools. My school has been on the AYP list for 3 years but we still have students going places such as Emory, Darthmouth, Syracuse, GA Tech and Vanderbilt on academic scholarships. Those students have great parents and their families have done a great job with them academically. Those students were going to succeed regardless of where they went to school.

JD

By cross keys teacher

April 27, 2006 02:21 PM | Link to this

Thank you, JD, for your comment.

Cross Keys has one of the greatest student bodies I’ve ever been around. The kids are hard working and sweet, but most of them are not native speakers. Their parents may work two jobs to make ends meet. Some students have to work to help pay bills. Most of the school is on free or reduced lunch.

You will never meet a faculty as caring as the one at Cross Keys. Teachers donate both time and money to students who have faced all sorts of problems. We have had several students lose their homes to fires; we welcomed with open arms students who fled the hurricanes; we have helped to pay bills and rent for students who have lost parents.

We get students from other countries who can barely read or write in their native language and students who have had little or no formal schooling. Yet all these students have to take some standardized tests, and that’s how the rest of Atlanta judges us.

It’s true. If you replace the Cross Keys faculty with Brookwood’s, the scores would not change. But I, for one, would much rather be at Cross Keys, for all it’s obstacles and challenges, than at Brookwood, Druid Hills, Lakeside, or Dunwoody.

By Ernest

April 28, 2006 08:20 AM | Link to this

Props to both of you, JD and Cross Keys Teacher! Whether a school makes AYP is not all due to the teachers, though they can have an impact. Unfortunately, teachers are the ones we blame when test scores are not what the community would want them to be. I believe most on this blog understand there are MANY factors that impact the success of a school. Echoing Taxpayer’s remarks, keep up the good work!

By Ernest

April 28, 2006 08:39 AM | Link to this

Robert, based on my research I could not find where anyone was fired regarding O’Leary’s ‘inaccuracies’ on his resume. After all, he won football games. Though somewhat embarrasing, at the end of the day, many figured ‘no harm, no foul’. After all, this was not discovered until AFTER he resigned from Tech to accept the Notre Dame job. The punishment was probably not welcoming him back after Notre Dame decided not to hire him.

On another note on this story, I understand DeKalb teachers got letters making them aware their personal information (i.e. SSNs) may have been compromised. While necessary, I believe this is more precautionary than anything else.