Parents want schools chief to give back raise

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The DeKalb County schools superintendent stared straight ahead Monday night as parents and teachers asked him to return his $15,000 raise.

Taxpayers and school workers told Superintendent Crawford Lewis that his raise was unacceptable with the district facing a $56 million deficit in next year’s budget.

“I believe that Dr. Lewis needs to lead by example and refuse the raise,” Laura Bales, a parent and an Avondale High School graduate, told the board. “We are facing tough economic times and it is demoralizing to teachers to face salary cuts when we have a leader at the top who is saying I will take this raise.”

The board is considering teacher furloughs and cutting programs, such as pre-kindergarten classes, art courses, magnet schools and Montessori programs, to offset the deficit.

While Bales spoke, 30 school employees protested outside. The teachers, bus drivers and cafeteria workers held signs criticizing Lewis’ raise and questioned their proposed pay cuts. Last month, the board voted to raise Lewis’ salary from $240,000 to $255,000.

“Why are you taking from us when we can’t pay our car notes and take care of our families? He gets a raise and I got a cut,” said bus driver Keisha Sellers while protesting Monday’s board meeting. Sellers, a 14-year employee, said her salary dropped from $18,000 to $14,000 while her health insurance premiums went up.

Asked about the raise after the meeting, Lewis said he lost $35,000 last year in pay and benefit cuts. He declined comment on the request to turn down his $15,000 raise. He said state Open Meeting laws prohibit him from addressing the parents publicly.

School board chairman Thomas Bowen said he also could not comment on the parents’ comments.

Lewis previously has said if the program cuts are not made the school system will have to raise property taxes. But at 22.98 mills, DeKalb already has the third-highest school tax rate in the metro area, according to the superintendent.

School officials said the deficit stems from a decline in property taxes and state aid.

The DeKalb County Commission also is facing an $82 million deficit and considering drastic cuts to prevent raising taxes.

Seleste Harris of the Organization of DeKalb Educators said the board needs to look at the $70 million the district spends on instructional specialists, staff development positions and human resource workers.

Seven parents from Huntley Hills Elementary School brought a list of possible budget cuts to the board, reductions they hope will help save the Montessori program at their Chamblee school.

Shelli Wells, whose child attends the Montessori program at Briar Vista Elementary School, told the board she feels the district is not prioritizing expenses.

“Never when we were looking at [our personal household] budget did we cut food or electricity or things that were necessity,” said Wells, who was laid off from her corporate job. “I think we have to cut things that are extra. … I don’t feel the education is extra. That is our food.”

Teacher Aesha Baldwin said she feels the board lied to her since she was told the district had no money when it decided to raise Lewis’ salary.

“There are some surprising parallels between DCSS and sadly dare I say AIG; taxpayers are funding the bailout,” she told the board. “Most of us [teachers] feel like we’re in a circus. You make us jump through rings of fire and every year the rings get smaller. When will you all understand we’re now receiving third-degree burns?”

The Organization of DeKalb Educators, which represents 4,700 employees, asked the board to give a line item list of expenditures for the past three years, along with allowing a group of volunteer residents to do an audit of bus driver pay.

“Right now, we have a crisis of confidence in this school system that only 10 of you can address,” ODE president David Schutten told the board and Lewis.