Schools “Transparency” Bill Offered After School System’s Year from Hell

By Tom Doolittle

The DeKalb County School System has had a tough year—certainly with its administration in the media. Regional print journals and television news have covered Superintendent Crawford Lewis’ under-market surplus car purchase, bullied student Jaheem Harrera’s suicide and $400,000 investigation payment to a former judge, a state-level review of scholastic testing fraud, the condition of Cross Keys High School, school board member Eugene Walker’s influence in a tax abatement case and recently and a GBI investigation involving a high level school administrative official (Pat Pope) in charge of over $200 million in SPLOST 1 and 2 capital projects. These issues all have at least one thing in common: they involve expenses and effort having little to do with educating students.

At least two of these matters, the Pope and Walker cases are related to a question of undue influence stemming from conflicts of interest. In turn, relating to employee hiring ethics, the DeKalb School Watch blog has highlighted the names of nearly a dozen highly paid school administrative executives who have family members in positions to have influenced their being hired. The blog has also pulled the number of administrative positions that pay over $100,000 a year from state Department of Education records, some for non-teaching positions initiated this year as tax revenues have plummeted.

All of these issues might at least partly explain why Georgia House Representative Kevin Levitas (D-Northlake/Tucker) has authored "The DeKalb School Board Transparency Act" which among other things would regulate conflicts of interest among school board members and DCSS employees. When asked about the process for the local legislation’s passage, Levitas e-mailed, “I think that we need to pass this bill as quickly as possible… to install a much-needed check in the system...”

The school system has no specific ethics code while the county government’s rules, legislated and passed by public referendum in 1990, do not apply to DCSS. After Levitas made his state legislative proposal public, the school board proposed its own ethics code. A vote to implement the DCSS policy was deferred at the last open school board meeting, to the dismay of at least one member, District 4’s Paul Womack. Womack said, “Either the board passes policy that is strong or stronger (than Levitas’ bill) or I will actively support his proposal.” With regard to the school board’s failure to vote last week, Womack mused, “It’s a mystery to me why anyone would oppose it.” Board members Walker, Roberts, Redovian, Copeland-Wood and Cunningham voted to defer the item.

Levitas e-mailed that he had not seen the school board’s rules draft, so he had no comment about it. The legislative bill, as currently crafted is ten (10) pages versus a three-page DCSS draft “policy”. One fundamental difference is that Levitas’ 10-page bill governs employees as well as school board members, in fundamentally stark contrast to the school board proposal which in part, seeks specifically to stay out of the administration’s business. Levitas stated, “I think it is important that neither DCSS employees and administrators nor elected officials have a conflict (potential or actual) regarding their exercise of their respective duties.” Regarding employees, many of Lavitas’ stipulations would have an impact on cases such as the highly-publicized Pat Pope investigation. For example, employees could not, “Engage in or accept private employment … for private interests when such employment or service is incompatible with the proper discharge of such person's official duties or would tend to impair his or her independence of judgment or action in the performance of his or her official duties.”

Not all prohibitions in Levitas’ legislation would necessarily be judged by an ethics commission. For most “business” conflicts, the law’s emphasis is on “transparency” or disclosure, stating, “Any board member who has a financial interest in any contract or matter pending before the board shall disclose such interest (in board records).” A board member’s or employee’s business or familial relationship, sometimes framed as “cronyism” and “nepotism”, is then advertised to the public, and subjected to discussion in a school board meeting after a 45-day public review period. In essence, if undue influence is deemed to exist by the school board, a contract or purchase is killed and punishment or sanction is not at issue—there is no role for an ethics body in such cases.

However, one type of conflict of interest is directly prohibited by Levitas, without any involvement by school board or ethics commission. In what the state representative termed as an “inherent” conflict at a recent public forum at Henderson Middle School, school board members would be prohibited from holding other public appointments or elective offices. If the regulation had already been in place when he was elected to the school board this year, Dr. Eugene Walker would have been forced to resign a position on the DeKalb Development Authority which he had held for several years. Walker resigned by choice after a public uproar when the finance authority proposed a tax abatement for the Sembler Company’s Town Brookhaven project, an action that would have reduced school system tax revenue. Sembler and individuals associated with the company had earlier made financial contributions to Walker’s school board candidacy.

Of course, as in all appointed commissions, public satisfaction is primarily dependent on the members chosen and the public’s trust in what interest they serve. In Levitas’ bill, the DeKalb Legislative Delegation chooses the commission members. An interesting twist in the proposal is the Delegation has the option of requiring that all members be from outside of DeKalb County.

Levitas said he expects the county-wide legislative Delegation to support the proposal because, “I have had very positive feedback from people across the county and hope that they will express their support to their respective legislators.”


Tom Doolittle is a 16-year resident of the Northlake area, was a columnist for former Community Review newspaper and now distributes news to several local blogs and websites. The writer has two children who have attended Lakeside High School.

Lakeside High Partner Offers H1N1 "After School" Vaccine

Our Partner in Education, North Atlanta Urgent Care (NAUC), has received a large shipment of H1N1 immunizations. They will be at Lakeside this Friday afternoon, December 11th, from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. to immunize Lakeside families and members of the community. Due to traffic and parking concerns at dismissal, we recommend that community members arrive after 3:45 p.m. to get their shots.
NAUC can give the immunization to anyone over 6 months of age. Anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to sign the consent form.
The cost is $20/shot. You can pay for the immunizations at Lakeside by cash or check.

North Atlanta Urgent Care currently has a limited number of seasonal flu vaccines available as well. If they have any left Friday, they will bring them to Lakeside. The cost is $25.

NAUC will also have H1N1 and seasonal flu immunizations available at their office at 2700 Clairmont Road any time this weekend or during the week. They invite the Lakeside community to come by their office before Friday to get flu shots-especially if you are interested in the seasonal flu shot, since those quantities are limited.

Their hours are: Monday - Thursday: 9AM - 8PM, Friday: 9AM - 7PM; and Saturday & Sunday 10AM - 6PM. Their phone number is 404-327-8744 if you have additional questions or want to find out if they still have seasonal flu shots.

Remember: Anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to sign the consent form.

Our thanks to North Atlanta Urgent Care, a great Partner in Education, for letting us know the H1N1 shipment has arrived!


Lakeside High School PTSA

Lakeside High School

Henderson Park Community Garden Progress

Subject: Henderson Park Meeting Summary

Presenters/Speakers:

Revonda Moody, Park Planning and Development

Marti Watts, Silverman Construction Program Management

Steve Provost and Regan Carr, jB+a (the landscape architects awarded the master plan contract)

Revonda and Marti provided an overview of the master plan process for the 7 acres adjacent to the Henderson Park soccer fields. The second meeting will be held on January 20. A third meeting will be held sometime in February. During the second meeting, jB+a will present a preliminary master plan. The master plan process is scheduled to conclude end of February/early March. Master plan construction should be completed by December of 2010.

Steve and Regan presented aerial photos, a topographical survey, and a site analysis, which included the locations of specimen trees. Before they’d finished, it was clear to attendees (including TYSA’s representative) that the site isn’t appropriate for another soccer field.

One attendee, who uses the hiking trails, said he’d like to keep the site as a natural area and make the trails more accessible. The community garden suggestion seemed to get a lot of support. Another attendee suggested a picnic area with grills and shelters (which would be perfect next to the community garden!), which the TYSA rep said would be useful for soccer families, giving them a place to gather before and after games. The TYSA rep had one word of caution, though: he said that parking should be addressed for any additional amenities, explaining that the soccer parking lots are already overflowing during weekend games.

Important and encouraging news for the community garden:

1. In January, DeKalb County will launch its community gardening initiative. Its purpose is to define the relationship between community gardening clubs/groups and the County (for ex, the County rents the site to the club for a fee and the club assumes certain responsibilities, including individual plot rentals), and to set forth rules for community gardens operating in DeKalb parks. Revonda said that a list of available sites will be included and that Henderson Park made the list. (If fact, she said that our proposal from last February can still be used; we’ll just need to attach the additional initiative-related paperwork to it. I’ll look into that once the initiative is launched.)

2. If our community garden is approved (that is, if there is no opposition to it from the community), Revonda said that we shouldn’t have to wait for the master plan to be completed, but that we can get started based on the County’s initiative.

The Henderson Park Master Plan project will be added to the DeKalb County Parks & Recreation web site (http://www.co.dekalb.ga.us/parks/) (see Mason Mill Park Master Plan Development as example). Minutes from the meeting will be included.

Short notice and dreadful weather contributed to very low attendance, with as many county and consultant representatives attending as community members. Thanks to those of you who were able to make it. I hope we can improve our turnout for the next meeting, not only as a show of support but also for the opportunity to review and provide feedback on the preliminary plan.

Regards,

Susan Farrar