From Superintendent Dr. Phyllis Edwards…

As you may know from the recent news, the State of Georgia is not collecting the revenue they anticipated because of the weak economy. This shortfall will affect all public schools in Georgia. At City Schools of Decatur, we have been working hard to create a responsible budget that allows us to keep our staff but we will need to make some cuts to account for the reduction of funds we will receive from the State. Currently, we are proposing a 3-day reduction in work year calendars for all of our staff (with the exception of 185 day employees) and a salary “freeze.” These proposals will be outlined in a public hearing so that we can receive feedback from our community.

I want to let you know that this public meeting will be held on March 17, 2010 at 4:30 pm and again at 6:00 pm to review the proposed changes to our salary scales for the 2010 – 2011 school year.

The meeting will be held in the auditorium at Westchester (758 Scott Boulevard, Decatur 30030). You are welcome to attend and let the Board of Education hear your opinions.

Thank you in advance for your understanding during these difficult times.

Yesterday I received correspondence from Assistant Superintendent Thomas van Soelen and City Schools of Decatur Board Member Julie Rhame on the ongoing community issues involving 5th Avenue acreage and the potential of using the Beacon Hill as the site of the city’s new 4/5 academy.

Both the Assistant Superintendent and Ms. Rhame attached two documents with their email.  One is a 4-page letter from Superintendent Dr. Phyllis Edwards responding to these two issues; discussed at length here and sent to CSD in a letter/petition format.  The other attachment is a 3-page site evaluation of Beacon Hill, requested by the board and performed by Rosser.  Both documents are must-read.

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Superintendent Phyllis Edwards sent out a note this morning announcing that the Board of Ed recently approved significant changes to the 2010-2011 school calendar.  The note can be read in full after the jump.

Here are links to both the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011calendars (both PDFs) so you can view for yourself.

At first glance at both schedules, the major changes seem to be that the school year starts a week earlier in August and there are now full weeks off in September, February and around Thanksgiving.

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Emily and Andrea send in this news…

…the CSD System Charter Leadership Team will have a work session with the CSD Board of Education tomorrow at 6 pm in the Hospitality Room at the DHS Auditorium complex. At 7 pm Dr. Edwards is set to deliver a State of the District message to all School Leadership Team members at a special SLT congress meeting in the DHS Auditorium.

In the meantime, be sure to check out Part 1 of Decatur edTV’s “Charter Report First Year Progress Report” below. 

According to the State Department of Education, Decatur is leading the way in terms of defining the roles in the new SLT/Board of Ed governance system and in “pushing the envelope” in terms of flexible funding.

In this letter to the community, Superintendent Phyllis Edwards announces new safety measures being taken at Decatur schools.

Dear Parents and Community Members:

On October 11th we opened a lovely new school facility at Decatur High School. Hopefully you were able to attend the open house and see the new building. What it will offer our students is nothing short of incredible.

With the addition of a new facility comes some increased monitoring and supervision.

We have already experienced some thefts this year of equipment at DHS. We are making or have made the following changes:

• *New cameras and security system provided by Iron Sky;
• *Change of locks and entry procedures;
• *Requirement of all staff to be out of the building at a reasonable hour;
• *Review of our procedures with the city police and the alarm company;
• *A meeting with the police and assessment of the facility.

Shortly, I will announce a meeting for parents about safety. The police will be our speakers and trainers. Even though we are a small system, we are not immune from danger and illegal behavior.

I believe we are taking the appropriate steps to make our schools as safe as possible, but it is important that we all stay informed and work together.

Students who engage in behavior which is illegal will be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Doors need to remain locked and staff vigilant. We do not want an environment filled with armed officers and metal detectors, but need to understand we all pay the price when we are lenient in matters concerning student safety.

Sincerely,

Dr. Phyllis A. Edwards

Superintendent of School

Wow…I’m amazed this one flew under the radar.  From the Superintendent’s overview for next week’s school board meeting…

Unfortunately, three of our buildings were broken into last week (Clairemont, Westchester and DHS). Windows were broken out in Westchester. Maintenance worked to close up and fix the damage and now we set about the business of determining what was taken. It is very sad to know that schools are not safe or off limits for criminals.

I’ve already followed up with CSD.  We’ll see what else can be learned.

UPDATE: More details from Associate Superintendent Thomas Van Soelen…

At the time of the board meeting, we believed that three facilities had been affected. We were notified by the Decatur Police that two schools were broken into right before the opening of school. The high school had two break-ins, with the second resulting in a loss of equipment in our video production classroom. DHS will soon have a state of the art security system with many cameras at various locations. In the future, it should be more difficult for thieves and others to damage the school property without being identified.

Westchester, the central office site, was also affected: glass being smashed at the rear entrance. This appears to have been a malicious act as nothing was taken from this site.

We have alarm systems but ask the neighbors to please keep a watch on the school property.

Asst. Superintendent Thomas Van Soelen forwards another note from the superintendent.  This one seems to leave the door a bit more open for potential furlough days later in the school year.

We are reviewing the situation. While we do not wish to cut short the work of our teachers and staff, the serious nature of the economic picture may require that we take this step. We are exploring the options. At this time, should we consider the reduction of work calendars, as suggested by the Governor, we will plan forward so the days in question can take place the latter part of the year.

For the past week or so we’ve been reading daily about the metro-area fallout from the governor’s decision to help fill around 10% of the state’s $900 million budget shortfall by asking (not telling) school systems to put their teachers on 3-day furloughs sometime in the coming school year.

Within hours of the governors request, both Gwinnett and Forsyth counties announced their furlough days, while Cobb County decided to dip into their reserves to cover the shortfall.  Closer to home, DeKalb County, who already has one furlough day this school year due to a local revenue shortage, announced they wouldn’t enact furloughs, but instead would eliminate payments to teacher and administration retirement plans.

But, what about Decatur?  In response to my question, Asst. Superintendent Thomas Van Soelen forwarded a note that was just sent out to teachers.

The governor has decided to withhold 3 days worth of salaries for school districts this coming school year. Doctor Edwards will present a plan to the board of education in August, but she wanted to let each of you know now that preplanning days for teachers and paraprofessionals are not affected. The first day back will still be August 5, Opening Day at Agnes Scott College. If City Schools of Decatur needs to eliminate three days, the days will occur later on in the year.

UPDATE:  Meeting has been moved to Thursday.  See this post for more detail.

The CSD Board of Education will hold a special session at Westchester next Monday at 6:30p to consider their position on the city’s pending annexation of the large DeVry property that sits at the northeast corner of the city.

The only action item on the agenda was submitted by the Superintendent.

Move approval to support the city in the annexation of the DeVry property.

This special session and motion for approval are in direct response to a request from Mayor Floyd for the school system to weigh in on the potential school impact of a DeVry annexation.  While the school board’s approval carries no real weight, the recent uptick in communication between the two most powerful boards in the city demonstrates that they are actively attempting to bridge their long-time communication gap. 

As for whether the school board will go along with the Superintendent’s approval, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

The CSD school board is scheduled to vote on the much-discussed reconfiguration issue next Tuesday, June 9th.

In her note to the board motioning to approve Option 13, superintendent Dr. Phyllis Edwards references the general support that renovating 5th Ave has among the reconfiguration committee, teachers and parents that spoke at the listening sessions.  She also states…

I estimate that if you make the decision in June, it will still take two years until the building is ready. In the meantime, we will add portables as we see fit. In the following school year, we may have to explore other temporary options.

By doing a lease purchase for $10 million dollars, Fifth Avenue can be renovated and the remaining dollars spent on renovating RMS, which sorely needs attention.

Barring some unforeseen challenge or circumstance, the vote next Tuesday (6:30p @ Westchester) should be the final say in this matter.

You can read the Superintendent’s full letter after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »