Power-Deprived Plant

In a morning article detailing the trials and tribulations of DeKalb residents under the boil water advisory (some of which sounded like they came from your comments on this site), the AJC asked DeKalb County twice why backup power failed at the recently-expanded-for-a-cool-$150-mill Scott Candler Water Plant.

County spokesperson Kristie Swink, who would only respond in writing to the AJC (perhaps some oral surgery gone horribly wrong prevented her from speaking?), kept her replies to the technicalities of why the system went off-line this time around. In regards to why the back-up system didn’t work or why the county didn’t address this issue the first time this happened a couple months ago, she was less helpful.

I guess the county doesn’t think we have a right to know much about the water we’re drinking.

It’s understandable. It’s not like I need water to live or anything.

As reported by Decatur EDtv, 5th and 10th graders at their respective Decatur schools didn’t meet the “No Child Left Behind” standards (known as Adequate Yearly Progress or “AYP”) in math this past year.

EDtv followed up with Decatur Associate Superintendent Dr. Thomas Van Soelen about the District’s new Math Improvement Plan being implemented this coming school year.

If you still have unanswered questions post-video watching, you can also view the actual plan on Decatur EDtv’s website at the bottom of the page.

So, what happens when a school (or two) doesn’t make “Adequate Yearly Progress”? Well luckily, there are no consequences for not making AYP for one year, according to Georgia’s AYP website. However, if it happens for two consequetive years across the district (like this year), the district is labeled “Needs Improvement”. A “needs improvement” school is not a “failing school” according to the state, but is required to develop an action plan to turn things around after two consecutive years of not making AYP, and implement it after three years.

It sounds like Decatur has already developed and will implement a plan after just one year of not making AYP.

We expect nothing less, even if the 23% drop county-wide drop seems to speak more to the inadequacies of changes to the test, rather than the inadequacies of our students.

[h/t: InDecatur]