Comments on: CSD Community Forum Video – Part I

By: Andrea Berry

Andrea Berry — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:09:24 +0000

Just a note:

Part 2 of the CSD Community Forum from January 12th is online now at this link on Decatur CityNet: http://decaturcitynet.ning.com/group/csdboardofeducation

We’ll post the other two parts of the Forum this weekend.

Enjoy!
Andrea

By: Judd

Judd — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:25:03 +0000

Looking at Dr Edwards’ report, she’s looking for two (not several) new positions, SLT/Community Relations and Chief of Staff. She says she wants to elevate an existing staff member to the first position, so i suppose it could be either an expansion of an existing position, such as Communications, or someone is already doing the work on top of other jobs and is spread too thin.

By: Karass

Karass — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:07:23 +0000

What’s the difference between a Community Relations specialist and a Communications person? Doesn’t CSD already have the latter? Although I see more coming out from Andrea Berry than from the CSD Communications person.

I really don’t begrudge CSD any support it needs. Problem is that they’ve been cutting things for students, e.g. parapro positions, RMS football, RMS cheerleading, etc., at the same time that evidently an admin position or two is being hired. In tight times, we need student needs to come first. It’s the same everywhere in government and business, admin positions have to be cut to preserve the front line of service. I’d rather admin support in the schools so that parapros are in the classroom not the office or giving parent tours than admin support at Westchester.

By: TeeRuss

TeeRuss — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:54:16 +0000

It seems to me that the constant “voicing of concerns” directly to Dr. Edwards and other board members are contributing factors as to why they need Chief of Staff and Community Relations positions. The constant second guessing and rabble-rousing is making more work for them than they can handle.

That said, I am not in favor of adding such administrative positions. I think that the CSD folks have been working on some major things the past couple of years, and they’ve handled it pretty well with the staff on hand. When all of these 5th Ave/Annexation/System Charter initiatives have died down, they will regain some bandwidth.

By: Judd

Judd — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:02:30 +0000

It’s hard for me to begrudge CSD some staffing requests. They have a lot on their plate. As for community relations, seems to me the schools would benefit from having on board someone like Linda Harris, who is a big asset over at City Hall.

Decatur CityNet seems like it has a lot of potential. Hats off to Andrea Berry.

By: smalltowngal

smalltowngal — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:52:57 +0000

For crying out loud! After all the recent carrying-on about communicating better and engaging the community more, now there’s going to be sniping about hiring somebody to handle community relations? Give me a break! Better yet, give Dr. Edwards a break!

By: RachelF

RachelF — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:00:45 +0000

I have seen some previous comments about classroom square footage for K-2 vs. 3-5 classrooms. A simple way to understand the difference in size requirements for the two age groups is that a K-2 classroom is larger so that it can fit a rug in it where the children can sit for storytime and other activities like that.

By: fifi

fifi — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:17:52 +0000

In general I am a fan of Dr Edwards and the current BOE. I think they have made many positive changes in the system over the last 5 years .

The one area where I do have some criticism is the increase in administrative positions since Dr Edwards arrived. During the reconfiguration debate, she promised to keep administrative costs to a minimum . Maybe she needs a reminder of that promise.

CSD Mom – I, too, will email the BOE members to express my concern about those proposals..