City Schools of Decatur School Board Candidates Forum and Meet & Greet Next Tuesday, Oct 22
Decatur Metro | October 14, 2013Deanne sends in this announcement…
City Schools of Decatur School Board Candidates Forum and Meet & GreetWhen: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 at 7pmWhere: The Church at Decatur Heights, 735 Sycamore Drive, Decatur GA 30030All City of Decatur residents are invited to hear from CSD School Board Candidates Mark Arnold, Lewis Jones and Annie Caiola on key topics of interest to our community. A Forum will take place from 7-8:30 moderated by legendary former Decatur High School Social Studies teacher Chris Billingsley. A Meet & Greet will follow from 8:30-9. This free event is an effort of residents from across City of Decatur. Special thanks to The Church at Decatur Heights, 2012 City of Decatur Hometown Hero, for providing the space and event support.
*** Please share the attached event flyer with your neighbors without internet! Thanks! ***
For information on the Candidates, please visit:http://electmarkarnold.com/http://www.jones-for-school-board.org/ http://annie4schoolboard.com/
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Alrighty, let’s get crackin’ with what y’all want to see covered! Topics? Questions? The Forum team’s counting on your input!
(Thanks DM! :0)
How do keep getting better in the face of relentless growth?
-Redistricting process given Westchester re-opening–how will community, family, and school leadership team input be incorporated? How will current 2nd graders be handled so they don’t have to go to a new school for just one year?
-Should 4/5 model be retained in current environment of explosion of young children and limited facility space?
-How should middle school and high school space limitations be addressed?
-How can the influence and impact of school leadership teams, which are mandated by the system charter, be increased?
-How can special education services, especially those for dyslexia, be improved to become less adversarial, use evidence-based interventions, and become more family-friendly so that they are maximally effective in an era of exploding need and limited resources, and so that all students benefit?
-How can IB be implemented at the high school so that students have a maximum of choices of AP and IB subjects without having de facto tracking and without students having to take absurdly high loads just to avoid “the classes where no one, not the students nor the teacher, care”?
To answer your first question, the CSD has hired the same firm to gather data that was responsible for the data that led to the 2004 redistricting.
There is a committee of parents, teachers, and administrators working on redistricting for opening Westchester. The first meeting was last night (open to the public) and CSD expects the process to be wrapped up by the end of this month. There will be one opportunity for public comment.
Hmmm. Don’t like the first piece of information since the 2004 data resulted in projections that were way off and counterintuitive to anyone living with young children in Decatur at the time. Like the idea of a committee with parents and teachers to work with Central Office and that it’s meetings are open to the public. But I didn’t see the first meeting mentioned in any eBlasts or other family communication avenues. Only one opportunity for public comment seems inadequate unless the committee is getting input other ways. Is it meeting with the School Leadership Teams for the schools whose students may be moving to Westchester?
The good news is that reopening Westchester will be a happy event no matter what compared to its closing. People rave about the recently reopened Glennwood Elementary. If as good a principal is picked for Westchester, the new school will probably be real popular too. The only things I can see going wrong are if a poor selection of principal is made or if children are made to move for just one year to a new elementary school before they then move on to the 4/5 Academy. They should be allowed to finish their last year where they’ve been since kindergarten.
Or is the 4/5 concept being reevaluated as part of the committee’s charge?
If you’re not on Facebook and/or don’t “like” City Schools of Decatur then you probably don’t know about the rezoning committee. http://www.csdecatur.net/Zoning/
It is clear to me that exploring the K-5 option is not on the table. This concerns me because when we eventually realize that we can’t shoehorn another student into the 4/5 Academy, we will be faced with rezoning AGAIN when we have to open Fifth Ave and our other elementary schools as K-5s in a few years.
Or maybe we just really love playing rezoning roulette.
So you have to like CSD and check Facebook now to get up to date news from CSD? What happened to eBlasts and similar email communications? I thought CSD and the schools were trying to consolidate communications for maximum efficiency and coordination into a few eBlasts per week? Don’t mind becoming a CSD Facebook friend but wish I had known to keep that base covered too. If I don’t know, many others don’t either.
Rezoning musical chairs it is. The parents of younger children may not have experienced it yet so they don’t know to beware and lobby for the least disruptive approach. The parents of the older children don’t have to worry about it anymore so they give up trying to make rezoning work better.
OMG That firm did such a fine job the first time.
It is a bit hard to believe, I admit, that there is no other qualified business in the area, especially given the dubious results from this firm before. Why does CSD’s business keep going to this firm?
My burning questions are below:
1. With a new position for superintendent opening within this candidate’s term, what does each candidate believe to be the most important qualities for the superintendent? Why?
2. Are the current reserves in our budget enough to cover the needed expansion to house the over population of students? If not, how does each candidate propose to resolve the current budget’s deficiency?
3. What will each candidate do to strengthen communication between the City of Decatur and the City Schools of Decatur in regards to annexation and population growth?
4. What does each candidate feel his/her most important role as a board member is, and why?
Do we know that the current Superintendent, Dr. Edwards, is leaving? Is there a timetable? I agree that this issue supercedes all others because the Superintendent has more day-to-day power and influence than any other individual connected to CSD, including the School Board members. If the Board knows that Dr. Edwards is leaving by a certain date, it should have already decided upon and started the process for attracting and selecting an excellent replacement. I liked what I saw for a process when Dr. Van Soelen was applying for a position in the Midwest–the finalists all spoke and met with the public. It’s got to be a bit challenging for the applicants but it’s not an easy job and the wrong choice could ruin CSD.
When I went to a meet in greet with Lewis Jones it was mentioned the superintendant would be leaving Spring 2014. I don’t know if this is set in stone, or a possibility, but it is something we need to find out next week.
What’s your favorite wing place?
Boxers, briefs, or magic underwears? If a future President wasn’t too good for the question, certainly school board members should be able to tackle it.
I see I’m not the only one who asks good questions.
wings: 58 comments
education and election: 3 real and 1 smarty pants about wings
I see that Jones is District 1 and Caiola is at-large but I’ve looked through Mark Arnold’s website and can’t figure out what seat he’s running for. Are any of these folks running against each other or opposing anyone else?
Mark Arnold and Lewis Jones are both running for the open Dist 1 seat.
( I guess we could’ve pointed it out, but with the event being a team effort of residents and candidates to put together and promote, the Vs. aspect kinda got lost in the shuffle! Only in City of Decatur could that ever happen! :0 )
1) Regarding Board Oversight
The Board seems to have two mechanisms to effect change: Budget control and management oversight of the Superintendent. What’s your vision/plan for fully utilizing these to realize CSD’s goals?
2) Regarding Low-, Med- and High-Achievers
How do you compare the priorities of helping struggling students reach grade-level standards compared with helping other students reach material far beyond their grade level?
3) Regarding consolidated schools:
a) What factors might indicate that CSD’s consolidated 4/5, middle and high schools are growing too much as they serve 100% of the enrollment growth within their grade ranges?
b) How can CSD’s “Every Student” mission be achieved in large, consolidated 4/5, middle and high schools as enrollment increases dramatically?
c) Given land constraints within the City of Decatur, are there any options besides continuing with large, consolidated schools, especially at the 4/5 level?
1) How do you plan to address the lack of communication from the Board to the community without suggesting that people attend every Board meeting? Opt-in e-blast of some sort should really contain brief descriptions and links to more info regarding everything the Board is currently working on. Neighborhoods adjacent to schools should also be alerted to all events and plans that could affect them.
2) Are there any plans to consider purchasing some land from the United Methodist Children’s Home and perhaps developing a school there? That may be the best site left in our city limits for any kind of expansion.
3) Has there been any discussion about bringing Pre-K into the K-3 schools since so many open seats at each school after rezoning? I know that not everyone eligible can get a Pre-K spot now because of limited space.
4) Can you commit to asking the taxpayers of the City of Decatur for their concerns and suggestions for improvement before hiring consultants? I think the Board should at least hear on a regular basis from the community at large in some organized way. These are our children, our neighborhoods and our tax dollars at work, it seems that our opinions should count more than they currently seem to.