The AJC reports that the DeKalb School Board voted this morning to require students to attend school on February 18 and 21st to make up days lost to the Great SnOMG of 2011.

Awesome snow pic from our Eye on the (Snowy) Street thread.  Courtesy of Kate!

Decatur resident and South DeKalb teacher, Dr. William Blackwood, recently spoke out – in a very well-written AJC op-ed – about the widespread problems he has seen within the schools throughout South DeKalb where he teaches.  From the vast number of highly paid administrators – what he calls “the bloated assistant-principal caste” at Southwest DeKalb High – to the “jury-rigged, “research-based” pedagogical approaches” to teaching, Dr. Blackwood doesn’t pull any punches.

A taste…

The bloated assistant-principal caste characterizes a system that employs more non-teaching personnel than it does teachers. This dysfunctional jobs-creation program is complicit in the invidious perpetuation of the hugely disenfranchising notion that black students are to be taught in a special way.

…The nostrum that it is necessary to focus on “doing social studies” as opposed to explicating the subject reduces teaching to a form of crowd control that is hopelessly over tasked when confronted with the need to explain such concepts as the social contract, selective incorporation, equal protection, federalism, and limited government.

Many commenters to the AJC post are expressing gratitude for Blackwood’s words, but worry that his job may be in jeopardy for speaking out so publicly.  It should be interesting to see how both of these stories progress in the coming weeks and months.

Thanks to JB to pointing out this post!

WSB is now reporting that both City of Decatur and DeKalb County Schools will be closed tomorrow.  (Yes, I essentially just repeated the title of the post.)

Plan accordingly ‘rents!

I’d make more of a joke out of the fact that a DeKalb County School Board member threatened to “slug” a CBSAtlanta reporter if the larger nepotism story wasn’t so darn concerning.

CBS Atlanta has learned [DeKalb County School Board member Zepora] Roberts has two daughters employed by the school system; one who got a job, and another who got promoted during the time their mother has been in power.

In Robert’s anger she was quick to point out she’s not the only highly influential administrator with relatives being given jobs and promotions. In fact, she’s made a list.

“There was Jim Henson, who was a Superintendent who had two children working for the system and it was not an issue. Dr Hallford had his son, his daughter, his in-law and everybody else.”

The video showing Roberts’ threatening reporter Wendy Saltzman is embedded in the article linked to above.

Um, yikes?  From the AJC…

DeKalb County school board members insist they are not heading down the same path as Clayton County and will salvage the district’s accreditation.

“I’m not concerned about us losing accreditation,” board chairman Tom Bowen said Friday. “There will have to be a lot of back and forth with [the accrediting agency] and non-compliance on our part. I don’t see that happening.”

But many of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ concerns about DeKalb mirror the questions the agency had about Clayton two years ago, which led to its losing accreditation.

More HERE. Thanks to Nellie for forwarding.