Never Stop Communicating

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In the previous post I questioned if providing feedback to DeKalb County Schools does any good. I stand by that question based on being engaged with the district at varying levels for over nine years now.

I understand there are no magic wands and no good changes occur as quickly as people would like. My father was a politician and the pace of bureaucracy is something I grew up with. Most people don’t have attention spans long enough to see the process leading to good things that do happen and some good things are happening with DeKalb County Schools.

However, regardless of effect, or lack of effect, public feedback has on decisions made by the administration, people CAN NOT stop trying to influence change. (I will spare you that rant.)

There are three questions asked during the Community Engagement Meetings occurring right now. I will share my answers with you.

1. What priorities are considered to be crucial to continuing to improve the district and its schools?

My top two priorities are reducing class size and resolving the TSA lawsuit/resume contributions to the teachers’ retirement fund.

This is the hardest one. The easy answer is, remove all the friends and family, but that isn’t practical. So I will say, change the internal financial system to comply with GAAP and state DOE guidelines. Also, create some sort of cross-reference guide between different versions of the budget. By this I mean, something that explains how the Budget Detail relates to the Budget Summary and how those relate to the Consolidated Budget which the BOE approves.

3. What is currently working in the district and at local schools for highlighting and replication district-wide?

Look at the theme and magnet schools. They have the highest test scores and graduation rates. They also are the least overcrowded. Stop overcrowding the school buildings and classrooms. I have looked at the data long enough to know that after parent engagement, the biggest influence on measurable achievement is the density of students in a school or classroom. We do not need to replicate the themes or use expensive programs. We need to replicate schools where the teachers can teach.

Those are my answers.

Please email yours to Trenton Arnold who will pass them along to the Flexibility Advisory Committee. Trenton_J_Arnold@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us