An Open Letter to Michael Thurmond

Mr. Thurmond,

Thank you for your honest back and forth with citizens at this morning's Emory LaVista Parent Council meeting. I attend a lot of meetings and your willingness to stay in the conversation is a refreshing change. Many of your subordinates have a record of walking out instead of dealing with difficult questions.

Every time I hear you speak I become a more ardent supporter. You may be the right person to be superintendent at this time. I particularly appreciate your attitude of getting to know how things work before attempting to make any big changes. Hopefully, you are a fast learner.

That said, I have to tell you parents are well aware you are not answering many of the questions asked. I repeat my question, are salaries of employees going to be looked at? I have said "central office staff" but please take that to include everyone. I know you are not responsible for past raises and increases, but the next budget is yours and it will not be accepted well if many learning coaches are making in excess of $80,000. Behind-closed-door agreements among friends should not continue to be honored. People earning above the maximum salary range for their position should have their pay reduced. 

We parents are not always clear when we talk about "central office bloat." Since Dr. Atkinson re-coded hundreds of jobs away from the central office it isn't so much about the number of positions as much as over-paid personnel who under-perform. Ramona Tyson is the prime example of this. As I have said before, please do not entrust her or listen to her advice. She does not have a record of making good decisions or being a capable administrator.  

I did not see last night's budget meeting, but I have looked at the Power Point presentation. I can not figure out where those numbers on slide #2 came from. Almost none of the categories have amounts found on any of the posted FY 2013 budget documents. While not the sharpest knife in the drawer, I do have a business degree from GSU and can read charts. I am including Mr. Perrone in the email with the hope he can let us both know where he got the numbers used on slide #2. Are they amended budget numbers? Even if they are, they don't match the last monthly financial report. I am confused.

Finally, if I heard you correctly, this morning you said the public would get a list of central office employees at next week's budget meetings. I repeat myself again. Would it be possible to have the organization chart filled out with names and phone numbers? As I stated at the last BOE meeting when I asked for this, it would make communication and problem solving much easier for parents. 
Thank you again for speaking this morning and thank you for stepping into the position of interim superintendent. I think you are going a great job. Keep it up.

Kirk Lunde