DeKalb School Board's Paul Womack Speaks at Tucker Parent Council

The Tucker Parent Council met last night in Tucker High School's auditorium.  TPC brings together parents and others associated with the Tucker High School feeder system. Besides Tucker High, that would include five elementary schools – Brockett, Idlewood, Livsey, Midvale and Smokerise, along with Tucker Middle School.

DeKalb Board of Education District 4 member and vice chair Paul Womack was invited and spoke candidly to those attending. “The fourth district has done well in the redistricting,” he said. Womack’s district includes Tucker High and its feeder schools, among others.

Womack said the DeKalb County School System’s redistricting and consolidation process could have resulted in more closings than the eight announced by interim superintendent Ramona Tyson on Feb. 7. He predicted that the school closing issue would be revisited in a couple years.

Womack called the redistricting process fair, open and transparent. For example, there will be public hearings on the Feb. 7 proposal at 1701 Mountain Industrial Blvd. on Mar. 1 and 3 at 6:30 p.m. Those wanting to express their opinions on Tyson’s redistricting plan will need to pre-register by calling 678-875-2000 or by visiting https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/publichearings.

“Someone’s going to be hurt,” Womack said. He also made it clear that his primary responsibility as a board member is the 100,000 students of his district and not one neighborhood or school. He might have been referring to Livsey Elementary.

However, Womack lavishly praised Livsey’s accomplishments and said if Livsey had to be closed, he would want all students, teachers and principal to be collectively moved to another school to replicate their success. It was noted at this meeting that the Feb. 7 proposal would move 54 Livsey students to Midvale Elementary and 51 Pleasantdale Elementary students to Livsey.

Womack has seen a trend where more DeKalb principals and teachers have been let go for performance reasons. “We must have competent teachers,” he said. “We’re dealing with our future.” Womack bemoaned proposed pre-K cuts due to a decline in lottery revenues. “It costs a lot more to send someone to jail than it does to educate them,” he said.

Veteran Tucker High School foreign language teacher Bob McCormick announced to TPC that the school will be inviting Tucker business people to visit them on Thursday, Mar. 31. There will be a meet-and-greet in the school cafeteria at 6 p.m., followed by a 6:30 p.m. auditorium presentation on Tucker-area schools and then a tour of the new high school building.   

The next meeting of the Tucker Parent Council will be on Apr. 21. State Sen. Steve Henson and State Rep. Scott Holcomb have been invited to speak.