I’m inviting all students, parents, teachers, and the community at large to my upcoming Chamblee Community Town Hall meeting.
CHAMBLEE
When: Tue June 11 @ 5:30pm
Where: Chamblee Library – 4115 Clairmont Rd, Chamblee
DUNWOODY
When: May 14th @ 7pm
Where: St. Luke’s – 1978 Mt Vernon Rd, Dunwoody
Room: Chapel – From the Manhasset entrance, turn right in the lobby
As we approach the end of the 2018-2019 school year, we have a lot to talk about. No speeches here … let’s discuss what’s going on. What’s going on? Off the top of my head, E-SPLOST projects are running out of money, the school district is squeezing more and more children into our schools and the school district will be asking for a loan of up to $250 million soon. Furthermore, the Dunwoody, Chamblee, Brookhaven and Doraville areas will see some redistricting over the next few years as new schools come online.
Come one, come all. I will also invite various representatives from our other local governments to join us.
See you soon.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
How many more years with “joker” at the head chair.
Stan, is this meeting still on? I hope so, especially after the fireworks at tonight’s BOE meetings.
@anonymous, please share what fireworks?
The Public Comment session was interesting. There was a very large contingent of people speaking and standing in support of the Cedar Grove High School principal who was demoted. They were very persuasive. Apparently this guy has an exemplary record, is a Cedar Grove graduate, has been in place only a year but is beloved by the community.
(What’s up with principals in DeKalb? Last year Chamblee wanted to get a new principal but Dr. Green waited over 9 months before making a change. Now here’s a school that loves their principal yet he is being moved against his will.)
Restore DeKalb had a large presence and several speakers who opposed the increased taxes that we will pay because the millage rate isn’t being rolled back to offset rising property values.
But the most surprising thing was that at least two speakers directly told Dr. Green that he needs to go NOW. No beating around the bush, but harsh statements that he promised to be a change agent and he hasn’t been.
Later, at the Business meeting, the Board Vice Chair had to ask more than once for a motion to adopt the tentative budget. Finally it was adopted. I think this is unprecedented. I didn’t see all of this exchange, but what I saw was CFO Dr. Bell basically pleading with the Board to adopt the budget and no words at all from Dr. Green. Maybe I missed it.
But the June 10 draft of the budget shows using $28 MILLION from reserves! A month ago it was $14 Million and now it has doubled. Maybe Stan can fill us in on why this happened.
@anonymous: wow…thanks for the overview. Wonder why the BOE approved the budget…they have the power to send it back and tell CFO how they want it modified….the BOE only has 3 jobs: manage the superintendent, set policy, and provide oversight of the budget. The BOE does NOT have to rubber stamp everything: defer it, send it back, amend it, vote it down, etc are all options available. With a lame duck super, he isn’t going to run to SACS and say “They won’t let me do my job” because he has already resigned without using that excuse so rubber stamping can be set aside for the next year!
AB, the BOE just approved the tentative budget. But they had a lot of trouble with that.
The final budget approval is set for a special called meeting on June 25 at 7pm.
According to the BOE lawyer, GaDOE guidance says that the tentative budget has to be approved two weeks before the final budget is adopted. Yesterday was 2 weeks + 1 day before the June 25 meeting.
CFO Dr. Bell said that final budget approval shouldn’t be any later than June 25 in order to have the budget loaded and ready to go by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
So that was pressure on the Board to go ahead and approve the June 10 tentative FY20 budget draft. They did approve it, but I got the feeling that they aren’t happy with it and hope to make changes.
The only place I have seen this version of the budget is as an attachment to an Agenda Item for yesterday’s Business Meeting. I hope that Stan can post a direct link.
I’ll try and get a budget update out today with links, information, thoughts, etc …