Author Archives: Stan Jester

Regional Superintendents and Their Micro Cabinet

Posted on May 4, 2016 | 11 comments

Last month the Board of Education approved Phase III of the Central Office Reorganization.  The administration is decentralizing decision making by placing human capital and operational services in the field with the Regional Superintendent in a team dubbed “The Micro Cabinet”.

Related Links
.pdf link icon  DeKalb Schools ORGANIZATIONAL CHART 2015-2016
 Central Office ReOrg Phase III
Regional Superintendent Information – schools and contact information
I talked to Leo Brown, Chief Human Capital Officer, about this team to better understand the role and responsibilities of the Regional Superintendent and the Micro Cabinet.
Question: The Board of Education just approved Phase III of the reorganization. The plan is to decentralize decision making and place critical human capital and operational services in the field. Which positions are being placed in the field?

Response from Dr. Leo Brown: The regional teams include:

  • Regional Superintendent
  • Coordinator of School Leadership
  • Executive Assistant
  • Human Capital Manager
  • Human Capital Onboarding Assistant
  • Technical Lead (IT)
  • Regional Facilities Maintenance Supervisor
  • Regional Transportation Manager
  • Finance Personnel

Question: What are you calling these new regional superintendent teams?
Response from Dr. Leo Brown: The teams are considered a “micro-cabinet” and are essentially a version of Dr. Green’s cabinet that is solely focused on each particular region.
Question: What is the role of the regional superintendent and their team?
Response from Dr. Leo Brown: The regional superintendent and the regional teams are focused on providing support to schools in a specific region. This focused support will result in faster response times for principals and ensure a laser-like approach to sustaining an appropriate learning environment for our students.
Question:  In the org chart provided, is there any significance to the colors?
Response from Dr. Leo Brown: The colors don’t mean anything.  Those are the colors given to me in the org chart I oringaly received when I started.
Question:  How is this Regional Superintendent/Micro Cabinet different than what we’ve had in the past?
Response from Dr. Leo Brown: The Regional Superintendent’s job is to go into the schools to provide immediate resolution to issues.  The Micro Cabinet is their direct line of support.
Question:  Who does the micro cabinet report to.
Response from Dr. Leo Brown:  The Micro cabinet reports to the Regional Superintendent.
Question: How are the Regional Superintendent and Micro Cabinet evaluated?
Response from Dr. Leo Brown:  All central office employees are evaluated using the same evaluation instrument.

11 Comments

Posted in Human Resources

NAACP Assured ESPLOST Will Be Spent Throughout the County

Posted on May 2, 2016 | 5 comments

John Evans, President of the DeKalb County branch of the NAACP, wasn’t happy with the ESPLOST project list but has subsequently been assured by Superintendent Green that ESPLOST funds will be spent throughout the county.

AJC

The AJC reported NAACP to DeKalb Schools: E-SPLOST proposal lacks transparency. The report states that in a letter to Superintendent Steve Green, dated April 19, NAACP President John Evans said the lack of a list of projects is concerning. The group supported E-SPLOST IV, Evans said. For that vote in 2011, the resolution included a list of projects.
“The process of asking the voters to first approve the ballot initiative, then to have a July-September period for public meetings on system and project selection criteria, followed by a Nov. 5, 2016 review of the project list and a Dec. 7 approval of the project list is somewhat disconcerting,” Evans wrote. “This is not the transparency that the citizens of DeKalb deserve.”

DeKalb NAACP

The letter the NAACP sent to Superintendent Steve Green, dated April 19, says “This is to request at your earliest convenience the formula which will be used to expend the $500 million in anticipated [E-SPLOST V funds]. I must point out that if the formula will be based only on the projected growth in DeKalb, then the formula will be discriminatory because of the stable or static growth in South and East DeKalb and the anticipated high growth that may be anticipated in North DeKalb.”

John Evans

On April 24, John Evans sent this apology letter saying, “[I] express my deep regret for not waiting for a reply from you regarding my letter of April 19, and I offer you my heartfelt apology. The meeting you so graciously held on Monday, April 26 and the promised data were sufficient to address the concerns of this Branch.”
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DeKalb NAACP

The NAACP DeKalb County Branch released this Press Release saying, “on Monday, April 25, the concerns expressed by the NAACP were addressed. The NAACP wanted an assurance that the funds generated by E-SPLOST V would be equitably expended throughout the County and would address the greatest school needs. The NAACP was completely satisfied with the outcome of that meeting.”
The NAACP press release went on to condemn the original AJC article calling it erroneous and deliberately misleading.

5 Comments

Posted in SPLOST