Author Archives: Stan Jester

Yea or Nay – Graduation Ceremonies at GWCC

Posted on June 1, 2019 | 30 comments

After Sunday we’ll be finished with graduation ceremonies (BTW … Congrats Class of 2019!) How did it go and should we hold graduation ceremonies at the Georgia World Congress Center again next year?

Marlon Walker wrote in the AJC that in October of last year, parents were reeling over having graduation at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) a week after school ended. However, Walker reported, it ended up being Much Ado About Nothing.

Is that right?

BACKGROUND
Through the class of ’16 various DeKalb high schools used governmental buildings, arenas and churches to hold graduation ceremonies. Many high schools were challenged with the capacity to find and pay for a venue. The school district was also allegedly challenged by the AFL-CIO on the holding of school district graduation ceremonies in religious facilities.

For the class of ’17, DeKalb Schools sought out an equitable solution for graduation ceremonies. For the low-low price of $300K+, they decided that the most cost effective, accessible and equitable solution would be the GWCC.

NAY SAYERS
Here is some of the constructive feedback I have received.

Graduation was scheduled a week after the last day of school. Plenty of parents and students couldn’t make it or had to change Summer plans.

DeKalb Schools charged seniors $35 for these graduation ceremonies. It’s hard to see where all that money went.

Parents paid $15 park or more if it was during an ATL United game.

Students expected part of their $35 to go towards an air conditioned bus. However, many students arrived at their school 4 hours before the ceremony started only to drive in full regalia to the GWCC in a non air conditioned bus.

To quote a parent,

The “best” part was that after the ceremony, we were herded to an outdoor plaza to meet our graduates. After 20 minutes of photos and talking, security personnel that we paid for actually went around and turned on SIRENS and used bullhorns to tell us to leave. They were constantly running the sirens and yelling at us on the bullhorns for the rest of the time. Just super respectful to families. It was mortifying for our out of town guests and humiliating. And the next group had not even STARTED their ceremony, so there was no chance of a conflict.

What are your thoughts about holding graduation at the GWCC?

RELATED POSTS

Graduation Schedule – DeKalb Schools Class of 2019
November 2, 2018 – Currently the school district is planning on having graduation ceremonies in the middle of the Summer. That’s understandably not going over very well with the parents. Here’s the current schedule for 2019 graduation ceremonies.
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Class of 2018 Graduation Ceremonies Schedule
November 17, 2017 – All high school graduations will be held during the week of May 21-26, 2018 at the Georgia World Congress Center. This is the second year to have graduation ceremonies at the GWCC. Last year the ceremonies were on time, air conditioned, streamed online with great production value … and it better be for $300K.

My Graduation Ceremony – Open Letter To DCSD
May 10, 2017 – Georgia Wescott’s Open Letter to the DeKalb County School District with her thoughts about the venue selected by the senior administration without input from the local CCHS community.

Class of 2017 Graduation Ceremonies Schedule
April 13, 2017 – Dr. Green created a District Graduation Task Force to begin looking at venues, available dates and costs for specific locations to house district ceremonies.

Graduation Schedule – DeKalb Schools Class of 2017
April 13, 2017 – Dr. Green created a District Graduation Task Force to begin looking at venues, available dates and costs for specific locations to house district ceremonies.

DeKalb Schools ESPLOST

All Graduation Ceremonies At Georgia World Congress Center
October 11, 2016 – All DeKalb County high school graduations will be held during the week of May 22-27, 2017. Here is the school schedule.
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Posted in DeKalb County School District

$3,000 – Teacher Raises Around Metro Atlanta

Posted on May 25, 2019 | 82 comments

What are Metro Atlanta school districts doing about the $3,000 per teacher raise Governor Brian Kemp gave to all Georgia public school districts to pass along to their teachers?

DeKalb Teachers

Governor Kemp recently fulfilled one of his campaign promises by signing a budget which includes a $3,000 increase for teacher raises. Our finance department calculates including salary, benefits and pension contribution, it comes out to about $2,775 per teacher.

Dekalb Schools FY2020 Tentative Budget, presented a few weeks ago, did not include that raise for teachers. However, DeKalb Schools Board of Education members have been meeting with senior administrators over the last few days to figure out how to get that money into the hands of the teachers.

First let’s take a look at what the other school districts are doing.

Metro Atlanta Teacher Raises

Atlanta Public Schools (APS)
As of April 18, APS is considering two scenarios

Scenario 1 – Includes a $3,000 pay raise for teachers, 1.5% raise for instructional support, $3,000 one time payment for off-step employees, 1% increase for classified staff

Scenario 2 – Includes a $2,000 pay raise for teachers, $1,000 one time payment for off-step employees and 1% pay raise for staff

Cobb County School District
Cobb Schools budget includes an 8% to 12% raise for every non-temporary employee in the district.

Fulton County School District
In addition their regular step, the Fulton Schools proposed salary schedule indicates a $2,775 increase for teachers, principals, asst principals, media specialists, counselors, psychologists and social workers. It also includes a 3% increase for paras, bilingual parent liaisons, clinic aides, bus drivers, custodians and food service workers. 2% raise for all others.

Gwinnett County School District
All employees on the teacher salary schedule will receive a $3,000 raise in addition to their regular step increase. All other employees will see a 2% raise.

Clayton County School District
All employees on the teacher salary schedule will step and get a $2,775 increase. All other employees will step on schedule.

DeKalb Schools

The plan is for all DeKalb Schools employees on the teacher salary schedule to step and receive a $3,000 supplemental salary increase this coming school year. The salary schedule will not change, but the $3,000 supplemental salary will be on top of the current salary schedule.

Where is that money coming from?
We are trimming many of the growth items from the original FY2020 budget. 44 additional maintenance personnel has been trimmed back to 22 people. $2 million has been cut from the growth in transportation and fleet services. The additional $1 million in campus security originally in the FY2020 budget has been cut all together. We also cut or trimmed over $2 million for items like internal auditing, college and career strategic planning, summer school, and horizon schools,.

The rest of it will come from reserves. At this point, I expect FY2020 to take $21 million from our fund balance reserves leaving us with $83 million at the end of 2020 school year.

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Posted in Teachers