Author Archives: Stan Jester

Latest updates on TSA lawsuit, salary schedules and more…

• TSA
• Salary Schedules
• Procurement Audit
• Clean Bathrooms

TSA – Tax Sheltered Annuity Lawsuit

In 2017, Judge Gregory Adams dismissed the employees’ lawsuit entirely. Plaintiffs appealed. June 1, 2018, the Georgia Court of Appeals overturned the dismissal of Plaintiffs’ claims. Appeals court said the Plaintiffs were entitled to judgment on liability in their favor. The school district appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court decided to hear this case. It will be assigned to the May 2019 oral argument calendar. I expect to have a decision from the Georgia Supreme Court on this by December. The Court stated they were particularly concerned with the following:

What is the proper test for determining whether a statute or ordinance establishing a retirement plan becomes a part of a government employee’s contract of employment such that later changes may violate the Impairment Clause of the Georgia Constitution? See Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Para. X.

New Salary Schedules

Superintendent Green said it was back to the drawing boards for Phase II of the new salary schedules originally scheduled to be implemented January 1, 2019. A majority of the discussions concerning how we got here were held in executive session yesterday afternoon. I believe those discussions were not protected by executive session. At the time, I expressed my concerns to the board excused myself from what I considered to be an illegal meeting.

There was very little public discussion about it at the board meeting during the HCM report.

Board member Morley thanked Dr. Gregory and the HR department for their work. She also thanked the employees for their patience. Morley went on to talk about the culture of fear at DeKalb Schools and called the White House a plantation.

Diijon DaCosta, DeKalb Schools newest board member, asked the administration what employees can do to appeal the results of the Comp & Class study. Superintendent Green said the district is formalizing an appeals process.

Having excused myself from said illegal executive session meeting, I didn’t know what the plan was. I asked the administration when we can expect resolution on the implementation of the Phase II salary schedules. Superintendent Green said he couldn’t commit to a date.

Since the budget for next year will need to be approved in June, I asked if we would know something by July. Green thought that was likely, but didn’t want to “box the school district in” with a hard date. Green also mentioned that a new salary schedule could come before the board.

Procurement Assessment

I’ve been struggling with the procurement process at the school district since day 1. Last year, the board chair pushed the administration to perform a procurement assessment. In December, the results of the procurement assessment confirmed that integrity and ethics were non existent in the procurement process at the school district. Vendors are cutting employees checks and I suspect numerous contracts steered … starting with the Million Dollar No Bid Contracts for Ex DeKalb Schools Employees

Since the results of the procurement assessment came out, I’ve been pushing for its release to the public. However, the procurement assessment was performed by the school district’s outside legal firm and has been deemed privileged and confidential. As WSB’s Richard Belcher noted I was disturbed by the district’s stance on this.

At the end of this month, the board will have a number of public offsite meetings. At these meetings, the procurement assessment will be on the agenda. The chair, Dr. Michael Erwin, has decided to release the procurement assessment to the public at that time.

Clean Bathrooms

Project CLEAN has worked 22 years to improve the safety, cleanliness and hygiene of public school restrooms and is the national leader in these efforts. Contact Project CLEAN via email at keating.projectlean@gmail.com.

Public school restrooms, especially in middle and high schools, may present the hardest cleaning challenge. Preventing soil, removing dust and grime, effectively disinfecting touch points, encouraging handwashing – all these processes are made harder because of the attitude and behavior some students bring to this public–private space.

So how can school, custodial staff, and students who use — and may abuse — toilets, lavatories, mirrors, and trash cans, among other items, cooperate so the result is a clean, safe, hygienic restroom for pre-teens and adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18? Contact Project CLEAN via email at keating.projectlean@gmail.com.