Category Archives: DeKalb County School District

Class of 2018 Graduation Ceremonies Schedule

Posted on November 17, 2017 by | 15 comments

Stan Jester
Board Of Education

During the summer of 2016, Dr. Green created a District Graduation Task Force to begin looking at venues, available dates and costs for specific locations to house district ceremonies. Based on a cost and accessibility comparison, the committee determined that the best option would be the Georgia World Congress Center. At price tag of $300K, I’m not sure about that cost analysis.
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.
What are your thoughts that I can share with the school administration and board members?

Superintendent Stephen Green

Georgia Wescott
Chamblee Charter High School graduating Class of 2017
Expressed her thoughts last year.

Open letter to DeKalb County School System:
How are you going to move our graduation against our will and then make us, the students who are graduating, pay to attend it? On top of that, how are you going to hold it at a time where no teachers or other students can attend because it’s on the last day of school immediately after school gets out all the way in downtown Atlanta? At this point I’m not even looking forward to my own graduation because the fact that it costs money has taken away money from some of our senior activities that we’ve been looking forward to. –Georgia Wescott
Superintendent Stephen Green

Dr. Stephen Green
Superintendent, DeKalb County School District

Graduation ceremonies are a major component of the closing of each school year. In recent years, schools have used governmental buildings, arenas and even churches to hold events. During the 2015-16 school year. However, the district was challenged by the AFL-CIO on the holding of school district graduation ceremonies in religious facilities. While measures were taken to comply with the request to not house ceremonies in religious venues (and some locations were changed), it was agreed that the district would work to address the [concern].

DeKalb County School District Graduation Schedule
Georgia World Congress Center
Graduating Class of 2018 (Congratulations!!)

Date School Time
Monday, May 21, 2018 Lithonia High School 10:00 AM
Elizabeth Andrews High School 1:00 PM
Dunwoody High School 4:00 PM
Chamblee Charter High School 7:00 PM
Tuesday, May 22, 2018 Lakeside High School 10:00 AM
Southwest DeKalb High School 1:00 PM
Miller Grove High School 4:00 PM
Druid Hills High School 7:00 PM
Wednesday, May 23, 2018 Destiny Achievers High School 10:00 AM
Arabia Mountain High School 1:00 PM
Stone Mountain High School 4:00 PM
Towers High School 7:00 PM
Thursday, May 24, 2018 Martin L. King, Jr. High School 10:00 AM
Tucker High School 1:00 PM
DeKalb School of the Arts 4:00 PM
Cedar Grove High School 7:00 PM
Friday, May 25, 2018 McNair High School 10:00 AM
Columbia High School 1:00 PM
Redan High School 4:00 PM
Clarkston High School 7:00 PM
Saturday, May 26, 2018 Stephenson High School 10:00 AM
DeKalb Early College Academy 1:00 PM
Cross Keys High School 4:00 PM

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DeKalb Schools – Free Speech….For Some?

Posted on November 10, 2017 by | 179 comments

DeKalb Schools might have a consistency problem with the First Amendment.

Back in October, the girls at Cedar Grove High School in the DeKalb County School District (DCSD) took a knee before their playoff game. In a statement issued by DeKalb Schools, “If students should elect to express their free speech rights, we want to create and provide a safe space to do so. The goal is not to interfere with the students’ constitutional right to freedom of speech.”
I advocate for the First Amendment across the board. I hope the freedom of students to express themselves will be vigilantly defended across the political, religious, etc … spectrums.
STRIPPED OF HIS LIBERTIES …

CNN is a popular destination for school field trips across the state. Every year the 7th grade at Peachtree Charter Middle School tours the CNN studios.
This year when the CNN tour was announced, my 7th grade son Jaxon asked me if he could purchase an FNN-Fake News Network shirt to wear for his field trip. As an advocate for the First Amendment, I agreed to his request. He picked out the shirt he wanted and and ordered it from Amazon. His mother cautioned him that he might cause a controversy and needed to be prepared for that. He was fully aware of the implications of his decision and made the affirmative choice to wear his shirt.
Nancy took his picture this morning as he left for school. We received a phone call from the principal at the middle school this morning informing us that he was forced to change his shirt.
I’m disappointed by the hypocrisy of this decision. Some students are celebrated when they make a controversial display during the National Anthem. My student was forced to remove his shirt because someone didn’t like it. I defend speech and expression, even if I disagree, or it makes me uncomfortable.
Says commenter Max Baerman, “[This] could have been a great teachable moment about Yellow Journalism and the scathing and at times libelous editorials”
This experience is teaching my son an interesting lesson.

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