A resident provided me a complete transcript of what I captured by Mr. Coleman on video and am providing it below as it appears accurate.
Stacey Harris: John Coleman is our new board representative
Coleman:
I'm John Coleman. I live right down the road from here in Brookhaven,
just south of 285 by Murphy-Candler park. So, I'm very close to all of you. This was a very convenient meeting to make.
I've lived in, I've been back in the Atlanta area for 3 years, but I grew up in
Georgia. Mostly in Columbus
Georgia. On my mom's side of the family
is all from Georgia and Vidalia and Montazuma.
Kind of all over the place. My dad is from the pan handle, Tallehasse.
So, this is a region I've been in almost all my life.
[1:25] A lot of folks have been asking kind of
why I got involved or what I hope to bring to the school board. And, I think
those two answers are a little interrelated, so I'll preempt that question a
little bit although we can dig into it a little more . Obviously, I think that
education is one of the most important things that we, especially, have control over as a county. It is the most
important function, arguably, of the county, althought there are a number of
other important functions. Right now I don't think anybody would debate that
there is a lot we can do to improve education in DeKalb. The we run the system
in DeKalb and governance in DeKalb. [2:00] Without casting dispersions on
anyone, there is obviously a lot of progress we can make. Just by the numbers there is a lot of
progress we can make even to catch up to a lot of ??? right now. This particular situation arose .... [2:19]
we obviously had a break down in governance.
More than a little bit of a break down in governance. And, as a results,
all of these issues we've been facing, it comes to a head. I saw that as a
unique challenge for the county, but a unique opportunity for a lot of those
??? to step forward and at least offer ourselves for up service for that
position. I'm interested in education. I
think a lot of folks ask immediately if we had kids in the system. My first is
on the way, so I have a long term interest in the health of the system for
sure. My son will be born in a few
weeks. But, I also have a long standing
interest in education and serving the community as well and this is an issue, a
set of issues I have been concerned with most of my life. I did a graduate degree in public policy for
a couple of years. My wife actually has a graduate degree in education. So, she
is certainly the brains of the operation. But, I felt like this was potentially
a unique circumstance which I spent a lot of time in the private sector working
on governance issues and organization issues.
I've obviously become pretty familiar with financial issues throughout
that experience as well. That interest and passion for education, I thought
this might be an opportunity for me to serve the county in a unique way. At
least for a couple of years here, and then we can see what happens after
that. That was one of the reasons I got
involved.
Folks will also probably ask also, and then I'll
be quiet and actually let you ask questions.
I imagine you might be interested in [3:45] what's on my mind right now.
What are my priorities right now? What
am I going to do over the next several months. Obviously, I speak as an
individual and not for the board. For me the priorities are a little bit cliche
right now. They are probably some of the ones that you could highlight as well.
All of the work we are doing first has to lead to better outcomes in student
achievement. Any changes we made should be oriented towards that. That should
be our ultimate goal. So that stands aside as the number one thing that I am
concerned with. In the short term, I think the way to get there we'll have to
deal with some much more boring topics that can set the right foundation for
student achievement. [4:33] The first of which we are starting Tuesday,
actually, is the budget process for this year. We've had a lot of budget issues
in DeKalb over the last few years, at least in the school system. So, we'll be
going through the budget process trying make sure we have a proper budget in
place. One that we oversee in a way that we can actually achieve it too. We've
had problems with slippage in the past.
[4:47] The second thing, as many of you might
have been able to catch the talk with Dr Elgart recently, is an interrelated
topic of governance and accreditation. [5:00] So, there are 11 items we have to
focus on for accreditation. At least 5, depending on how you define them,
probably 5 or 6 of those are governance oriented and are the board's responsibility.
So, we really have to focus on making sure we set the right foundation to
regain accreditation. Dr Elgart noted that won't be by the end of the year
probably. That will probably be a multi year process. [5:23] But, we want to
get the trajectory right so we are making progress consistently by the end of
the year and we can get accreditation within the next 2 or 3 years, I think,
was the prediction he gave us. In doing so, we've also got to establish what I
view as long term governance principals that will help the county in the school
system. [5:43] As a board, there are things we should be involved in and
shouldn't be involved in. We should set pretty clear rules about the way in
which we're engaging the community, the school systems, the issues we're
focused on, etc. So, in the process of addressing those accreditation concerns
we're also interested in focusing on ???. Those those are the things on my
mind, at least in the near term or medium term.
I'm very happy to be serving in this position
and very grateful to the community for being so supportive so far. Obviously this is a very intense situation,
but people have been very welcoming. And, I'm just very happy to be in this
position and grateful to all of you for your support and also your very
productive feedback. I've gotten a lot
of emails recently as I try and get up to speed very quickly ???. The board of
education from community members all over the place from different parts of
DeKalb offering suggestions for the budget, issues that we need to raise at
some point. We don't get to reply to all of those in as lengthy or detailed a
way as possible. But those really help us as we ???? issues as well, so thanks
for that productive engagement.
Stacey Harris [6:50]: I would just say concerns we've heard time
and time again in the community as you guys build the budget for next year.
Class size, Class size, Class size, in capital letters and exclamation marks,
Class size. I don't think there is a person in this room that thinks it's
acceptable to have 34 4th graders in one class. So, return that to normal
levels and you'll make 99% of the people in the ??? happier. Because you can't
make everybody happy. A Forensic audit, but like you say, you have a budget.
The oversight of that budget is huge. I'm the dive mom at my swim/tennis club,
the swim mom is a 3rd grade teacher.
And, she's like we don't know about teacher furloughs days. So that
uncertainty, that's my two cents. I don't know if you want to address that or
move on to questions. I will say for the balanced calendar, I know you guys
went away from it, do not put ITBS in the window that you took away. Because, I
know 6 people that have already booked vacations for that week. They might not
be there.
Coleman:
Incidentally, those are things that are very helpful if you communicate
with us too and make sure we know about all the different possible conflicts.
That's really helpful. On the budget process, I'll speak at a principal level
for myself right now because we haven't received the budget yet. So I want to
wait until we actually see what it is before I make any promises about specific
ideas. I think from my perspective to the things I would like to achieve in
principal. A) Keep class size the same or reduced depending on what we can do with
the budget, right. I definitely don't want to increase class size. As much as
possible within the constraints we are working with I want to reduce class
size. And the same with furlough days. We've heard loud and clear and I think
it's absolutely within the right philosophy that the resources you are
extending as far as the ???? should be located in the classroom. They should be
focused on the class room. The people who are touching the kids day to day are
the ones we want to focus on. And so I think as an extension of that, furlough
days are really important thing as are a lot of folks who raise concerns about
salary increases and how long it's been since folks had pay raises. Again, I
haven't seen the budget, so I don't know exactly what situation we'll be
facing. But my bias at a principal level would be to decrease the number of
furlough days and confer if possible with teachers especially to make sure they
are being compensated appropriately. And class size, try and reduce that ????.
Did that address all of it?
Stacey Harris: I think so.
Allegra Johnson [9:30]: Connected with the budget question, our
teachers have already received their contracts and have already been mandated
that they need to sign them, to return them. So their contracts have already
been signed with whatever their wage is. So, when you're talking about budget,
and you're starting on Tuesday, yet our teachers have already signed a piece of
paper that last year they signed with one bottom line number then it came back
with a second bottom line number.
Coleman: Hmmm, it came back later in the year?
Allegra Johnson: They signed one contract and
then the second contract came through where they found out the furlough days
and per hour wage and all of that. ....
[quick introductions] ....
We want to get the communication to our parents
as well as to our teachers. But my concern, so you're saying
So, when you're talking about budget, and you're
starting on Tuesday, yet our teachers have already signed their contracts. So,
how does that work? They've already signed the bottom line yet you're saying
you're just now working on the budget. So, how is it not the cart in front of
the horse type thing?
Coleman: Uhhhhhh ... I honestly don't .... I
don't know how to answer that question other than say that obviously it's a
concern as people are signing on to something before we've set the budget. If
there is an opportunity to address that in the future, that might be something
we are able to raise. This year, unfortunately, I don't think there's anything
we can do about the contract process timing at this time. So, it'll probably
operate like it has in the past. That's something I can raise, obviously, with
our folks in the central office and make sure we can at least get that issue on
the table and see if there is anything we can do about it. I have a feeling we
won't be able to do something about it this year, but maybe that's a policy
issue we can try and address in the future.
Allegra Johnson 11:28 : I'm just bringing this
up so they're not forgotten. It's one line that is already taken care of if
there is extra money or whatever that it does go back into contracts the
teachers have signed.
Coleman:
OK. Great. Thank You
Lisa Victory [11:41] : [introductions] Do you
support dual accreditation for the high school?
Coleman: The different schools getting
accredited, I think individually it's now the approach ...
Lisa Victory: Dunwoody High School is
specifically looking at individual accreditation. I'm first wondering if you
support that.
Coleman: Yup
Lisa Victory: My follow up to that would be, can
you get Thurmond to let our principal, give him approval because we are on a
really tight timeline. Thurmond has indicated that he won't fight us on it.
We're using all our funds. But we would literally need it within a week. Like
this week we need him to communicate to the principal. And that's what happens
a lot, it takes a long time to get communications. So if you could communicate
to Thurmond to please call Noel Maloof, this week, and let him know that we can
go ahead. That's what we need.
Coleman: OK. On the first issue first and then
the second one after that. This is my personal opinion. I can't speak for the
board of education at all. That's the chair's responsibility. Personally, I
have no issue with dual accreditation. I think you guys are in a tough spot.
Especially the accreditation downgrade or whatever you want to call it. So, for
me, if the community takes an active role and tries to proactively do something
about that, I view that as a positive thing. So, I don't have any issue with
that. With raising it with Superintendent Thurmond, we do have a meeting
Tuesday. I didn't know, honestly, what timeline you all were on. But, that is
at least an issue I can raise with him.
Lisa Victory [13:25]: The timeline is so that we
can be accredited by GAC by that December date. It's just to make the parents
more comfortable knowing that we've got a safety net.
Coleman: It's an insurance policy.
Lisa Victory: This week. That's why we are so
tight. They need to get in here and evaluate the school and get things moving
in the next few weeks, so that's why we are on it.
Coleman [13:51]: May I ask a favor of you if you
don't mind? If you would shoot me an email with that information so I don't get
any of the names and timelines wrong.
Especially since we've been going back and forth here. It will be exceptionally helpful and I'll at
least be able to forward that along to Superintendent Thurmond and perhaps we
can talk about it on Tuesday.
Chris : [Introductions] Seems Nancy Jester did a
lot of analysis which I found very useful and informative. Have you initiated
any discussions or meetings with her or visa versa so that you can get her take
and knowledge to help you better understand? And, have you done that with any
other board member, prior board members? Get a sense of anything from Nancy or
anyone.
Coleman [14:37] : Yeah, so I actually had a
chance to catch up with Nancy recently. I talked to her. We talked for about an
hour to get her perspective on different things. I'm very open to talk to all
the previous board members. This district especially that served as the
community ???. She's obviously a great source of ideas. She's got a lot of
unique knowledge about the system. She was in this position for a while, so I
welcome feedback from her and if she knows. From my perspective, I'd love to
catch up with her about various issues at different times. Because I have no, honestly, I prefer more
engagement to less engagement especially on ideas and policy issues. Was there
a second question about analysis in there?
Chris: No. That answers my question. I have a
second totally different question. There is a movement in the metro Atlanta
area for sections of the county to become incorporated and become cities. It's
spreading. Where and when it's going to end. Recently there is a movement with
Dunwoody to try and get its own school and perhaps in the next 10 years that
will be the next movement for metro Atlanta for each city to do that. Do you have
any thoughts on specific cities, Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Lakeside, if they become
one? If they petition and all eventually push hard have you developed any
thoughts on whether you favor that or against it?
Coleman [16:05] : I'm pretty intimately familiar
with the city process since I'm now in the new city of Brookhaven. I'm still
switching over my addresses with the credit card companies and everything.
Right now, I'm not taking a position on the independent school districts. As I
understand it, that's largely a state legislative issue right now because of
the cap on the number of school districts we can have. Honestly, it's less
because I don't think it's an important issue but more because I feel like we
have a lot of stuff to focus on right now, in the near term especially. So, my
priority would be to work on the things that are before us and are kind of
within our control before we start. At least the board starts discussing the
issues like that. I feel like that could potentially be, for us, not for the state,
because I think it's an important issue, but for us, as I understand it, we
don't have any purview over that right now. I feel like, potentially, that
could become a concern. I think ???? working on the things that are before us.
So, I've kinda stayed out of that for the most part. I know that's a pretty
unsatisfying answer, but it's kind of the approach I've been taking.
Allegra Johnson : To connect with that question. What something
that DeKalb does have control over is all these new high school charter
clusters that are popping up. North Druid hills has put in their letter of
intent. Stephenson has done theirs. What is your feeling, because that is
something that DeKalb can stop if they wish. There is no appeal process for a
conversion charter. What's your feeling? Maybe, if you can, not speaking for
the board, but what is their feeling about all these high school charters
starting to come up? Are they open to them or are they going to stop them once
it hits?
Coleman [17:43] : We haven't had a chance to
discuss the charter issue yet, again we been focusing on some other issues in
the short term. I think at an intellectual level without speaking to any
specific charter, I don't follow the charter schools, I think charter clusters
can be beneficial. We haven't had a chance to talk about those and the
specifics. I know we'll have to engage on that sometime in the reasonably near
term. I don't know if it will be in the next couple of months with the other
issues that we are going to have to ...
Allegra Johnson : And the reason I ask is
because the letters are due May 1st to the state. So the February 20th date
from DeKalb is already past and the letters go to the state on the first. So
I'm wondering if it hasn't come up, it might need to if they are going to get
blocked before they go to the state.
Coleman : Sure. I'm sure it will come up. I
haven't talked to any of the other board members about charter clusters
unfortunately. So, I don't know.
1 comment:
It is important to note that when we were discussing DHS dual accreditation, that HEYWARD WESCOTT (not John Coleman) made the comment about dual accreditation being "an insurance policy".
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