First week of school

Hope everyone in District 1 had a good first week back to school. I heard of buses that were as much as 50 minutes late for pick up on the first day, 40 minutes the second day and 30 minutes the third. By the 4th day the drivers had decided that needed to tell the students they were coming at a later time and therefore were only 15 minutes late. I know that traffic around DHS, Vanderlyn and DES must have been an absolute mess, but I think by now all the kinks should be worked out and thing should be running smoother. Everything I heard and read indicated that this would be easier week transportation wise.

I also heard stories of school buildings where the heat was on! Imagine 95 degrees plus outside and just the same inside. Hope those schools are nice and cool on Monday morning when the students and teachers go back.

More bad press for Dekalb County Schools this week - I won't even go into it. By now I am certain that everyone knows of each unsavory tidbit. All I can say is that there is good news for the citizens of Dekalb County. Come November 2nd we have the opportunity to elect 4 new board members, who can hopefully steer our school board towards a brighter future and find a qualified superintendent who is interested in the needs of our children and community.

There was an article in the Dunwoody Crier this week about eduKalb. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I had responded to questions from them at the beginning of August. This week I was pleased to see that they featured me along with incumbent, Dr. Walker. The eduKalb website is very informative and I encourage all to read it. http://edukalb.org/

There is a great article on the site about Dunwoody's Mayor Ken Wright, who serves on the eduKalb board. Here is the link: http://edukalb.org/?p=275. This is a quote from the article which I feel strongly agree with, "Dunwoody focuses a lot of time on chickens, signs, and zoning, but NOTHING on schools. The schools are the backbone of every community. You can remove every chicken, every piece of signage, every multi-colored strand of Christmas lights, and every apartment building in Dunwoody – but without great schools Dunwoody will stumble."

We have the opportunity to make our schools great! Let's do it!

DHS meeting and Registration day

I attended the Dunwoody High School meeting on Wednesday night regarding construction updates at the school. The meeting turned into an update about the parking situation going into the new year.

The construction team has come up with a viable plan to park the entire faculty, the construction personel and 100 Seniors. The parking seems very tight and will hopefully be very carefully regimented. As a parent the current plan seems scary. The idea is to route traffic dropping students off through student and faculty parking and in between the school and learning cottages. There will be police direction the first day and as needed for the first week. My advice to any parent is to encourage their child to walk or ride their bike to the school - it simply seems like too much activity on too small a piece of property with too many inexperienced drivers and students wandering about to be safe.

The plan also calls for the removal of the trailers in the next couple of months - date unconfirmed. At that time there will be 60 additional parking spaces available, but still very tight in a school of 1500+ students.

Call it "green" but I still think walking or riding a bike if you are close enough to the school makes the most sense.

On Thursday I attended two District 1 school registrations, Austin and Peachtree Charter Middle School. Austin, which I have attended for the last 8 years was an absolute mob scene.
I can't pinpoint exactly why it was so much more crowded and difficult to navigate then in years past, but it did leave me thinking that something needs to changed for the future. Peachtree was alright and I heard from many that both Dunwoody Elementary and Dunwoody High School registrations were very chaotic.

Wouldn't it be smart to instigate a system where returning students only have to show up with current proof of residency and pick up their schedules? I feel strongly that all paperwork could be completed in the spring and over the summer the administrators come up with a plan for returning students and to accomodate for new students by looking at past enrollment.

School Board Meeting Monday, August 2nd

Last night I attended the School Board Meeting at the DCSS Administrative & Instructional Complex. Now I know where are tax dollars are going! Hah! The room where the meeting was held was newly completed. The board members themselves sat way up in front of what looked like 1000 chairs - very comfortable and expensive looking, on a large podium with engraved nameplates. The spot lights shined on all their heads and faces. Camera and technical equipment was everywhere! Just guessing I would say several million dollars were spent in this room alone. As a tax payer, I think my dollars might have been better spent saving a few teachers from lay offs or perhaps taking away a furlough day. Last month the meeting was held at the Bryant Center on Lawrenceville Highway - not as glamorous, but just as effective - possibly more so for me, because it felt like the board truly cared about excessive spending. After last night I am not quite so certain.

It seems that the school system is almost ready to be open for students on August 9th. That might depend on the area in which you live since there are still some construction projects that are not complete and a few principals to be hired.

Tomorrow I plan to attend an informational meeting about the changes at Dunwoody High School and meet the new principal. Will post my thoughts about that meeting and registration on Thursday in a couple of days.