Tuesday, July 10, 2012
© Copyright 2013
Rockdale Citizen
CONYERS -- The two candidates for the Post 1 school board seat want to look closer at the budget before deciding what areas to improve or cut.
Charcella Green and Mandy North are facing off for the Rockdale County Board of Education's nonpartisan Post 1 seat, which is currently held by Jean Yontz, who isn't seeking reelection.
When asked by the Citizen about ideas to balance the budget without dipping into reserve funds, both said they plan to look at different options before making any decisions.
"I'm going to have to look at the budget closely," said Green, an adjunct professor at Clark Atlanta University's School of Social Work and a consultant for various organizations.
She said if cuts have to be made, she would want to make sure that personnel and those who are in close contact with students are maintained.
North said her thinking-outside-of-the-box approach could help the budget.
"One thing I'd like to look at is the possibility of perhaps cutting days off the calendar by adding a few minutes to every day, similar to the Walton County school calendar," said North, who is a Certified Public Accountant and owns an outdoor advertising company. "We're sending our kids to school in the hottest part of the summer. If we started back mid-August, instead of the end of July, we'd not only save transportation costs, but the cost of air conditioning the schools during the sweltering heat. We wouldn't have to cut teacher pay since we would have the same amount of instructional time as the full 180-day calendar."
She also wants to look at more efficient means of transporting students, especially the way students are bused to the Rockdale Career Academy, even though what Rockdale County Public Schools does now may be the best way, she said.
"I'd just like to see how other counties transport students back and forth and how often the buses run in counties that have similar career academy choices," she said.
When asked by the Citizen, North said one of the biggest problems facing RCPS is discipline in the classroom.
"It's difficult to learn when there is disruption," said North, who has two children in RCPS and one graduate. "Every child deserves the opportunity to learn in a conducive environment."
She suggested pulling disruptive students from the class and for teachers to feel supported for removing them.
"I'd like to review the entire process to better understand it and see if there's a way to improve upon it," she said.
Green said one of the biggest problems is community involvement.
"If the children can see a connection between what they are learning at school and what's going on in the world, it makes school relevant," she said.
She suggests reaching out to more businesses, religious institutions and others to have them come in and better engage students.
More like this story
- Three school board races decided, one headed to runoff ( July 31, 2012 )
- RCPS could add 10 furlough days to school calendar ( April 21, 2012 )
- RCPS looks at $13 million in budget cuts ( April 18, 2011 )
- Cuts may result in fewer days of school ( April 15, 2011 )
- RCPS expects $9.5 million revenue reduction ( April 13, 2012 )
Comments
AWOL 10 months, 2 weeks ago
"She suggested pulling disruptive students from the class and for teachers to feel supported for removing them."
This is key. Administrators are not glad to get referrals from what I understand from my teacher freinds. I would hate getting them too if I couldnt do anything about it. The rules need to have teeth.
Elmo 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Without discipline, education cannot exist...period!
mr_keating 10 months, 2 weeks ago
The process for removing disruptive students are in place. The problem is that it is a "process" that is made to be extremely difficult to dismiss students, regardless of their extensive disciplinary track record.
Elmo 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Processes come in many flavors...a flawed process delivers a flawed result.
lowenstein 10 months, 2 weeks ago
...I agree with the above postings about disruptive students. All are valid, but remember if the "process" is not followed correctly, this opens the system to a lawsuit. Pulling students, unfortunately, requires a lot more than just suspending, expelling or even placing them in ALPHA.
We don't need a social worker on the school board, but a CPA is an excellent idea. School is a business just like any other company; a money expert could be needed more. RCPS already has social workers for the students & families, which is the real priority. North's outside-the-box thinking is daring, but logical. Many countries require more student-teacher contact hours over a longer period of months; heat or cold should not be a deterrent.
...How are either candidate going hold parents & families of disruptive students accountable? Costs incurred by disruptive students (hearings, tribunals, etc.,), i.e., fiscal accountability, should be paid by their families; this could revolutionize RCPS.
...Should upper admins really be paid over $100k or $200k? Teachers should either be paid better or lower the pay for upper admins while requiring just as much, if not more, work. Teachers and para-pro's do this each school year.
AWOL 10 months, 2 weeks ago
I agree. While she is examining the "process" of expulsion, she really needs to examine the dedication of the people involved in it. I think many of those people are philosophically opposed to expelling anyone. I think they feel good when a kid comes to the tribunal and they let them go back to school.They think it is bad to force families who don't control their children to go somewhere else. They have somehow believed the lie that it is the government's responsibility to raise the kids, feed the kids and protect the kids from the consequences of their actions. It isn't. She should examine the discipline records of the high schools and see the huge discipline files on kids are continually allowed to act crazy and are being taught that they can get away with anything they want. The schools would submit more "behavior problems" to the tribunal if they knew they could expell them but it is a lot of work to be denied every time. So I really get mad when I see someone making a 100k and being ineffective. that is double wrong. It's one thing to make a killing and do a good job but to take all that money and then do nothing to help the teachers is despicable.
MsKito 10 months, 2 weeks ago
Not voting for ANYONE associated with Clark Atlanta. Clark Atlanta mascot = black panther. Their mascot is THE symbol used by the Black Panther Party. Clark Atlanta promotes hatred. Here's Zulu Shabazz, leader of the New Black Panther Party -- the same man who routinely says he wants "all crackas dead" -- introducing Farrakhan at a CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq_Pg5...
Elmo 10 months, 2 weeks ago
The belief that it's "too much trouble" to discipline our youth is the belief that keeps our prisons well-stocked with inmates.
Getting away with the "little things" only emboldens the to try bigger things. THAT is much more cruel to young people than being expelled for chronic misbehavior. That doesn't just ruin their day, week, or month, that ruins the rest of their lives. The bottom line is, we don't really need school officials, for it's the social workers, the lawyers, and the liberal judges who are really running the schools...the "officials" are just in-place scapegoats when the projects go awry. Until we get government out of the schools, we'll mostly just be teaching them enough to read their schedule of when to report to their probation/parole officers. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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