Schools

Live Blogging: Coverage of City of Decatur Schools Board Meeting

Parents, teachers and a student discuss earlier school start times and more

Patch was in attendance at the City Schools of Decatur monthly board meeting Tuesday. 

The school board  was to vote on the 2011-2012 Fifth Avenue Academy Transportation Plan. Under the proposed plan, Decatur High and Renfroe Middle schools would hold classes from  7:45 to 2:45; that's 50 minutes earlier for Decatur High, and 45 minutes earlier for Renfroe. Oakhurst and Clairemont elementary schools would open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Winnona Park and Glennwood would remain at 8:15 to 2:45 p.m., and Fifth Avenue would open later, from 8:30 to 3:30 p.m.

The new schedules were proposed to accommodate a new bus schedule designed to get students to Fifth Avenue Academy, which will open this fall.

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The meeting began at 6:30 pm. Here is Patch's live blogging coverage:

6:30 p.m. Meeting begins.

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6:37 p.m. Clairemont Elementary has been selected to mentor other Expeditionary Learning Schools. This new program highlights the work of all K-3 schools and offers an opportunity for Clairemont leadership and staff to learn with and from other exemplary EL schools around the country. Just 16 schools nationwide out of 167 EL schools were selected.

6:39 p.m. Public comments portion of the meeting begins.

6:40 p.m. Rebecca Watts-Hull comments on the earlier school start times. She thinks a later end time is more helpful to parents. She says she is very concerned about imporovements in learning are going to be undermined by a 7:45 a.m. start time for middle and high schools. She says if the school system  wants to address a school system moving from good to great, it needs to start from "research and best practices."

6:47 p.m. Garrett Goebel asked that the school board to table this decision. "For me, it isn’t just 45 minutes this way or that way. It is if athletics is accommodating education or if education is accommodating athletics."

6:50 p.m.Eliza Stone-Cribb, a Decatur High School sophomore, says she would not like to have school start times adjusted any earlier. Citing an article in Carpe Diem, the Decatur High magazine, she says sleep deprivation causes 50,000 car accidents among teens annually, health issues and lowers productivity levels. She says that not only would it would be dark outside when most students are walking, biking or getting to school, but such a move would affect teens' lives in other ways. She says a lack of sleep would cause grades go down. She adds, students would not be as productive and it would likely affect grade point averages, which may jeopardize college acceptance levels and students' future careers as a result.

6:55 p.m. Cheryl Nahmias, an instructional coach at Renfroe Middle School, says that the school system needs to step back and study the impact of shaving off sleep time. Teen sleep deprivation contributes to obesity. "I do have concerns about the start time," she says. She discusses statistics about how earlier start times may impact cognative functioning. "Every bit of sleep we can protect for adolescents is key to student success," she says.

7 p.m. Paul Jones says he wants the school board to extend the construction schedule and authorize construction change orders that are more than $25,000.

7:05 p.m. to 7:10 p.m. Additional public comments were made about the earlier school start times.

7:15 p.m. Phyllis Edwards, City Schools of Decatur superintendent, begins her public comments. She asks for approval of the transportation plan, though perhaps with adjustments, given all the comments. The transportation plan is tied to the certificate of occupancy for Fifth Avenue Academy. She applauded the high school students who wrote to her and those who came to the meeting.

7:27 p.m. Adding on a new school, adjustments need to be made, Edwards says. "I recognize what the research says and I hear you. I’ve heard from a number of people that their children are going to ride the bus when Fifth Avenue opens." Beyond athletics, she says extra curricular activities were also taken into account. She adds that the school system is also trying to cut the budget by $750,000. She adds that the recommendation is made and thinks there's no other way unless the school system adds more buses, but that costs money. 

7:30 p.m. The next item Edwards discusses is that Greta Technolia has been named City Schools of Decatur's new finance director. She graduated from the University of Georgia and has 15 years of experience in Georgia school accounting and finance. She began a career in Gwinnett County schools, has worked in the Atlanta office of A.G. Edwards in small school district financing and advisory work. Most recently, she worked for Fulton County Schools. Technolia lives in City of Decatur with her husband. They have three children in the City Schools of Decatur system.

7:35 p.m. Edwards discusses the reduction in Pre-K days for teachers and students.  "This is a huge change and one that will certainly affect the program  We have analyzed the fiscal consequences of the loss in days and the loss of a currently funded position as well. While we would like to keep the program untouched, the consequences are financially too costly." She says the state will only fund 169 days of a teachers' salary. She says that half of the Pre-K teachers will leave College Heights and will  take positions in the K-3 program to preserve their salary levels.

7:39 p.m. Edwards continues discussing the Pre-K situation at College Heights. After the lottery, "we found that about 10 existing College Heights students in the three-year-old class did not make it into Pre-K."  She stresses that a lottery is "a random drawing of names; so in order to make sure that the children who were in the three-year-old program could receive services, we authorized the continuation of the ninth class." Edwards says that existing preschool students at College Heights in the three-year-old classes will be moved up to Pre-K but that others will remain on the waiting list.

7:40 p.m. Edwards turns the board discussion over to Thomas Van Soelen, assistant superintendent, who provides a report on tuition paying students. There are students on wait lists for tuition slots, including in kindergarten and ninth grade.

7:48 p.m. Phyllis wraps up her comments.

7:50 p.m. Board comments on various aspects of Edwards' items discussed during the night and will reserve comments on the transportation plan and earlier start times for later in the meeting.

8 p.m. Board comments end. 

8:06 p.m. The board moves on to other agenda action items. Next up is discussion of SPLOST funds and transfer of capital from one fund to another. Board approves moving $500,000 of SPLOST dollars to the City Schools of Decatur capital fund of which $300,000 will be used for technology.

8:10 p.m. Next comes discussion of the Decatur Career Academy project budget and amending it to nearly $3.8 million. In the original budget funds were included to outfit the new career academy with furniture. As the project progressed some of these funds had to be diverted to repair unforeseen conditions in the building. While there is still some money available to purchase furniture out of the current project budget, it is not enough to provide furniture for all of the programs. They need an additional $50,000. The money will be earmarked for the healthcare and graphic design programs, which still need desks, tables and chairs.

8:21 p.m. Board agrees to amend the Decatur Career Academy project budget.

8:22 p.m. Discussion and vote on transportation plan begins. 

8:30 p.m. Board begins discussing parameters of how to get a certificate of occupancy for Fifth Avenue Academy and how it's tied to the transportation (busing) plan,. The City of Decatur requires an approved transportation plan in order to grant the school system a building certificate of occupancy for the Fifth Avenue Academy.

8:31 p.m. Board member John Ahmann raises several questions, including what would need to happen  - what would have to give - if school start times were to remain the same. His questions include, how much does it cost to add buses.

8:32 p.m. Edwards chimes in, "We don't mind going back and working on it again, but we can't all start at the same time." 

8:35 p.m. More board members raise questions. On the table now: Board members and Superintendent Edwards are discussing sending the transportation plan to Decatur City Commission without school start times specifically added so that there can be more discussion with parents, teachers and students with the idea that they can look at other possibilities. Buses cost $40,000 each. They want more time to look at the costs and budget of busing special needs students and other options, including adding more buses of $40,000 each.

8:41 p.m. Marc Wisnewski, board chair, discusses that adding two more buses equals a teacher. He adds that the board is going to discuss the budget on April 25 and adding more buses could be part of the tax millage increases discussion. 

8:52 p.m. The board agrees to send the transportation plan without the start times to the Decatur City Commission. Stay tuned for more discussion later this month on financial impact and the school budget.

8:58 p.m. The City Schools of Decatur board votes to nominate Valarie Wilson, who had been board chair of the City Schools of Decatur until January 2011, as president elect of the Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA). For the GSBA, she is currently serving as the vice chair.

9:03 p.m. School board meeting adjourns.


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