An Andisheh Almanac

Tag: City Schools of Decatur

  • Decatur: The way forward is a bond referendum

    On Monday, Decaturish published essays by Decatur school board members, Tracey Anderson and Lorraine Irier. Among several concerns is their contention that the board’s three other members (Carmen Sulton, Hans Utz, and James Herndon), as well as City Schools of Decatur’s administration and myriad consultants, do not share vital, relevant information with them or the public in a clear, timely manner.

    The focal point of their off-pissedness is the way the school board is pursuing the planning, financing, design and construction of a new early childhood learning center on the green space next to Ebster gym.

    Writes Irier:

    “Questions regarding financing structures, recusal standards, legal expenditures, contracts, and outside consultants have too often been treated as obstacles rather than legitimate oversight responsibilities. I have experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to obtain basic information necessary for effective board oversight, with requests for contracts, legal expenditures, and consultant information at times framed as disruptive rather than part of a board member’s fiduciary duties.”

    Before running letters from Irier and Anderson, Decaturish asked Utz, Sulton and Herndon to respond. They declined.

    Instead, at Tuesday’s public board meeting, Utz, Sulton and Herndon decided to show instead of tell.

    Shortly after the meeting began, Utz motioned to withdraw from the agenda a planned vote on the new daycare building’s financing.

    Everyone observing the meeting could plainly see that Irier and Anderson were surprised by Utz’s surprise motion. Irier’s jaw literally dropped. Anderson asked a series of follow-up questions.

    It wasn’t a surprise to everyone though. Sulton and Herndon were evidently not caught off guard. They asked no questions.

    By that point, the five board members had been in the same place for six hours at multiple meetings. Utz, Sulton and Herndon did not tell Irier and Anderson what they intended to do. The secrecy, furtiveness and clique-ishness that Irier and Anderson noted in writing was acted out in the meeting, and recorded for posterity on Zoom.

    What Sulton, Utz and Herndon did to Irier and Anderson in that meeting, they’re doing to others.

    Here’s what Decatur Mayor Tony Powers said about the school board in March:

    “I, for one, am tired of the interactions that we continue to have with our [school board]. It is not acceptable behavior, in any case, whatsoever. It is not open. It is not transparent. It is not good governance.”

    And here’s what Decatur City Commissioner Mark Arnold said about the school board’s pursuit of the new daycare center in March:

    “I think what CSD has done is a gross violation of our values, our traditions, our processes, and I think they’ve demonstrated extraordinarily bad faith.”

    The problem here isn’t hurt feelings or bonhomie for bonhomie’s sake. This problem is that this is lousy governance of the city where I live and the schools my children attend.

    City residents have five school board representatives. Three of them are excluding the other two from overseeing an issue of great importance. Three of them are alternately ignoring, thumbing their noses or otherwise hissing at reasonable public inquiries and/or opposition. Irier and Anderson aren’t the ones being shoved aside. The Decatur residents they represent are the ones being shoved aside.

    I believe that every person on the board and the superintendent want to push the city to close education achievement gaps. I believe they want to do that by offering the best early childhood education possible to all Decatur children, even if their families can’t afford tuition at College Heights. Just typing those words on my own blog is music to the ears of my increasingly left-tilting head.

    While I was watching Tuesday’s board meeting on Zoom, my eavesdropping 10th grade daughter said “Are they talking about the buckets?”

    What buckets, I would have asked, but before I could ask she started describing a hallway at Decatur High School with several buckets to catch water leaking from the ceiling. Before I could ask a follow-up, she pivoted to “My art teacher has to buy her own pens. She shouldn’t have to buy art supplies.”

    The kid’s breathless riff at me unintentionally distilled our school board’s dilemma. It’s every school board’s dilemma, in fact. Schools and school systems have more needs than they have resources to meet those needs. Using every dollar as wisely as possible isn’t a nice-to-do. It’s a must-do.

    Her distillation of the problem also points the way to a solution.

    The school board is clearly at an impasse. Some board members and city residents want to build a new daycare facility that will require $23 to $28 million in new financing. Other board members and city residents think the city can deliver equally great early childhood education to all of our children by creating new learning spaces inside existing, underused school buildings.

    If we can agree on how to achieve the big shared goal (education equity via early childhood learning) at lower cost, the city will have more resources to ensure that gains made with 0-4s will stick for K-12s — such as more instructors for kids who need extra help, pay raises for our educators and support staff.

    A citywide referendum on the proposed new early childhood learning center is the way forward. Along with subverting the will of Decatur’s residents (which would be bad enough), funding a building without putting it to a referendum would add $6 million to the price tag. Let’s also put alternative solutions (such as retrofitting existing spaces) to a vote. While we’re referend’n, let’s put funding for repairs and upgrades at Decatur High School to a vote, too. Put the Posca pens on the ballot, too. I’m sure the art teacher would appreciate that.

    Based on what I know right now, I would vote to fund renovating parts of College Heights or another CSD elementary building, and providing additional tuition-free care there. I am eager to vote to tax myself to pay for kids to attend the same facility that served our family so well.

    Proponents of a new ECLC building have said my preferred option (renovation) is not viable, but haven’t convinced me. My willingness to take them at their word has been fading as months have gone by without meaningful explanations of costs and considerations. What little willingness I had left vanished completely when a senior Decatur school official depicted the SoulShine daycare on West Howard Ave as a literal fireball (see the photo on this page if you think I’m exaggerating).

    To be clear, I’m not saying that proponents of a new ECLC are lying about their budgets. I am saying that I have a benefit of the doubt budget and that CSD exhausted it. Thanks to poor communication, questionable math, and bad attitudes, proponents of a new building do not have my support.

    I’m just one person though. All Decatur voters should decide.

    Putting municipal bond questions to voters is as American as eagles wearing shades and bandanas. It’s as American as German Chocolate Cake, which is from Pennsylvania. And it’s way more American than the song “American Woman,” which is Canadian. Have you listened to the lyrics? They are not happy with us.

    So, yeah, a bond referendum would be patriotic af, help our city settle a contentious issue, and (I hope) generate the money and political agreement to provide early childhood education for kids who need and deserve it. Also, I wouldn’t have to write about this again, which would be a relief to me and tens of others.

    Fediverse Reactions

  • Yes to education. No to a new building.

    Update: City Schools of Decatur Board Members Tracey Anderson and Lorraine Irier published letters in Decaturish today documenting the shifting justifications, evasion, poor cost oversight, and disdain for public scrutiny that have characterized the school system’s relentless push to construct a new preschool building.

    On Tuesday, May 12, City Schools of Decatur’s Board of Education will vote on requiring city residents to pay to build a new early childhood learning center — aka a daycare building on the green space across from the Ebster gym.

    Q: How much is the school board proposing to spend on this new building?

    A: We don’t know. The price tag keeps changing. It was $23 million for a while. At a recent board meeting there was a discussion of trying to save money by paring back some unnecessary design elements. Between that meeting and today (May 11), the price jumped to $28 million (see slide 20).

    Q: How many children who live in nearby Decatur Housing Authority apartments might attend the preschool?

    A: We don’t know. The city says the school is necessary to serve kids who live in DHA housing who might not otherwise have access to quality early education. At one point, the board estimated 67 children would attend the new ECLC. That number keeps dropping. A board member told me today that the best current estimate of potential students from nearby DHA homes is just 22.

    Q: How will the much discussed (and much needed) proposed renovations at Decatur High School proceed?

    A: We don’t know. The board’s presentation to take on $28 million in debt for a new preschool does not address renovations at the high school.

    Q: If Decatur spends $28 million, plus annual operating expenses of roughly $1.5M, to close achievement gaps for just 22 potential preschool students preschool, how much will Decatur plan to spend on closing achievement gaps for K-12 students?

    A: We don’t know. When Decatur teachers, residents and two school board members, ask that question at public meetings, and note that there isn’t enough staff in elementary, middle and high school to devote the necessary time to students who need extra help, they don’t get direct answers from the board.

    Q: With the city’s elementary enrollment declining, wouldn’t it be more cost effective to renovate rooms in existing buildings (ex. Westchester, Glennwood and College Heights) to meet our small city’s early childhood education needs?

    A: We don’t know. I’ve read board members quoted saying that would be more expensive, but I’ve never seen those estimates.

    Q: If Decatur is considering moving some Pre-K classes from College Heights to Westchester, Clairemont or Glennwood (as board member Han Utz suggested was possible at an April board meeting), would it really cost more than $23-28 million to renovate 2-4 classrooms at College Heights to serve 22 additional 0-3 year olds who live less than a mile away?

    A: We don’t know. Because it doesn’t appear the school board is even considering that.

    Q: How much of the estimated $1.5 million in annual operating expenses at a new school for would be paid for by Decatur taxpayers, and how much will be paid through education philanthropy, as Superintendent Whitaker suggested is likely?

    A: Superintendent Whitaker said at a recent public meeting that Decatur wants to pursue philanthropic support for early childhood education, but that education philanthropists will not give the city money until a new school building is completed and operational. Let’s set aside for a moment the fact that education philanthropists do, in fact, commit to conditional funding for viable long-term projects. If we just take the superintendent’s answer it’s: We don’t know.

    Q: Do Decatur residents support spending tens of millions of dollars on a new school building for kids ages 0-3?

    A: We don’t know. 3 of the 5 board members strongly oppose putting the new building and its funding to a referendum. They’re even considering a special funding mechanism (Certificates of Participation) that would add 20% ($6 million!) to the building’s overall price tag just because doing so would deny voters a chance to vote yes or no. (Again, see slide 20)

    Q: Will school board member James Herndon, who previously recused himself from a vote involving the new building because he has a professional conflict of interest, recuse himself on May 12. Or will he cast the deciding “yes” vote on a spending package expressly (see page 20) crafted to circumvent the will of Decatur voters?

    A: We don’t know. It seems he likes suspense.

    ***

    Sometimes when I go out to eat, the server will tell me there’s a special and describe it. If the server doesn’t say the price, I’ll ask. The server never says “We don’t know.”

    Is it too much to ask of Decatur’s school board that it exercises the same level of fiscal due diligence as a diner considering the fish entrée? I’m worried the answer is, yes, it is too much to ask.

    If the board votes “yes” to funding a new building tomorrow, they’re unfortunately voting “no” to fiscal responsibility, transparency, honesty, fiscal due diligence, community input, peer input, and the democratic process of a voter referendum. I’ve lived here since 2006 and haven’t previously witnessed our elected officials acting this disdainfully of their own constituents. I’m not alone.

    I support education for all of Decatur’s kids and am willing to pay for it. I oppose spending $23-28 million on an unnecessary new building. Buildings don’t teach kids. Teachers do.

    Yes to education. No to a new building.

    ***

  • Open letter to City Schools of Decatur’s board and administrators

    I support expanding early childhood education options for Decatur residents. I reject the insinuation (and flat-out accusation by at least one letter writer to Decaturish.com) that questioning the school board’s opaque, evasive process is an expression of hidden or hostile motives.

    Yes, let’s do more and better early child care in Decatur.

    Yes, tax me to pay for it because I actually love living in a community where my tax dollars pay for children to thrive.

    Yes, let’s also openly discuss and debate the most durable, cost-effective solution to a real problem.

    Yes, let’s also get community buy-in before forcing community pay-in.

    My kids went to College Heights. If you interpret “let’s at least consider aloud making College Heights even nicer than it was when my kids happily went there” as some kind of sneaky, sinister opposition to accessible, affordable child care for all, that’s not a me problem. That’s 100% a you problem.

    If you’re reading this, you can probably think of a lot of ways City Schools of Decatur can support equity in the district for kids ages zero to 18. I would like to make sure the city spends wisely so we can do as many of those things as possible.

    A few days ago at a board meeting, a city resident asked the school board for data projecting how many no-tuition, partial tuition and full tuition students CSD expected would attend the school over several years. for enrollment projection data. The reply was ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I’m paraphrasing.

    The actual reply was that there would be, in the future, a presentation on enrollment projections. Call me old fashioned, but I’d like to know what we’re paying for and why we’re paying for it before we commit to paying for it.

    Even more frustrating is the “We voted on this a long time ago,” position offered by some. Today’s school board is not sworn to agree with the votes of a previous board. That’s why there are elections. City residents, however, will be bound by the debt obligations of this board. That’s why deliberation, transparency and community buy-in are so important right now.

    CSD’s administration and school board are squandering the community’s trust because they’re responding to public engagement and worry with contempt and petulance. Board members have hard jobs and I respect and appreciate anyone’s willingness to do the work, but if you perceive this many of your constituents as nuisances or obstacles, you should consider resigning. If I wanted to live in a community where reasonable questions about public spending are greeted with sneering contempt, I’d move back to D.C.