An Andisheh Almanac

Tag: education

  • 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.

    ***

  • Decatur’s School Board Needs to Stop It

    I support CSD’s commitment to providing quality early childhood education to everyone in Decatur, regardless of their family’s ability to pay preschool tuition. As Superintendent Whitaker noted at March 25’s school board community meeting in Oakhurst, the best way to close reading achievement gaps in adolescence is with early childhood education that prevents the gaps from developing.

    Nevertheless, I do not believe a large capital investment in a new building would serve Decatur’s children better than other possible investments. I urge the board and CSD’s administration to utilize existing buildings instead to expand and enhance the city’s early childhood education options.

    CSD’s administration and its board have not convinced me or many of my neighbors why a new $23 million building is the correct solution to meeting our shared goal of providing excellent early childhood care to Decatur’s kids.

    Additionally, Decatur City Commissioner George Dusenbury presented compelling evidence at a recent public meeting that CSD’s existing ECLC plan is grossly overpriced.

    Dusenbury said the contractor’s estimate for the new building is about $4 million too high. Even if one supports building a new ECLC facility, does anyone support paying $4 million too much for it? $4 million would pay for a lot of preschool tuition for a lot of kids.

    The board needs to stop. Stop the building. Also, stop being so petulant about the opposition to the building. It’s dividing the city.

    At last week’s board community meeting, an audience member opposing the new building’s location said that LaGrange has done a better job of historical preservation than Decatur. Utz replied sarcastically, asking if the speaker was recommending Decatur build its new preschool in LaGrange? The audience jeered him.

    Perhaps mistaking the jeers for cheers, three days later Utz attended Talley Elementary School’s fundraiser wearing a shirt that reads “I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.”

    Anyone who knows me knows I am a connoisseur of ridiculous t-shirts, but I’ve never seen that one before. Then again, I’ve never typed “What would Melania wear to an elementary school carnival men’s fitted medium” into Temu’s search bar.

    Board chair and new building supporter Dr. Carmen Sulton took a different approach. She wasn’t sarcastic at last week’s community meeting. Instead she used her eyes to shoot ice lasers at the room when opponents of the new building were speaking. Watch a meeting video to see for yourself. You may want to grab a sweater first.

    I attended the meeting expecting to hear Utz and Sulton try to persuade the audience that their preferred idea (a new building) is better than all the other possible solutions (renovating existing neighborhood school buildings). They’re proponents of the building, so surely, given an audience of taxpayers and a microphone, they’re going to press their case, right?

    Wrong.

    They didn’t bother talking up their preferred plan. They didn’t compare a new building’s cost or efficacy to renovation options. They didn’t contradict Commissioner Dusenbury’s evidence of $4 million in inflated cost projections. They didn’t contradict recent criticism that a new building would use up much more of the site’s greenspace than originally promised. At this point their argument for the new building is just to be annoyed at people who don’t agree with them.

    Credit where it’s due: at least Sulton and Utz showed up. Board member James Herndon didn’t even show up. No explanation for his absence was given.

    In my opinion, Decatur’s success as a city is downstream of our community’s dedication to its schools. Pursuing the ECLC plan as it is currently conceived weakens the city by eroding public confidence in our schools.

    The board can fix it. First it has to pause the ECLC building project. Then it has to reopen public discussion about how best to expand our early childhood learning options. Third, the board needs to give fair consideration to all options. Fourth, no more graphic tees.

    Decatur’s city commission is outraged. Mayor Tony Powers says the school board has destroyed public trust. Commissioner Mark Arnold says the school board is acting in gross violation of Decatur’s values, traditions, processes and is acting in “extraordinarily bad faith.”

    Decatur’s state legislators are also worried. They are trying to force the school board to put the new building’s funding to a citywide referendum. They say the school board hasn’t been transparent about its choices, and hasn’t listened to community input.

    On Friday the school board met to discuss a possible referendum. Board members Tracey Anderson and Lorraine Irier voted ‘yes’ on holding a referendum. Utz, who was quoted by WABE in January dismissing opponents of the current ECLC plan as a “loud, angry minority,” voted ‘no’ on holding a citywide referendum. Sulton and Herndon also voted ‘no’.

    At the next community board meeting, I hope residents explain to Utz, Sulton and Herndon that if they believe that a happy majority of Decatur residents actually supports the construction of a new, $23 million school building they should have no problem putting the question to a citywide vote.

    Unfortunately, even if we explain it to them, we can’t understand it for them.

  • 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.