Testing the Towers: Maryland Examines RF Compliance

Poolesville testing cell towers for health risk
Kansas firm to test for high radiofrequency levels

By Krista Brick Staff Writer

Dan Gross/The Gazette

Cellphone towers perched on top of the Poolesville water tower have brought more than $1 million in rental fees into the town’s coffers, but town officials now want to make sure they aren’t posing a health risk to residents.

The Poolesville Town Commission voted unanimously Monday night to hire the Kansas company Radiofrequency Safety International Inc. to conduct a hazard assessment monitoring of the towers and check for hot zones where radiofrequency levels are unusually high.

Thomas Orr lives directly across the street from the water tower on Wootton Avenue. He said he’s been pushing for a safety evaluation for more than a decade.

“My belief is that water tower is a cash cow,” Orr said. “They made well more than a $1 million on the space so there is not a lot of interest in one man’s health concerns when you are raking in that kind of money. It has clouded their vision so to speak.”

Four carriers including AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint/Nextel pay the town a total of $167,000 a year to have their antennas on the Poolesville water tower, Town Manager Wade Yost said. Cell towers have been on the water tower for about 15 years, he said.

In mid-June KSI is expected to monitor the towers and produce a report to determine if there is a violation of RF levels, Yost said. The report is costing the town $4,000.

“It is something we contemplated doing for some time. We have no indication to believe anything is unsafe. We believe they are safe,” said Jim Brown, president of the Poolesville Town Commission.

He said the commission recently reassessed the safety of the tower when an infrastructure issue caused a leak at the water tower. The cell towers are another component of that safety assessment, he said. “We might as well give it a look-see.”

Greg Kechter, general manager of KSI, said the reports can be produced in as little as a half hour to as long as a week. He said his company will use special instrumentation to take RF readings around the site and evaluate those readings to be sure they meet the Federal Communications Commission’s standards for environmental regulations.

KSI also makes mitigation recommendations for those sites out of compliance including moving antenna and changing antenna types, he said.

He said he has never done a study that required changes to cellular antenna on water towers.

“I’ve seen water towers with as few as two antennas and I have done some with as many as 60 antennas,” Kechter said. “I have not had a water tower with issues due to cellular equipment. All I talk about in terms of health is what the regulations are.”

Brown said what the cellular companies pay the town is “nothing to sneeze at,” but the money is not the town’s top priority.

“Money doesn’t matter when it comes to anything health related, that is number one. Number two, and a distant number two, is we recognize cell providers provide valuable service to our residents. Services and money come number three.”

Orr’s son who was living with him and his wife in their Poolesville home was diagnosed with testicular cancer three years ago at the age of 25. Their cat now has an inoperable tumor.

“I feel like we are being cooked particularly now that the cat got cancer,” Orr said.

According to the American Cancer Society website, cell phone towers “are unlikely to cause cancer.”

Orr admits much of the research does not point to cell towers as cancer-causing agents.

“I don’t know if they are harmful. I’ve been asking for the town to monitor the cell towers for about 15 years since they were first put up. I expressed my concern and then wouldn’t you know my kid would get (cancer),” Orr said. “God darn here I have been preaching about this and trying to get answers and my kid got cancer.”

Orr said he was “kind of surprised” by the town’s decision to hire KSI to do the study.

“It is a step in the right direction,” he said.

YES! GREAT JOB! DeKalb Parent Councils are on the Right Track!

From Atlanta Magazine

Power to the parents

The school system crisis brings North and South DeKalb parents together

Posted on 5/3/2013 2:13:00 PM by Michele Cohen Marill

In the rose-colored room of a restored antebellum home in Decatur, a place that usually holds the luncheons of Junior League ladies or showers for Southern brides-to-be, DeKalb County parents quietly made history this week. Leaders of parent councils met on Monday and agreed to become a unified force.

Parents usually work most passionately for their children, their neighborhood, their schools. In DeKalb, that instinct has been heightened by a longstanding distrust and a suspicion that the other side of the county gets a bigger piece of an ever-shrinking pie. The north part of the county was historically white, the south solidly African-American, and those divisions have lingered—even as DeKalb as a whole grew ethnically diverse, with children from more than 157 countries now enrolled in the system.

But the crisis over accreditation brought the parents together across the old boundaries and caused them to ask each other: What would happen if we cooperated? How much more power could we have?

The talk became emotional when parents brought up the county’s historical divisions. “The North-South thing is being used by politicians to support their needs,” said Michelle Pinkava, a Tucker mom with a third-grader and a seventh-grader. “I think they play that up. That is not going to play in this room.”

While some commented about “different allocations” and unequal construction money and the pain of budget cuts, the assembled parents agreed that their common needs were greater than their individual grievances.

“Individual word of mouth is the most important thing you can do. Each one of you needs to be a quiet zealot,” said Faye Andresen, a longtime parent activist from the Druid Hills High School cluster who moderated the meeting. “You advocate for your parent council and you advocate for the whole county’s educational system.”

The next night, seven of the nine school board members came to a forum of the South DeKalb Parents Council at Redan High School in Stone Mountain. They promised transparency and better communication. They promised not to fight for their turf but to do what they thought was best for all DeKalb children. The South DeKalb parents applauded.

“The tone is very different from what we’ve had in the past,” said Deidra Willis, a board member of the South DeKalb Parent Council who attended both meetings. “I think it will really bind us.”

The New Divide in DeKalb: City Formation Causing Chaos

From The Patch:  At a meeting that seemed to be designed to slow the on-rushing train of cityhood, Democrats in DeKalb’s legislative delegation urged residents to consider a variety of issues before deciding to incorporate.

“You all have gotten our attention in a very substantial way; we hear you,” said state Sen. Jason Carter (D-42) told the several hundred people in attendance. “I’m not sold on the idea of creating new cities, but the fact that we have so many people here tonight is a good sign.”

The meeting was held this past Monday at Clairmont Hills Baptist Church, and was hosted by state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur). Oliver has been an outspoken opponent of the way that cities are created in Georgia, most recently during the debate over Brookhaven’s municipalization.

Other DeKalb lawmakers, county commissioners and leaders of local civic organizations joined Oliver. All but two of the elected officials were Democrats: state Rep. Tom Taylor and state Sen. Fran Millar, both of whom represent Dunwoody in the General Assembly, and who were involved in Dunwoody's road to cityhood.

Taylor is also a leader in an effort to allow new cities to form their own separate school systems.

Several bills were filed in the most recent General Assembly session that would create cities from throughout several areas in DeKalb, including portions of the Tucker, Druid Hills, Briarcliff and Lakeside communities.

Tower Climbers, Especially Subcontractors for ATT, Die at Rate 10 Times Higher than Construction Workers

Will a school in DeKalb be the next location where a

cell tower climber falls to his death or a wrench is dropped from 

100 feet in the air, killing an  innocent person on the ground

below?  Safety concerns are numerous when it comes to

placing cell towers so near the places where we live, work

and play.  Has the school board considered the liability 

that goes along with a faulty decision made TWO boards ago?

Is it even legal for a board to decide something that

isn't intended for action until they are safely out of 

the pubic eye? 

Cell tower climbers are dying in large numbers in order to build better cell service for the public --- a risky, high-pressure job that is necessary to expand America's cellular infrastructure.

Cell tower climbers are dying at ten times the rate of construction workers. PBS Frontline says , “People don’t understand what the danger is to tower climbing,” former climber Robert Hale says in the Frontline film. “One person drops a wrench, it’ll kill somebody.”

Untrained cell tower climbers work at the most dangerous job in the nation, climbing 400-foot high ATT towers that usually involves numerous layers of subcontractors. In a field with under 10,000 tower climbers, about 100 climbers have died with over half working on cell sites. In about five weeks, six cell tower climbers fell to their death --- three were on AT&T towers.

According to ProPublica, between 2003 and 2011, 50 climbers died working on cell sites, more than half of the nearly 100 who were killed on communications towers.

The United States has more active cell phones than people. According to CNN Money, a problem developed when ATT began to develop a reputation for dropped calls, unacceptable once they became the sole carrier for the iPhone.

Subcontractors became the answer for not only ATT, Verizon and numerous tower industries, but also service industries, retail, logistics and health care. Building new towers and installing new antennas by AT&T and other tower subcontractors continues to bring 3G networking to striving U.S. markets. But for better cell service and faster video and online games, tower climbers are losing their lives.

The problem seems to lie with subcontractors often contract out jobs to other subcontractors. Jobs are passed from one company to the next, with less ability to control the workers. Many subcontractors are not approved, but OSHA reports that there is "a pattern whereby ATT had significantly more deaths on towers that they were owning or renting than the other carriers."

Many of the crews he came across weren’t taking the most rudimentary safety precautions. “They didn’t have their hardhats, they didn’t have safety glasses, they didn’t have safety gear,” said Mark Hein, who has worked for several turf vendors as a construction manager. Many of the climbers lacked training certificates.

“Rather than paying this amount to this guy, who’s really qualified and … has a great reputation, they hire this person over here because he’s available right now and he’ll do it for what we want him to do it for,” he said. For the task of installing a remote radio head, the price sheet said, the carrier would pay the turf vendor $187 and the turf vendor would pay the subcontractor $93.

To prepare for the iPhone 3G's introduction, ATT poured millions of dollars in the summer of 2008 for its wireless expenditures. This meant an unprecedented scale of untrained tower climbers. OSHA considers cell tower climbers the most dangerous job in America.

“It was nuts,” said Dan MacRae, a project manager who has worked on cell site projects for several turf vendors. “We were working in the field for 40 hours straight. They had crews in rain, sleet, snow.”

Meanwhile, the building boom is continuously accompanied by one fall after another. On May 25, 2012, Plano, Texas-based Goodman Networks sent out a bulletin notifying workers of a mandatory safety stand down.

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/330821#ixzz2SRAagLO2

CNN host Carol Costello was a victim of an iPhone mugging

By Rodney Ho

CNN mid-morning anchor Carol Costello was mugged of her iPhone on the streets of Atlanta.

She wrote about it on her Facebook page:

Good Morning. In retrospect, what happened to me yesterday is insignificant in light of what happened in the Boston. Still, I feel the need to vent. And isn't that what friends are for? 

I was robbed.  And I am angry.

I was walking down a beautiful, leafy Atlanta street, talking on my IPhone.  Guess what happened next?

Three teenagers ran up behind me. One of them grabbed my IPhone. Stupidly I struggled to hold on-to it. But, he was a big guy. And he pulled out a chunk my hair.  I let go.

As he ran down the street, laughing, I hurled a few expletives his way.  I felt no fear at the time, I was just angry. Now I'm angry, shaken and sad. What a lousy life those kids have ahead of them.

As smartphones proliferate, they have become easy items to steal and resell. The New York Times recently ran a page about the subject and how manufacturers don't seem to be doing much about it.

Her advice: don't talk on your smartphone while walking down a public street because you're a ripe target for a mugging.

More Cell Towers on the Horizon

GTCO-ATL has been following developments in Maryland as we have found that there appears to be a connection between the operations of our school system and the system in Montgomery County.  If there is something we see related to cell phone towers there, we often can expect to see the same thing occur here in DeKalb, perhaps with a six-month to a one year lag time.

With that in mind, please watch the video below.  You will even recognize the anchor as having recently left Atlanta's morning news on FOX to join the news anchor team in Maryland.

More Cell Towers on the Horizon in Maryland  

(It was noted that the cell provider asking for towers at low income schools was Verizon, not Sprint as erroneously reported by the station.)

These towers are imposed badges of inferiority upon the schools that they abut and upon the surrounding neighborhoods that the affected schools serve. The stigmatic effects undermine BOE's efforts to equalize and integrate County schools.

Notice of Monday Meetings for the DeKalb County Board of Education

The DeKalb Board of Education will hold the following meetings on Monday, May 6, 2013:

2:00pm Work Session
Cabinet Room
Robert R. Freeman Administrative & Instructional Complex
1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard
Stone Mountain, GA 30083

3:00pm Committee of the Whole
Cabinet Room
Robert R. Freeman Administrative & Instructional Complex
1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard
Stone Mountain, GA 30083

4:00om Executive Session for a student appeal and a legal matter
Cabinet Room
Robert R. Freeman Administrative & Instructional Complex
1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard
Stone Mountain, GA 30083

5:45pm Community Meeting for Public Comments
J. David Williamson Board Room
Robert R. Freeman Administrative & Instructional Complex
1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard
Stone Mountain, GA 30083

7:00pm Business Meeting
J. David Williamson Board Room
Robert R. Freeman Administrative & Instructional Complex
1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard
Stone Mountain, GA 30083

Meeting information can be accessed online by going to:http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us, click on Leadership, go to eBoard Home Page and click on the date for the meeting agenda\information.

From the Tucker Patch:

And here are some of  the questions that parents have not yet heard answered last week at the Tucker Parent council meeting. 

Thurmond  didn't get a chance to answer all of them, so we are hoping for a final meeting hosted by the Tucker Parent Council before school is out.  

There were some questions parents had for Interim Superintendent Michael Thurmond

We have asked TPC to invite our Tucker board representatives since we are unaware of any opportunities the community has been offered to actually have a chance to hear them speak about their views on education and how they will benefit Tucker.  

The next school board election is next year, either July or November 2014, depending on whom you ask. If Tucker is not being fairly represented by the status quo, we need to work together as a community to find some outstanding potential board members and encourage them to run for the office. Otherwise our schools, our community and our children will continue to suffer as being an area in DeKalb that truly has gone without any "local control" in this important area.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS FOR SUPERINTENDENT MICHAEL THURMOND:

1. There are parents and homeowners here tonight who are still waiting to learn whether or not a cell phone tower will go up at their school. Do you have any updates for them? It has been nearly two years.

2. Are you aware of the efforts by a community calling themselves "Lakeside" is going through in order to form a city of Lakeside that could potentially take money, residents and schools away from the Tucker community, which is more than 120 years old? Is this divisiveness something that is still plaguing the school system. Can accreditation remain at risk if neighboring communities are unable to get along?

3. In light of the fact that the board member currently serving and the super district member are both residents of the Lakeside area, what can you say to reassure residents that their children are being represented in the decisions being made at all? How do we know our property values are being protected?

4. Can you explain the school council/parent council/PTA model for parent involvement and is it fair to allow these groups to give input to the school system that might only reflect their views personally, not the views of the majority. What responsibility does the school have to the community? 

5. Principals, even good ones, in the current system are loyal only to the administration. In times past the principal was the advocate for the children, the parents, the teachers, the community because they were involved and even lived in the same area. Now they rotate through some schools only staying a short year or two. How can the community trust that the school is going to be an asset and not a liability?

We pay a lot in taxes, but we are made to look like an area in poverty because this school has been designated as a Title I. Is that fair to those who live around here who are not in poverty? Where do these other children come from and are we actually helping them by transferring them all over the county? Why can't they be reached in schools near them? Many parents say it is this problem that causing them to leave for other schools and other areas.  

6. Is the board and administration aware of a large push right now for charter clusters? Are they doing this on their own or with help?  Does anyone in Tucker realize this initiative? Are we getting the same help?

7. Would you consider protecting Brockett Elementary as a historic school and declare that it will not be placed on a list to be torn down? The push for new construction is causing us to forget the past. A school like Brockett is important to the Civil Rights history because this architecture was meant to inspire a change - that all children are given the same opportunity as well as a natural surrounding to inspire them and a community around the school to support them as they learn.  

Large, technical schools that house thousands may be the future, but Tucker is very protective of its past, too. We don't want to see history torn down and forgotten. We love our small neighborhood schools. We love to keep our children closer to home. If Livsey and Brocket and Midvale are what works here, why do we have to change to something that is not proven?

8. What is the status of the Idlewood Elementary redistricting as well as the Evansdale redistricting?  

9. Rumors are that you plan to tear down Tucker Middle. Is that true?

10. We want to believe in you, Superintendent Thurmond, but you have not said you will remain past a year. What will happen to the school system if and when you leave? Fear is that it will revert right back to where it was.

11. What is being done to settle lawsuits and reduce spending on legal?

12. What is being done to get help to teachers who are overworked and overloaded?

13. Are you looking into better ways to help teach the non-English speaking or English as second language?  

14. What is the "chain of command?" Do you consider the PTA as an official part of the chain of command?

15. So many families have left our schools and gone on to home school, private schools, etc. How can we trust that the 99,000 students is a valid number? It never seems to change but we know many families who have left. Is it possible that we are paying to educate too many children who do not live here? What can be done to stop that?

16. There is a large immigrant and refugee population in DeKalb that needs extra help. Are we getting the federal funds we should to help these children? We have heard they are overcrowded at Jolly. Will they be sending many of those children here as well?

17. If we cannot talk or interact with the board, how are we supposed to get our opinions and feedback to them. How do we know that they know anything about us?  

18. Will you ask the legislators to approve vouchers if the schools are not able to serve the communities, like ours, that are caught in the middle of a North /South battle? 

19. If pre-K is so vital, why was it cut back and will you work to restore it?  

20. Can you please stop the furlough days??

Review of Cell Tower Contracts Reveals New Concerns in DeKalb County

Superintendent Michael Thurmond and DeKalb School Board Members Marshall Orson both spoke last week to a group of parents at the Tucker Parent Council Meeting which was held at Brockett Elementary School.  You can watch his entire presentation as well as the Q&A on You Tube, here.

Homeowners from various parts of Tucker attended and raised concerns about the cell phone tower decision which has not been remedied in two years time.  A representative from the Smoke Rise Homeowners' Association was in attendance and questioned whether or not the contracts were valid.  Mr. Orson stated that the county commissioners might be a better route for inquiries since they would be familiar with the permitting process.  Get the Cell Out - ATL and others have continued to bring the matter before the new Superintendent and board, but have had little or no response.

Another group concerned about cell phone towers in DeKalb County, specifically concerned about the tower that was planned for Briarlake Elmentary School, has also been making inquires.  Here's an excerpt from that letter which was forwarded to a GTCO-ATL follower:

Dear DeKalb BOE Members,

There is a permit application impending that needs your direct attention.  Please do NOT approve any documentation to install cell towers on DeKalb County School property.

The previous board approved a contract with T-mobile to install cell towers on July 8th, 2011.(The meeting was actually on July 11, 2011.)  This business was done in direct opposition to the will off the parents and citizens of DeKalb County.  In your current capacity as new leaders, and I will say it, promised saviors ..., of our county schools, you have the opportunity to oppose this measure.  The whol of DeKalb has spoken against this misuse of our school land in public vote on July 31, 2012 with a resounding majority vote against placing cell towers on school land in DeKalb County.  You must stop the erection of these towers upon our school gardens and in our backyards and communities.   (...)

  ---  Signed by President, No Tower Briarlake, LLC

The letter goes on to tell the board what should be done, or not done, placing the ownership on them, collectively, to either allow or deny cell towers.  While GTCO-ATL has also reached out to the new Superintendent, speaking at the February 2013 school board meeting and submitting documentation that has asked for a resolution against the FUTURE placement of any cell phone towers on school grounds, we had no expectations that this newly appointed and partially elected group of individuals would have any sort of authority over the cell phone towers from two years ago which have not been built.

This letter and similar conversations we have had recently with other concerned residents made us go back and examine the T-mobile contracts again.  We are not attorneys and this website is not a professional opinion by any means, however, we are very familiar with the cell tower situation as we have followed since May 2011 and have encouraged all schools on the list to work together in a united front against this intrusion onto their school grounds.  In reading the information again, here are some issues to consider:

• As we have previously reported, all 9 schools on the list approved by the BOE in July 2011 have received cell tower contracts.  We previously believed that all contracts except for Lakeside High School had expired as they were past the final due diligence period as stated on their contracts and had not been issued permits from the county.  However, in reviewing the Lakeside High School contract, we suspect it may be a master contract that will potentially trigger the construction starts of all other towers previously thought to be past their contract's stipulated deadline.
• The Briarlake group has reported via email that money has been given to the original 9 schools as part of the agreement, however it is not clear if Lakeside received a signed contract.
• And, if Lakeside High School is the master contract but Lakeside no longer has the same need for better cell phone reception that they did two years ago, then there may be no need for a tower.  If that's true then the contract cannot go into full effect.
• The question is:  Does anyone who lives near Lakeside High School care whether or not a cell phone tower goes up near the baseball diamond, near the homes on Oak Grove Road?  Do they even know that they are getting a cell tower?  Will they complain as loudly as the nearby Briarlake community did when they thought they were getting a cell tower?  
• And, the last thing we wanted to point out is that the cell towers slated for 9 schools may be going in at the schools, but lookout DeKalb!  Those schools might be moving to new locations as per SPLOST approval to tear down some schools and rebuild them.  No one specified they had to be rebuilt in the same locations!  

We have communicated the above notions with the current BOE and are awaiting their response.  Feel free to provide your feedback on this issue in the comments section as well.

BEWARE: Local Scammers Using False Information as Excuse for Gaining Your Personal Data

This message was received by GTCO-ATL from one of our followers who lives near the Margaret Harris Comprehensive School in Atlanta.  Please read carefully and report any such attempted scams to law enforcement or call 9-1-1.  Remember that 9-1-1 works faster and better from a LAND LINE, not a cell phone!

Fiber Optics at the schools are not in place so you can get
residential Uverse, according to what ATT told a recent
resident who had been approached by someone saying
they needed personal data.

Hey everyone, BEWARE: FALSE AT&T UVERSE REPS without credentials blanket our neighborhood collection personal information.

I just wanted to let you know that there are people going door to door in our neighborhood saying they are with AT&T Uverse starting out by saying "I don't know if you've noticed the installation of fiber optic cables in your neighborhood but...." then go on to try and collect personal information from you. The last step of this guise is to make a call to set up installation which the person calls on their cell phone to their 'manager' or 'installation office' to check to see if you have any outstanding utility bills...then they ask for social security number and credit card information. 

(... cont.)   The girl who came to my door is very nice, early 20's with auburn hair. 

After the incident, I called AT&T and spoke with several managers and they confirmed that they do not do door to door for anything. Their computers showed that they don't even service this area. So, unless all of the people I spoke with were dead wrong, then the people running around are scammers. 

I think someone is hitting the areas around these (proposed) cell towers.  Please circulate to others...I was under the impression that the fiber optic cables that were popping up around the schools was due to SPLOST money and their new technology. 

And this article ran recently in the Tucker Patch:

Elderly Women Tricked by Scammers(Two similar incidents occurred within days in the same area.)

• By Kevin Madigan
• Email the author
• April 24, 2013

A woman of 83 had jewelry stolen from her Tucker home by thieves who were pretending to help her.

Construction in the area is not a reason to give out
personal data to anyone going door to door.  Get the
name of their company and call them directly if you have
any doubts about their legitimacy.

 The victim's daughter, Linda Trotter, recounted the events in an email. "Thursday afternoon about 2:30 a lady came to the door and told mother she needed to show her the property line as they would be cutting some trees and limbs on the property behind (her house)," Trotter wrote.

"She... went with the lady through the gate and the woman proceeded to tell her about trimming her bushes and (that) they would pick up the debris and mess. After several minutes the woman walked with her back to house, thanked her and got in the passenger side of a black truck parked halfway up the drive and left saying they would be back about 3:30 to do the work." They never returned. 

Trotter says her mother did not know anything was wrong until later that evening when she realized jewelry had been taken from her bedroom. "Her Rolex watch, her oval diamond ring, a heavy gold necklace, all from my daddy, and her retirement diamond faced watch," she said.
The woman who tricked her is described by Trotter as being white and in her late 30s. Her mother is devastated and "feeling very vulnerable... and violated," Trotter said.

 Fox 5 is reporting a similar incident happened to another elderly woman in Tucker a few days earlier.

Crossroads: Five of Six Replaced School Board Members Seek Reinstatement

Five ex-School Board members petition for reinstatement

byKen Watts

a day ago | 164 views | 0  | 1  |  | 

Five of the six replaced DeKalb School Board members are seeking reinstatement.

On the eve of the April 26 deadline to petition Gov. Nathan Deal for reinstatement Thursday, Sarah Copelin-Wood, Jesse “Jay” Cunningham, Donna Edler, Dr. Pamela Speaks and Dr. Eugene Walker had all submitted reinstatement petitions.

Nancy Jester, the former District 1 member, told CrossRoadsNews in an e-mail that she will not petition for reinstatement.

Jester said she sent a resignation letter to the governor’s office a month ago via DeKalb’s liaison, but at press time Thursday, the DeKalb School System’s human resources department said it had not received a required resignation letter from Jester.

Deal suspended and replaced the majority of the nine-member DeKalb School Board in March – under controversial state law 20-2-73, enacted in 2011 – after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed the district on accreditation probation last December.

In her April 21 petition, former District 3 board member Copelin-Wood said she is duly elected and that her continued service on the School Board “is more likely than not to improve the ability of the DeKalb County School District to retain its accreditation.”

“By utilizing and participating in this statutory process, I do not waive any rights I have to challenge both this proceeding, as well as any other action that has been taken against me during this suspension and removal process,” she wrote in her letter to Deal.

Edler, whose attorney E. Brian Watkins filed her petition on April 22, said she is seeking reinstatement because she took office on Jan. 3, 2011, and was only on the board for 26 months and that the issues that led to the State Board of Education’s suspension recommendation “were longstanding and arose prior” to her joining the board.

Edler, the displaced District 7 board member, told CrossRoadsNews on Monday that improving student achievement on standardized tests is her top priority and that she pushed to change the board’s cash-based accounting to an accrual system to help the board better track big expenses and supported a policy requiring that the board be debriefed on the results of state audits.

“It didn’t help that we had high turnover in a short period – five new members in two years,” she said.

Walker’s petition had not reached the governor’s office on Thursday, but he said he mailed it on April 24 and expected it to arrive by the deadline.

In the copy he shared with Cross­Roads­News, Walker wrote: “As you are aware, my belief is that only the voters can elect and recall their elected officials. And the law that gives a governor the authority to remove Board of Education officeholders is unconstitutional.”

Walker, a former board chairman who represented District 9, is challenging the constitutionality of the law in the Georgia Supreme Court.

He said Thursday that he feels obligated to serve out his term.

“So, until such time as the [legal] matter can be resolved, I request reinstatement on the board to which I was twice elected by the voters of DeKalb County,” he said.

In his April 24 petition, Cunningham raised the voting rights issue and said he understands the importance of board governance to keeping full accreditation.

“I have a proven track record of working with other members on the DeKalb County Board of Education, and I believe that I would be an asset,” he said.

Speaks, the displaced District 8 board member, was the first of the group to petition the governor on April 7. She pointed out that she was elected twice – in 2009 and 2012.

“I asked AdvancEd and the State Board of Education to inform me if I am personally guilty of any infraction contained within so that I can begin the process of correction,” she said. “To date, I have not received any feedback.”

Read more:CrossRoadsNews - Five ex School Board members petition for reinstatement

Can a Cell Tower and a School Just Be Picked Up and Moved?

Here is a recent 2013 WSB-TV map of cell tower schools.
Note the location of Narvie Harris.

DeKalb residents voted yes on SPLOST IV.  Are we facing the same issue that has been reported in Fulton County? (see Patch article below)  Does this mean our Atlanta-area school systems be working together on a "master plan" that has not been revealed to homeowners and taxpayers?


Or is it a coincidence that schools approved in the Fulton SPLOST are now being torn down and rebuilt elsewhere and a recent WSB-TV maps shows a school (Narvie J. Harris Elementary) suddenly appearing in a new location?

Here is a map from a 2011 WSB-TV report  on cell towers.
Note the location of Narvie Harris.

DeKalb approved money in SPLOST for "demolition" without any clear indication of what exactly will be demolished.  Are they planning to tear down schools, homes, businesses, or more?  Will Fernbank, Smoke Rise and other schools we thought were going to be rebuilt in their current locations actually going to be moved elsewhere?  The same name but a totally new school in a new location?

Has this plan already started with Narvie J. Harris Elementary School?

Homeowners Fight Fulton BOE in Eminent Domain Claim
From the Sandy Springs Patch:

Twenty-one members of Riley Place Homeowners Association sent a letter to the Fulton Board of Education to protest possible relocation of Heards Ferry Elementary to their neighborhood on the southern end of Riverside Drive. The site is across from St. Andrews Presbyterian Church.

“We’ve already been threatened with eminent domain.” said Herb Carter, one of the homeowners refusing to sell his property.

Fulton County BOE makes threats to take
over homes that residents don't want to sell.

The homeowners' letter said in part: “The site on the southern end of Riverside [Drive] would require condemnation of at least two homes which homeowners do not want to sell…This is very valuable property made up of minimum 2 acre tracts, and the cost of land per acre, even after condemnation, would be about as high as any residential land Fulton County could consider acquiring.”

On Wednesday, more than 100 residents attended a public meeting at Riverwood International Charter High School on the relocation of Heards Ferry Elementary. Most at the meeting said they are opposed to moving the school to any new location.

Patrick Burke, Deputy Superintendent of Operations, said that by voting for the SPLOST referendum in November 2011, Sandy Springs residents approved moving Heards Ferry. He later added, “We’re studying what it would take to build on this site and keep things on this site.”


More on the SPLOST vote below.
During the meeting Burke said eminent domain is rarely used. “That’s not to say that we won’t use it,” he said.

The Riley Place homeowners represented in the letter do not have confidence in the Fulton County Board of Education. They complained in the letter that two previous meetings this year, on moving Heards Ferry, were not adequately announced to nearby residents and the general public.

Chris Clark, head of Riley Place HOA, said residents learned the Fulton County Board of Education was interested in their neighborhood about two months ago. “Out of six pieces of property that they need, [owners of] four have been approached by a mystery realtor,” he said. “We have not heard anything from [those property owners]. We assume they made a deal.”


Did you know the 2011 SPLOST referendum approved moving Heards Ferry?
Several residents say they now realize that they didn't understand the SPLOST referendum approved in November 2011.

Linda Gold's children attended Heards Ferry and Riverwood. “[Burke] kept saying that the voters voted for us to replace the school. I didn’t vote to replace the school,” she said.

Gold added, “I wouldn’t have voted for the SPLOST had I known they were going to rip Heards Ferry down. I thought that the money was going to build a new place on the site or repair it. I had no idea and neither did any of my friends.”


Did you misunderstand the 2011 SPLOST referendum? How do you feel about homeowners possibly being moved out by eminent domain?

See also: Residents Strongly Oppose Moving Heards Ferry Elementary

Is it Time to Finally Call Our Children Home?

What is in a name?  DeKalb residents fight.  Some call for
a new day.  Is it time to call our children home?

GTCO-ATL Editorial content follows:

Even though many residents in DeKalb County know that it isn't fair for one school to claim to be "the best" in a system that was falling apart at the seams, Lakeside High has enjoyed that reputation for a long time in Central DeKalb.  Dunwoody's schools are viewed by many as just that -  Dunwoody's schools.  But, even in Dunwoody there have been concerns raised by parents at the meeting held with the new superintendent that there are kids coming up in the ranks of DeKalb or from elsewhere that are in greater need than our schools are equipped or prepared to handle.  Dunwoody's solution may be to form its own school system, but that will be a tall order as most rural counties in the state are not in favor of splitting into smaller and smaller subsections because they risk losing funding in a time that the economy is already hurting.  

Even though a lot of people are saying that Lakeside is a school that attracts kids from all over the county and has been the school of choice for the well-connected, there are also many, many kids there who are great all on their own.  That's likely because "greatness" comes from within.  You can't "make" a kid great.  Parents know very well that as they get older, it is hard to "make" your kid do anything.  Greatness comes from giving your child inspiration and good role models to look up to.  We have to give them something to aspire to that will help them find their own drive and determination to get there. 

No matter where the kids come from and no matter what kind of money their parents make or whether they come from a broken home or one straight out of Mayberry, the kids in DeKalb County deserve to have an education system that is truly about them.  Wouldn't it be great if ALL the kids in DeKalb could have bragging rights about their school, regardless of whether or not it is an elementary school, theme school, charter school, middle school or any other type of school we have today?  Wouldn't it be amazing if the adults in this county could stop allowing their differences bring harm and division to the next generation and, instead, if we could find a way to work together to raise our entire county up to a higher standard of living?  

A higher standard would mean more jobs.  How will we get them?  By offering an educated workforce and by insisting our politicians are fair and reasonable when planning the future so that there are no surprises for the small business owner or the large corporation that is considering a move to our attractive slice of suburban Atlanta.  

Have you ever met a star student from Lakeside?  Then you will likely note they are polite, intelligent, ambitious and concerned about the future.  Have you ever met a star student from Tucker Middle School?  The same qualities exist.  Stone Mountain?  Fernbank?  Decatur?  Look around you.  Not for the problems, but look around for the assets we have here, as Superintendent Thurmond calls them.  

"Our children are 20% of our population, but 100% of our future," Thurmond said to a group at Brockett Elementary last evening.  

We have families all over the district who were managing to squeeze onto the already full roster at Lakeside pushing classrooms to capacity.  The number of children who do not attend their own school is staggering.  Thurmond mentioned it was something to the tune of 15,000.  

So, Lakeside has slipped in the rankings, but should we be celebrating a loss of prestige? What was it that put them on top to begin with?  Was it a combination of attitude, procurement of top teaching talent, finally getting a world class appearance for its school and making a great partnership with the Fernbank Science Center.  Speculation can twist ideas in all kids of directions and turn emotions on both sides of an issue into fierce camps of opposition.  

So, let's stop the speculation.  Let's find a way to come to the table together and fix DeKalb.  

Lakeside will bounce back.  Let's just hope their bounce up doesn't leave a giant shadow over the rest of the schools that were built to serve our children.  Let's raise the bar for all our schools and call the children to come home.  

More on this issue to be included in the Tucker Patch. 

Lakeside High - Is It Still Worth Leaving Home For?

Here's a note about Lakeside from DeKalb School Watch Blog Two:
Posted on April 23, 2013 by dekalbschoolwatch

Congratulations to DeKalb School of the Arts, Arabia Mountain and Chamblee High School (all with magnet programs) for making the list of top high schools published annually by U.S. News.

For many years, Lakeside retained bragging rights as one of the top schools in Georgia to make the US News top list. But now, they aren’t even a contender. Surely this is a sign of the falling achievement levels or at least an imbalance in success in our traditional schools. Those that can have fled to private, charter or magnet schools, which have all done well having absorbed our best and brightest—and provided excellent teachers with low student to teacher class ratios. (#2 ranked DSA: 13:1, #6 ranked Chamblee: 15:1 and #14 ranked Arabia: 17:1)

Click here to see the Georgia ranking list showing class size and relevant data. All schools are listed and have data for your review. To their credit, Lakeside, shown as larger than the average GA high school and with a student-teacher ratio of 18:1, tested 70% of AP students with 39% of them passing the AP exam. DSA tested 100% of AP students with 75% passing the test, Chamblee tested 68% of AP students with 48% passing the test and Arabia tested 100% of AP students with 19% passing the test.

+++
Click here to see how the rankings were calculated.

DeKalb Announces Wireless Plan That Appears to Be Behind Schedule

In an email to the entire district, here is an update on Technology:  (GTCO-ATL comments are in bold)

The DeKalb County School District (DCSD) has undertaken a fast-paced technology plan to make 123 schools and centers wireless by the end of November.  With a total price tag of $4.5 million, the project is funded through the Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax (SPLOST).

Is this all of them, some of them, half of them?  We thought the goal was 100%.  Is that still the goal or has it changed?  If parents are concerned about the potential effects of round-the-clock exposure to RF radiation while their children are at school, will there be a list of schools that intend to be kept "wired" instead of "wireless?"

How are we supposed to know if this is a good or a bad number since most people do not know anything more than what is going on in the schools in their immediate area?  And that is only if they have a child attending that school.  The Technology Department stated at a School Board public meeting that they were putting a website together that would let parents and the community know the roll-out schedule for the technology conversion.  Did they do this?  Is there a list?  a schedule?  Why is it so hard to get basic information??

Currently, 14 schools and centers are completed, with an average of one access point per two classrooms.  

They have been working on this project since at least January and they have only completed 14???  Doesn't sound like we are on track to reach 123 before November at a rate of about 3 schools per month.  And, by the way, what is a "center?"  Is that a vocational school?  How many of those do we have?  What does this announcement even mean??  What is an access point?  A router shared between two classrooms?  Is this a good ratio?  Is it in line with the other schools in the district that SACS said we were behind?  What are we providing?  Simple access to the Internet?  Access to the school system's secure network?  How will children be accessing the Internet?  Who is monitoring the security of their data or what sites they are seeing?)   

The completed schools are Cedar Grove High, Chamblee Middle, Clarkston High, Coralwood Diagnostic (we placed a priority on a school that will be torn down and rebuilt?  OR was this one just getting an addition?  (We placed priority on making a pre-school / kindergarten school over our high schools?), International Student Center, Kittredge Magnet School, Lithonia High, Lithonia Middle, Margaret Harris Comprehensive School, Miller Grove High, Peachtree Middle, Redan Middle, Tucker Middle and Warren Technical School. The cost for the 14 so far is $487,556.  

(Just a few months ago, there was talk that Tucker Middle needed to be demolished, so why would we be putting in infrastructure here and putting it at the top of the priority list?  Does anyone ever remember hearing anything about a Clarkston High? Is there a Lithonia High and Lithonia Middle?  Are these new names for existing schools? What is the International Student Center, is that the International Community School, previously Medlock, or do we have a new entity in DeKalb called a community center that is providing education??)

“We are pleased with the results so far of our aggressive technology plan,” said Chief Information Officer Gary Brantley. “With their vote in support of SPLOST, the citizens of DeKalb County made a sound investment in their children’s schools. Through this program, our students will learn in 21 st century environments that reflect their changing needs.”

An update of all SPLOST technology projects can be found here . In addition to providing wireless access for all classrooms, DCSD is using SPLOST funding to update hardware, provide 21 st century classroom technology including interactive white boards, upgrade technology infrastructure, distribute digital content and upgrade telecommunications infrastructure.

Are we using the old acronym DCSD again?  Does it matter?  (District vs. System)  Does anyone know if teachers are using their interactive white boards?  Does anyone recall ever hearing the plan that we would now be "distributing digital content" as a mission of SPLOST?  Does this mean we are going to be evolving into virtual classrooms or are we distributing our coursework elsewhere?  Or will we be receiving classroom content from an unknown, unannounced content provider that the board has not voted on or agreed to finance?

Don't you wish they would quit reminding us about the "sound support of voters" when the SPLOST vote took place at a time when we had very low voter turnout and misinformation being spread about the SPLOST being necessary for the removal of the board and the reduction in number of board members?  

AND, during a time of HIGHer voter turnout GTCO-ATL and others in the county who were in favor of stopping cell towers from being built on school grounds were relieved to receive the exact same 62 % on the NO vote for the cell tower referendum, but no one has told us a thing about the outcome.  

Hmmm... makes one wonder why we bothered with that referendum at all, doesn't it??  Oh yeah, THAT'S RIGHT ... we didn't!!  We wanted a total ban and the STATE morphed it into something else.  Then when it still went in our favor, they just disregarded it entirely.  Nice, huh?

First the state said we should reduce our board from 9 to 7 or 5 for better results.  Now, with the sudden contagious push to form cities and then push other areas to become cities, too, they are telling us that we need to have a representative who knows us and lives within 2 miles of our homes so we can have someone closer to "wring their necks" when they don't do what we tell them to do???  Isn't this exactly what we were doing to the school board and SACS has now removed them for it?  

Why is the state advocating for a city system to be set up by which they will govern over us in the same, irrational, unproductive manner by which the school board was removed for doing?  Why are Republicans, who did not even challenge the Democrats on the ballot for many of the county commissioner seats or the office  of the CEO, now pushing for more government in a time when residents are being taxed at a rate higher than anywhere in the state, and likely among the highest in the nation?

Why are we more concerned with technology than we are about the problems that exist here between human beings?  If we cannot communicate clearly with each other or treat each other fairly regardless of race, why are we bringing more and more people here from other countries and leaving them with virtually nothing?  How can the children we bring here learn and grow in the spirit of realizing the American Dream if we haven't figured out how anyone is expected to do that without access to a free, basic quality education?

Individual School Accreditation for DeKalb High Schools

Urgent Action Request per Nancy Jester, former DeKalb board member:

 

Pursuant to state law (O.C.G.A. § 20-3-519) accreditation by SACS (AdvancEd) or The Georgia Accrediting Commission (GAC) satisfies the HOPE scholarship eligibility requirements.  Many DeKalb high school communities are asking the Superintendent for permission allowing their school to pursue GAC accreditation with the provision that the school community will pay for it.  So, the budget impact to DeKalb is zero dollars. 

  

Unfortunately, to date after several requests and meetings, the Superintendent has not agreed to allow high schools and their communities to move forward on this matter.  Sadly, the Board of Education has remained silent as well.  Surely our school system and board members can permit the pursuit of GAC accreditation by any school that wants to seek it and is willing to pay the cost. 

  

Dual accreditation is not uncommon.  Columbia County has district accreditation from AdvancEd/SAC and each of their schools is also accredited through the GAC.  Henry County High School is accredited by both Advanc-ED/SACS and GAC.  Ditto for Lanier County High School, North Clayton High School and more. 

  

If you agree with me that the Superintendent and School Board should allow schools to pursue GAC accreditation, please write an email telling them you support this.  We don't have much time to make this a reality so please send your email as soon as possible.  I've listed the board's emails below.  Feel free to copy me.  I'll place this email as a blog on my website so drop me a comment to show your support as well.  (Click here to go to this blog post.)

--Nancy

melvin_johnson@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us;

jim_mcmahan@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us;

john_coleman@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us;

marshall_orson@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us;

michael_a_erwin@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us;

david_campbell@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us;

joyce_a_morley@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us;

karen_carter@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us;

thaddeus_mayfield@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us;

michael_l_thurmond@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us

cc:  nancyjester@gmail.com; sayno2celltowers@yahoo.com