First 2007 Update from TAG
Message from the Teachers' Alliance of Gwinnett (TAG)
January 3, 2007
T.A.G. commenced operations January 1st. We began mailing out membership information/applications on December 29th and are halfway through our accumulated list of 102 addresses.
If you would like to request the packet, please send your mailing address via email to tagwhiterose@yahoo.com
or write care of...
Director
Teachers' Alliance of Gwinnett
P. O. Box 1126
Auburn, GA 30011
Teachers, parents, bus drivers, central office employees, small business owners, counselors, media specialists, assistant principals, college professors, community activists, etc. WE NEED AND WANT YOUR SUPPORT.
T.A.G. intends to become a force in returning professional, progressive and common sense leadership to our schools. We are a diverse coalition of concerned citizens utterly disgusted with the direction GCPS has taken in recent years. More importantly, we have many ideas to offer that can effectively fix several of the most severe problems. However, the school system prefers to pursue the status quo and pretend that all is well and that only a few "disgruntled" malcontents are kicking-up the dust. This couldn't be further from the truth.
What the current district leadership conveniently fails to understand or acknowledge is that the collective bunch of "malcontents" very likely consists of the majority of employees in GCPS - especially teachers. We can only guess about the respective numbers of parents and students upset with a leadership that doesn't care about their needs either (despite flowery rhetoric to the contrary).
There's no question that change is coming... only when and to what degree. T.A.G. suggests that the district leadership seriously considers opening an avenue for constructive dialogue rather than the usual tactics of disinformation, character assassination, threats, intimidation, and generally raising the war club.
While the leadership is seemingly preoccupied with which businesses and developers and with which politicians-who-own-businesses to favor with contracts backed by a billion dollars of SPLOST money, the real needs of students and teachers are NOT being met. There are serious concerns among the district's veteran teachers and instructional support staff as to whether students are, in fact, receiving a 'world class' education... or whether the focus has shifted from supporting students and teachers to top officials protecting and enhancing their jobs while consolidating power and control. It's also past time for the district leadership to explain why the present 'Total Quality Management' agenda being inflicted on many GCPS schools (but not yet all)is a better plan than a 'Site-based Management' strategy that allows teachers and parents to determine what's best for their neighborhood or local school.
This district is literally crying out for change. If you don't believe it, simply TALK TO TEACHERS and other school personnel. GCPS has descended into something akin to The Twilight Zone. Our kids deserve something better than the defective 'product' being manufactured by central office bureaucrats, without teacher in-put, under the guise of school improvement and increasing student achievement.
The school board refuses to perform their oversight duties properly. Their mysterious blindness and paralysis may also be connected to the SPLOST factor - too much money + too little accountability = irresponsible behavior.
Only a grassroots movement of concerned citizens will restore balance, order, and common sense to our school leadership. This is that opportunity. Please contact us today!
posted by The Truth Will Set You Free @ 1/04/2007 10:17:00 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
I am not a teacher with the system, but I back your efforts 100% to get accountability back into the Gwinnett County School System. The statement made in the AJC by Dr. McClure demonstrates how much the Board is out of touch with reality.
The board has continually allowed Wilbanks and Company to destroy good teaching methods, overload students with unneccessary testing, and have used their power and position to destroy many careers within the school system.
Teachers and support staffs need to ban together to support your organization. Many of the 24,000 employees are still scared to speak out, but the truth is the truth. Sooner or later, the entire story of Wilbank's mismanagement will finally come to light.
What really brothers me about the Gwinnett Daily Post is they had ignored reporting on this gross mismanagement, instead the paper is more interested in reporting about two call girls and their activities instead a larger and more important problem of mismanagement of the largest school system in this state and what effects this mismanagement has on our children and being able to provide them with a decent education.
JAW and all his Directors were correct............Just sit tight and this will go away.
Happy New Year Alvin! Now about your paycheck ...
By BEN SMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/08/07
Clay Cox wants to give Gwinnett state lawmakers the power to limit what J. Alvin Wilbanks gets paid.
Cox, a GOP House member from Lilburn, has introduced a bill that would give legislative delegations across Georgia control over the salaries of their local state school superintendents.
This would let local legislators limit the amounts local school board pay their superintendents.
Cox insists he doesn't have a personal beef with Wilbanks. We're not mind readers so we take him at his word. However, of the four pieces of legislation introduced by Cox, three of them are aimed at the superintendent's office. Besides the pay bill, Cox has introduced two measures to allow voters to change the appointed job of superintendent to an elected post.
We've already noted that during the 2006 elections, Wilbanks gave $2,000 to Cox's opponent, Woody Woodruff.
That's the most anyone can donate to a political candidate for a primary election campaign.
"We hope efforts would be on items that would improve education rather than taking us backwards," Wilbanks said. "If you look at the more successful school districts across the country, they are the ones that have an elected Board of Education and appointed superintendent. This arrangement allows the superintendent to focus on public education, not politics."
JAW wins again. You need to quit wasting your time trying to do anything. You have now proven that you cannot touch JAW or any of his staff who spends money the way they want. He and his staff are laughing everyday. He and his staff of directors are "UNTOUCHABLE" stop trying.
Interesting Alvin you can afford to give $2000 to a local politician election campaign.....almost no one else in the school system could afford such a "gift". Heck Alvin $2000 would feed my family for 4-5 months!!!!!
In fact most people in Gwinnett could not afford such an expenditure. Makes one wonder after all what would Woody have done to scratch your back if elected.....
Come on Mr. Wilbanks your mouth says you want to keep out politics to focus on education, while your hand reaches in your wallet to make donations to politician.
Give me a break, some man of GOD you are. After ready this blog I have lost ALL respect for you as a Christian. Please give Baptists some dignity. You embarass us, your fellow church members and GOD. Not mention any witness you may have on unbelievers.
While it appears that some of these allegations on this blog maybe questionable or 'up for interpretation', one thing is true, you have a cloud of ethics that scream for answers and so far your answers on this web site and the media have answered nothing!
Alvin, let me state the phrase of the last decade....What would Jesus do? I assure you he would not ignore, excuse away or turn his head on ANY of these questions raised on thie blog. This blog is not the quest of two disgruntled employees as you have stated. This is about being above reproach, without a question or hint of a question of where you stand. Alvin I implore you again, IF YOU ARE A MAN OF GOD AS YOU STATE IN OUR CHURCH DO THE RIGHT THING. If you can not humble yourself before GOD and man to give answers of bad decisions then resign/retire. If you can be enough of a christian and openly admit mistakes, get honest with the public then maybe the public can honor your honesty.
But my gut tells me, you sincerely do not think anything you have done is illegal, wrong or unethical. In which case, I question you moral compass. I question your faith. The tax collector felt he had done nothing wrong. He just used the political movement of the day to make his fortune from tax collections. After Christ moved his heart he gave it all back and changed his life.
Where is your moral compass? Is set for Man made stars or the greatest star of the universe?
Did you not see what the paper printed? You can't touch JAW or his staff. It does not matter how much money he spends or transportation and Grant Reppert wastes. They are "UNTOUCHABLE". They can set their salaries, they can fire who they want, they can go on vacation spending tax payers money, they can live high on the hog, and their is not a thing you can do. Grant tells us that everyday. He thinks it is a joke. He loves the attention. GET IT UP.
My Gosh.... People.. let it go... It seems that it is very easy to set back and point fingers at the ones who are at least making a difference.... For better of For worse...... at least they are trying... I sit back and read all of this CRAP and it makes me sick to my stomach!! It is always so much easier to focus on negative than the positive things that our leaders do for us.... Where were you when the people you are now slandering was working hard for our school system making it The Largest Employer In The State Of Georgia and the Largest School System In Georgia...???? Maybe running around in diapers or Maybe in one of the schools that they are representing today??? What does that say about you?
Let it Go.... Forgive yourself... Stop trying to blame others for your shortcomings. Why don't you try tearing down the United States Government, starting in Washington... not Gwinnett County.... Be a MAN and/or Good Citizen..... Better than that ...
Let it go.... and Let GOD...!!!
The real agenda?
Wilbanks, Perdue, Cox and Cagle have now begun quietly introducing their previously secret agenda. They have all recently said that whole school districts can become "charter schools". They expound that charter schools outperform public schools, that it gives teachers more flexibility and schools more local control. (This is an outright lie, and any Google research will prove that charter schools are failing nationwide! Washington Post, New York Times, etc., all agree what a disaster they are -- except they save tons of money.)
It appears by their recent comments (every one of them!)that they are planning to restructure Gwinnett as an all-charter school system. It gets them out of those pesky standards and policy restrictions.
The implications of this move are enormous. They won't have to pay teachers at the current scale because charter schools don't have to use certified teachers. Charter schools don't have media specialists or librarians. This is not surprising from a shop teacher (JAW) who disregards libraries as superfluous fluff.
This is coming down the pike, and we should all be on to them and the false propaganda.
"our school system making it The Largest Employer In The State Of Georgia and the Largest School System In Georgia...????"
I don't think it's important that GCPS becomes the largest school system in Georgia or the Largest employer in the state. I think what's more important is that our children get the kind of education that we all desire that they have. And being the largest system/employer doesn't guarantee that.
Hey 9:14 poster..All politics are local! You and I can not make a difference in Washington. The crooks in Washington are from here. We elected them. But I can not convince 100,000+ voters that our congressmen are corrupt. BUT I have a shot of convincing just 2500 people that Louise Radloff is a clueless Canadian and Robert McClure is an arogant jerk!
FOlks look at the numbers of the elections it don't take alot of votes to win a BOE seat.
I can't run, I work for GCPS. Trust me the minute I leave ALOT of people will hear how corrupt the system is.
The Website Address for TAG/ Teachers Alliance of Gwinnett is up and running, check it out!
Link:
http://www.talkgwinnett.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=88888895&Itemid=88888904/
It is a shame that this issue can't get the same press Cobb County got over the "LAPTOP" issue. What hasn't gotten posted yet is how some of these decisions do impact student learning. One issue that has been brought up to the school board is the discrepancy of funding for instruction for orchestra and band students. How is it that the orchestra programs, which are fully funded with local tax dollars, are alloted at a ratio or 138:1, when there are band programs that have a ratio of over 500:1. Oh, I remember now, that is because extra band directors are a local school decision, but orchestra teachers are funded at the county level. Don't band students deserve the same educational opportunities that orchestra students get. Hey band parents, doesn't that get under you skin just a little? Your tax dollars go to enhance the education of orchestra students, don't you think your child deserves the same respect for their education?
Another pressing point that has failed to get addressed is how this county can have a BEL (Basic Equipment List) that is only for new schools. If is a BASIC list, why don't old schools get the same level of funding and consideration for equipment? Hey parents of students in old schools, don't you think your tax dollars should also go to support your child's BAISC educational needs? Or should you have to move to new schools so your child can get the same eduational opportunites and considerations afforded the students in new schools? These problems get lip service but nothing else. Why and how did the county find the $1,000,000 to bar code all the books last summer even though 25% of the HS books were slated to be replaced after this year. Couldn't that $250,000 have been used to provide equal funding for all students?
Anyone in the public also ought to be concerned about the blatent violation of ADA laws by GCPS. From 11Alive News Feature:
In a 1998 affidavit, superintendent Alvin Wilbanks argued that adding ramps would cost too much money and take up too much space. So, the local fire marshal gave Gwinnett Schools a variance or waiver from the state accessibility law that requires ramps on all new classroom trailers. There was no mention of federal law.
"If you ever get sued in federal court, we're not promising that a federal judge is going to honor this variance," Georgia Fire Commissioner John Oxendine said.
Any portable classroom that was bought or relocated after January 1992 must be accessible under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the U.S. Justice Department. This is true no matter how many disabled students are enrolled in the school or how many use the portable classrooms.
http://www.americanincline.com/articles2.html
http://tramadol-sqllt.blogspot.com/
Ciao!
Love the site. I run a similar site in Camden County called The Real School Police www.schoolpolice.blogspot.com
Check it out.
These school boards think they can do whatever they want and it needs to stop.
Anonymous said...
JAW and all his Directors were correct............Just sit tight and this will go away.
6:32 PM
Understatement!! Today's the 15th of May and the last post was only at least 7 days after the 4th of January.
Did The Truth Will Set You Free get TAGged? or did JAW & Co. find the Truth?
or Has this just gone away?
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