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DeKalb County School System

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The 90 Day Plan was made available Friday, September 16 and can be viewed here.

The email sent from Dr. Atkinson on her first day as superintendent, September 15 can be read here.

On Saturday, August 27, Dr. Cheryl Atkinson introduced herself and her vision for her proposed role as superintendent.  A video of this session is here.

Dr. Atkinson's contract begins on September 15.

A summary of the key points from the August 27 talk follows:

Action Items & Plans

  • My 90-day entry plan will have timelines and focused activities.  These activities will center around listening to board members, principals, teachers, teacher associations, parents, business leaders, and elected officials.  It will include an immersion tour with visits to every school, one-on-one meetings with principals, and frank discussions with teachers and teacher association leaders.  I’ll meet with the executive and senior staff to listen, ask questions, and get feedback.  I’ll spend much time with parents and parent/teacher associations.  I truly believe parents are our partners.

  • Embrace diversity, design schools and programs based on students’ needs, new technologies and equip students with analytical, decision-making, and team skills as if their lives depend upon it.  Because they do.

  • I’ll spend time with the media because there are a lot of them and because, if we’re going to do this work and be successful, we will all have to be together with open and honest communication.  And it starts with me.

  • I’ll reach out to our business leaders and seek their support for our schools and our students.  I’ll reach out to our community leaders.  

  • And there are critical, top-level personnel decisions that must be made in the first 90 days and some more immediately.

  • My vision is to shift from a traditional hierarchy that is top-down to one of an inverted pyramid, a structure that is built from the classroom up.  Teachers must be empowered to have a strong voice in the instructional process.  There must be just-in-time data for them.  

  • Advanced Placement courses in all disciplines and technical trainings are a must if our students are going to compete.

  • We must provide ACT and SAT prep as part of the curriculum.  We can’t leave it to chance.

  • We must have courses on alternative energy sources.  Those are the new career techs.  Vocational ed is not over; it’s just changed.

  • We must provide every student with a laptop or an iPad with their textbooks loaded on them and web access for coursework.  

  • Our teachers need state-of-the-art technology.  Smart boards in every classroom.  They need virtual manipulatives.

  • We must have high-quality after-school programs that stimulate and allow for creative and innovative fun.

  • Following completion of the immersion meetings and team-building initiatives, a report will be presented to the board outlining the findings, proposals, and plans for moving forward.  

  • We do not have the luxury for allowing non-academic related issues to consume the attention and focus of all of our educators.  So I will create a core team, headed by me, to focus solely on what we are here to do, and that is to provide a world-class educational system that meets the needs of our children.  We will keep our eyes on the prize, and the prize is ensuring we create the best educational opportunities for every student in DeKalb County School System.

  • I will ensure we are optimizing our financial resources and that the dollars are flowing to the classroom to directly impact academic achievement and student success.

  • I will ask for audits across all departmental  budgets and programs for local, state, and federal dollars.  If the expenditure of these dollars shows no improvement, no value added to the educational achievement, then they must and will be eliminated.

  • School councils will have at least 51% parents.

Quotables
  • I have the skills, perseverance, and courage to lift the DeKalb County system to a higher level.
  • Core business of putting children first
  • We are in the life-saving business.  We save lives with what we do generationally.
  • A singular focus on success with high expectations, a focus on improving academics for all children and all must mean all will yield great performance and net great results.
  • It’s hard work.  It’s heavy lifting, and it will take time.
  • The saying that you are who you hire is true.  And you are also, in this leadership position, who you inherit.  
  • Singularly focused on our core mission of raising student success across all grade levels, across all socioeconomic levels.
  • I can only be as effective as the people around me.
  • I have no problem saying to someone, “You have to go.”
  • Our children cannot wait.  
  • I don’t believe in teaching to the test, but I do believe in being prepared for it.  And there is a difference.
  • My experience tells me that education takes place in the classroom, not in the central office.
  • For those who are not performing, they must go.
  • This long-term 5-year strategic plan will be our roadmap as we begin our journey for success.
  • 90% of success is in the execution and only 10% in the plan.  I’ve seen a lot of great plans sit on the shelf.  I’ve seen strategic plan books never opened by those in our classrooms.
  • Our objectives must be research-based, bold, but attainable.
  • It is my intent to be transparent, accountable, and honest.  
  • My focus will be on our students and student success first with our adults and political issues taking a distant second.  Children must come first, and our decisions, my decisions will be based first and foremost on what is good for all children.
  • Does it/did it add value to the children and can you prove it?  If you say it and can’t prove it, it may not exist.
Q & A

What are the three most critical issues facing the system and how will you address each of them to restore the trust and confidence of parents?

First and foremost we have to address student success.  There are lots of activities, lots of work around that. 2nd looking at the budget, making sure the alignment to the child is there.  3rd, restoring confidence and trust back into this school district.

Please outline your plan for reducing bloat, eliminating nepotism…

I understand that the perception of overstaffing and nepotism and cronyism exists, but honestly, I think the greater issue is competence.  It’s hard to talk about, but it’s going to be discussed and acted upon… Probably downsizing.  I don’t know that, but I feel it.

Will you remove principals and teachers from schools with repeated low success?

The answer to that part is “yes”... I do believe in strategically staffing schools.

What support will you give the gifted kids in those home schools not lucky enough to win the lottery to magnet schools?

I think we have to make all of our decisions based on what’s best for children, and if that means pulling them together because they have like needs, then we have to understand that.  

Communication plan question

I plan to spend a lot of time in the community.  You can’t run a school district effectively from behind a desk.  I plan to have parent roundtables scheduled so frequently…

The victory is in the classroom.

How will you boost morale of employees?

Communication and follow-through

I do not make decisions in isolation.

We will build upon the things that are good and make them better.