Your link leads to a BusinessWeek magazine article which features top schools for each of the states. The Georgia school with the best overall academic performance is identified as the Davidson Magnet School in Augusta. The top public school said to be a GreatSchool’s Parent’s Choice (sic) is Wheeler High School, in East Cobb County. BusinessWeek shows another top school in Atlanta, designated as “low income,” and there is also a private school designated as a parent’s choice. That’s all.

Most Cobb County residents consider Walton High School as superior to Wheeler, but the two schools are close to each other and draw from the same general pool of students in affluent East Cobb. Our Fayette schools are not really far behind Walton and Wheeler, as they have a similar parent base.

I am persuaded the parents help make most of the difference between schools. Educated caring parents have higher expectations.

"In Oklahoma, the school with the best overall performance also happens to be the best low-income school. Despite the demographic challenges, 100% of students at the Dove Science Academy, a publicly funded charter school for grades 6 to 12 in Oklahoma City, were accepted to college last year. Its test scores were the highest in the state.

About 90% of the 481 students at Dove Science Academy qualify for free or reduced school lunch, and 60% come from families where English is not the first language, said assistant principal/dean of students Marc Julian.

The school, founded by a group of educators in the 2001-02 season in an old office building on a busy Oklahoma City street, has strict policies for both students and teachers. Students wear uniforms, and the focus is decidedly on academics. Students have two or three hours of homework each day. And the school has neither an ROTC nor a football team (It began offering varsity soccer and basketball only in the past few years).

The kids are required to stay an extra hour and—if necessary—come in on Saturdays if they fail practice tests given monthly in preparation for the statewide exams. Admission is decided by lottery and, unlike a number of top schools on the list, does not require an admission test. The best students are rewarded with an annual trip to Europe and Turkey for which they pay just a few hundred dollars.

Teacher salaries are based on merit not pay scales (There is no union)."

Guess my point is -- could we learn from some at the top of the heap? Adding additional resources -- as the Superintendent was seeking a couple of weeks ago -- is not always the answer. Agree with your point on parental involvement. I was just taken back by the salaries of what we already have in place, and the number of assistants and their compensation! In this time of reduced resources, just find it difficult to justify NOT CUTTING, and find the listing provided by Sniffles a WONDERFUL START POINT!!

I crunched some numbers for you....Here are the Headcount, average salary, minimum salary and maximum salary for all 99 Board of Education job descriptions, loaded to the web for your perusal:

LINK

When they said they wanted to close down the new elementary school, I almost lost it! Morons. Janet Smola really turned out to be a financial guru for sure. She got her degree from the Madoff school of investing.

Vote Republican

Smola is really a financial guru and I don't know what we would have done without all her wisdom.

Great piece of work. Thank you for the compilation.

school board.
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Caution - The Surgeon General has determined that constant blogging is an addiction that can cause a sedentary life style.

Shocked at the levels! Appears to be extremely fertile ground for responsible folks to find some cuts. Had no idea of the compensation being provided!!

Sniffles5, this should be required reading for the citizens of Fayette County!

Maybe a quarter million for transportation directors! $80,000 bus mechanics!
Are they also fixing the school board autos? Or do they take those to the local garage? Can I get my car fixed there--where is this place?

Do they wash Super's autos?
And his wife's?

Does the super pay rent on his home? Electric, etc.?

programs. the salaries are from about $5,000., up to almost $31,0000. Guys, this is.. after... schools!

We have business service sectrataries, 4 of them, one making over $65,000. a year.

We have 50 ..suport...clerks? making anywhere from almost nothing, to, 2, over $50,000.

We have 17 people at Crossroads, whatever that is, all making over $50,000. a year.

I certainly hope the individuals you are attempting to embarrass can write and spell better than you 'suggarfoot'.

How much money do you make and what do you do for a living 'suggarfoot'?

As for me, I favor eliminating the after school program entirely if it is a financial drain; however, my experience with these programs makes me think that it is a heavily subsidized program and probably costs us very little to nothing locally.

Either way, please make an attempt to clean up your grammar and spelling before you publicly criticize others.

First let me tell you, it was 6am if you looked n I didn't have on spell check...

Also, if anyone is embarrassed, it might be they are making too much off the backs of the rest of us.

You want to cut the teachers salaries. There is a...lot.. as I pointed out...that could be cut ...before you ever get to the teachers.

I don't care if you think I tried to embarrass anyone or if my grammar isn't what you like. I am sure you are one of many, or their families being fed at the public's $.

$80,000 a year for a mechanic...with a travel voucher for thousands?

I think this is the tip of the iceberg and you can squeal like a stuck pig for all I care, as that is what you might be!

I'm not paying anymore taxes for dog and pony show!

Actually, the after-school people do earn their money. Usually the on-site directors are there from noon on to check the schedule for coverage, finish up the BOE paperwork (tons of that), balancing the books, ensuring supplies, tracking who's really going to show up at 2:30 and who won't be there....it IS a fair amount of work. I've seen the hourly people who come in at 2 buying their own books and/or supplies because there's not enough in the budget to cover them. All of these people really care about the kids also, and as a former ASP using parent that was absolutely priceless.
Now, keep in mind that I'm just talking about the individual school's programs, so if you want to fuss about the central office's ASP people, no problem here since it seems the site directors were doing an awful lot that you'd expect the central office to do.

Throw in the County, state employees located here, all of the city employees, feds here, and retirees, and we don't need any more jobs here!

There are even some airline employees here, subsidized by tax money.
Lots of bank employees, most of which the bailout will pay!

deputy/assoc/assista for over $125,000. each, 297 people on the payrole as custodians

people I've just posted...some..of what we are paying...and I've only gone to the D s so far, we haven't even gotten to the E s, as in education....yet..

The BOE budget was always about what’s best for the children, nothing else. My research shows that for every 1 million dollar cut in educational expenses results in a one point drop in IQ for each child.

Besides Cal, you are equating free enterprise business with government which is not free enterprise. Government is free money. Government doesn’t have to make a profit like business. You know perfectly well that we have moved to a socialist form of government. Bailout is the name of the game. If you want to stay in business, just get you some TARP money. TARP is not tax money, the government simply prints it.

The BOE can’t print money, they must rely on taxes. I call on my Boe Rep. Janet Smola to oppose your suggestions, and to increase school taxes in 2009 to hire those people Cal laid off. And Cal, stop this silly idea of yours that capitalism still exists in America. Close your newspaper and go get a good job in government. You capitalists are destroying our economy by putting people out of work.

I rarely get into this, but, guys, Precious is yanking your legs out of their sockets with her "boil the babies to feed the hungry" satire.

Come on, enjoy.

Cal Beverly
publisher
The Citizen
Fayetteville, Ga. 30214

you are right, they don't get it.

I was having a good ol time fighting the Comunist dogs and here you come and spoil it all..dang it. I guess I'll have to do verbal tongue twisters with JeffC... your no fun no more..

"You capitalists are destroying our economy by putting people out of work."
You are able to sit there in your house getting your free checks because of Capitalism.. It it was'nt for the productive in our socieity you would not be able to exist..
Please go to France you would love it there...

Your comments are so weird, so out there that I have to assume you are either a reincarnation of Dragnet or Aggressive Progressive (God rest his digital soul).

Cal could have done without moaning about laying off a clerk or two, but keeping such as Malkin and other dudes on who get paid, but his point is correct!

Police, Firefighters, Teachers, and Administrators must also cut back numbers and salaries during hard times.

All will have to fill-in the vacancies as required and work harder.

I don't know much about the County Sheriff's department, but I have never seen so many Lt., Captains, Majors, Lt. Colonels, and desk jockeys in one small county office in my life! Same at the Board of Education. It would have been a good time for the new sheriff to have laid off several super-level officers he didn't want instead of demoting and demeaning them.
Unfortunately, his wife should have been one of them!

Sheriff's in this area are "outdated" and unneeded!
All duties except warrants and court and jail business should be done by hired professionals, not popular dudes!

Trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip to not have to reduce expenses is futile! All of us are hurting compared to where we were!

We were mislead and under led for eight years in Washington, but it doesn't mean we need to do that here!

Gigantic shout-out to the Spalding County manager. The far-seeing county manager has been holding steady and/or trimming their budget for about a year and a half now because he could see the end of the housing boom.

I appreciate the home delivery.

How else are you supposed to light your charcoal chimney?

Or read in the study room?

When your roll runs out you can use it to wipe, just try not to get none on your hand, and dont try to flush it down the toilet...PEACE..

Cal isn't likely to answer this in print, but I will tell you his quandary with going subscription only.

His ads are sold on the basis of how many homes get the paper primarily. Right now that is most of them, free.

If they are available by subscription or purchase only, it is assured that the number of homes getting one would decrease substantially--thereby reducing his ability to charge more for an ad!

There is little he can do now until people start advertising again (are profitable).

He can survive by reducing expenses and editorial quality providing his capitalization and overhead are manageable.

Same as everyone else!

and thank you for the clarification. The Citizen has a great staff. I did go through the newsprint paper yesterday and did notice there were some additions from the online version...but unfortunately not in the jobs classifieds

This is why we should not elect people who have no hands-on business experience. PTC and Fayette County have some real business people leading them - school board does not.

Sadly, even those with business experience seem to forget it when they get into government. They treat their election as a paid vacation from reality and accountability and hire, hire, hire and spend, spend, spend. You are exactly right about what they need to do and soon. This recession will last most of 2009 if not all of it and into 2010. All of us - especially government need to get used to operating in this horrible environment.

Many other governments including and especially U.S. Congress do not have people with real business experience and are slow to react except when they do something extremely stupid like the $700 billion bailout.

Oh please!!! You're talking about Logsdon or Boone? Maybe Plunkett?

I don't know Sturbaum. Haddix, at least, has common sense.

Logsdon is very dangerous only because he thinks he knows what's going on. He's 5 cans shy of a 6 pack.

If we're not careful, Logsdon is going to sell City Hall to balance the budget.

Vote Republican