COMMUNITY
SCENE
MINISTRY
Healthy food supplies could be popping up all over DeKalb County through an initiative to build community gardens at local parks. 6
Two girls from South DeKalb play the same character in different casts of “Madeline’s Christmas,” which opens this weekend at the Horizon Theatre. 11
The Tamba Issa Dancers will be part of the celebration when First Afrikan Presbyterian Church in Lithonia marks its 16th anniversary. 13
Local sustenance
Matching roles
Anniversary celebration
December 12, 2009
Copyright © 2009 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Volume 15, Number 32
www.crossroadsnews.com
Superintendent’s pay proving divisive Hank admits illness, and fights on “It is inconceivable to me that we would give our superintendent a raise and our teachers have not had a step increase and we have cut bus drivers pay by 29 percent. Before we can consider any increase for the superintendent, we would have to increase those making the least amount of money first.”
““If we were to lose Dr. Lewis, it would cost us $300,000 easily to replace him. Dr. Lewis is worth more than we are paying him. He sets high goals and he passed every one of them. This community is damn lucky we have Dr. Lewis.”
Dr. Eugene Walker
W. Paul Womack, Jr.
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Dr. Crawford Lewis, right, confers with board member Don McChesney and chairman Tom Bowen before Monday’s work session.
Opinions differ over whether Lewis deserves more By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Earlier this year when DeKalb Schools’ highest paid employees – those making more than $100,000 a year – took a two percent pay cut, Superintendent Crawford Lewis voluntarily took a 2 percent cut even though his contract didn’t require it. When teachers lost their step increase, Lewis gave up his $10,000 cost of living increase that should have kicked in July 1; and when he met his goals and earned a $22,000 bonus, he only took half of it. “I felt that if the people I lead have to give up something, let me demonstrate my leadership by joining them,” Lewis said. The DeKalb School Board, which employs Lewis, is now negotiating his contract amidst shrinking revenues and lots of belt-tightening brought on the economic recession. At its Dec. 7 meeting, David Schutten, president of the teacher’s union, Organization of DeKalb Educators, signaled to the board that there would be rumblings in the ranks if board members increased Lewis’s
pay or benefits while teachers and bus drivers are preparing for more cuts. “It would send a terrible message to everybody in this county,” he said. “This would create a crisis of confidence beyond anything we have ever seen in the school system.” Schutten said people are under stress and morale is at an all-time low. “I hope that you are acting in good faith and have the best interest of all employees,” he said. “Think about the message you are sending to the people on the front lines in the school system that have taken cut after cut after cut and are getting ready to take more cuts.” Lewis, who completed his fifth year as superintendent in October, leads the state’s third-largest school district, behind Gwinnett and Cobb counties. Board members and Lewis say that he voluntarily gave up $29,000 in pay and bonuses in the last two years out of solidarity with employees and teachers who had to take salary reductions. When those reductions are factored in, Lewis’ $255,924 package of pay and travel
benefits, is really $226,924, which moves him from the third highest paid superientendent to sixth place behind Fulton County’s Cynthia Low, who manages a district with 89,000 students. Even Clayton County’s superintendent, Edmond Heatley, who has been on the job for five months managing a district that is less than half the size of DeKalb’s makes more – $3,676 – more than Lewis when both men’s package of pay and travel benefits are compared. “I am going backwards,” Lewis said Wednesday. “I can’t continue doing this. I am not a rookie anymore.” Board members who completed Lewis’s annual evaluation in October have been meeting behind closed doors about his contract. Tom Bowen, the board’s chairman, said they should have 2010 goals for Lewis finalized by the end of the month or by January, the latest. Lewis’ contract, which was extended Please see LEWIS, page 3
Congressman Hank Johnson’s dramatic weight loss this year is due to experimental treatment he is taking for hepatitis C. Johnson said Monday that he was diagnosed with the bloodborne liver disease in 1998 and began an experimental regimen of daily doses of the drug interferon in Septem- Hank Johnson ber 2008 designed to rid his body of the virus. But the treatment’s side effects – weigh loss, thinning hair, irritability and depression – dramatically altered his appearance. His loss of 30 pounds in the last year and thinning white hair prompted questions from constituents over the summer when a noticeably gaunt Johnson hosted a health care reform forum in the district. Hepatitis Johnson, who is C afflicts on his third round of millions treatment with interferon, said the disease nationwide, ravaged his liver and pages 8, 9 the treatment made his thyroid overactive, leading to his weight loss. “I did not anticipate losing any weight,” Johnson, 55, said. “It had not happened before.” Since 2004, when he served on the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners, Johnson, who is 6.1-foot tall, has gone from 203 to 150 pounds. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says nearly 3.2 million people in the United States have chronic hepatitis C and many are unaware of their infection. It says the disease is transmitted when clean blood comes in contact with blood infected by the disease, and that most people become infected by sharing needles or other equipment to inject drugs; and through blood transfusions and organ transplants. An infected mother can also spread the virus to her baby during birth. Johnson says he never engaged in any high-risk behavior and does not know how he contracted the disease. Like millions of others who have it, he said he was infected many years without knowing it. The CDC says 17,000 Americans become infected with hepatitis C each year. The disease exhibits no symptoms and can lie dormant for years, damaging the liver. Johnson said he resisted publicly acknowledging his illness at first. “It’s a private matter, one’s health,” Please see HEPATITIS, page 5