FINANCE
YOUTH
SCENE
Members of the Gold’s Gym in Ellenwood were taken by surprise this week when gym management announced that the exercise facility would close on Wednesday. 6
Miller Grove High senior Shamaal Blair wanted to share her love of reading, so she held a book drive for a homeless shelter for women and children. 7
Fans of the late Princess Diana can see her wedding gown and other items during an exhibit through June 13 at the Atlanta Civic Center. 8
Nowhere to run
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February 20, 2010
Volume 15, Number 42
www.crossroadsnews.com
Major cuts in bus service proposed Six schools
probed for possible test tampering
By Lee Williams
Photos by Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
MARTA must reduce its size by 25 percent to 30 percent and is considering significant transit service cuts and employee layoffs. Route 96 is among 10 bus routes in South DeKalb proposed for elimination. The transit system is holding community meetings on the proposed cuts.
MARTA could slash 10 of South DeKalb’s 23 routes By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Tough times are ahead for South De Kalb commuters who rely on MARTA buses to get to work, school, the doctor and the grocery store if a proposal to cut 10 of the 23 routes serving Decatur, Lithonia and Stone Mountain is approved. The transit system, which is supported by DeKalb taxpayers, is facing a $120 mil lion revenue shortfall for its 2011 financial year that starts July 1 and must reduce its size by 25 percent to 30 percent. Harold Buckley, who represents south DeKalb County on the MARTA board, said this week that the transit system has to downsize to meet revenues. Harold Buckley “The people don’t realize the magnitude of the situation that is facing us,” he said. “This is a major, major issue.” To help balance its budget, MARTA is considering significant transit service cuts and employee layoffs, and the proposed service cuts in South DeKalb are very extensive. A staff proposal presented to the MARTA board on Feb. 16 calls for the elimination of bus routes 7, 9, 18, 22, 24, 28, 96, 118, 119 and 216 that serve South DeKalb. Service will be discontinued to
Sharon Scott of Decatur, who rides on the 96 Snapfinger Woods Drive bus, called the proposed cuts “ridiculous.” Scott takes the bus to work, shop and pay her bills.
Cost-cutting measure MARTA is considering a proposal to eliminate 10 bus routes serving south DeKalb County at a savings of $7.1 million. Total Ridership Savings Weekday ..........9,681..........$5,739,756 Saturday . ......... 4,951.............$698,719 Sunday.............. 3,838.............$697,677
“That’s crazy,” she said while waiting for the 96 bus at the Kensington station on Wednesday afternoon. “People rely on that 96 bus. I don’t think that is right.” Scott, who has taken the bus for 18 years and started walking with a cane three years ago because of a back problem, says she takes the bus three days a week to her job on Lawrenceville Highway and on her days off to shop and pay her bills. “I just took it yesterday to Georgia Power to pay my utility bill,” she said. “How am I going to get around? My legs ain’t that good anymore.” Scott said it already takes her two hours to travel from her home to downtown De catur and that cutting routes is only going to add to commuters’ travel time.
many neighborhoods and some of the re maining 13 routes will be modified to serve segments of some of the routes. Sharon Scott, who lives on Peachcrest Road in the part of Decatur that is cur rently served by the 96-Snapfinger Woods Please see MARTA, page 2 Drive bus, called the cuts “ridiculous.”
Six DeKalb County elementary and middle schools were flagged by the state last week for having an unusually high number of changed answers on the Spring 2009 Criterion Referenced Com petency Test. The elementary schools are Glen Haven in Decatur and Shadow Rock and Stoneview in Lithonia. The middle schools are DeKalb Path Academy Char ter in Atlanta, Cedar Grove in Ellenwood and DeKalb Truancy in Clarkston. State officials say the high incidents of erasures could indicate cheating by students, teachers or administrators and have asked the district to investigate. Dale Davis, the school district’s spokesman, said Thursday that the school system would obey. “We’re going to comply,” Davis said. “We’re going to conduct a thorough investigation and we’ll be able to speak more definitively once the investigation has been conducted and concluded.” The DeKalb schools are among hundreds of Georgia schools identified in a statewide analysis of erasure marks on student answer sheets on the 2009 spring test by testing contractor CTB/ McGraw-Hill. The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement and CTB/McGraw-Hill said the unusually high numbers of erasures could indicate tampering. DeKalb Schools had the second-high est number of flagged schools, behind Atlanta Public Schools, which has 58 of the 191 schools under investigation. The state Board of Education heard a presentation of the findings on Feb. 10. The news of possible test cheating in DeKalb County Schools comes near ly two months af ter former Atherton Elementary School Principal James Berry was sentenced to pro bation and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine for James Berry his role in changing more than 32 fifth-graders’ test answers on the CRCT retest in June 2008. His former assistant principal, Doretha Alexander, who also was charged in the case, was sentenced to 40 hours of com munity service at a local food bank. Both administrators were accused of changing the fifth-graders’ answers on the CRCT mathematics retake test. Please see TESTS, page 4