COMMUNITY
PEOPLE
Twelve graduates of the most recent DeKalb Police Academy were sworn in on June 15, bringing the total force to 701. 4
Columbia High graduate Kathy Brown reached a major milestone when she obtained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. 7
One dozen new badges
Worthy of salute
Let’s Keep DeKalb Peachy Clean Please Don’t Litter Our Streets and Highways
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER • STONECREST
June 23, 2018
Copyright © 2018 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Volume 24, Number 8
www.crossroadsnews.com
BOC violated Open Meetings Act, could face criminal action By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr says misdemeanor criminal action could be brought against DeKalb commissioners for the manner in which they voted themselves a 59.4 percent pay raise on Feb. 27. In a June 20 letter to DeKalb County Attorney Viviane Ernstes, the attorney general said commissioners did not follow the letter or the spirit of the law when they voted 6-1 to increase their base part-time salary by $24,107 to $64,637. “The board’s failure to include their salary increase on the meeting agenda in advance of the meeting not only frustrated the purposes of the Open Meetings Act,” Carr wrote, “it violated the Act’s requirement that ‘all matters expected to come before [the] agency’ should be included
when they are open and available to review by a public with actual notice of the government’s intended course,” he said. Carr was responding to a May 24 letter in which Ernstes defended the BOC’s vote, in response to inquiries from Carr that were prompted by a March 6 complaint filed by Lithonia resident Ed Williams. Ernstes said that leading up to the Feb. 17 meeting, Christopher Carr, Georgia Attorney General the BOC placed a legal notice on Feb 8, 15 and 22 stating that the financial impact of the raise would be an extra $229,660 annually, but that it didn’t put the vote on the in the agenda.” Carr said that while there are some circumstances where the agenda because it thought the General Assembly would modification of an agenda during a meeting may be appropriate, give it the raise. When state legislators didn’t, she said the BOC mema public official is also a trustee of the people and must be judicious in the exercise of his or her privileges and authority. “Matters that involve issues of public concern are best decided Please see MEETINGS, page 2
“The actions of the Board of Commissioners in this instance fell short of the obligations imposed by the Open Meetings Act which are designed to ensure that the public’s trust in its elected officials is not misplaced as they carry out the people’s business.”
Early Childhood Academy for 3-year-olds offered Free program at Terry Mill limited to 200 children
DeKalb Schools Superintendent Dr. R. Stephen Green works on one of the puzzles that 3-year-old students will assemble at the Early Childhood Academy at Terry Mill starting June 21. He says the academy, launched at a cost of $4.3 million, is starting at age 3 because studies show that children who start school earlier are more prepared and perform better.
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
This fall, 200 3-year-olds will attend DeKalb County School District’s new Early Learning Academy at Terry Mill at no cost to their families. The one-of-a-kind academy will serve children who are potty-trained, and whose parents can take them to and from the school at 797 Fayetteville Road N.E. in Atlanta. Enrollment is open on a first-come, firstserved basis to parents who can provide their own transportation. The academy is a first in DeKalb County, and fulfills a dream that Superintendent Dr. R. Stephen Green has had since he came to the district in 2015. Green called it “a new concept community school” that will meet children where they are. “This will be a home and haven for our youngest students,” said Green, who operated three similar regional academies when he led the Kansas City Public School District. DeKalb School District is launching the early learning academy at a cost of $4.3 million – $2.4 million from SPLOST funds to renovate the buildings to accommodate the pint-sized students, and $1.9 million for staffing and materials. The $1.9 million is earmarked in the proposed 2018-2019 budget that the school board is expected to adopt on June 26. On a June 21 media tour of the building, Green said the academy will provide a foundation to develop skills – hands-on learning, social and emotional development, and creative experience – that children need as they grow. Best of all, the academy will be free to the children lucky enough to get a slot. The Early Learning Academy at Terry Mill is being funded entirely by the DCSD. The building is the former home of Terry
Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Mill Elementary, the DeKalb Elementary School of the Arts and the Barack H. Obama Magnet. Renovations that are currently underway at the school include installing child-size toilets, lowering bathroom sinks, and furnishing the classrooms with brightly colored mats, beanbag cushions, and tables and chairs sized for small children. Green said students will be exposed to all types of learning at the academy, which he believes to be a first for 3-year-olds operated by a Georgia school district. “There will be the auditory learning,” he said. “Some children learn by touching. Some are visual learners. Some like to touch. We will do it all.” State-sponsored pre-K, funded by the Georgia Lottery, starts at age 4. In 1992, when Georgia launched it, it was nation’s first state-funded universal preschool program. It now enrolls 60 percent of the state’s 4-yearolds, according to the 2016 State of Preschool
Yearbook released by the National Institute for Early Education Research. For the 2017-2018 school year, DCSD served 2,274 pre-K students. Green said the school district is starting at age 3 because studies show that children who start school earlier are more prepared and perform better. “The research is very clear that the earlier you can start them along the journey with quality social and emotional care and academics and have a nice blend of that, students have a greater chance of success as they move through the later years,” he said. The district will also offer wrap-around services to support parents facing economic and other challenges. Green said partners like the Atlanta Food Bank, the YMCA and Big Brothers/Big Sisters will have satellite offices on the premises to serve the families of the students. “We see that it is important to build an entire village around children as they are be-
ing educated and to bring support services, not only to students but to the entire family,” Green said. “Instead of going across town, they will be able to walk down the hall to get what they need.” Academy students will attend the school for two years before transitioning to pre-K at their neighborhood school. Dr. Zack Phillips, the district’s Early Childhood coordinator, said the academy will have 14 classrooms and a 2-to-14 teacher-student ratio. He said all teachers will be certified. Students will attend classes 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Afterschool programs will also be offered. For parents who don’t drive, the academy is about half a mile from MARTA Bus Route 107, which stops on Glenwood Road. Philips said the children will be exposed Please see ACADEMY, page 6