FINANCE
YOUTH
Georgians at risk of losing their homes may get some relief from a bill that would require banks to work with homeowners before moving to foreclose. 5
Parents and students from across DeKalb packed a meeting of the task force commissioned to recommend four schools for closure next year. Their common theme: “Don’t close our school.” 8
Economic reprieve
Making their case
March 27, 2010
Copyright © 2009 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Volume 15, Number 47
www.crossroadsnews.com
President signs historic health care law for all Americans Health reform is now the law of the land. President Barack Obama signed the historic bill into law on March 23. The $938 billion health care overhaul guarantees 32 million uninsured Americans health coverage, closes the doughnut hole in medicare coverage for the elderly, and outlaws the denial of health coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Obama, who promised health care reform on the campaign trail, said its passage is a testament to the persistence and the character of the American people. “We are a nation that faces its chal-
tant element of what lenges and accepts its people need – access responsibilities,” he to good health. said. “We are a na“Every American tion that does what is from this day forhard. What is necesward will be treated sary. What is right. ” with simple fairness Vice President and basic justice,” he Joe Biden said that said while introducour children and our ing the president grandchildren are before he signed the going to grow up President Obama signs the health reform bill. knowing that Obama put the final girder in bill into law. Congressman Hank Johnson called the the framework for a social network in this country to provide the single most impor- passage of health care reform “a victory for
America’s working families.” “This historic bill will be remembered with Social Security, Medicare, Civil Rights and the GI Bill as evidence of American progress and humanity,” he said. “It protects Americans from health insurance company abuses, reins in spiraling insurance rates, insures 32 million more Americans, and is projected to reduce the deficit substantially over the next two decades.” The president said it will take four years to fully implement all of the reforms, but that a host of them will take effect this year.
Leaks and mold at Miller Grove Middle By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Every day, more than 1,000 Miller Grove Middle School students walk down dimly lit hallways with mold-strewn ceiling tiles and sit in classrooms with holes in the ceilings. In some of their classrooms, large garbage pails have permanent homes – ready to catch the water streaming in through the ceiling when it rains. These problems are not new at the Lithonia school, and the parents on its School Council say they are fed up with the deteriorating conditions and want better for their children. Travis Bell, the School Council’s chairman, said what they are asking for is not wish-list stuff. “The roof leaks, the commodes don’t work, the water fountains don’t work. There are holes in the ceiling. Most of the windows have no blinds,” said Bell, whose daughter Travonda is in the seventh grade. “This is severe. When you have this many leaks, the roof has to be replaced. You can’t just put some tiles on it.” Bella Lane, whose son, Lance, is in the sixth grade, said that even though children are forced to attend classes in such poor conditions, they are performing. “This year they increased their performance on the writing assessment test by 17 percent,” she said. “Miller Grove is an exceptional school and the students deserve an exceptional building.” On a March 23 tour of the school, Bell, Lane, and parents and council members Cheryl Mathis and Twonna Singleton pointed out discolored ceilings, mold and missing tiles to DeKalb Schools Assistant Superintendent Horace Dunson and plant services director Steve Donohue as they walked down darkened hallways. Along the way, they stuck their heads into Ms. Favor’s eighth-grade classroom that had a dozen missing ceiling tiles and a huge yellow garbage bin that collects the water coming through the holes when it rains. Dunson and school Principal Thaddeus Dixon took notes. Afterward, Dunson said he did not see anything new among the problems raised by the parents. “Those problems were identified in the facility audit two years ago and we recommended that the repairs be made,” he said. “It’s a school that needs upgrades but it was not funded.” Miller Grove Middle was not one of the schools that made it on the list for $506.2 million in SPLOST II-funded projects. While that school went without any repairs, across town, Columbia High School’s renovations ballooned from an original budget of $8.5 million to $13.1 million and included a wrought-iron fence around the entire school property. The Columbia High project on which Anthony Pope – husband of embattled former school system Chief Operat-
Jennifer Ffrench Parker / CrossRoadsNews
District officials Horace Dunson (from left) and Steve Donohue tour Miller Grove Middle School with Twonna Singleton, Cheryl Mathis, Bella Lane, Travis Bell and Principal Thaddeus Dixon.
Since the start of the school year last August, Miller Grove ing Officer Patricia Pope – worked is now part of a criminal probe by the office of DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Middle has sent in more than 120 work orders for repairs to the school district. Fleming. Lane said workers come out and make little fixes. Now those long-standing problems – leaky roof, old “But as soon as it rains again, more problems,” she said. HVAC, crumbing ceiling and poor lighting, inside and outDuring the tour on Wednesday, the parents ran into two side the school – have deteriorated. “It’s gotten worse this year,” Dunson said. “The rains have Please see REPAIRS, page 4 exacerbated the situation. We need to do something.”