End of the 2021-2022 School Year Wrap Up
Tuesday April 19, 2022 Meeting Minutes
I. Welcome / Introductions • Sabrina Chambers and Stephanie Wilson, TCC Co-Chairs
Sabrina Chambers opened the meeting at 6:34. She briefly reviewed things we have discussed this year. Thanked everyone for helping us share and spread information. Shared that this would be Mrs Chambers and Mrs Wilsons’s last meeting.
Welcomed everyone once again and began calling on principals.
II. School Updates (Including COVID) • Tucker Cluster Principals
Brockett (Principal Antoinette Seabrook)
- In prep mode for end of school year – working to get celebrations of students set up – will do virtual awards for K-4; 5th grade will have in person awards and a 5th grade Fun Day. Prepping for field day and looking forward to having parents back in the building to volunteer. Brockett is currently working with some volunteers to create videos for rising Kindergarten parents and incoming families. The videos will show a little about expectations coming in to Kindergarten and how Kindergarten works
- Getting through Milestones – trying to keep the students motivated and not stressed
- There is a group of teachers who will work with Principal Seabrook to review instructional expectations and how to make the final transition from hybrid to face to face. The group has 2 days blocked off to review these items. They also want to make sure all kids are prepared. They have spent a lot of time this year on social emotional issues and how to be back in school, they are hoping to now focus on getting heavy back into academics.
- There will be Professional Learning this summer with regard to IB for new teachers as well as a few current teachers who have not received training as of yet.
Idlewood Principal (Principal Robin Elder)
- Please keep the Masanga family in your thoughts and prayers. This is the Idlewood family whose 1st grade student was hit by a car and died on April 10. A contribution has been made to the family on behalf of the Idlewood community to assist with funeral expenses. (Editor’s note: a GoFund me page to assist with funeral costs has been established here.)
- They are currently administering GA Milestones and prepping for field day. They will also be holding Career Day on Fri May 13 and Awards Days the last week of school. Only 5th grade will be in person.
- Teachers have a retreat in May to plan for next year. This year they pushed for guided reading and math and aligning CSIP strategies while continuing socio-emotional learning. They integrated “drop everything and write” just to get kids acclimated to writing again.
Livsey (Principal Shawna Pickett) – Ms. Simone Kelly represented Livsey
- GA milestones testing is going smoothly.
- Livsey Theatre presented The Snow White Variety Show on Mar 23 and 24 – thank you to Tucker Rec for allowing them to use their stage
- PTO has spring Festival coming up next Fri, April 29
- Field day is just around the corner and they are excited to spend some time with their families
- Science Machine is coming for an assembly in May
- Teacher Appreciation week is May 2- May 6
- Next and last stem day is 5/5
- Livsey hosting Camp Invention at TFUMC – 2nd week in June (6-10 )- Livsey has been hosting Camp Invention for over 12 years – several Livsey teachers will teach classes
- Looking forward to closing the school year off strong
Midvale (Dr. Tara Dougherty)
- Going thru IB and STEM reauthorization in next couple of weeks – IB – 5/4-5/6 and STEM – 5/10
- Making it through Milestones
- Meeting with evaluators and talking about schedules and interviewing community partners
- PTO having first outdoor in person event on 5/13 from 4-6PM
- This summer there will be no school based activities due to some upcoming repairs
- Providing Orton Gillingham training for K-5 teachers to support students
- Looking forward to great rest of school year
Smoke Rise (Principal Pamela McCloud)
- Had a couple of STEM nights – completed the last one where they highlighted the work of different grade levels with different STEM projects
- Ms. Conners is an awesome STEM coordinator – she did a great activity with parents staff and students
- Principal McCloud and Assistant Principal McTier are trying to build partnerships with surrounding PreK programs – met with Thomas Brown a local preschool- and virtually spoke to the parents about the Kindergarten and PreK program at their school to make sure students are prepared
- Field day coming up – Coach Scott is new and he’s done an awesome job prepping
- Walmart is donating 3 bikes to field day to use as needed!
- Have been holding schoolwide DEAR time and trying to encourage students about summer reading – also having a bookmark contest – winner will have bookmark reproduced for whole school to use
- Strands of Pearls girls group – mentoring girls in grades 4-5 – also working with them on projects with Girls Who Game – also participated in My Sisters Keeper – students and teachers had opportunity to go to a breakfast that highlighted Women’s History Month – and meet some “living legends”
- GA Milestones – to give teachers some incentive – Ms. Lewis, the cafeteria manager, has been doing salad bars for teachers for the last couple of Thursdays! Would like to keep this up the next school year
- Monday they had a breakfast bar for teachers – trying to encourage them and say thank you!
Tucker Middle – Introduction of new principal – Dr. Deborah Satterfield
- Sabrina introduced Dr. Satterfield – she said she’s very excited – her first day on campus will be on Monday April 25, 2022. After next week she will have a lot more to share!
Tucker High School (Dr. Eric Parker)
- Plan to grad 320 seniors – May 20 at 7:30 pm – excited about plans to celebrate them and close out the school year.
- In middle of EOC testing
- Planning for Teacher Appreciation week
- Planning and continuing other EOY celebrations
- Looking forward to seeing how students perform on AP & IB assessments
- Hiring teachers and planning for next year.
- Planning for this summer
- Prom is this Saturday at the Biltmore downtown.
- Dr. Parker is excited about everything happening at THS
III. DeKalb County School District Board of Education Updates
Allyson Gevertz, DeKalb Board of Education Rep for District 4 –
- Thanked Mrs. Chambers and Mrs. Wilson – also thanked principals – would like to get back on each school’s calendar/eblasts or mailing lists
- Dekalb Schools Foundation – no new news on that – no new slate of board members – reason for Foundation is because we have a lot of corporate donors who want to partner with us but don’t have a district wide foundation for them
- Quick update on any changes to the CMP and how they might affect the Tucker Cluster there were not any changes that would impact the Tucker Cluster – board invested $2M in CMP – district is closing out ESPLOST 4 & 5 projects; ESPLOST 6 funds would be used for projects in the first 5 years of CMP
- Druid Hills issue – in order for us to receive reimbursement on certain old buildings we have to give them a 5 year facilities plan so they can plan to give us reimbursement
- Druid Hills has huge project – some of repairs are underground ; also need safe access to the back of the school for emergency vehicles – 52-62M was estimate but could be higher –
- This was not the project and the cost listed in the list approved by the board on Monday night
- FCA priority 1-3 items were on the list – a list of all schools in district repair needs – Druid Hills major renovation was not on list
- Board did vote on list and want them to start asap – most were already earmarked to get funds through ESPLOST 6 – all worth around $500M (still haven’t seen total list)
- Idlewood has around $6m of 1-3 repairs – question about whether or not Idlewood rebuild will be funded through ESPLOST 6 now…
- ESPLOST 6 is expected to generate around $700M – some things that were priorities in ESPLOST 6 may now get pushed off
- Superintendent asked for time to review list but was denied – now trying to figure out how this new list plus CMP plus ESPLOST 6 fit together.
(Editor’s Note: More information on DeKalb County School District’s E-SPLOST planning can be found here.)
- GADOE did visit school so may get a 2nd opinion – this could change things
- Could the district get a GO bond? This would fix funding issues – b/c then we would have money to do everything
Mr. Diijon DaCosta, Dekalb Board of Education Rep for District 6 –
- BOE decided to give supplements to all staff members – extending supplement beyond the Governor’s program in the amount of $2,000 for full-time active employees and $1,000 for part-time active employees would cost approximately $8 million. This would be funded by the austerity adjustment.
- MOSAIC summer learning program – will be a blended model to help with socio-emotional issues and academic learning at the same time
- Audit committee – 1st meeting is tomorrow – seeking community members to be a part of that platform – through Apr 25 – how will they function as a new amended committee will be discussed tomorrow at 1st meeting
- The Audit Committee works with the district’s Office of Internal Audits and Compliance and performs any other appropriate function delegated by the Board of Education. Meetings are held quarterly; however, the committee may also meet on an as-needed basis. The selected applicants will serve one term, which expires on July 1, 2023. Applicants must email their résumé, letter of interest, and application to communityadvisor@dekalbschoolsga.org by April 25, 2022, at 5 p.m. To fill out the application, visit https://bit.ly/DCSDCAA
- Referencing the Board vote to use ESPLOST funds for list of Priority 1-3 repairs – Mr. DaCosta stated that the district should be looked at from a holistic view – believes that every school that needs some form of repairs on 1-3 will be addressed – still need to receive more info back from staff – so can’t add any other information tonight
- Will let public know ASAP about things like Idlewood
IV. DeKalb County School District Updates
Mr. Trenton Arnold, DCSD Regional Superintendent, Region II
- In the process of closing out school year
- Testing started all electronic this week – Elementary with Milestones and the Middle and High Schools also with End of Course Tests
- Excited to see all of things the principals have talked about involving teachers, students and families and that it’s all coming back
- Mr. Arnold and the district are beginning to prepare for the Summer Leadership Conference that is coming up this summer and beginning to prepare for next year
- Thanked board members who are here
- Noted that the Smokerise playground additions have been approved
- Thankful for the Idlewood and Tucker community that can come together to provide support to a school that needs it – being able to help each other through tough times to have the entire community to come together to make a difference really does make a difference
V. Tucker Youth Sports Program
Mrs. Simone Paceley
- Mrs. Paceley noted that Angela Malik and Mr. Lee are on the zoom call – And then she stated that Tucker Youth Sports is about to make a little change. Their goal was and is to make a difference in sports in the Tucker Cluster.
- They are changing the name to the Maroon and Gold Coalition
- They will be advocates for better facilities and sports programming – focus on girls and their participation in sports
- They have finished the website – will roll it out very soon with Dr. Parker’s approval
- The website will have a calendar with all of the sporting events for both high school and middle school sports
VII. Closing Remarks / New Business
The chat was opened for Q&A
- Some clarification around the earlier Priority 1-3 List vs CMP occurred
- The specific list had not been provided
- Gevertz/DaCosta clarified that the elementary school rebuilds would still be funded in addition to the Priority 1-3 list – but additional funding may be needed
- Question regarding the Midvale/Livsey consolidation – at this point that is still being fleshed out and in the 5-10 year plan
- K-8 models will still be explored as well as possible external funding for Early Learning Centers
- Question regarding status of disposal of old Smokerise Elementary – response is that the district is not ready to dispose of it yet – a real estate assessment of all properties not currently in use is being performed (adjacent to the CMP); possibility that Smokerise could be used as overflow from district headquarters or some other type of swing space
- Further clarification on the staff supplements –
- Governor’s Salary Supplement – HB 190 Recently, the Office of the Governor allocated a $2000 salary supplement for eligible school district employees listed in HB 190. In support of this supplement, the DeKalb County School District has committed to including all eligible employees. Eligible employees include active fulltime employees and part-time employees who were employed by March 16, 2022. Additionally, the district has opted to include active substitutes who have worked at least 160 hours as of March 31, 2022. Substitutes who meet the minimum number of hours will receive a payment in the amount of $1,000. The supplement will be disbursed in one payment (separate from payroll) and non-pensionable. Payments will be distributed by the end of April via your designated method of receiving district payments, and customary taxes will be withheld.
- Introduced Maria Damian and Malaika Washington as Tucker Cluster Council Co-chairs for 2022-2023 school year.
Meeting was adjourned at 7:51
Download a PDF of these Minutes here.