The board is planning its fourth "team-building" sessions, and like the most recent one, this one is proposed for the offices of its attorney Brock Clay - which lack any capability for such broadcasting.
Board member Dr. John Abraham was strongly in favor of showing all meetings live back in 2007 when he was new on the board, and voted for the change. But now, consistent with his and the board's inconsistency, he's against it. He now says such decisions should be left up to the chairman - and added he's not in favor of broadcasting certain meetings at all, such as the upcoming team-building sessions.
Abraham and member David Banks have been widely criticized for their flip-flopping on various matters, especially the school start date - both having campaigned for a late start, but both later voting for the system's earliest-ever start, to the shock and disgust of their earlier supporters. Abraham, as chairman last year, also pledged to rebid the contract for the system's legal services, but then never got around to doing so.
As for its latest decision to try and shut out the public by holding the team-building session at the Brock Clay offices, rather than in the board's camera-equipped meeting room at the central office, one wonders if the board has gotten any advice on the matter from its $2 million-a-year legal firm.
"We talk about being transparent, (but) there are some things we can't be transparent about," Abraham told the MDJ Thursday. "If we're doing board evaluations - I just don't think that can be a circus show in the media."
Well, for what it's worth, the public has already made its own evaluation of this board - and found it mostly lacking.
MEANWHILE, BOARD-WATCHERS will recall that at the most recent team-building session Aug. 14 Chair Lynnda Crowder-Eagle had asked her fellow members to send her a list of the qualities they thought should be embodied by the next superintendent. LCE asked members to send their lists by the following Friday, the 20th.
That prompted AT to send an Open Records request to the system to see what might turn up on the matter. Imagine our surprise to find out that none of the board had responded to the chair's request. Now there's some teamwork!
THE UPCOMING TEAM-BUILDING session was suggested by member David Morgan. An email to board members from Morgan on Sunday suggests three possible dates for the session: Sept. 11, 18 and 25, all Saturdays.
Morgan's e-mail suggests the upcoming meeting also take place at Brock Clay, although the names on the email list did not include any recipients from Brock Clay. Perhaps they were already brought in the loop. Or perhaps the board plans to just "show up" on whatever day is chosen.
Wrote Morgan, "Dear Team - Here are some possible dates for our next team building workshop on the topic on (sic) Constructive Communication. A part of putting building blocks in place to become a team in the truest sense, we have to be consistent in our efforts to meet."
There's that word again, "consistent."
Well, the board's team-building efforts might be more productive if Crowder-Eagle was consistent in her efforts to build harmony, rather than consistently trying to smother dissent.
A good example came at the Aug. 26 board meeting at which it voted to approve a well-justified $20.3 million renovation project at Wheeler High with money from SPLOST III. Board member Alison Bartlett was in the midst of asking a series of questions to the staff about the process, but was cut off at the knees by Crowder-Eagle, who abruptly called the question for a vote. Bartlett's attempt to do her job as a board member apparently hacked off LCE, part of the "Superintendent Fred Sanderson can do no wrong" bloc on the board.
So much for team-building.
The board that takes office in January will be hiring a replacement for the retiring Sanderson.
If team-building is going to be its top priority, we suggest it give retiring Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox a look, because it will probably take a team-builder of his legendary capacity to school this board on how to do its job.
KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY officials are expected to send out a "save the date" announcement for Sept. 15 - the date on which legendary former University of Georgia football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley is to announce the results of his exploratory committee's fact-finding mission as to whether KSU should launch a football program, something strongly sought by President Dr. Dan Papp.
A "go for it" recommendation from Dooley is a foregone conclusion.
AT does not usually offer investment advice or gambling tips - but we would suggest that you "take all of this bet you can get."
LANDLORDS ALL OVER TOWN - especially the many with empty buildings and strip centers - are said to be salivating at the prospect of housing the City of Marietta's proposed health clinic for city employees. One wag even suggests the city kill two birds with one stone by housing the clinic in the vacant first floor of the historic Kennesaw House in downtown Marietta.
But now comes word from Mayor Steve Tumlin that a long-awaited contract is a done deal to allow the Marietta Museum of History, which occupies the top two floors, to move into the ground floor.
Look for the contract between the museum and its landlord, the Downtown Marietta Development Authority, to be Topic A when the museum board meets Sept. 14.
TUESDAY'S AT noted that occupying the top floor of the new Cobb Superior Court Building now nearing completion a block off Marietta Square would be Judge Dorothy Robinson and Judges Steve Schuster and Tain Kell. Now we also hear that occupying the other top floor chamber (or "penthouse," as some are calling them) will be Judge Mary Staley.
"OVER AT GEORGIA REPORT" editor Tom Crawford, an MDJ alum, calls it "burrowing in." We suspect most MDJ readers, and most Georgians, would just call it "outrageous."
We're talking about how lame-duck Gov. Sonny Perdue is ensuring that favored staffers wind up in highly lucrative positions on the state payroll as his term winds down.
'You will see it going on at the federal level when a president nears the end of his term in office and tries to shelter his people by placing them in regular government positions," Crawford writes. "Gov. Perdue ... has been taking care of his people for several months now."
He cites Heidi Green of west Marietta, a former Perdue economic advisor who he promoted to commissioner of the Department of Economic Development in June, a $140,000-a-year job.
And he notes Green's husband, attorney Reuben Green, was named by Perdue last week to the Cobb Superior Court bench (at $120,000 a year) to succeed Judge Ken Nix when he retires in October.
Crawford also mentions that Perdue named his chief financial officer, Tommy Hills, as state treasurer ($157,000 a year).
As the saying goes, it pays to know people. And in Georgia, it clearly pays to be an FOS (Friend of Sonny).
MDJ COLUMNIST Dick Yarbrough will be the featured speaker at a dinner to benefit the RiteCare Clinic at Children's Healthcare Scottish Rite Hospital on Sept. 18. The dinner is sponsored by the Cobb Scottish Rite Association and will be at the Mansour Center on Roswell Street. The RiteCare Clinics provide diagnostic evaluation and treatment for children with speech, language, and learning disabilities. Tickets are $40. Contact James Bard at 770-425-9706 or jwbard@msn.com. ... AT's Joe Kirby spoke Thursday evening on his book, "The Bell Bomber Plant," to 150 members of the group Task Force Patriot in Lilburn.
MORE PEOPLE: MDJ sales exec Rick Zeier will address the Celebrity Singles Senior Group at the North Cobb Senior Center in Acworth at noon Tuesday on his novel, "Before You Seek Revenge." If you are interested in participating in the group, contact Rose Marie Holland at Rose30101@gmail.com.... Former Smyrna Mayor Harold Smith will speak at the Genealogical Society of Cobb County on Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Cobb County Library, 266 Roswell Street in Marietta. Smith and his late wife, Betty, founded the society and the Smyrna Museum. Smith will show a video of 1950s 8mm films of Smyrna and give a background history of Smyrna. For details, call (770) 528-2320.
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Now the interesting back story is this school let the majority of their 5th grade teachers go last year in the great RIF, that Holli Cash voted for and only hired back 1 teacher. So maybe Holli, needs to look at her own actions on the board to be having a ripple affect here.
Also, last year when I asked Holli, when they the board were going to work on bringing up these schools to the level of the East Cobb Elementary Schools, Holli told me in a meeting that these schools in this cluster were just fine we would always have these disparities in funding and participation. It seems to be a little bit different now that one of her own children is feeling the effects of her board decisions.
board member when half your team is already headed for the showers? If the BoE had not spent so much
of its time running in place or running scared it
might have accomplished something. What a waste
of intelligence and time.