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Thurmond argues DeKalb
district is getting better
JOE EARLE
joeearle@reporternewspapers. net
Interim DeKalb School Superin
tendent Michael Thurmond told north
DeKalb parents the troubled district is
dealing with its problems.
“Today we are in a much stronger
position than we have been in a very,
very long time,” Thurmond said.
He said dis
trict finances have
improved signif
icantly since last
year.
“I am happy to
report today that
we have eliminat
ed the $14.7 mil
lion deficit we
brought forward
from 2012,” he
told members of
the Dunwoody
Chamblee Parents
Coalition during
a morning meet
ing at Dunwoody
High School on
Sept. 11.
“We just closed
out [Fiscal Year]
13 with a $9.5
million fund bal
ance. When I ar
rived in the dis
trict, the district
was operating
with less than
$100,000 [in fund
balance].”
But he said
the district need
ed $60 million in
reserves. “It’s go
ing to take three
years to really re
store the budget,”
he said. “We’re
still $50 million away from where we
ought to be.”
Thurmond, a former state labor
commissioner who was named interim
superintendent in February, also pre
dicted the DeKalb system’s accredita
tion would be restored fully by the end
of the year.
SACS, a regional accreditation
agency, placed DeKalb on accredita
tion probation last year, citing infight
ing among school board members. In
March, Gov. Nathan Deal replaced six
board members.
Thurmond reminded his Dun
woody audience that an interim report
by the agency found the district had
made significant progress in address
ing its problems. “I’m certain we will
no longer be on probation at the end
of the year,” he said.
Thurmond said he planned to start
developing a long-range strategic
plan for the school system. The sys
tem’s population is growing, he said,
and, facing an audience that included
some calling for a separate Dunwoody
school system, Thurmond argued that
the best way to protect schools in par
ticular areas of the county was to make
the entire system better.
“We are all in
this together...,”
he said. “A school
district divided
against itself will
not be successful.
I need your help
to build this op
portunity. Build
the bridge and
we will all benefit
from it as a com
munity.”
He said differ
ences in student
achievement did
not reflect racial
differences, but
economic ones.
White students
from rich fami
lies perform better
than poor white
students, he said,
just as black stu
dents from rich
families perform
better than poor
black students.
“It’s not about
race,” he said. “If
you look at the
differential..., the
differential is al
most the same.
“The great
question is not
how well my chil
dren or your chil
dren will do, but how well children
from economically disadvantaged
families will do,” he said. “And all ec
onomically-disadvantaged children are
not low achievers.”
But if some schools are perceived as
offering better educations than others,
parents will find ways to enroll their
children in those schools, he said.
“Our parents love their children,”
Thurmond said. “Their capacities in
terms of engagement and involvement
[with the schools] may not be the
same, but the love is the same.”
Asked how students manage to mi
grate from one part of the county to
schools in another, Thurmond said
parents are willing to make sacrifices
for their children’s benefit.
“Parents will do whatever it takes
to get their children to what they per
ceive as a quality education,” he said.
“What we have to do is create quality
schools throughout the district.”
“A school district divided
against itself will not be
successful. I need your
help to build this oppor
tunity. Build the bridge
and we will all benefit
from it as a community.”
- MICHAEL THURMOND
INTERIM DEKALB
SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT
6 | SEPT.20 —OCT.3,2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
DUN
