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THE GEORGIA^
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159 W. CLAYTON ST. -706-546-9884
Wiilton County lloai-ri of education
Tuesday. Febrotsy 2Jtti 2007
3:30-6.30pm
Monroe Area High School
300Doubb Springs Church Pd.
Monrcc. GA 30656
For additonal edormahon and
directions, phase cat
770-266-4467
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Approximately 12,200
urum
JEWELRY • ART
C\YWt SllMtY Starting At $25
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125 E. CLAYTON ST. • DOWNTOWN • 706-546-8826
Human Resources
Phone 770-20-4520
Fix 770-2*4-4415
www.waJioncourwyschooa.orj
It is a goal of the Walton County Board of
Education to ensure diversity and to bridge the
gap between the number of minority students in
our system and the number of minority teachers.
Walton County Schools is seeking outstanding candidates for
certified positions. The Spring 2007 Minority Teacher job Fair is a
drop-ln-format. Please bring multiple resumes. Every school in the
Walton County Public School System will be represented by
administrators with the authority to extend job offers.
In order to be in position for hire, candidates must have
completed an on-line application. Your application file must
Include three reference forms, transcripts, last two years’ annual
evaluations, and a current teaching certificate. Provisional
candidates should provide verification of successful completion
of subject assessment.
We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday, February 27th!
“Together Everyone Achieves Mcre“
Get Your Sweety
Drunk at
the Georgia Bar
(And then have your way with them!)
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CITY PAGES
continued from page 5
Similarly, a majority of commissioners last
week saw the corridor management plan as a
good start, and didn't want to postpone its pas
sage. They approved a compromise suggested
by Dodson: Implement the plan as written, but
give commissioners six months to study possible
changes. "Let's get elected officials and the pub
lic involved in this," Dodson argued.
John Huie jphuie@speedfactory.net
Capitol Impact
School Daze
Sonny Perdue had just the answer for fixing
Georgia's schools back when he was running
against incumbent Gov. Roy Barnes in 2002.
Barnes' implementation of an education reform
act was all wrong. Perdue insisted, because it
imposed a "one-size-fits-all" mandate on local
school systems that failed to take into account
local differences and local problems. "I
believe schools should be run from the
principal's office, not the governor's
office," was the memorable phrase
that Perdue used to criticize the
Barnes proposal.
Perdue's push to decentral
ize public education obviously
resonated with Georgia school
officials and teachers, particularly
those who were outraged at Barnes
for eliminating fair dismissal protec
tions—another name for tenure—in
the Education Reform Act. Teachers voted
against Barnes by the thousands.
For his first couple of years as governor.
Perdue was busy dealing with the negative
impacts of an economic downturn and didn't
really make any major propo als for upgrading
public schools. But in year four of his term,
he came forth with two education proposals: a
measure that required every school system to
spend 65 percent of its budget on what the iaw
categorized as classroom expenses. Perdue also
urged—after he had opposed the idea for three
years—reducing the size of classes in public
schools. Again, there were no exceptions and no
wiggle-room for smaller school systems that have
a more difficult time finding teachers for all the
subjects required under the new state curriculum.
Perdue's proposals both had something in com
mon: they were top-down, rigidly centralized,
"one-size-fits-all" requirements that were being
imposed upon every school system by a distant
administration in Atlanta. Which was precisely
the opposite of what he had been proposing four
years earlier. Legislators like Rep. Ellis Black of
Valdosta, who had served on his county school
board and knew something about the problems
local educators have to deal with, tried to point
out that rural systems educating widely dispersed
populations had to spend more money for things
like school buses and needed a little flexibility
on that 65 percent requirement.
No dice. Perdue needed an education issue
for his reelection campaign and the "65 percent
solution" was that issue. Never mind that it
saddled local school officials with an inflexible,
unfunded mandate and violated Perdue's earlier
declaration that "schools should be run from the
principal's office, not the governor's office."
Perdue won his second term in office and
we are now in a new session of the General
Assembly. So what are the latest education pro
posals coming from the leadership? The magic
word this year is "flexibility." Lt. Gov. Casey
Cagle is backing legislation that would allow
school boards to apply for official recognition
as a "charter system," just as individual schools
now do. This charter status would allow every
school in a system to be exempt from state rules
and regulations so that they can experiment
with new ways of educating students.
"We need to recognize that one
size does not fit all," said Sen. Dan
Weber (R-Dunwoody), who is spon
soring Cagle's bill. "Each school is
different, each community is dif
ferent, and each student has their
own needs. They [teachers] need
the freedom to innovate and we
need to untie their hands."
That sounds like something
worth trying, but the only problem is
it directly contradicts what Perdue and
his Republican colleagues were telling us less
than 12 months ago when they adopted the "65
percent solution." Then, they insisted on a "one-
size-fits-all" mandate with no exceptions. Now,
they say that we have to exempt schools from
all laws and regulations so that they'll have the
"freedom to innovate."
In other words: we should let decisions about
how to teach children be made at the local level.
Unless the governor decides that we should
dictate from the central office in Atlanta how
schools are run. But only until we decide that
flexibility is so important we should "untie their
hands" and let them operate free of regulations.
There may be someone, somewhere who can
make sense of that. I freely confess that I don't
understand all these flip-flops—but maybe that's
because I'm a product of Georgia's public schools.
Tom Crawford tcraw1ord@capitolimpact.net
RdoPt Me
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ACC ANIMAL CONTROL
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ATHENS AREA HUMANE SOCIETY
! 3 Tota Cats Rece ved
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0 AJoptabie Cats Euthanized A
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