A site for Bibb County faculty, students, parents, and concerned citizens who desire to share their thoughts, feelings, and concerns regarding our current state of education in Bibb County in an uncensored, and unedited forum without fear of retaliation or retribution.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Honey Badger

A VERY important message:
Dr. Dallemand has directed all schools to hold a public meeting to hear concerns regarding the plan by Friday in hopes of PUSHING his miracle through next week. In his usual stealthy fashion, he is hoping that parents will not find the paper informing us of this as most of the schools will be placing them with the signed papers. PLEASE let everyone know that the meetings will be this week and that you must be there to give your concerns to the administrators. To further complicate the procedure, he is requiring parents to write down their grievances on a form provided by the school. Please call your school and ask for forms and specific information about your school's meeting. I am asking everyone to make an effort to be at these meetings. The short notice is certainly his way of keeping the masses away. We need to keep pushing!

Thought for the day......why would they not use a telephone announcement for this? After all, they called each of us to let us know that we had to pick our children up early for the presentation of the miracle....

54 comments:

  1. Just received the telephone announcement, so they are advertising it that way. However, today is Tuesday and my call said the meeting is Thursday late afternoon so not a lot of time.

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  2. I have a staff meeting about this tomorrow. I would like to say what I think, but I want to remain anonymous and fear we will not be allowed that anonymity. They already are advertising a position at the welcome center for a teacher to help parents get their GEDs to the tune of $70,000.

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    1. Why the would you pay someone when Central Georgia Technical College AND Middle Georgia Technical College offer the programs FOR FREE...they provide the teacher, the books the facility and the technology. They use grants already in place to cover the cost and there are dozens of locations and satellites. Why have the tax payers pick up the tab through local taxation when we're already footing the bill through federal/state tax. Once again he has NO IDEA what resources are already available.

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  3. I also received a message. I have a friend at a different school that did not. I think it up to the individual schools to let parents know.

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  4. Porter's meeting is Thursday at 6:30. The form that was sent home only has spaces for four items with questions/concerns. I plan to type up a document to attach to my form that lists ALL of my concerns, as there are way more than four.

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    1. I intend to print information from the Pacific Education Group website and attach it to a form.

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    2. Smart idea! Highlight the parts that are of most concern!

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  5. Central's is at 5:00. Obviously not planning on much if any discussion of the "Miracle."

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  6. I would ask all teachers to make copies of the parent forms that they receive and keep them in a safe place. I don't know the legality of ever making them public, but at least we will have them when Dr. D tries to say he didn't get any negative feedback. The we can get a lawyer involved. We already know what he does with surveys. How many parents actually chose Mandarin on the last survey that was sent home?

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  7. I am offering an email address to use as a clearinghouse for all feedback forms, so that they will all be collected in one place if he tries to say he didn't get any or they were all positive. anonymousteacher1975@gmail.com. I have an electronic copy of the form if anyone would like to email me for it.

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    1. I will be emailing you for a copy of it!

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    2. I have a copy of the form and I would like to fill out. do you know what the goal #, Strategy number or action step # we need to fill out?

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    3. They are all listed in the plan. I spent the better part of two days filling mine out because I went line by line.

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  8. http://schools.bibb.k12.ga.us/SP_Feedback
    Let your opinion speak volumes!!!!!

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  9. StrangerOz... Tried to comment on Telegraph page to you but didn't want to register my info...All of the schools were instructed to start their daily announcements with "we are all the Macon Miracle" and there are signs posted by the phones instructing whoever answers to say "thank you for calling (school name) home of the Macon Miracle" and it has been this way since we returned from Christmas Break or shortly there after.

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    1. I called my child's school today to TRY to find out about the meeting this week. (Short story: there won't be one.) I was transferred to person #2. I asked her when the meeting for "the Macon Miracle Mess" was going to be. :)

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  10. You can thank our BOE for bringing Dr. D. here. Doesn't our BOE investigate people before they hire them. Nothing has changed as always with our BOE. This county does need a change in education but not his plan. He has got to go! If we don't send him packing teachers will be loosing their jobs and our students will suffer from his plan. The classrooms are already over crowded with to many students to a teacher. These teachers should hot have to teach this many students. It is not fair to the teacher or the student. Please blog your comments before it is too late to stop him.

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    1. The BOE new exactly who and what they were getting. The Board was very aware of the issues in Dallemand's past, etc. They chose Dallemand over a much more qualified candidate, simply because he had a very well crafted and compelling story about his childhood......

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    2. The only people who can factually state why Dr. Dallemand was hired are the voting members of the school board. They are also the only people whose judgment of the quality of other candidates is accurate. Why start yet another completely speculative rumor about his personality or past just because you're upset about policy decisions? If you disagree with the Macon Miracle, critique it. If you think the school board hired someone who's unqualified for his job, then let your voice be heard on voting day.

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  11. A note to the meeting at Skyview last night. A parent was asking about contracts and such already committeded to between BOE and Conf. Institute, the answers were no. But when asked about any monies already being paid to the Conf. Institute she (the Dept. Super) fumbled and admitted she didn't know and then turned the question over to a BOE memeber who told the parent that she could request the open information act or something like that to get a copy of past monies spent by DD and BOE. Didn't give us a warm fuzzy feeling on that one.

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    1. The problem is the BOE memebers don't know what this guy has spent and don't care, if they are among his supporters. He has offered "sweetheart" deals and bonuses to his command staff. He has spent 100,000 or more on Glenn Singleton and other "equity" training. He spends our money lavishly for meals and travel with no worries, why?, because they will just get more from the taxpayers. All the while, Dr. Dallemand fights Open Records Requests in order to prevent the public from seeing his true spending habits.

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  12. After attending a meeting today and re-visiting the video from the first Strategic Planning session, I have a proposal...Since Macon was portrayed as nothing more than a slum, I would love for someone to take pictures of Dallemand's house along with all other board members homes. This needs to be put into a video and uploaded to YouTube to show the world that not everyone in Macon lives like we were portrayed.

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  13. The "Compass Points" blog has suddenly gotten active- a defensive posture, but still without saying much.

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  14. http://www.macon.com/2012/02/18/1910203/bill-redirects-funding-for-schools.html

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  15. Howard parent meeting was great! Lots of great (intelligent) questions and comments, particularly the one from the man with a British accent who stated that he does business in China and that the Mandarin Chinese idea is "hogwash"! He said that he has never had a need to speak Chinese while in business meetings there, that their meetings are conducted in English because "everyone there is fluent in English." He said that the only people who speak Mandarin are the people on the production line, and "we never see those people." I guess Dallemand wants to get all the thugs ready for the production line. ha

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    1. Not the production line... This isn't about American students or American education. The Confucian Institute is about gaining employment for Chinese citizens, overseas if necessary. This deal would give jobs to Chinese citizens rather than American citizens, while Bibb county will seek an overall reduction in the teaching workforce by 28%. For those who are unaware, the Confucian Institute is a branch of the Chinese Ministry of Education. The #1 goal of the Chinese Communist Party is to secure jobs for the 20 million Chinese citizens who enter the workforce EACH year. This is about helping them meet their goal. NOT ours. Our goals will be achieved through hard work and patience, not a miracle.

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  16. According to Dallemand's blog: "Consistent two-way communication is an essential component of any organization..." The blog has become more active in the last week with "Dallemand" (or whoever is writing these) posting entries addressing "specific concerns" related to the plan. These entries have resulted in a number of replies, none of which are inflammatory or not "conducive to civil discourse", but do raise a number of good, thoughtful questions.

    I find it interesting that "Dallemand" has not replied to any of them. The last reply from "him" entered on the site was February 13. If he was truly interested in opening and maintaining "a dialogue with our students, employees, parents, and community about improving student achievement in the Bibb County School District" he would elaborate more and address these very "specific concerns."

    The fact that he's not leads me to believe that all of this - the feedback forms, meetings at selected schools and the public forum on Thursday - is just more smoke and mirrors and will amount to nothing. Sorry to be so negative, but it just seems like that's where all this is going.

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    1. He isn't interested in anything any of us, who are against his plan, has to say. I wonder how many of those forms will go unread,as well as unheeded? We will not agree to, nor will we participate in his plan. If I were black, I would be totally insulted by a good part of it. But of course, if I were black, I would be one who is capable of thinking for myself. And I would still be against him and his so called miracle.

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  17. He is a coward!! Otherwise he would have attended at least some of the parent meetings and addressed us himself (and would not have lied about his whereabouts when the student protestors wanted to speak with him)! And now we hear that at the public forum tomorrow, they will take questions but will not be responding to them! That is because he is a coward and (as we saw at the broadcasted board meeting when he first introduced his plan) is unable to speak on his feet but has to be "saved" by his "tall, white brain" Suzanne. This man does nothing but spew educational jargon and gives pat answers to a variety of questions. He is unable to elaborate on questions because he has no knowledge beyond what he has read and memorized on each subject. Why is this town so blind to this?? He is feeding on the ignorant.

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    1. I totally agree! I used to think that he was some grand puppet-master, but now I'm starting to think that Suzanne Griffin-Zeibart and Jane Drennan are the ones pulling the strings on him! They were the two who followed him from Rochester, where he had a remarkably similar plan. Maybe they are the ones behind him, and use him as their mouthpiece because he is a well-educated, well-dressed "person of color" (to quote Singleton).

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  18. Hey, look! PROGRESS!!!!!
    http://www.romaindallemand.blogspot.com/2012/02/listening-to-your-feedback.html

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    1. Progress to an extent... He says in the post that he is giving the board an alternative plan of keeping the grade levels the same for now, but revisiting the point in a couple years.

      I love how he goes on about how the plan "has provisions to address safety and to improve student discipline". I saw someone post about this on the Bibb County Facebook page and I've done it myself: search the plan pdf and you will not find the words "safety" or "security" at all, and there is only one mention of discipline.

      Then he follows all of that up by saying "This adjustment to the plan will mean that the district will no longer realize the previously stated savings." I certainly hope the board will see this tactic for what it is: a spoiled child throwing a tantrum when he doesn't get his way about something.

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    2. That's why I said "progress" and not "success". He really is like a whiny child pitching a fit.

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  19. He lives in a fine, upscale WHITE neighborhood...I wonder if the African Americans know that.

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  20. I can't believe no one has commented about the fact that he is having this public "forum" at Southwest, and after dark! This man is so manipulative. He knows the majority of whites won't go near that place. I don't even know where it is, since I rarely go south of Tom Hill Sr. Directions please!

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    1. Directions are easy to find...Google them. And if we attend enmass we should be safe. I ask that you be brave ones, not cowards. We must stand up and be counted. I will be there, pepper spray in hand, yes...but that is a given anywhere, especially after dark. It is important that we, who oppose this plan, attend and lend our strength to those who are brave enough, and care enough, to speak out.

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    2. Where is the live feed? I tried 13wmaz but it's not working. I wanted to be there but ran late taking my mother to an appointment. I want to know what's going on!

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    3. I am SO MAD about this forum. Neither 13wmaz NOR macon.com has it going, because of "technical difficulties." The ONLY reason I did not go was because it was available online and I had things I needed to do at home. I am sure Dr D is behind this, and now people will be even more angry.

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    4. Oh, and I did see a minute or two of live feed on wmaz before it started. The camera was facing the crowd, and people were still coming in. Then the screen went blank. So they WERE there and set up - I am assuming at some point Dallemand told them they couldn't video it.

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    5. I meant 13wmaz.com...

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    6. The media was well represented...their vehicles were everywhere, their cameras were everywhere, but they sure cannot count. I didn't see hundreds of people, but the 'Church of Dallemend' was well represented.

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    7. fact: He was planning on having the forum at Central, but they had another event that night.

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    8. There will be another forum this coming Thursday night; it will be at Central. (They called and booked Central today.)

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  21. I think we need more forums, particularly question and answer sessions, but the board is so disengaged from the public. It appeared to me that they were not paying speakers any attention, unless it was one of their cheerleaders. I was so disgusted, I walked out on one speaker, as she was so high on the koolaid all she could yell was, "This is Earth, not just Macon." They have been snowed, and truly believe that their little thugs are going to take the world with their Mandarin Chinese language skills. There was also a "Pastor", demanding respect, who stated "'he did not believe that teachers are afraid, He did not believe any of the reports of bullying, and it just wasn't true." I was not impressed by any of the cheerleaders.

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  22. I just found an interesting blog:
    http://thischrishorne.com/blog/2012/02/08/telling-stories-after-school/

    Interesting that Dallemand took 30 people to MARCO, one of the most expensive restaurants in town, to push his plan. WHO PAID FOR THIS?? US TAXPAYERS??

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  23. I have received a copy of their financial records...and it is amazing what he and his minions are spending our dollars on. This documentation is over 1000 pages, and I have just begun to skim the surface. I am outraged at the spending for hotels, airfare, rentals cars, groom transport, and restaurants, as well as hotels and restaurants here in Macon. He sure spends time in CT, as well as VA, and FL. Although, he must be paying out of pocket for his alcohol, as I didn't see any on the expense reports, and receipts, so far. But he sure does love his seafood.

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    1. You can go to open.ga.gov and view expenditures as well. He has already spent over a MILLION DOLLARS on the VIF program, which if you google them you will see that this is the mandarin chinese teacher exchange program!! No wonder he won't back down on that part of the plan, he has already paid these people out the wazoo!! Doesn't the board have any control over what he spends money on???

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    2. How did you get a copy of the financial report?

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    3. This is public information posted on open.ga.gov...under Other Expenditure Information and Payments. You can sort by Vendor and go to VIF Program.


      BIBB COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION

      VIF PROGRAM

      $1,073,141.04

      CONTRACTED SERVICE-T

      STATE/OTHER



      BIBB COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION

      VIF PROGRAM

      $14,442.50

      CONTRACTED SERVICE-T

      FEDERAL

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  24. Top story from the Telegraph today: "Dallemand's tenure packed trips near and far" http://www.macon.com/2012/02/26/1920624/dallemands-tenure-packed-with.html

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  25. Over 400 comments crowd the article, however one person is planning another protest on 2/29 at 4:00 p.m. If you are the person organizing this, please post details here so people can make plans to attend. Who will be there?

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  26. Wednesday, February 29th, the BOE is going to call for a vote on Thursday, March 1st! We must gather one more time and make this the BIGGEST demonstration so far! THIS WILL BE THE BREAK WE NEED TO STOP THE VOTE! I’m in contact with other high school students outside of Central High in order to gather students from other schools; we need ALL parents, children, EVERYONE to come. If you cannot come, please send someone in your place! If you are BOE employee send a family member or friend. We will MEET WEDNESDAY, FEBUARY 29th at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame at 4:00pm and wait 15mins for everyone to arrive. The BOE closes at 5:00, if you can’t be on time, come late! There will be permits in place, News crew and hopefully police escort. We will approach this matter in a very different way than previously. We have questions concerning the LEGALITY of this Macon Miracle Plan and these questions will be brought forth in a legal and precise manor in order to stop this “SHOVE DOWN OUR THROAT VOTE"! THEY ARE NOT HEARING US BUT, THEY ARE GOING TO! THIS EVENT WILL BE A FULL PROTEST INCLUDING SIGNS PROTESTING THIS MACON DISASTER! We don't expect everyone to bring a sign but, we do EXPECT EVERYONE TO COME! I know this date and time will be hard but, there is no other time available and we must ACT NOW, this is the only way! DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO AND COME SUPPORT OUR CHILDREN AND TEACHERS. Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2012/02/2...

    Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2012/02/26/1920624/dallemands-tenure-packed-with.html#comment-449530955#storylink=cpy

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  27. Based on research here are many of the disadvantages of Year Round School.....
    Little or NO academic improvement versus a traditional school calendar

    In the past five years 41% of YRS have converted back to the traditional school calendar due to NOT seeing ANY academic improvement. Some of the following places are examples that have abandoned YRS...Los Angeles, California after 23 years, Jefferson County, Co after 11 years, Houston, TX after 8 years, Prince William, VA after 9 years, Illinois after 8 years, Missouri after 3 years

    Higher utility cost (This will be evident with the summer heat we have in Macon, Ga.)

    The YRS in Fulton County here in Georgia changed back to the traditional calendar due to higher expenses.

    Teachers’ not having the ability to attend college in the summer to obtain higher degrees

    High school students not being able to get a summer job to help pay for college or other expenses

    Teachers not being able to obtain a summer job if needed

    High school students not being able to participate in the Governors Honor Program

    High school students needing to retake a class to get credit will not get credit during an interval session of YRS

    High school students not being able to take college classes in the summer

    Students not being able to participate in volunteer work (mission trips, Vacation Bible School, etc.)

    Harder to obtain child care

    If on YRS break- sporting and academic events still occur

    More money for maintenance and transportation

    Children missing out on summer enrichment camps because camps are not provided during YRS breaks

    Increased obesity in children due to not getting exercise because of heat advisories

    Negative effects on traditional family vacations

    Losing Employees

    Employees having to pay for childcare all year

    These are many of the disadvantages to adopting a year round school calendar. I agree that changes needed to be made in Bibb County Schools; however, this is putting a band-aid on the problem. Year Round Schooling will not fix it.

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  28. http://www.wearepolitics.com/1/post/2012/02/questions-for-the-good-doctor.html

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Feel free to voice your opinions here.