Residents oppose cell towers in DeKalb Schools
- 5/20/11
- Categorized in: DeKalb News, Education
Tempers flared at Medlock Elementary on May 12, during one of the last community meetings held for residents to discuss T-Mobile’s proposal to install 12 cell towers at some DeKalb schools.
T-Mobile representatives were barraged with questions and comments ranging from health concerns to the amount of money the system would make if the towers were installed.
Medlock Elementary is one of the proposed sites and some in the community felt the timing was wrong and complained that they were still reeling from having the school closed under Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson’s redistricting plan.
“My son is in fifth grade so he won’t be going to school here anymore but I want at least the option that another school will open here. You have to understand that the reason why we’re so emotional about it is because we were fighting to keep Medlock open,” Barbara Melton said.
Melton said that the cell tower might prevent other uses for the building and said that the idea the school board was already negotiating with T-Mobile a year ago while they were working on redistricting was, to her, “abhorrent.”
“The board has blatantly disregarded our wishes and the wishes of so many in our community. If the board has disregarded our wishes before in this manner, what’s to say that they won’t go against our wishes again?” Melton said.
Ed Trego, a representative from T-Mobile, said he understood the community’s frustration and pointed out that no deal was yet made. He said that the purpose of the meeting was to inform residents of what the company was trying to do.
“This is not an all or nothing proposal. If this group of individuals feels that this is inappropriate for this location, that’s the purpose of this meeting; call your board of education representatives and pass that along to them,” Trego said. “We need coverage in this area; it is a financial benefit to the school and to the school board so it was a proposal.”
Some residents like Amanda Sabetai, were worried about the long-term health risks of cell phone towers, especially to children in the area. Sabetai said that she and her husband are planning on having kids and the elementary school was one of the selling points when they bought their house a year and a half ago.
“We were really disappointed that they closed the school but it’s really scary that they might put a cell phone tower here. It’s less than half a mile from my house,” Sabetai said. “The way that I look at it is, if I were on the school board, I would want to be absolutely certain it’s safe and I don’t think they can be.”
Sabetai said that if a tower is installed she will most likely move.
Jennifer Moore, who lives down the road from the school, said that she did not begrudge T-Mobile for doing what it was doing but members of her community lacked trust in the school board.
“There seems to be the talking points and the face time that they give to constituents in order to get the vote. Behind the scenes–and we all know this happens–they do basically what they want,” Moore said.
Board member Donald McChesney, who represents District 2, said at the meeting that he was going to tell his fellow board members that the community around Medlock was completely opposed to any tower going up in the area.
“They can e-mail their board members because they look at what people tell them. I look at my e-mails every day to see what’s there so that will do it,” McChesney said. He also urged residents to attend and comment publicly at the next board meeting so the entire board could hear them.
School spokesman Walter Woods said that if the board approved the plan, the revenue from the towers would be split by the board with the Parent Teachers Associations of the schools where they were located.
“The contract over time could generate from some $300,000 to $1 million per site. I’ve seen the range and it’s over a 15-year horizon so it’s hard to get a view of what exactly we’re talking about,” Woods said.
Woods said that several board members had presented the idea for the towers as an alternative source of revenue because they had seen other counties in the metro Atlanta area pursuing similar contracts.
The potential sites are Margaret Harris Center, Briarlake, Brockett, Flat Rock, Jolly, Princeton, Smoke Rise, Narvie J. Harris, Meadowview and Medlock elementary schools, and Lakeside and Martin Luther King, Jr. high schools.
Woods said that in some cases the PTA could receive approximately $25,000, and the board could approve it as early as this summer.
70% of our property tax goes toward education, yet many of us are feeling compelled to pull our children out and send them to private school. That doesn't bother anyone with the county as we still have to pay our taxes so they still can pocket the money and overpay their staff to keep quiet.
The announced the cell tower plan just before Summer, mainly via email. It makes me sick that our PTA was all opposed to the idea of the towers when they heard about it immediately, but once word of the "possible" $25,000 payment to the PTA was brought to the table, they have all become silent. And, since our school has a 60% poverty rate, I doubt many people received the email about how to complain and what to say. There are so many schools in this nation who are now being sued for the health problems the children and community are suffereing from as a result of cell tower emissions. Children are the MOST vulernable to this type of low-level radiation because it affects DNA and biological material ... their bodies are still growing! It has been linked to all kinds of health issues and an international study called MOBI-KIDS will be completed in 2013 that will determine the link between cellular technology and brain cancer in children. That's only a couple year to wait for the research before we decide if the risk is worth the money.
Anyone wonder why T-mobile wants a 15-year contract?? And, does anyone realize that T-mobile is about to merge with AT&T? They don't even NEED the additional coverage in our area! They most likely will use the tower (after the merger) to lease space to other, smaller cell companies, thus maintaining their monopoly and edge on the competition. And, while they need to prove their emissions level for the tower proposal to be approved, there is nothing that says they cannot up the levels at a later date and no one to check to see whether or not they will do so by leasing the space to other carriers, which is common practice.
Please help us fight this by signing our petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Stop-Brockett-Cell-Towers/
I cannot think of one good reason why the school board should even be entertaining the idea of something potentially hazzardous to children and that will definitely lower property value, except that they are also planning to ask for a tax increase this year so that would bring them back up to the level of income they were before the towers, regardless of whether or not it puts some senior citizens into a terrible position as far as selling their homes for what they should be worth when they are ready to retire.
I am furious and frustrated and, to date, we have only had 12 signatures because it is impossible to even get the word out in such a short time. Rumor has it that the board will vote June 6. Not sure what course of action to take since it is pretty clear they have already made up their minds.
Instead of worrying about band uniforms, are you as concerned about the number of children that cannot read and write? Are you as concerned, that there are many principals who have their jobs, because of who they know and not what they know? Do you care that our district has lowered it's standards and continues to do so? That the zero policy, giving students multiple chances to complete work, and other grade policies really work against your child receiving an education? Where is the outrage of us not having a superintendent or having cell phone towers take the heat off of us not knowing what is going on with the botched superintendent search?
Most schools, not just in the surrounding area, but around the country have become pay to play, as the insurance and cost of running different programs have gotten out of control. Our board of education and former superintendents would rather put our tax money into hiring more workers, mostly who do not work with children and pay people more money than they'd get in the private sector. We have an army of Title One coaches, some who do not hold teaching certifications, working with teachers, giving them more work to do, instead of working with children who need extra help. We spend millions on a direct instruction program, that's only research in quality is that done by the company who completed the research and even with us using the program or parts of the program we continue to have schools not making AYP.
Parents, stop worrying about band uniforms and color. Start worrying about the quality of education your child is receiving. When the person ahead of curriculum and instruction has difficulty writing in proper English on memos and emails sent to teachers, you should all be worried more about your child's education and less about how pretty one's uniforms are.
This is not a race issue -- it is however an issue of S. DeKalb parents being far more complacent about their children's education. Given the academic outcomes at some S. DeKalb schools, parents should be lined up and screaming at every board meeting. But they aren't. (And when they do, they are generally there to complain about something trivial, like band uniforms, rather than the serious academic challenges facing these schools.)
Additionally, the reelection of Jay Cunningham and Sarah Copelin-Wood spoke volumes about the level of community awareness about the crisis in the schools.
Finally, no one has gotten new band uniforms for years. The system use to have a program in place that replaced them every X number of years, but because of the budget crisis, the program stopped. It is being resumed for next year.
Adults, our job is to protect our children!!!
If bringing cell towers near our school is harmful to our children, the discussion s/b over.