DeKalb Schools fund lacrosse pilot program
- 6/6/11
- Categorized in: DeKalb News, Education, Sports
The DeKalb County Board of Education voted on May 27 to fund a lacrosse pilot program for any high school in the county that is interested and has enough students to form a team.
The pilot program, which will last a year, will pay for transportation and coaches for any school that wants a lacrosse team. Several schools in the DeKalb County School System (DCSS), including Southwest DeKalb, Arabia Mountain and Dunwoody High, have expressed interest.
Marie Keith, whose daughter Madison plays on a club team at Dunwoody, said that she was happy that Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson made a motion to have the board vote on it rather than wait several weeks to move forward. Keith said that school officials are on a tight deadline and if Dunwoody wants to have a lacrosse program next year it needs to move as quickly as possible.
“If it had been left up to the people in the DeKalb School offices—the staffers—it would not have happened,” Keith said.
The board was also presented a breakdown of the 2020 Master Facilities Plan by Edward Humble, a spokesman for MGT America, the research firm hired by the system to address the needs of DCSS through 2020.
“The presentation [was] an effort to narrow down the list of proposed construction projects for voters to decide on,” Board Chairman Tom Bowen said. The board also discussed the proposed SPLOST IV projects.
This was the second of five public meetings the board is having about the master plan and proposed SPLOST IV list.
Humble said that phase one of the 2020 plan had been completed with the recent redistricting and school consolidation; now the board was beginning to work on phase two, which will be funded with SPLOST IV dollars and focus on the elementary schools in the system.
The board will be accepting questions and comments regarding the draft plans and they can be submitted via a survey on the district’s website at http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/vision-2020/master-plan. The survey opened May 27 and will be available until June 1, at midnight.
Bowen said that the board is still focusing on the search for a new superintendent after the three final candidates pulled out in late April. He said that it is currently interviewing candidates and still working with search firm Ray and Associates.
Some have speculated that Tyson may be offered the job but Bowen said that the interim superintendent had not approached the board about the subject and the board has not asked her to consider it.
The board had set a self-imposed deadline to have a new superintendent in place by July 1, but Bowen said that the most important thing was to find a good candidate first.
“It’s continuing and we’re being very deliberate as to how to proceed and get a candidate that the whole board can agree on,” Bowen said.
Phase 2 of the 2020 Master Facilities Plan slide show presented to board
I agree with the idea of having bonus payments tied to meeting various objectives. We should be mindful that we have seen educators along with those in business 'work the plan' for short term monetary gains at the expense of a process to ensure continuous growth.