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Dekalb County Education Coverage

GPC president leads college to new heights

Georgia Perimeter College president Dr. Anthony Tricoli has led a transformation that has helped double the school’s enrollment in four years. Photo provided
Anthony Tricoli listed 19 goals he wanted to accomplish upon becoming president of Georgia Perimeter College nearly four years ago. That list was completed last spring and GPC has become a different institution than it was before Tricoli started his ...

Schools open across DeKalb County, but not without a few hitches

An Avondale Elementary School teacher leads students down a side street after school. Photos by Jonathan Cribbs
Schools opened across DeKalb County on Aug. 9 mostly without a hitch, school officials said. More than 93,000 students showed up at their desks in the morning. Learning abounded. But the day didn’t progress without incident. Principal Rita Harper-H...

School district budget outlook brightens as administrators wait for state revenue hit

The DeKalb County School System’s budgetary outlook could see an additional $13 million to $18 million in property tax revenue, but district officials are holding their breath before celebrating. The county’s tax digest, initially projected by co...

Stopping the summer brain drain

Summer reading programs first started in the late 1800s to give urban students something to do during their breaks while their rural counterparts sweated it out on the farm. Now they’ve got a new purpose: stanching our youth’s collective summer b...

Attorney: School system could have new superintendent as soon as April

The DeKalb County School System could have a new superintendent by April, according to a school district’s statement attorney to school board members late last month. But some board members said they wanted the search timeline accelerated considera...

School board to review policies to prevent future corruption

The DeKalb County Board of Education is in the process of revising a series of policies that address the kind of corruption that led to indictment of its superintendent and construction chief last month. The board’s budget committee discussed the c...

Godfrey breaks barriers on way to Hall of Fame

Southwest DeKalb High School Football coach Buck Godfrey was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame in a ceremony on June 10.
by Mark Brock William ‘Buck’ Godfrey’s journey to the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame was not a smooth ride, despite a DeKalb County leading 250 football coaching victories.Godfrey, the coach at Southwest DeKalb High School for 27 seasons, won the ...

Lithonia ‘leadership’ charter school prepares to open doors

Dr. Frankie Callaway
If you walk in through the wrong front door, it can take a few minutes to find the Leadership Preparatory Academy. It sits in the labyrinthine west wing of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, and even the charter school’s principal, Fr...

Former schools chief, three others indicted in school construction racketeering scheme

Former DeKalb County schools chief Crawford Lewis and his top construction official were indicted last month on charges they profited off a racketeering scheme focused on school construction. In the largest school system scandal in recent memory, a g...

Board passes budget, spares residents tax hike

Teachers, parents, county employees and concerned DeKalb residents filled the room and spilled into the lobby while awaiting the decision on the 2010 school budget. Photo by Travis Hudgons
The DeKalb County Board of Education this month cut $104 million from next year’s budget while sparing residents a tax increase that had been pushed by several members. At the end of a contentious debate peppered with racial and partisan politics, ...

Schwarzenegger encourages Emory grads to ‘stay hungry’

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the keynote speaker at the 2010 Emory University commencement, accepts an honorary degree from Emory president James. W. Wagner. Photo by Robert Naddra
In addition to his political career as governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been an international bodybuilding champion and an action movie icon. But at Emory University’s 2010 commencement ceremony on May 10, Schwarzenegger encouraged...

Albright delivers commencement speech at Agnes Scott College

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave Agnes Scott College's 2010 commencement speech, telling graduates that they would be looked upon to solve increasingly complex domestic and international problems in the future. Photo provided
The class of 2010 must help “restore the good name of democracy” across the world, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at Agnes Scott College’s commencement this month. Albright told the class of nearly 200 graduates that as ...

Middle schoolers qualify for international Odyssey of the Mind competition

From left, coach Karen Bass and the Dunwoody Homeowners Association team of Anna Grace Nall, Jennifer Kiser, Max Noto, Will Bass, Jack Jarrell (Sofia Gonzalo and Kendall Lowrey, not pictured) will participate in the Odyssey of the Mind international competition May 26-29. Photo provided
Will Bass has seen how much his younger siblings enjoyed participating in the Odyssey of the Mind competition at their elementary schools. However, the charter at Peachtree Middle School, where Will is a seventh grader, does not allow participation i...

Lakeside triplets ranked Nos. 1, 2, 3 in academics

Lauren, left, Stephanie and Allison Boden. Lauren is Lakeside High School’s valedictorian of the class of 2010, and Stephanie and Allison are salutatorians. Photo by Michael Boden
A number of questionable Internet sources claim the chances of a mother having triplets are about 1 in 8,100. The chances of those triplets, 17 years after their birth, ranking first, second and third in their graduating class are likely so low, it w...

Parents express anger and disappointment about possible school closings

The DeKalb County School Board was confronted with pleas, threats and condemnation on the controversial subject of school closings at a public budget hearing on April 22. More than 10 speakers addressed the board at the William Bradley Bryant Center ...

Two Gates Scholarships a first for Stone Mountain High

Stone Mountain High School students Kim Ba (left) and Amberly Holloway give the school two Gates Millennium Scholarship winners in the same year for the first time. Photo by Robert Naddra
Stone Mountain High School has had a Gates Millennium Scholarship recipient every year since 2004. Since they were freshmen, Kim Ba and Amberly Holloway have been hearing about the scholarship from teachers and from former winners who have come back ...

Hip Hop moms encourage students and parents at Georgia Perimeter College

A day of food, fun and games at Georgia Perimeter College’s Decatur campus was punctuated with a lesson for parents to support their children’s dreams, from mothers of hip-hop entertainers Aliyah Najm (T-Pain), H. Loraine Smith (Ne-Yo), and Jacid...

JV athletics faces 25 percent budget cut

DeKalb County athletics director Ron Sebree is bracing for proposed budget cuts that will affect junior varsity athletics, but he knows things could be worse. The county’s 2010-11 fiscal year budget calls for a 25 percent reduction in JV athletics,...

Lewis will leave with $85K in severance

Say goodbye to Crawford Lewis. The DeKalb County Board of Education severed ties this month with the embattled superintendent. The change occurs nearly two months after he temporarily resigned when police raided his home and office as part of an inve...

Southwest DeKalb, MIT grad returns home to tutor math students

Stephanie Espy
It’s Stephanie Espy’s educational pedigree that stands out on first look. It starts at Southwest DeKalb High School. She graduated there in 1997. Then it moves to MIT in Massachusetts where she received a bachelor’s in chemical engineering in 2...

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