DeKalb voters want to keep dysfunctional board

Looks like the final numbers are in for the school board, and the incumbents are going to stay for the most part. see the results here. Good night

It is now 1130 and the numbers look a wee bit better. In the 7th, Donna Edler has closed the gap with Zepora Roberts. It is now 35 to 32 in favor of Roberts. In the 3rd Corey Wilson has closed the gap but still trails by double digits. If these numbers hold, it will speak volumes to what DeKalb residents really want to see in their school board. I am going to bed. I hope that when I wake in the a.m. better news will greet me.

Now at 1055, Nancy Jester has taken the lead over Redovian, 49 to 42 percent. It is odd that the one district that has high performing schools has decided that it is best to replace their board member, but the rest are solidly behind the people who put us in this mess in the first place. This is too crazy. I am going to drink a couple of beers and hope for better results when I come back

As of 1045 pm, only one DeKalb school board member is in trouble. District 1 is trying to give Nancy Jester a shot at fixing the school board. The rest are so solidly behind the incumbent that it will take a miracle to catch up. here are the numbers so far

District 1 – 45-45 tie, Redovian, Jester
District 3 – Copelin-wood 51%, Wilson 29%
District 5 – Cunningham 66%, Hall 25%, Nooks 5%
District 7 – Roberts 46%, Mosley 28%, Gathany 14%, Edler 12%
District 9 – Walker 55%, Smith 45%

This is crazy. Not one member will lose their seat with all that is going on in the system. Believe this folks, if the board does not change hands, accreditation is in serious trouble

Corey Wilson attempting to salvage campaign, reputation

OK, here we go again. All of a sudden candidates for school baorad are showing up as criminals. First it was Jay Cunningham and his three-decades old felony conviction. Now the wave has hit Corey Wilson, the golden boy in district 3 may have hit a speed bump on his way to the school board. According to the AJC, Wilson is suppose to come clean on a few arrests of his own. According to public records, Wilson has been arrested on several occasions including the 2006 arrest for simple assasult that the AJC dug up. The assault was a misdemeanor. The AJC could not confirm that a booking photo of Wilson was truly him. There is no doubt that the person in the booking photo is Wilson. The fact that this particular offense is recent,  is what is most disturbing.  Here is a man that was in his mid-30’s and got caught up in criminal proceedings in the court system. Not a good example at all. To his credit, Wilson went through a pre-trial diversion program which he completed successfully, and the case was eligible for expungement. The 2006 case was pleaded out to Nollo Prosse with no conviction on his record. The charge in question revolves around a dispute between himself and his wife. I questioned Wilson on the details, but he said it was a private matter. Wilson and his wife recently celebrated their 12th anniversary. I have talked to Corey Wilson in the past, and he really is a genuinely concerned parent. Part of the reason he accepted the Nollo plea, according to Wilson, was to protect his children from any embarrassing and drawn out court appearance. Wilson admitted that he has made mistakes in the past, but wants people to judge him as a whole and not as the few parts divulged in the media. The first time we talked, he told me his life story damn near (minus this of course). We spent more than an hour on the phone really connected. His story was my story. It is truly possible that we may have crossed paths but never knew it.  Now, here we are, 40 years old, we are husbands, fathers, we work in the community and we really care about where we live. I am not going to change my overall opinion of Wilson based on these recent revelations though I will follow him with a much more cautious eye. I had already pledged my vote for Wilson, and I will probably follow through on that. I think Wilson should have come clean early on. I know he probably thought people would crucify him for it, but coming clean and explaining the circumstances would have gone a long way in mending any doubts that lingered in people minds. I hope that Wilson has learned a valuable lesson from this. I also hope that he knows that, even if he wins, he has a very short leash to work with. Any misstep, and he can be ousted very quickly, and his aspirations of higher offices dumped as well.

 

Here is an updated story from the AJC with some details

Candidate forum was informative

Eddie Long has been a hot topic this week, but the world will continue to spin and there are issues that affect us now and into the future. I had the opportunity to attend a forum for candidates running for open board of education seats. The first of three forums was held at the Delta Sigma Theta/Kappa Alpha Psi Community Action Center in South DeKalb, and sponsored by EduKALB. Here are some things I took away from the get together. First, only one incumbent showed up; Jay Cunningham from district 5. I was surprised because my expectation was that no incumbent would show. Cunningham was the classic incumbent. He played on his experience, and made it known that now was not the time to change the board since newer members would have to play catch up. When asked his top priority for fixing the system, his reply was to work with the present members to fix the system then find a new superintendent. His opponents, Dr. Kirk Nooks and Jaques Hall did well though Hall’s inexperience showed. Hall made one comment that struck me as odd considering he is running for the school board. In his intro he commented that he was thankful he did not have any kids in the school system. Not a great thing to say when you are talking to people who have kids in the system. How can I trust you to do what’s right for the system if you would not send your own kids there? All of the other candidates were impressive. Corey Wilson running in district 3 seemed passionate about being on the school board, and has young children attending DeKalb schools in his district. He did refer to himself in the third person a lot, which for me is a bit humorous. The two most impressive candidates were Nancy Jester and Donna Edler. Both were passionate and very well informed. Edler wants to see more in depth reviews of policies such as ethics and nepotism. Jester wants to see the board and the system justify dollars spent every few years in an attempt to maintain better control of the systems budget. I had an opportunity to speak with jester afterwards, and she is full of Ideas, some of which should be put in place whether she wins or not. We talked about involvement by parents, and she stated that the board meets at a time and place that is not as convenient as it could she would like to see meetings held late, like 7pm and a possible return to moving meetings to various places throughout the district. We talked about poverty’s effect on the system, charter schools and the mission of public education in general. She calls public schools a social gift and sees it as the one tool that can arrest the transmission of poverty. I do not know Jim Redovian, but if Jester gets enough exposure and her message reaches enough people she could make some noise. Over all it was a cordial event with few direct shots taken at the incumbents, with the exception of Dr. Nooks who opened up with a few barbs at Jay Cunningham. In the end I was most disappointed at the turnout. If you subtract the candidates, the sponsor groups and the families of the candidates, there may have been at most a dozen citizens. I think that was due in part because of the lack of advertising. I doubt many know that these forums are being held. Heck out doubt if many even care. There are two more of these forums in the next few weeks. One is at Dunwoody city hall and the other is at DeKalb Medical’s auditorium on North Decatur Road.