Haralson county School System

[tax payer]

Are any of you wondering how HCS has the money to pay 40+ County Office employees? It is my understanding that they have more than 30 of them making more money than they are even worth. They are taking trips every week somewhere at the tax payers expense and calling it "training" how much training do they need? If they can't do their job why are they up there? I heard the former super, gave them raises before he left and and put them as twelve month employees instead of ten. How many twelve month employee's setting around all summer do they need? I heard one of them said they didn't have anything to do in the summer but eat and party at the CO. Some good paying job that is, while we are out there busting our butts trying to make ends meet. The county is in such a mess now that the school board raised the millage rates to take care of all the over payed employees at the CO. It's time someone step up to the plate and do what has to be done. They could get rid of about half the people up there and still have more than enough to run the Office. When someone leaves they hire four people in their place, paying them the enormous salaries too. Every one is ask to cut their spending, what about the top dogs? You could take six of their salaries and balance the budget with out raising taxes. The School Board should be healed responsible for this mess because the people that voted for them trusted them to do what was right for "all" not just them. The power went to their heads and they thought they could do whatever they wanted, just like the Federal Government,and now look what it got us!

[New Resident of Bremen]

I was appalled at the School Board Members' unprofessional action on the termination of the Principal at WHES this past year! They then turned around this year and made a production out of WHES winning "best school" for last 3 years--guess what? It was the prinicpal they fired who got them there!! Dumb move on their part!!!

[HC Resident]

You are listening to nonsense from somewhere, must be watching too much TV. You need to define county office employees, because there are only about half as many as you say. I don't think any of them are making more than they should be making according to the State payschool for school employees. Concerning training, many days the employees are in the schools supporting the administrators and teachers. The State Dept of Audits and accounting lists how much each employee is reimbursed for training and travel. Besides most travel and training is held at State Universities in towns like Carrollton, Athens, Macon, Augusta, hardly vacation spots. As far as 12 month employees, there aren't very many of those, less than a dozen. And the former superintendent - during his tenure, the graduation rate increased almost 13-15 points from less than 50% to over 62%. What about school taxes and the Millage Rate - it is about the same as it was 10 years ago, the Board has been rolling back the tax rate and not keeping up with the growth of the number of students. Not happy with school taxes, maybe you should find out how much the state has cut back on funding for schools, requiring the local taxpayer's to bear the burden. Good talking to ya.

tax payer wrote:

Are any of you wondering how HCS has the money to pay 40+ County Office employees? It is my understanding that they have more than 30 of them making more money than they are even worth. They are taking trips every week somewhere at the tax payers expense and calling it "training" how much training do they need? If they can't do their job why are they up there? I heard the former super, gave them raises before he left and and put them as twelve month employees instead of ten. How many twelve month employee's setting around all summer do they need? I heard one of them said they didn't have anything to do in the summer but eat and party at the CO. Some good paying job that is, while we are out there busting our butts trying to make ends meet. The county is in such a mess now that the school board raised the millage rates to take care of all the over payed employees at the CO. It's time someone step up to the plate and do what has to be done. They could get rid of about half the people up there and still have more than enough to run the Office. When someone leaves they hire four people in their place, paying them the enormous salaries too. Every one is ask to cut their spending, what about the top dogs? You could take six of their salaries and balance the budget with out raising taxes. The School Board should be healed responsible for this mess because the people that voted for them trusted them to do what was right for "all" not just them. The power went to their heads and they thought they could do whatever they wanted, just like the Federal Government,and now look what it got us!

[old school bus driver]

I am a past driver for haralson county schools and all parents would be very shocked on how the people that are supose to love our kids and take good care of them and think about there best intrest dont care at all they look the other way all of the time. from school buses being on the road that or not supose to be. and improper mantence of busses and schools. we need to do away with all the transportation macs and directors and hope and pray we will get someone who cares and will do there job insted of sit on there buts in there office

[tax payer]

HC Resident wrote:

You are listening to nonsense from somewhere, must be watching too much TV. You need to define county office employees, because there are only about half as many as you say. I don't think any of them are making more than they should be making according to the State payschool for school employees. Concerning training, many days the employees are in the schools supporting the administrators and teachers. The State Dept of Audits and accounting lists how much each employee is reimbursed for training and travel. Besides most travel and training is held at State Universities in towns like Carrollton, Athens, Macon, Augusta, hardly vacation spots. As far as 12 month employees, there aren't very many of those, less than a dozen. And the former superintendent - during his tenure, the graduation rate increased almost 13-15 points from less than 50% to over 62%. What about school taxes and the Millage Rate - it is about the same as it was 10 years ago, the Board has been rolling back the tax rate and not keeping up with the growth of the number of students. Not happy with school taxes, maybe you should find out how much the state has cut back on funding for schools, requiring the local taxpayer's to bear the burden. Good talking to ya.
<quoted text>

It sounds as if you are one of the ones at the CO or should I say "was" or you wouldn't have any idea how many or what they are making! I Have been here for over 35 years, how long have you been in HC. I see you are from Dallas, let me see, oh yea! that's were all the people went that fled the SACS audit! Maybe you were the problem...When I said CO employees I meant everybody from secretaries on. As far as conferences you are sooooo wrong on the locations. I know for a fact that they could choose where to go for some of these conferences and they choose places they would have to fly too. It is not necessary for them to go as far and stay in the expense hotels they stay in. Don't you know that it is not hard to find out where these people are going and doing. We have had reports of partying and drinking on a lot of these trips. That's professional! You're right about the state tax, but if the money was not wasted the county still would have been operating in the black not red! I know there was over 5 million in the bank for emergencies and when the new Super came he spent every thing and didn't think of the economy. This was irresponsible and caused everyone in the County hardships. Nice talking to you too!

[Going to Bremen]

HC has been flirting with losing its accreditation far too long. I do not wish for my kids to have any doubts about the validity of their HS diploma, nor will I subject them to the inept management of the Haralson County Scool Board.
If you want some real numbers to go with your concerns I have pasted the link to the BOE salaries for 2004 that they had to submit to the state. It is not pretty. Starting with the Superintendent who made 96K as a salary, you will find lots of other surprises....like a kindergarten teacher whose salary is 60k+.
The first thing we need to do is to clean out the school board...everything must go! Throw the rascals out. Then we can perhaps put in place some MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS for the officers. If we do not we will continue to see the BUBBA SCHOOL SYSTEM at work and our children will suffer for it!
LINK:
https://www.audits.state.ga.us/ead/eadrpts/LE...

[Taxpayer]

Going to Bremen wrote:

HC has been flirting with losing its accreditation far too long. I do not wish for my kids to have any doubts about the validity of their HS diploma, nor will I subject them to the inept management of the Haralson County Scool Board.
If you want some real numbers to go with your concerns I have pasted the link to the BOE salaries for 2004 that they had to submit to the state. It is not pretty. Starting with the Superintendent who made 96K as a salary, you will find lots of other surprises....like a kindergarten teacher whose salary is 60k+.
The first thing we need to do is to clean out the school board...everything must go! Throw the rascals out. Then we can perhaps put in place some MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS for the officers. If we do not we will continue to see the BUBBA SCHOOL SYSTEM at work and our children will suffer for it!
LINK:
https://www.audits.state.ga.us/ead/eadrpts/LE...

I think it is a crying shame that the children of HC are suffering at the hands of the very people we trusted to do the right thing for them. We elected the school board thinking they were there for our children. Come to find out by looking at the outrageous salaries posted on www.open.georgia.gov they're nothing short of rapping our school system. Until someone has the courage to do the right thing and get these ridiculous salaries under control things will never change. Everyone of us have had to make sacrifices one way or the other with the economic problems.The School system should start at the top and start cutting some of those salaries out. The top four administrators at the CO are costing more than $500,000. Can you truly justify these salaries? The travel expenses are ridiculously high also. Where are they going? What do they bring back to our schools to justify these trips?There should be some kind of accountability for this. I realize that the former administration under Ragsdale was a financial disaster, but it's time to stop the bleeding. We can't fix this with a bandaide,the wounds are to deep for that. Someone needs to step up and do the right thing. We haven't come this far to give up hope.

[Parent]

I looked on the open.georgia.gov site and I was appalled at the waste of money going on in HC on salaries. I know you need people at the CO level, but not that many! Where in this world do they justify salaries to that level? The school system is struggling and we pay all these people to do what? The cuts in education shouldn't start from the bottom but at the top. I'm sure they could give some of those duties back to the people that had them to start with and cut hours and days back. You can't tell me they are working all that time. They have "created" so many positions they are top heavy. Now they are about to topple over. I think the teachers and Parapros are the ones getting the shaft. They are the only ones that really work for their money and make very little to do it. They are the ones working day in and day out with the children. What's more important in this county, children, are what looks good on paper and inflating egos with huge salaries? If these people worked half as hard as the salaries suggest our system would not be in the shape it is in now. I think you should get paid for having a degree,but you should also have to do the work that that degree demands. Not delegating your job out to others. That makes for more overhead, salary, workspace,and a made up job description to try and justify the added salaries. There are people at the CO twiddling their thumbs because they don't have enough to do. Then you have people with the same job title and no one is doing the job. Wake up people and do the right thing! Cut the waste where it is going to count.

[parent]

I have alot to say about HARALSON county school's
not the teachers or parapros ,just the news need's to do some investigaton's for the board and transportion office . wow if the news paper's and media would come i would speak not only show them first hand . I have a handi capped child
buses with no heat look lottery dont even show on
school site look you will see . no new books
no grant's WE NEED A NEW SCHOOL ON THE EAST SIDE.
where is our grant money for new school's
federal money more than state the local on the pie chart, it takes 1hour and a 1/2 for the kid's
get home why . let's start from scratch fire the all find quilfied people to do the JOB.
The Governor passed a bill no child left behind
my foot . people are working there finger's to the bone and we can't leave our jobs to get the out .we work unlike they do show ME you work
i cant get a hold to the main people in the board of Education unless i bug then or go up there .
I mean business , being prosistant on a minute to minute with the school board know you mean business . I sick of it AREN'T you .

[Concerned]

Honest to goodness I am not on a witch hunt, but I agree that our school system is way over its head. And yes, those who should be held accountable are not being held accountable- I don't want anyone to lose a job if they are honestly doing it well- but we must get rid of those who are not- or train them if willing.

THE ROOT OF HC SCHOOLS PROBLEM IS THAT IF THERE IS A PROBLEM, WE AUTOMATICALLY POINT A FINGER AND GET RID OF SOMEONE. THAT IS NOT ALWAYS THE SOLUTION- WE NEED STABILITY FOR OUR KIDS, TEACHERS, AND ADMINISTRATORS.

Please attend BOE meetings and get involved!!!! Write letters, visit the central office, go to schools!

[Parent]

I looked on the open.georgia.gov web site and did a little crunching of numbers from 2007 and 2008 and what a surprise. It seems that the salaries from 2007 to 2008 jumped almost $2,000.000. Where did this money come from? The central office staff had the biggest jump in salaries. Tell me why one person could get a $24,000 raise in one years time? Just asking.....

[Tallapoosa native]

How's the view from the cheap seats folks??!! You all think you can click on a website and what you see is an actual reflection of the truth when in many cases it's not. I am so tired of people from the outside (looking in) who gripe and complain about what a shame our kids have to suffer. It's people like you who are the problem! What are you doing to help? You're tearing down the system with innuendo and conjecture and armchair quarterbacking. And you think Bremen is better???!!! Bremen has a better publicity machine and the people don't sit around tearing down decisions that are made, but they don't educate children any better that in Haralson County. Have you looked at the programs that have been implemented in the last few years to give our students a better education and our community a chance to grow. You all look at how much money is being spent and you don't like it, but it takes money to make things better. And those salaries you all are say are inflated, well the information is inflated because those folks in the CO are not making all that money that "someone" says they are. Why don't you go talk to those CO office folks yourself and ask them? I did. And by the way, HC will not lose its accreditation. You all watch way too much 6 o'clock news and read the biased local newspapers. Wake up and get on board to make things better.

[Parent]

Tallapoosa native wrote:

How's the view from the cheap seats folks??!! You all think you can click on a website and what you see is an actual reflection of the truth when in many cases it's not. I am so tired of people from the outside (looking in) who gripe and complain about what a shame our kids have to suffer. It's people like you who are the problem! What are you doing to help? You're tearing down the system with innuendo and conjecture and armchair quarterbacking. And you think Bremen is better???!!! Bremen has a better publicity machine and the people don't sit around tearing down decisions that are made, but they don't educate children any better that in Haralson County. Have you looked at the programs that have been implemented in the last few years to give our students a better education and our community a chance to grow. You all look at how much money is being spent and you don't like it, but it takes money to make things better. And those salaries you all are say are inflated, well the information is inflated because those folks in the CO are not making all that money that "someone" says they are. Why don't you go talk to those CO office folks yourself and ask them? I did. And by the way, HC will not lose its accreditation. You all watch way too much 6 o'clock news and read the biased local newspapers. Wake up and get on board to make things better.

So you are a Tallapoosa native? Well, you should know that the figures that are on the web site came from the CO audit. They could not have been posted if someone from the CO didn't have their figures right. You know it seems that if you ask other people such as teachers and parapros their salaries seem to be posted correct. Why would you think they made such a mistake on just the CO peoples salary? Get in to reality what you see is the truth. Unless the State of Georgia auditors have made a horrible mistake (which I don't think) then someone has some explaining to do. Do you really think they are going to tell you their tax returns? You are dreaming. I wouldn't tell anybody I got a 30% raise in one year either if I was asking everyone else to give back their salaries. You really think they don't make what it says? I have some swamp land in Arizona I would like to sale you. Wake up, people don't tell the truth! Sorry you fell for their lies. You may not know this but, money is not always the answer. Children have a remarkable ability to learn with out money! Yes, it takes money to run the operations of a school, but it takes dedicated administrators and teachers to teach the children. You can put as many CO people you want and pay them a million dollars, but it still won't educate our children. What we need is people who are concerned about our children more than their salaries! When this happens you will see a change in our educational system.

[Grandparent]

I agree totally with you! Money is not always the answer. Education is up to all of us. We as parents, grandparents, administrators, and teachers all have a responsibility to the children of HC. We pay our taxes and still you see the money is not spent the way it should be. The problem lies somewhere in between. If money had been appropriately spent in the correct way to began with we would not be in this shape. Yes, austerity cuts hurt, but we all know, you nor I can live beyond our means and still survive all the finical problems ahead. This is just what the board did. They spent money on top of money never thinking about tomorrow. I think this was very poor planning on the boards part thinking it was always going to have money available for them to use however they chose. We should never assume money is going to be there. There should have been a system setup so as if money didn't come though as planned then a plan B should have been implemented. Plan B is money in the bank! You should never spend down everything you have thinking you can always get more. That's what is wrong with our school system and our county, people have gotten so greedy and now we are all paying for it. Planning for tomorrow is never bad, even though we may not live to see it. What we do today matters for those who will be here tomorrow. This is our children! Don't let greed destroy them too. First Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

[Grandparent]

I meant Can't live beyond our means not can. Sorry!

[Attended Board Meeting]

I just wanted to say that I attended the board meeting at Haralson County High School last night and really didn't come away with any better feelings about the situation. A Lot of people made very good points but it seems as if the board didn't have a lot of answers for the ones that asked questions. The question of how much money is really being saved by letting the custodians go, making the non-certified personal take five days off without pay and why is there no reserve money left in the county's account. Answers were vague and danced around with out really answering their questions. There were also some questions that were not ask, such as...why did they hire another secretary at the CO while making others pay money and letting go of other employees? Was the job advertised? No one seems to know. Why wasn't it filled by a employee already in the system? Why would you hire another person while laying off others? Mr. Stanton said in 2010 there would be some restructuring at the CO but failed to say what kind. I still don't get the salary amounts they say is posted wrong on the web site. They said it was due to having something to do with making 12 month employees salary's being put in as 10 months to make the year balance out or something like that. Who knows? It really made no since. I came away with the feeling that they are going to do what they what to anyway, no matter what. They said they would take into consideration what everyone said and suggested, but I think is already a done deal!There were others that had very valid points also. Someone asked about cell phones but they never said who paid the bills for all the phones and blackberries. I know e-rate pays for some things like that. They talked some about Federal employees and that they were paid by grants and other Federal monies. They failed to say what would happen to all the people payed with federal money when the programs are no longer. Who will pay their salaries then? I don't understand why the Federal money is still coming in when the state money is not. As I said many unanswered questions and many not even ask. There was a good crowd and it was not at all unruly. Everybody seemed to go away with even more questions as I listened outside after the meeting. I don't know what the answer is but I do know one thing after attending the meeting,... nothing was resolved! For this I am very sorry for the tax payers of Haralson County for it looks as if they will be paying for salaries again that are not necessary!God help us all and my prayer is that the situation will be solved without anyone being hurt anymore than they already are.

[IM ME]

I am new to the area and do not like the haralson co. school system at all.I beleive that they are trying to keep the students on a low education level so they can continue to get money from from the goverment. my daughter was reading words like goverment, exsample,together, numeral,scientists,sentence,mo untain, now words like, car, walk, ever, took, sun,plants,tells,frogs just to name a few. she was reading chapter books to now three sentences. she does the weekly homwork in 15 minutes. I was told by staff that they have been on a 1 million dollar reading grant for 3 years and this is the best they can do? That tells me something is wrong here! I asked the teacher to send home harder material she said she would 3 wks later after receiving nothing she tells me she dont have time.SHE SAID THEY WOULD TEST HER THE FIRST WEEK THERE 3 WKS LATER SHE DON'T HAVE TIME! I TOLD HER MY DAUGHTER IS LOSING INTEREST SHE IS NOT LEARNING ANYTHING WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING. SHE TOLD ME GO TO THE TEACHERS STORE IN CARROLTON AND WORK WITH HER AT HOME. I AM CONFUSED HERE WHY THE HELL AM I SENDING HER TO SCHOOL THEN AND PAYING MY TAX DOLLARS????? APPARENTLLY THEY DON'T GIVE CRAP! AND DONT CALL THE SUPER CAUSE YOU WONT GET A RETURN CALL ON ANY MATTER! IT'S NOT JUST MY CHILD THOUGH IM SURE .

[Going to Bremen]

RE: tallapoosa native

Well, you are welcome to your opinion, but I will go on to say that in Bremen my 1st Grader started out reading at 2nd Grade level and finished on 5th Grade level. The proof is there! The teachers are better and the Board is better because they have a reputation of Excellence, not "Mediocrity at best" which should be the HCBOE motto.
FYI: I graduated from HCHS and I know the teachers that are there now...that's another reason my kids go to Bremen along with the children a lot of other HCHS graduates.
HCHS motto:
- Hoping we can stay certified since 1971-

[Concerned]

OK, I just looked at the Haralson County's 2008-2009 Report card...are you ready for this?
I don't know what all that crap is in the papers about all the improvement in our schools, but according to this report if we improved, what were we before? The report is as follows:
Number of Schools 6
Meeting AYP 2(33.3%)
Not meeting AYP 4(66.7%)
Meeting Test Participation 6 (100%)
Meeting Academic Performance 2 (33.3%)
Meeting second indicator 6 (100%)
I think will all the furloughs going on and they are still promoting people at the CO and raising their salaries something is wrong with this picture. They need to clean house up there and then they could afford to pay the ones that actually work in the county. Do we really need an assistant Superintendent? The one we have now is not doing a good job why should we pay two people to destroy or school system? People need to go to the Board Meetings and listen to what they are doing up there. They cut para-pros to 180 days from 190. That's ten days, what about all those they made twelve month employees at the CO? Why are they not cutting from the top and not the bottom? They can afford a cut more than anyone else can in the system. Ten days off their salary's would make a bigger difference than cutting ten days off a para-pros.Who is running this county anyway? A bunch of village idiots? I think our Board should step back and take another look at what they are doing and do the right thing...Sometime doing the right thing is hard but they are the ones that wanted the job so they need to do their jobs!

[TEA Party Patriot]

The answer is that we, concerned Tax Payers, are going to have to run for this Board. Haralson County T.E.A. Party Patriots is working to get conservative, fiscally responsible citizens to run for each of these board positions. Please help us find people willing and able to fill these posts who will stop playing these games and get us some REAL education reform that includes a revenue driven budget - if you don't have it, you don't SPEND it - and tax relief for those over 65.

Attended Board Meeting wrote:

I just wanted to say that I attended the board meeting at Haralson County High School last night and really didn't come away with any better feelings about the situation. A Lot of people made very good points but it seems as if the board didn't have a lot of answers for the ones that asked questions. The question of how much money is really being saved by letting the custodians go, making the non-certified personal take five days off without pay and why is there no reserve money left in the county's account. Answers were vague and danced around with out really answering their questions. There were also some questions that were not ask, such as...why did they hire another secretary at the CO while making others pay money and letting go of other employees? Was the job advertised? No one seems to know. Why wasn't it filled by a employee already in the system? Why would you hire another person while laying off others? Mr. Stanton said in 2010 there would be some restructuring at the CO but failed to say what kind. I still don't get the salary amounts they say is posted wrong on the web site. They said it was due to having something to do with making 12 month employees salary's being put in as 10 months to make the year balance out or something like that. Who knows? It really made no since. I came away with the feeling that they are going to do what they what to anyway, no matter what. They said they would take into consideration what everyone said and suggested, but I think is already a done deal!There were others that had very valid points also. Someone asked about cell phones but they never said who paid the bills for all the phones and blackberries. I know e-rate pays for some things like that. They talked some about Federal employees and that they were paid by grants and other Federal monies. They failed to say what would happen to all the people payed with federal money when the programs are no longer. Who will pay their salaries then? I don't understand why the Federal money is still coming in when the state money is not. As I said many unanswered questions and many not even ask. There was a good crowd and it was not at all unruly. Everybody seemed to go away with even more questions as I listened outside after the meeting. I don't know what the answer is but I do know one thing after attending the meeting,... nothing was resolved! For this I am very sorry for the tax payers of Haralson County for it looks as if they will be paying for salaries again that are not necessary!God help us all and my prayer is that the situation will be solved without anyone being hurt anymore than they already are.