Radloff Elected GCPS Board Chairman for 2012
Boyce is named board vice chairman. Superintendent's contract extended
Updated Jan. 20, 2012
Louise Radloff, a Gwinnett school board member since 1973, was elected chairman for 2012 by board members Thursday.
Also, board members elected District I representative Carole Boyce of Dacula as vice chairman.
It is the ninth time as board chairman for Radloff, who lives in Norcross and represents District V. She replaces Dr. Robert McClure of Lilburn.
"It was a pleasure and a privilege to see public education work the way it is supposed to," McClure said at the December board meeting after being congratulated by fellow board members.
However, 2011 also was a stressful year for the state's largest school system. Controversies broke out over a redistricting involving the Peachtree Ridge and Duluth school clusters, news reports over questionable land deals, and inclusion of a Peachtree Corners charter school into the Gwinnett system.
Plus, there are ongoing budget problems: GCPS has said that it is facing a revenue shortfall of $89 million as it prepares the 2013 budget.
Also, 2012 is an election year for school board members. Terms end in 2012 for Dr. Mary Kay Murphy (District III), Boyce (District I), and Radloff, and so those spots will be on the November ballot. Already, Berkeley Lake resident Jen Falk has said she will run for the seat held by Murphy. Boyce has said she will seek re-election.
However, the school board in 2011 started an online campus, and began an initiative called eCLASS that will eventually phase out textbooks in the classroom.
WILBANKS CONTRACT EXTENDED: At Thursday's meeting, the board approved a two-year contract extension for Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks. The new deal runs through June 2014. Wilbanks joined the Gwinnett system in 1996. "We've been very blessed to have your leadership," board member Mary Kay Murphy of Duluth said. "We thank you very much."
Sharon Swanepoel
8:13 am on Friday, January 20, 2012
Congratulations to Grayson High School state champion Rams Football Team. They were recognized by the school board for their accomplishment!
Colleen Walsh Fong
10:09 am on Friday, January 20, 2012
Congratulations Ms. Radloff. I'm sure you will do your usual excellent job as Chairman.
A Viller
12:25 pm on Friday, January 20, 2012
Mr. Burns and Ms. Putnam,
I find it strange that you made "a Berkeley Lake woman has said she will run for the seat held by Murphy" into a hyperlink without even giving her name.The Berkeley Lake woman has a name...it’s Jen Falk. She is a leader focused on transparency, accountability and equity for all children in Gwinnett County.
Steve Burns
12:46 pm on Friday, January 20, 2012
Thanks for the comment. However, our stories and links have to appeal to a wide constituency, and that particular name might not be recognizable to people outside her home area.
A Viller
1:55 pm on Friday, January 20, 2012
Mr. Burns,
I appreciate you taking the time to reply. However, since this is the Peachtree Corners-Berkeley Lake Patch and Ms. Falk has lived in Berkeley Lake for 15 years, I believe this IS her "home area" and you could have at least printed her name. Thanks!
Steve Burns
2:06 pm on Friday, January 20, 2012
Thanks again. I am editor of Suwanee Patch. This story was shared with Peachtree Corners-Berkeley Lake Patch. I will leave it for Ms. Putnam to handle that site.
David Brown
10:15 am on Saturday, January 21, 2012
The Gwinnett County School Board desperately needs an overhaul. The Board, as currently constituted, does not look like the students in the system. The Board's members need to be diverse and younger.
Robert Thomas. Sr.
12:37 pm on Saturday, January 21, 2012
Gwinnett's school doesn't need the kind of diversity games used in such "successful" school boards as Atlanta, DeKalb and Clayton, all seriously less successful than the Gwinnett board. The only issue is whether the board is doing a good job, and by any fair standard they have been doing a great job, dealing successfully with expansion of the system and a great many changes, including diversity. The correct approach is to change the current board slowly so as not to trifle with our current success. The correct approach to diversity is not to force it for its own sake, but rather to let the board become more diverse over time as it will as diverse people become more established in the community.
Courtney
12:41 am on Sunday, January 22, 2012
Wilbanks runs the county. The BOE has no power b/c they are mindless twits.
GwinnettWeather
6:40 am on Sunday, January 22, 2012
Tell us how you really feel Courtney!
And I agree with Mr. Thomas, you don't make changes just to make changes. I guess most of you saw the story about how DeKalb has 300 administrators too many. I worked there for 20 years... there is a night and day difference between DeKalb and Gwinnett school systems
Robert Thomas. Sr.
3:04 pm on Sunday, January 22, 2012
Courtney, you cite no facts to support your mere assertions about the BOE and Mr. Wilbanks.
I support him is that he is home grown, so perhaps really understands the system. Contrast this with such "successful" school systems as Atlanta and DeKalb and the increasingly troubled Cobb. All use the much touted "natIonwide search" approach for a superintendent (which really abdicates board responsibility to a search firm), and nowhere are the results as good as in Gwinnett.
The reason is that this search is merely a clever way for whatever mafia - school superintendent, business executive, police chief, ad nauseam to promote the interests of its members over those of society, often with disastrous results. in order to maximize its members' contracts via a supposed "usual" benefit level.
It's a species of the "management is management" approach which has ruined this country by, inter alia, preferring the inexperienced twit out of some graduate school to the experienced person who knows the business, not the norm in the countries which are eating our lunch. Happily, in Mr. Wilbanks we have a superintendent who "knows the business" of the Gwinnett schools. He is not young, and when he leaves you should hope the BOE has the wisdom to take the same approach instead of the toxic "nationwide search" approach. People are coming here because we are an educational oasis in the desert around us, and for this you can thank Wilbanks and the BOE's leadership role..
ann henry
4:42 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Sure Gwinnett is great, but the BOE, is not fair. The checks and balancing systems is out of control just like DeKalb and Cobb. There is massive cheating just like Fulton. The teachers and administrators are not as qualified as we are led to believe.
My son attended Parkview High, for four years I complained that he was not learning. I contacted Ms. Radloff over 15 times, I sent over 50 letters to various departments. He graduated anyway. When he took the entrance exam for Gwinnett Tech, he failed, He is currently in a remedial program. Don't believe the hype. If you can't teach your child at home, or can't afford a tutor, pray.
All schools are just like any other business machine; it's just about money.
Mr. Wilbanks enjoys being a millionaire. Wouldn't you keep up a lie if you were
being paid like he is? He runs this county. Please dump this entire board when we get a chance. It is time for change. Maybe we can find someone who can work for less.
Robert Thomas. Sr.
4:57 pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012
Ms. Henry, your comment about your son and Parkview is by necessity anecdotal, so logically can't mean much. Nor can my conversations with many Parkview students who are more than pleased with the school,. but they do constitute a larger sample. Also, the test scores don't support your allegations and you cite no authority for your serious allegations of cheating in the system.
North Georgia Weather
5:35 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Ann, you make conflicting statements. You first say Gwinnett is great and then you say don't send your kids there??? Which one is it? And what proof do you have of massive cheating? What proof do you have that show the teachers and administrators aren't qualified?
Just curious...
Robert Thomas. Sr.
6:53 pm on Thursday, January 26, 2012
Ann Henry, if you expect your accusations to have any weight they need to be supported by facts, if any.
John Cook
1:27 am on Thursday, September 27, 2012
Two of three schools in this article have below average scores.
http://lilburn.patch.com/articles/parkview-third-among-gwinnett-cluster-high-schools-in-sat-scores?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001
These are not the students that dropped out. Taking the SAT usually indicates a desire for college. It's sad that some students are merely written off and dismissed. What is the plan to get these students' education up to par? Such scores are addressed with the attitude that "it is what it is," which is unacceptable.
Robert Thomas. Sr.
5:22 pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012
Mr. Cook, I agree with you that all children should be educated to an acceptable level unless it's just impossible, which it may be with some students. The question is: what is the acceptable level? In some Atlanta high schools, if they could all read and do arithmetic before they graduate this might be it - certainly better than the functional illiterates/innumerates they turn loose on society and the criminal justice system. In my view the only solution is streaming at an early enough age to help the above, as well as let the better students fly intellectually. It might also defuse some of the push towards charter schools, which will essentially ultimately do the same thing, but would also remove the problem children from their campuses (since they'd never be admitted), all of which will just exacerbate any current failure of the public schools, and ultimately lead to an exodus of the better teachers into charter schools. That's one plan, but in this society where every child is a potential Einstein it's unlikely ever to happen as the public schools are essentially destroyed by charter schools. If that happens, what will be the effect on society of losing the best means historically of making Americans out of newcomers?