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Interesting post on the DeKalb Co School Watch blog. Look at all the civil court cases against the BOE's Jay Cunningham. How is one of nine people in charge of a billion dollar budget? How was this guy re-elected???


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Look on DeKalb OJS Civil cases and see how many times and for what amounts Jesse "Jay" Cunningham has been sued or garnished for indebtedness, mostly relating to auto debt. Great that we have him helping to control a huge budget. 17 cases over the years taken to court for money and one for a protective order for domestic violence.

When are the voters of DeKalb going to wake up?

Case Search Results
Last Name First Name / MI Party Type Case ID* Type Court Style Filing Date Status
CUNNINGHAM JESSE J DEFENDANT 09G24391 State Garnishment State Ford Motor Credit Co Vs Jesse J Cunnington 28-JUL-2009 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE J DEFENDANT 10G35599 State Garnishment State Ford Motor Vs Jesse J Cunningham 15-NOV-2010 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE J DEFENDANT 03A11016 State Civil Suits State Ford Motor Vs Cunningham 08-SEP-2003 CLOSED
CUNNINGHAM JESSE J DEFENDANT 04G91364 State Garnishment State Ford Motor Credit Co Vs Jesse J Cunningham 01-SEP-2004 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE J DEFENDANT 93A75228 State Civil Suits State Frank Jackson Lincoln Vs Cunningham 20-JUL-1993 CLOSED
CUNNINGHAM JESSE J DEFENDANT 07G08078 State Garnishment State Ford Motor Credit Vs Jesse J Cunningham 25-JUL-2007 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE J DEFENDANT 08G13210 State Garnishment State Ford Motor Vs Jesse J Cunningham 01-APR-2008 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE JAY DEFENDANT 01M81305 Magistrate Civil Suits Magistrate Cindy Mcqueary Vs Jesse Jay Cunningham 31-MAY-2001 CLOSED
CUNNINGHAM JESSE JAY DEFENDANT 01M85208 Magistrate Civil Suits Magistrate Bruce Webb Vs Jesse Jay Cunningham 13-NOV-2001 CLOSED
CUNNINGHAM JESSE DEFENDANT 08G18581 State Garnishment State Ford Motor Vs Jesse J Cunningham 18-NOV-2008 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE DEFENDANT 08G19157 State Garnishment State Georgia Receivables Inc Vs Jesse Cunningham 12-DEC-2008 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE DEFENDANT 10G28373 State Garnishment State Georgia Receivables Vs Jesse Cunningham 13-JAN-2010 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE DEFENDANT 09G28373 State Garnishment State Georgia Receivables Vs Jesse Cunningham 13-JAN-2010 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE DEFENDANT 10D58256 Magistrate Dispossessory Magistrate Salem Crossing Shopping Center Vs Evelyn Phillip 16-AUG-2010 CLOSED
CUNNINGHAM JESSE DEFENDANT 10G36434M Magistate Garnishment Magistrate Ga Recievables Inc Vs Jesse Cunningham 16-DEC-2010 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE DEFENDANT 02D60250 State Dispossessory State Lexington On The Green Vs Jesse Cunningham 18-MAR-2002 OPEN
CUNNINGHAM JESSE DEFENDANT 97CV11173 Superior Domestic Relations Superior Cunningham Vs Cunningham (Se) 15-SEP-1997 CLOSED
CUNNINGHAM JESSE DEFENDANT 07A74296 State Civil Suits State American Express Vs Evelyn Phillip 18-SEP-2007 CLOSED

I find this crazy.
Why not just combine the schools? Why do we have to close 14 in 1 county????? If we could afford to send our children to private schools I'm sure many of us would, however how many of us can afford it in this economy? I graduated from Avondale High School. This is a good school. People who have the funds to send their children to these private schools say" hey ok close the schools who needs them"....I am telling you PEOPLE NEED THIS. Money is waisted around DeKalb County left and right but we close schools as a first way to try and save money.

Kittredge and Wadsworth are magnet schools for high achievers. Livsey is a neighborhood school with a small footprint (it cannot be expanded). It IS NOT a magnet school of any kind. The county does have policies in place for accelerating students (skipping grades).

The Dekalb County Board of Education has about much sense as the Board of Commissioneers of Dekalb County. This group is so inept, that they could not find their way out of a clear poly bag. They are la la land.
They do however have one thing in common with the BOC, is that they know how to spend money they do not have. Spend umteen millions of dollars for schools, with Italian marble. special lighting systems, the best in furniture, special glass windows, etc. They even know how to keep Georgia Power happy in leaving the lights on during the Christmas Holidays when no one is around.

We must have new school buses every couple of years. After all, a school bus can not be driven more than a 100,000 miles, it has to be replaced, not tuned up.

Now, the BOE is at a crisis mode. They want to close schools because of empty seats. If they had teachers who really taught a good lesson plan, instead of just letting the kids do what they want, then these kids could learn how to be smarter, and therefore the classes would be fuller. But no, the school system has to pass these under thinkers on to make room for the next bunch of under thinkers. This means taxpayer dollars going down the drain for no reason. Its the endless pit of non-productiveness. In other words, a waste of money.

So the teacher and the BOE keep peddling on to see how much the BOE can raise taxes so that our idiots cannot graduate with intelligence instead of stupidity.

I cannot say anymore, because I am getting "rattled up" on this subject

Kittredge and Wadsworth are vital to the Dekalb system. Although we love our home elementary, my daughter was screaming to be home schooled because she was so bored. The school tried by giving her more difficult assignments and leading the class in science projects. I asked about moving her up grades and the prinicpal said that was not their policy. The school system is designed to teach the majority of the children which is what it is supposed to do. However, there are children with special needs on both ends of the spectrum which should not be neglected. Livesy, I believe, is a magnet for the mild to profoundly challenged children also extremely vital to to the community. Kittredge and Livesy have people waiting to get in. Livsey's numbers look low only because their special needs classes have to have low ratios not because of lack of interest. Wadsworth, an excellent school which actually scored higher than Kittredge, would be just as packed as Kittredge if it was promoted more in the southern Dekalb school district and had time to become more established being such a young program. Please do not abandon the Dekalb school children with special needs.

Why close Livsey and Kittredge, excellent schools that earned the prestigious national Blue Ribbon Award for academic achievement? Instead, the county should expand them, increase enrollment, and build better labs there.

The chosen place to cut funds is our schools? These people have got to be kidding! If this actually comes to pass then these schools need to be combined with one another and not allowed into the district of their choice - which I'm sure these much needed restrictions will not be implemented. In the end it will once again it will not be fair to anyone involved. The horrible school districts will be left to decline in value leaving the people with no hope and declining property values - not to mention 30 - 80 min commute to and from school every day. How about taking 400,000 to hire teachers who give a #%$# and boost morale! I have a student at Lakeside - class size is a joke- it is based on overall population and not number of students per classroom. So u tell me who benefits from this? Clearly not the students that r legally in the district nor the ones with allowance to attend the school. Seems to me if the parents arent involved in their district they arent going to b involved in a district their child is being transfered to - which brings us back to the root of the problem. . .HIRE BETTER TEACHERS who give a !@# and will hold the parents and the students responsible and stop at nothing to get the school where it needs to be - if the the school is crying we have no money, that for the most part is untrue it simply means the money is being allocated to the wrong places and somebody wrongly has their hand in the cookie jar. Bottom line if we drop the ball and do not continue to improve the schools out there we also leave the people who live in these districts with a declining community.

Dekalb County at one time had the highest rated school system there was, and now it's the lowest. They need to get good teachers, and get rid of the ones that do not qualify. They throw good money after bad. What a waste.

Weirdly, this is something the School Board has right. My analysis:

Medlock - I lived in the neighborhood and loved it and participated in some of this school's activities. However, this neighborhood was one of these post Korean War baby boom new suburban areas that aged out. Not exactly a growing area as far as young people. Does make sense to close it.

Sky Haven - Sort of the same. A post World War II suburban boom neighborhood in an old industrial area that deteoriated into a mostly commerical area of mom-and-pop low income immigrant stores. Again, not many youth. No bias here as I actually like the people in this area.

Toney - A number of other elementary schools close by. Not exactly a growing area. Again, no bias as I grew up here and my brother went to school here.

Bob Mathis - A growing suburban area at one time that peaked out and now in decline.

Avondale - Unfortunately, most people in this district who can, send their children to private schools. A great school at one time that went downhill. Might also consider Clarkston, Cedar Shoals or Kelly Lake (and I am an alumnus from there).

I could go on, but these proposals make sense.

Close 'em!!

This study is another bad example of the DeKalb School System continuing to waste our public money, and the sad part is, they think they are doing the right thing. How much was the retired judge paid ($400,000.00) to write a report?

As much as I would like to have confidence in our school system, I must accept the hard fact that the only way citizens can improve our school system is to completely change the culture of the school board and administration, and I do not say this proudly.

This study makes sense to me. The study looks at the most important criterion, science labs, and partly bases its decisions on the existence of such labs. STEM is the only thing that counts in the future of American education.

$400,000.00 for a study ?

Who in this World thinks that this money was spent wisely ?

DeKalb County = A County in Crisis = A County that has lost it's moral compass !