By the time you read this article, most of you would have already
started back at school. It promises to be another tough year, especially with all the reports in the news media about the
various schools and school systems which are falling in the "Needs Improvement" categories. As you well know, the administrators
are now feeling the heat, and they are going to pass this heat on to the teachers. They want to show that they’re trying
to improve their "almighty test scores" by firing certain teachers! The whole process is dysfunctional and sick. Many
of the parents need a "Needs Improvement" rating!
This past school year was busier than ever. We represented perhaps
more teachers in grievances and hearings than in any other year in MACE’s history. Since August of 2003, we engaged
in twenty-one (21) public pickets. These pickets included eight (8) in the Atlanta Public Schools
(Mays High School, Brown Middle School, Oglethorpe Elementary School, Connelly Elementary School,
and four [4] at the Central Office against Beverly Hall and her sycophants downtown); five
(5) in DeKalb County (King High School, McNair High School, McNair Middle School, Peachcrest
Elementary School, and one against Johnny Brown at the Central Office); four (4) in Fulton
County (Holmes Elementary School, McNair Middle School, Banneker High School, and Hapeville Elementary
School); three (3) in Clayton County (Lovejoy Middle School and two against the School
Board at school board meetings); and one (1) in Bibb County (Westside High School). With the
school year starting back, we have some sites already in focus. Call us if you think that your administrator(s) needs a good
picket. Sometimes, public exposure is the only thing that will bring relief to a unconscionable situation!
Congratulations to MACE member Yolanda Everett for being
elected to the Clayton County Board of Education. MACE Field Director Norreese Haynes lost by just one vote
from making a runoff in his quest for a seat on the Clayton County Board of Education. Every vote does count!
Another MACE member, Janice Scott, ran a very impressive race against a man who worked in the Clayton County
School System for over 40 years (and is considered almost a "legend"). She almost pulled the shocker of the evening!
Tony Guisasola, a MACE member who lives in Gilmer County and teaches in Dawson County (and MACE’s
longtime North Georgia "Field Marshal"), came in first in a three-person race for a seat on the Gilmer
County Board of Education. He garnered 40% of the vote, and he’s in a runoff with the incumbent who received only
31% of the vote. The superintendent and a couple of board members are doing what they can to try to keep Tony off the
school board. They know that Tony will not be a "yes man."
Congratulations to Dr. Mike Rhett, a MACE member who
teaches in Cobb County, for successfully defending his dissertation at the University of Georgia! Dr. Rhett
is one of MACE’s charter members. Another charter member, Representative Darryl Jordan, runs for re-election
this year -- with no opposition! Representative Jordan teaches in Henry County but represents parts of Jonesboro,
Riverdale, and Fayetteville in the State House. He’s always been the teachers’ "Best Friend"
in the General Assembly. He earns MACE’s "Best Friend Award." (He’s won other awards like "The
Teacher’s Advocate!" award.)
As some of you may know, MACE enters its tenth (10th)
year on September 1, 2004. (At the Back-To-School BASH
on September 18, 2004, we’ll be celebrating MACE’s Ninth Birthday as well as celebrating
[with cash!] the Membership Campaign!) Our membership now spreads from Gilmer County in the north to Valdosta
City in the south. We spread from Muscogee County in the west to Richmond County in the east.
We also have members in small systems throughout Georgia, and, of course, we’re all over the Atlanta Metropolitan
Area. As more teachers learn about us through TheTeachersAdvocate.Com, and as more members move throughout Georgia,
the MACE Diaspora keeps happening. I think that by now the administrators and "powers that be" have given up on MACE
going away. MACE is like a slow heartburn or a bad case of poison ivy to these people -- the more
they "scratch" it, the more it spreads! It might sound trite but it is true: When you say "MACE," the administrators
listen! We don’t exist to please the administrators. We exist to protect our members. When an administrator starts
messing with one of our members, we make the administrator an offer that he/she cannot refuse: Leave our member alone or
else...