Legislative Goals, Fulton School Board, Pulliam!
Let these legislators know that you support a (1) 5% teacher pay raise and (2) House Bill 275 (The Teacher
Bill of Rights). The former will cost real money but the latter won’t cost the state a penny. If the legislators
are not in their office, then please leave a message with their secretaries. Don’t limit yourself to just calling your
legislator; call as many as you can! The legislators respond to pressure. Remember: No one is going to give you anything.
In politics, politicians respond to pressure. Put the pressure on! Be sure that you read the main portions of The Teacher
Bill of Rights before you call or write. We’ve listed the main portion of this bill on this web site under MACE’s
Legislative Agenda.
Well, well, shortly after asking the legislators to nearly double their salaries, the Fulton
County Board of Education members, in a 6 to 1 vote, voted to make interim Superintendent Michael Vanairsdale the
permanent superintendent on January 13, 2004. Vanairsdale, a retired Army colonel, took over the reigns of the school
system when John Haro resigned apparently under duress. Haro was superintendent for about five (5) months. According
to a published report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Haro left after [Chairwoman] Reeves signed a letter advising
him [that] the board had recommended his termination." The report went on to say that "[t]he letter accused Haro of insubordination,
willful neglect of duties and immorality, for collecting his $700-a-month car allowance while he used a car owned by the school
system" (January 11, 2004, p. B1). It sounds like that there were too many large egos involved. We hear that the real issue
was who was going to control personnel issues. That’s when the honeymoon will end in Clayton County. Barbara
Pulliam was recently hired by the Clayton County Board of Education to be its superintendent (see Clayton County:
Graveyard for Superintendents). Nearly all of these superintendents who are appointed from out-of-state (both Haro
and Pullium hail from Minnesota) come to town wanting to make big changes -- especially in personnel. They
want to put their people in place -- especially in the big jobs which immediatly surround the superintendent’s
office. We give Pulliam a few months of a honeymoon period. Then, five seats on the board are up for election this
summer. (Qualifying for these seats begin in April.). Pulliam doesn’t have a clue what this means -- but the
board members do -- or should know. (Newcomers on the school board like Carol Kellam don’t really know much of
anything.) The Clayton County Board of Education voted to give Pulliam a salary of $180,000 (plus $400.00 per
month which doesn’t have to be accounted for -- which means her salary is $184,800), in addition to a late model vehicle,
moving expenses, temporary housing, $500,000.00 in life insurance, 30 days vacation, 45 days immediate sick leave (which can
be cashed out at a high rate), and other financial rewards. In addition to this, the school board, by contract, cannot fire
Pulliam for the first eighteen (18) months, has to give her six (6) months notice
if they do intend to fire her, have to give her an additional twelve (12) months of salary if they do
indeed fire her, and she gets to bring in an organizational audit team (we presume to "prove" that she doesn’t need
to be fired, making her even more "fire-proof"). Also, Pulliam, by contract, gets to bring in a personnel audit team
on the front end, presumably to provide a "rationale" to move people around. (Before she even signed her contract, Pulliam
had already sent board members a detailed questionnaire that she wanted them to fill out and to send back to her. Hasn’t
she figured out yet that the school board is her boss and not the other way around? She also sent out a detailed questionnaire
to the central office administrators -- before she became the superintendent! Has anyone ever heard of the phrase "control
freak"? Hmm. The soap opera ought to continue in Clayton County...
January
26, 2004
