I am attaching a PDF File that shows all of the Salaries being paid to the Dawson County BOE Employees, from the Superintendent right down to the Bus Drivers and Substitute Teachers. I am also attaching the salaries of some other neighboring counties that I have referenced in Comparison Reports farther down in the article: Lumpkin County BOE Salaries; Habersham County BOE Salaries; White County BOE Salaries; Gilmer County BOE Salaries; Pickens County BOE Salaries; Forsyth County BOE Salaries; and Hall County BOE Salaries.
I have redacted the names, but left the associated positions, as the goal is not to shame people, but to open public awareness as to what citizens are paying for. Looks to me like we have some excess Salary Bloat at the Top. The State Of Georgia just cut 10% from their budget. I think that some of the Dawson County BOE Top Staff needs a Payroll Haircut as well. I can promise you that most residents in the County have had enormous financial reductions. Before You Raise our Burden – pick up your own portion of the burden.
And I want to point out that “Will Wade” (District 9 Candidate for Dawson & Lumpkin Counties) was on the Dawson County BOE Board during the most egregious of the salary increases that got us here. And this is NOT about the election, but I saw a hypocritical attack ad he was running on his opponent, and because I had just finished researching this subject, it really triggered me. How can he call himself a conservative having contributed to this sort of Bloat (and this does not even begin to include the extravagant “Projects”) undertaken under his tenure on the Board.
But back to the subject: The current BOE needs to address this. I think citizens need to Change the Narrative at the next BOE Meeting where they are talking about asking for More Taxes. Instead, how about their public salaries be reduced to reflect the Financial Distress the general citizenry is experiencing? How about the BOE cancel projects that are not absolutely essential?
NEW NARRATIVE —> SALARY ADJUSTMENTS! PROJECT REDUCTIONS! MILLAGE RATE ROLLBACKS!
I did a little compiling of Salary Increase Comparisons from 2015 onward according to the public access data. Here are a couple of teasers: Our Dawson County Superintendent has increased his salary from $144K to over $200K since 2015. His wife was also hired as a “Graduation Specialist” Her salary increased from $63K to $82K from 2016 – 2019. Across the board in almost every mid-upper level position you saw HUGE Salary Increases.
I want to make it clear up front – this is NOT an attack on Teachers, nor Support Staff. It is a statement of fact that these Public Salaries are NOT reflective of what the average citizenry is experiencing in their personal finances. Taxpayers are having their business shuttered; facing eviction or looming foreclosure threat; losing jobs & customers etc. On top of that parents are having to deal with online learning, school schedule uncertainty, and aren’t getting the educational support that we are already paying for. Now the School Board wants to raise Taxes??? Not without a fight this time.
This isn’t personal. It isn’t that teachers don’t deserve the money. That is a false flag argument.
It is that Teachers (especially the super-high paid administrative positions) are not better than the Citizens that pay their salaries. The argument that the work is so hard, the children so precious, and the pay is deserved – well, that argument goes for everyone that is a taxpayer too. Many taxpayers work multiple jobs, wake up early, get home late, have kids to take care of, and are seeing their finances destroyed. EVERYBODY is going to have to carry their share of the burden equally. Nobody gets a free pass – including the Board of Education.
If this Depression passes – then we can talk again. But Before We Do…. we are going to have to address the lack of “Bang For The Buck” that we have been getting for our Property Tax Dollars. Because our children deserve better than they are currently getting – considering that the enormous monies spent have so far only earned the Dawson County School System below average ratings in comparison to most of the surrounding counties.
I will point everyone to two (2) additional Data Reports that I have compiled from publicly available sources, that compares Dawson County Schools to the following surrounding County School Systems: Forsyth; Hall; Cherokee; Pickens; Gilmer; Lumpkin; White & Habersham counties.
We have the lowest number of students of any of these other counties, yet our Rankings and Ratings are at the very bottom of almost every metric – EXCEPT for the amount of money we are spending per student. Dawson County Ranks #1 for the amount of Money Spent Per Child – but we are ranked Dead Last for our Financial Efficiency, which compares our district spending per student with overall academic performance. Dawson County is also ranked second to last in the achievement of our students.
These three (3) compiled reports I have provided are eye-opening to all that have read them so far. People are going to be shocked at how much money is being spent, and how low our School System is ranked in many key metrics. Here are the reports again:
(1) 2019 Salary of Dawson County Board Of Education Employees
(2) 2019 Financial Efficiency Star Rating (FESR)
(3) Current Greatschools Compiled State Data of Above Average, Average, and Below Average Students
(4) 2018-19 A.C.T. Score Comparison (Dawson H.S. vs Surrounding H.S.’s)
* Above #4 Report Newly Added! Dawson has some of lowest A.C.T. Scores.
Will Wade was at the helm during all of this. These numbers are unjustifiable, although I am sure he will do his politician’s best to try. If he does win, I hope he learns somewhere along the line what the heck it means to be an actual “Fiscal Conservative”.
Also, in addition to the high salaries & poor performance, Will Wade sat in a position of conflict of interest as a Banker, holding a State Level position on the Georgia Banker’s Association BankPAC Board, and on the GBA Public Affairs Committee. He never had any business being on the Board of Education, voting to approve wasteful building projects that his banking industry friends were pocketing enormous Loan Interest Payment Profits from – $4,538,502 in the last seven years alone. (a) (b)
As much as Salaries may seem high locally, when you get to the “Big Show” in Atlanta – you see the really big money. See Salary Link Below.
Top 20 Pages of State Of Georgia Salaries (90+% of them Education Related)
* better pour yourself a stiff drink before you open this one.
IN CLOSING:
1) Georgia doesn’t need another fiscally irresponsible politician at the State Level.
Old Saying: “If you want to know where a person is going, look at where they have been.”
2) Dawson County Citizens don’t need their property taxes raised, they need Millage ROLLBACKS.
My two cents.
Peace,
– david / publisher
Focus on Big Canoe, GA
* a publication of The Mountains Voice
References:
(a) 2017 School Board Audit Report – Pg 5
(b) 2019 School Board Audit Report – Pg 5
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