What was billed as a "Town

Hall Meeting" at Holly Grove AME Church to discuss education concerns

in Fayette County turned into a verbal ambush against the school district

on Saturday, with Superintendent John DeCotis and his administration in

the crosshairs again.

The issue wasn't bus service,

however, but the impression that black students were being blamed for

six Fayette schools failing to meet the state's requirements for "Adequate

Yearly Progress."

A form letter prepared by county

office administrators but signed by each school's principal was sent home

to parent's last week to explain the AYP results, but instead appeared

to point the blame at black and disabled students, African-American parents

said Saturday.

Fayette schools scored well

above the minimum requirements for scores, but sixfailed to show at least

95 percent of black or disabled students were tested. Those schools are

Fayette County and Sandy Creek high schools and Rising Starr, Flat Rock,

Fayette and J.C. Booth middle schools.

Saturday, outraged parents

wanted to know why their children were falling through cracks in the district's

testing system, a position that visibly surprised DeCotis and school board

member Lee Wright, also in attendance.

"It never occurred to

me that somebody would read that letter and interpret as pointing blame

or being discriminatory," said Wright, addressing the crowd.

DeCotis assured the 100-plus

parents in the audience there was no intent to "place blame"

on black students. He said his staff was convinced that errors were made

in the recording process and that the schools in question did, indeed,

test at least 95 percent of students as required.

He said he would write another

letter clarifying the issue this week. Appeals on all the schools were

to be filed with the state this week, DeCotis said.

Beyond the AYP concerns, parents

rose to take issue with the system's policies, particularly those that

relate to discipline and records keeping, and questioned the lack of more

Afro-centric offerings in the curriculum, as well as more black teachers

in the classroom.

Occasional charges that seemed

outrageous or inflammatory one man said he knew "for a fact"

of a strip-search of students at a high school last spring were generally

shouted down or dismissed.

Many of the parents in attendance

expressed an opinion that school district employees were insensitive to

black families, while others stood to praise DeCotis and his administration,

instead saying the problem lies with individual classroom teachers.

According to the state Department

of Education Report Card, Fayette schools were 15 percent African-American

at the end of the 2002 school year. The county population was 11.5 percent

black in the 2000 Census.

Along with DeCotis and Wright,

the forum organizers invited Assistant Superintendent for Operations Wayne

Robinson and district Teacher of the Year Jan Daniel of Fayette County

High.

Joining them at the event,

described by one organizer as intended to be "informative and enlightening,"

were Ashley Maner, a senior at McIntosh High, and Carolyn Jones, a Fayette

County resident and mother.

Maner and Jones are black,

while all four of the school system's invited representatives are white.

DeCotis said his administration

has been aggressively pursuing qualified black teachers, and has appointed

black administrators in key positions at several schools. Each of the

county's five high schools now has at least one African-American on its

administrative staff.

And as of July 1, Fayette schools

have an African-American as second-in-command: Deputy Superintendent Fred

Oliver.

But Oliver, who might have

provided insight into some of the parents' complaints, was not invited

to Saturday's forum, hosted by the Fayette County NAACP Branch Education

Committee and an organization called the Public Policy Development of

the Southeast Region Inc., or PPDI.

Discussion moderator Don K.

Speaks, a motivation speaker and counselor from DeKalb County, reminded

the audience members on several occasions that the purpose of the forum

was to "open discussion and dialogue, not place blame."

State Rep. Virgil Fludd, a

resident of north Fayette, stood at the end of the presentation to remind

parents that education "starts at home," and said they should

have but one expectation when they enroll their children in Fayette schools.

"You have a right to expect

that your child will get the same education, fairness and opportunity

as any other student in Fayette schools," said Fludd, whose children

attended Sandy Creek High.

"From my work at the Capitol,

I can assure you this is the best school system in the state," Fludd

said. "Find ways to work with the schools, get involved, know your

child's teachers."

PPDI founder and director Delvonnie

M. Burgess said this was the first event organized by her group, based

in Fayetteville, with an eye toward influencing education policy across

the Southeast.

"Our reach is into seven

states," she said. Asked if there were plans to launch initiatives

in other areas, Burgess said Fayette County was the only school system

on the agenda so far.

Burgess said she has worked

with DeCotis on a number of issues in the past. The PPDI has a Fayetteville

post office box mailing address, and lists Burgess' home phone and e-mail

address for contact.

An entry for Public Policy

Development of the Southeast Region, Inc., on the Secretary of State's

website shows Burgess registered the group on April 16 of this year, but

it is considered "non-compliant" because the proper annual fees

were never paid.

Burgess is registered with

the Secretary of State as a lobbyist for Atlanta Medical Associates, a

doctor's group, and DMB & Associates. which was "administratively

dissolved" as a corporation for failure to pay annual registration

fees. DMB & Associates last paid the fee on April 15, 1998.

Burgess said PPDI has eight

board members, but none of them were listed on the link provided off the

state's website. One man introduced as an officer in the group said he

lives in DeKalb County and his only Fayette County connection was Burgess.

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