If you voted today — if you did your homework on the candidates and voted knowledgeably — if you did not vote for any school board incumbents –THANK YOU!
If you did not vote — if you did not exercise a precious right that hundreds of thousands of people around the world are literally dying to gain — shame on you! You are part of the problem. And, frankly, with abundant early voting opportunities and absentee ballots, it doesn’t matter what your excuse was for not voting today.
dekalb school watch two 
I voted early and with confidence that I made the right choice. I agree, no incumbents!
Dekalb election results are being posted here:
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/DeKalb/51390/129295/en/summary.html
Keep reloading that page to see the latest results.
Cunningham vs. Mayfield:
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/DeKalb/51390/129503/en/md_data.html?cid=650&
(So far, Mayfield is leading.)
I did early voting nearly two weeks ago – took one of my kids with me and told her what we were doing and why. I have had signs in my yard for the non-incumbent in my district since late March. Fingers crossed now hoping for good news.
@Sarah: It doesn’t look good. It’s looking like the only NON-incumbent we will have will be Stan Jester.
Stan should have a grand time. I think I would just quit now.
@DSW – I agree. I really had hoped that people had endured enough. We had some very good choices in this election and I deeply appreciate those who stepped up and sacrificed their time and money to make a difference. I am especially disappointed in Districts 2 and 4. I had hoped that new representation there combined with Stan Jester and, hopefully, Thad Mayfield, could have made a big, big difference in what the Dekalb County School System could be. We had the chance to put the classroom and our teachers first, but we did not.
@DSW – one additional note – an earlier comment stated that people had just given up on the Dekalb County School System in favor of private schools and charter schools. Looking at the size of the turnout, that comment does have merit. This was a very light voter turnout and that is so sad and unfortunate.
14% voter turnout. Down from 28% in 2012.
Revision to last post: it looks like 10% voter turnout in DeKalb.
@John Oselette – First, thank you for running in the 4th District. You offered a clear choice. I’m not sure how we can increase voter turnout. I’ve heard changing the voting date to Saturday would help. Frankly, I’m looking forward to a time when we can have accurate, honest online voting. Given what has happened in Dekalb, especially over the past four years, I would have thought that the turnout would have been much, much higher. Also, given that the top concern in the Lakeside – Tucker cityhood efforts was, without question, schools, I would have especially thought that turnout in the District 2 and District 4 races would have been significantly higher. My takeaway from this is that the voters in these two districts, in particular, have lost hope in ever being able to do anything about the Dekalb County School System. Also, perhaps there was a big letdown after the cityhood battles.
I had set my expectations high that we could achieve change. Now I have lowered them. The really sad thing is that it is all of the kids in Dekalb County that will pay a price, especially those who have no alternative other than the public school system. Remember that when Dekalb was ranked in the top 5% nationally, the bottom half would have had to rank in at least the 90th percentile. That is a long, long way from where it is today.
Here are the results for the District 5 election, as of the last website update (5/20/2014 9:55:18 PM EDT) –
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/DeKalb/51390/129699/en/md_data.html?cid=650&
1,840: Mayfield
1,509: Cunningham
1,502: Turner
245: Fitzhugh
216: Bhatti
Turner missed out on the Runoff by only SEVEN (7) votes.
[insert numerous expletives here]
It was a long night last night, so let’s try this one more time.
Voter turnout in DeKalb was approximately 1.4%. Down from 2.8% in 2012.
I’m so disappointed with DeKalb voters. I voted early and am in Stan Jester’s district. I was hoping everyone else was as disgusted as I am. Apparently not. My child is finishing up 8th grade. Just hoping we can hold out 4 more years.
So it would appear that the problem with DCSD isn’t just with the Palace, but with the electorate that keeps voting for folks like Jay Cunningham.
Based on the results from yesterday, it is clear this blog is not necessary any longer. Everything is absolutely wonderful, and everyone is greatly satisfied with our excellent school system’s performance. I guess Mr. Thurmond was right! After all, why else would 90% of registered voters not be able to take a measly 10 minutes out of their day to vote? Well, I guess District 5 wasn’t happy, since they came out to put Jay Cunningham in a runoff to return to his rightful seat of honor. Other than that, every single incumbent will be back or is leading heading to the runoffs.
Come on DeKalb – I thought we were better than this. Pathetic…
I wonder if the voters who returned the incumbents to their posts also got Vernon jones in the sherif runoff.
We agree completely So Disappointed… we are rethinking our mission at this moment.
Obviously my comments were dripping with sarcasm, DSW – keep doing what you do. Someone has to be the watchdog, even if everyone doesn’t always appreciate it…
Howdy1942 – Thank you for your comments. Campaigning is not easy especially when you’re an unknown. It takes a lot of time (missed soccer games, dinners, weekend activities) and it isn’t cheap. John has worked tirelessly to get his message out there and his name known, maybe had there been more time, more help who knows… Although I’m certainly biased those that know him or have had the privilege to meet him can vouch for his passion for our school system and righting wrong’s.
He’s very honest (probably to a fault) and direct and does not back down. He would’ve been a great representative for our community and county as a whole. He’s not afraid to step on toes and hold people accountable whatever their position. Although he doesn’t have a educators background and a slew of letters after his name he has been very involved in our schools as I have. We have seen issues first hand, we’ve had teachers come to us looking for answers, we’ve been with administrators and seen their struggles. We have worked to give our kids the best experience we could never losing sight that it was and is always about them. He has the backbone that our board is sorely missing and he has simple common sense.
I’m not sure where we go from here and it is sad that in such dire straights so many people don’t care. We have a son that still has a good amount of time in this system so we will continue to fight for our kids any way that we can. We appreciate all the support.
According to Maureen, the AJC’s results show Vickie Turner is in second place for District 5:
Mayfield – 4,404
Turner – 3,434
Cunningham – 3,368
Source – http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/may/20/going-bed-dreams-runoffs-running-my-head-appears-b/#/comment/p1/c2168779/
Click to access Result_05262014.pdf
Cunningham appears to be out — don’t know if there is an automatic recount for such a close margin.