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| Norreese L. Haynes, Exec. Dir. |
Haynes Blasts Eldrin
Bell and Ericka Davis!
Norreese L. Haynes
For Immediate Release/March 3, 2008
In response to Eldrin
Bell’s call for me to be removed from the school board: First of all, I have absolutely no respect for Eldrin
Bell. Who is Eldrin Bell but a commissioner in Clayton County who has a past so speckled that he looks like a Dalmatian
dog? Eldrin Bell seems to have an inordinate desire to get me off the school board. I hope that this has nothing
to do with the Land Deal that I exposed. His good friend and I understand his major fundraiser, John D. Stephens, is
the person who sold the school system the sorry piece of land for millions of dollars above the fair appraisal value.
His other very close friend, Chairperson Ericka Davis, is the person who signed for the deal without the superintendent and
CEO, Dr. Barbara Pulliam, signing the deal also which is required by law. No wonder Eldrin Bell wants me off the school
board. Eldrin Bell was apparently willing to direct,
at the ostensible behest of Ericka Davis (who has no legal authority to request this), the Clayton County Police Department
to conduct an unlawful search of my former residence. From what I understand from my former landlady, neither she nor
her daughter authorized the police officers to search different parts of the house – and certainly did not authorize
them to make photos of the house, albeit they took photos of the wrong area anyway.
I had already moved from my Starr Road residence when the Clayton County police officers apparently unlawfully searched it.
At that time, I had already moved into my house in Conley, Georgia.
Eldrin Bell must have something about which he is worried. Or, he is just trying to score a few more votes with his
white constituents, like the many times that he keeps beating up on Sheriff Victor Hill? By the way, since when is it
unlawful for a politician or elected official to have more than one residence? When the white elected officials have
more than one residence, it is just fine. No questions asked. I know of several even in Clayton County who have
multiples residences. In fact, I even know of African American elected officials – in the legislative delegation
and on the school board – who have multiple residences. I guess the difference is that I have been rocking the
proverbial boat. I’m going to keep on rocking it.
Perhaps no one has ever accused Eldrin Bell of being knowledgeable of the law. So, let me explain the Georgia statutes
to him relative to residences and domiciles. OCGA 21-2-217 (a) (paragraphs [2], [3], [8], and [9]) state: “(2)
A person shall not be considered to have lost such person’s residence who leaves such person’s home and goes into
another state or county or municipality in the state, for temporary purposes only, with the intention of returning, unless
such person shall register to vote or perform other acts indicating a desire to change such person’s citizenship and
residence;…(3) A person shall not be considered to have gained a residence in any county or municipality of this state
into which such person has come for temporary purposes only without the intention of making such county or municipality such
person’s permanent place of abode;…(8) No person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by reason
of such person’s presence or absence while enrolled as a student at any college, university, or other institution of
learning in this state;…(9) The mere intention to acquire a new residence, without the fact of removal, shall avail
nothing; neither shall the fact of removal without intention.” Mr. Bell just needs to read the law before
running his mouth about something of which he apparently knows nothing. The law states that voter registrars should
consider many factors before registering someone to vote in a certain residence. Among these factors are “income
tax purposes,” “leaseholds,” “motor vehicle and other personal property registration”
and so forth. My driver’s license was registered at Starr Road. My vehicle was registered at Starr Road.
My mail went to Starr Road. I signed a rental agreement and paid rent each month at Starr Road. I resided at Starr
Road. Did I lay my head down each night at Starr Road? No, and according to the law, I did not have to.
I was attending a university in Marietta and had every right to rent an apartment near the school for convenience. I
think that I signed the lease at the apartment in December of 2006, the month before I tool office. Recently, Ms. Cynthia
Roy, my landlady at Starr Road wrote: “He [Haynes] began renting from me in March of 2006 and has consistently
paid me rent each month. He was given a key to the house. He obviously came and went as he wanted. He always
used the back entrance. We have six bedrooms….Coach Haynes did not always spend the night there. He sometime
[sic] stayed in Marietta at his apartment near his college because of the convenience or at his parents, especially on the
weekends.” I have never claimed that I slept
each night at Starr Road. Again, the law does not say that I had to. I just had the apartment in Marietta for
convenience when I got out of class at 10:00 PM or for when our Learning Teams had to get together for projects. I haven’t
even been to the apartment in a month or two, and I mainly just kept a computer there for university work. All the ballyhoo
about my residence is contrived to try to drive me off of the school board. I think that I am hitting too close to home
on many issues, especially about the Land Deal. The statute calls for a “presumptive” posture concerning
residence (OCGA 21-2-217 [b]). Eldrin Bell would rather presume that I am guilty. For Eldrin Bell, with his Dalmatian
past, to lecture me on the rules of residency is like Richard Nixon lecturing me on the importance of openness in government.
Was not Eldrin Bell disqualified from running for Chairman of the Fulton County Commission because of his legal residence
in DeKalb County? Isn’t there a saying about throwing rocks in glass houses? Talking about houses, was there
testimony recently before the Clayton County Grand Jury about county worker(s) doing work on Eldrin Bell’s personal
domicile in Jonesboro? Inquiring minds want to know. Did he ever use his county vehicle and driver (before this
benefit was taken away by his fellow commissioners) to run personal errands not related to his county job? Again, inquiring
minds want to know. I don’t like to drive certain
points too close to home, but when a fellow politician tries to smear me and unconscionably drive me off the school board,
then my roots in Carver Homes which usually remain dormant are resurrected. I remember “Chief” Eldrin Bell
sending his sometimes reengage Red Dog Unit into my poor but cozy and proud neighborhood. I had to fight my way home
each day from Slater Elementary School. It was tough in those days, but my father and mother, the salt of the Earth,
saved enough money to move our family to Jonesboro when I was seven or eight years old. Now, we unfortunately have to
deal with Eldrin Bell’s thuggish brown shirt tactics. Sending police officers into my former residence not only
demonstrates his incompetence but also his strong-armed tactics and meddling ways. The police officers apparently engaged
in an egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment. I, and possibly others, will be asking both District Attorney Jewel
Scott and Sheriff Victor Hill to conduct an investigation of this apparent and willful unlawful search. I remind Mr.
Bell that Clayton County is not the City of Atlanta and the Clayton County Police Department is not the Red Dog Unit.
There is no one around to bail him out of trouble in Clayton County. When his car was apparently set on fire in Atlanta
parked at an unusual location, he was evidently able to wiggle out of this situation. When a lady whom he apparently
did not intimately know but who worked at a restaurant accused him of biting her on the neck, then this situation also seemed
to “disappear.” But, the outrage of the voters at the Bell Administration’s failure to build the promised
recreation centers will not “disappear.” Eldrin Bell needs to worry about the incompetence of his administration
more than he needs to worry about my domicile. He first needs to learn the difference between domicile and residence.
I will keep on speaking out about the Land Deal, the fraudulent two contracts for the “school board attorney,”
the school system’s “defrauding” the Teacher Retirement System, the need for order and discipline in our
schools, The Teacher Bill of Rights, employees financially double-dipping while serving in the General Assembly, and the financial
improprieties within the school system, among other issues. If this makes Eldrin and his friend Ericka nervous, then
so be it. The truth will have its day, even the scandalous and outrageous claim that I have ever had a “live-in
boyfriend.” This is an unmitigated lie without one scintilla of truth in it. The truth will come out about
this as well, much to the chagrin of those who gleefully wish me harm. I am currently going through a crucible, but
trust me, with God’s help, I am going through it! I am coming, and hell is coming with me. It is my understanding that Eldrin Bell accompanied Ericka Davis in her many improper
trips to the SACS Office, even three times in one week alone. These apparent inappropriate meetings (especially in the
light of the fact that I had sent official complaints to SACS against both Ericka Davis and Rod Johnson for their many egregious
ethical breaches) with Mark Elgart taints the already-flawed SACS Report (an analysis of which I will be releasing soon) which
is replete with inaccuracies and falsehoods and is also embarrassingly (to SACS) one-sided, skewed, slanted, biased, and scandalous.
Today, I call upon our District Attorney, Jewel Scott, to convene a Special Grand Jury to investigate both Eldrin Bell and
Ericka Davis concerning the apparent improper targeting (without authority) of school board members and abusing police powers
to do so. I also ask District Attorney Scott to further investigate the now-infamous Land Deal and the possibility of
illegalities therein. Furthermore, I ask the District Attorney to investigate the allegations that Chairperson Ericka
Davis and Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell unduly influenced the SACS Report.
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Haynes Calls SACS
Report "a Sham and a Farce."
Norreese L. Haynes
Clayton County Board of Education ∙ District 8
For Immediate Release/February 15, 2008:
The Mark Elgart-driven SACS report concerning the Clayton County Board of Education
is a sham and a farce. Not one time did Mr. Elgart show any unbiased even-handedness. For example, a fellow school
board member sent Mr. Elgart a scandalous smear sheet full of lies and distortions about me, and Mr. Elgart, apparently because
of his bias toward me (and perhaps my employer), took this scandalous smear sheet and, without examination of the facts, puffed
it up with great ballyhoo. Yet, I responded with a detailed, twelve page, single-spaced document with 17 exhibits demonstrating
who the real culprits are on the Clayton County Board of Education, and Mr. Elgart just benignly ignored my response apparently
because it undermined his pre-conceived and prejudiced notion of what was going on in the “lowly” Clayton County.
(My response can be found on TheTeachersAdvocate.Com.) Mr.
Elgart apparently has an inordinate desire to go light on the school board member who is most culpable of micro-managing the
school system – the Chairperson herself, Ericka Davis. (Ms. Davis also happens to be the only school board member
who was a member of the previous Clayton County Board of Education which ran afoul with the snooty and snobbish SACS in 2003.)
To this day, Mr. Elgart has not sent an official copy of my detailed, four page document which chronicled MY two official
complaints against my fellow board members, Ericka Davis and Rod Johnson, to Superintendent Duncan, as he did the scandalous
complaint against me. He just ignored my official and legitimate complaints. No excuse. No explanation.
No investigation. In fact, when he sent his “inquisition team” to Clayton County to “investigate,”
not one question was asked of board members or staff members about my serious allegations against two of my colleagues, and
when I tried to show the so-called investigators the evidence which I had in my possession, they blithely waved me off.
They did not want to be confused with any facts. It is easy
for Mr. Elgart to use his bully pulpit to beat up on a school system for working stiffs. Clayton County is an easy target
to use to try to scare other school systems. (After all, SACS needs a whipping child since it is a private organization
and certainly not the only accrediting agency in town nor the only one which qualifies students for the Hope Scholarship.)
Clayton County is a colorful county full of honest and proud people. You won’t see any of us at the swanky Piedmont
Driving Club or the Atlanta Steeplechase. We are, however, a hopeful people, trying to build a better future for our
children. We need less finger-pointing from the likes of Mr. Mark Elgart and SACS. Our people understand the “rough
and tumble” side of politics where opposing views have to compete in the marketplace of ideas. Our school board
does not need to be a “garden club,” serving tea and crumpets. What’s wrong with serving up competing
ideas, vigorously debated with robust speech? Mr. Elgart does not need to wag his prejudicial finger toward Clayton
County while refusing to lift his arrogant finger toward his own county which, by the way, went through a slew of superintendents
in a matter of months. (Do you reckon any “micromanaging” was occurring during this upheaval? Not
a peep was heard from Mark Elgart.) Just like his Alpharetta neighbors want their children to employ the Hope fund to
attend the University of Georgia, then so do our humble parents want to use this same money for our children. After
all, it is our people who fund the lionshare of the Hope Scholarship.
Clayton County is tired of being Mark Elgart’s proverbial whipping child. We understand that Mr. Elgart
was personally offended when certain school board members took umbrage at him showing up and speaking at our September school
board meeting. (This is just another example of how Chairperson Davis manipulates matters. She solely invited
Mr. Elgart to our meeting, without any input from the Board and without him being on the Board’s agenda.) We hope
that his personally being offended has not clouded his judgment but it looks as if it has. The welfare of our children
appears to be a low priority for him, despite his many “I care for thy children” pronouncements. We are
a little too jaded in Clayton County to actually hang onto Mark Elgart’s every word as if it were law and gospel.
We live in the real world and have to demand that our children be treated fairly. Our children rightly deserve
equal protection under the law, both Georgia and Federal laws. The “Standards” by which Mr. Elgart judges
the Clayton County School System should also be used to judge other school systems, including his own.
Cobb Principal "Reads" Teacher's Mind! Hmm.
Editor's Note: The teacher's real name has been redacted.
Mr. Steven Miletto
Osborne High School
2451 Favor Road
Marietta, GA 30060
Dear Mr. Miletto:
With much
dismay and consternation, I read your end-of-the-year evaluations (2005-2006 and 2006-2007) of Ms. Sheila R. Gurley. I must hasten to tell you that I am somewhat impressed that you, a high school principal,
are able to discern the thoughts and intents and expectations of Ms. Gurley. It
would be remiss on my part if I did not officially nominate you for the Educator’s Rasputin Award. It was difficult enough to wade through your rather boring and burdensome pedagogical poppycock about “essential
questions, “student[-]centered activities,” and “really engage[ing] the students,” but to read your high-minded and hypocritical psychobabble is a bit onerous. Since when did you acquire this wonderful gift of reading people’s minds – or, at least reading
Ms. Gurley’s mind? It must be a most cherished gift of yours. Could you perhaps offer to conduct a staff development course for other Cobb County
principals so that they too could discern the thoughts and intents and expectations of the hearts of all teachers.
You readily
admit that Ms. Gurley expects her students to behave in class. I think that
this is a very admirable expectation. Order is the first law of the Universe, and all of our schools need order. In other words, you cannot have good learning conditions until you first have good
teaching conditions. Ms. Gurley realizes that before she can teach any student,
she first needs to have the student’s attention. This, my friend, is good
pedagogy. It is good theory. I understand
that you have bought into this “touchy-feely” approach to discipline. Most
educrats today have bought this flawed theory hook, line, and sinker. In other
words, our students today need to coddled. If they put forth absolutely no effort
to learn, then it is ipso facto the teacher’s fault. I understand
where you are going with this. This is the dominant and inarticulated theory
in American education today and is essentially what is wrong with American schools today.
I am glad that the United States Armed Forces totally rejects this approach.
Perhaps it
is not Ms. Gurley’s low expectations of the Osborne students that is the problem.
Are you sure that it is not a transference of your low expectations of their behaviors and abilities to perform which
is the prior question? But, then again, I might be practicing psychology without
a license – perhaps like you. Or, let me not presume. Do you in fact have a license to practice psychology? I notice
how you make the following assertion: “She does not believe that the children can attend higher levels.” Hmm. This is an interesting observation, if you are implying that Ms. Gurley does
not believe in the potential of “diverse” (to borrow your word) students.
She tells me that she did a quite capable job raising a “diverse” child.
He is a very successful 25 year old engineer. If you are implying that
Ms. Gurley is prejudice in her view of “diverse” students, then I take this wholly baseless and scandalous
assertion to be unconscionable.
Ms. Gurley
realizes that you tout the party line on the “student[-]centered” approach to teaching. She also realizes that you are the principal and that she has to accommodate her teaching methodology to
your instructional prescription. I think that her own pedagogical theory is like
mine – that students do indeed learn more with a teacher being a “sage on the stage” rather than a “guide
on the side.” I strongly feel that having students “engaged”
in an exercise of espistemological or historical scrutinization of nothingness is mere folly.
This is John Dewey gone to seed. Students need to be taught, and to be
taught, they need to pay attention. And, learning is not always fun and games. Ms. Gurley could stand on her head and spit nickels, and the defiant and unmotivated
students would say that they are not learning because of the teacher – like the situation with the child who had not
had vocabulary the last two years. Why was this Ms. Gurley’s fault? I wish that I could have used your arguments against some of my college professors
whose classes I did not score as high in as I wanted to. All used the boring
lecture method and sometimes terrifying Socratic approach, but they would have laughed me out of college had I used your
approach. It is a failed approach.
As far as
your reading Ms. Gurley’s mind is concerned, let me assure you that you have read it wrongly when you arrogantly state
that although Ms. Gurley cooperates with the administration and is willing to change her teaching techniques, “her
willingness is more like compliance than a true willingness to seek improvement.”
By the way, the books which she requested for her ESOL students in August were not delivered to her until October. This year, Ms. Gurley will be a floating teacher.
As a former “floater” myself, I can state firmly that this is not something that a veteran teacher desires. But, what can I say? It looks as if your
administration is treating these “diverse” students in a 2nd or 3rd class manner.
Mr. Miletto,
I trust that you can observe (without resorting to utilizing your exceptional gift of mind-reading) that Ms. Gurley is
attempting to follow your pedagogical desires. I trust that you can also see
that keeping her for another year on a Professional Development Plan will only exasperate her teaching situation, and I hope
that this is not your goal.
Sincerely:
Norreese L. Haynes
Executive Director
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