2010 Year End "Down"date (Nothing's Up)

To Deacons of Greenforest:

Although the 2009-10 school year has ended, as we promised you from our January 2010 correspondence regarding the update of the Academic Center, know that we are still marching around the wall with the hope that some of you will finally be able to see the “handwriting that’s still on the wall.” Your constant refusal to respond to our concerns and choosing to remain silent is just another indication that ALL of you are still AFRAID to take a stand to do what is right.

To refresh your memory, below is a summary of the update which we provided to you regarding what was happening in the Academic Center during the 1^st semester:

Veteran teachers terminated and replaced by inexperienced teachers; Administrators - Fritz, Speede, (both unethically terminated); abrupt resignation of elementary school principal, Mr. Carter, due to stress deriving from unethical employment practices; abrupt resignation of Mrs. Blatch due to unknown job reassignment; Long time experienced assistant principal, Mrs. Gude, resigned due to the insensitive announcement (unbeknownst to her) of Mrs. Prince, former bookstore & field trip coordinator, being named assistant principal during an assembly, despite the fact that Mrs. Prince had no prior experience of ever being in a classroom; Enrollment declined to an all-time low record; The exodus of many faithful parents due to unethical practices & lack of communication from pastor and new administration; The insensitivity & lack of compassion being displayed toward employees; The decline of ministry; The loss of the professional image of school; Unprofessional dress code of both staff or students; Transcripts being altered by unauthorized consultants; An overall low morale and lack of enthusiasm displayed among parents, staff and students; The hiring and paying of a marketing person (Cheryl Ward) to supposedly write grants and raise funds for the school at the expense of mandatory furloughs and pay-cuts of staff.

Sadly, during the 2^nd semester, things continued to worsen:

Long time veteran and faithful academic center employee for over 20 years, Ann Gilner, somehow felt it necessary to abruptly resign. Despite the false rumors from the top that her resignation was due to the inability to adapt to change, God knows and HE sees! The recent and abrupt resignation of new teacher, Ms. Swilley, who recognized the unprofessionalism of the administration and could no longer tolerate the incompetence! A lingering low morale among the staff and the continued lack of school spirit—other than a “dead” spirit that’s surfacing the campus.

Veteran & experienced teachers’ jobs were sacrificed to hire inexperienced teachers for “cheaper” pay. The communication was that these teachers were supposed to be so much better-- What made these teachers better?

There is still a lack of communication, and more often miscommunication on the campus from the administration. And it seems these days that the business office is rarely opened because most of the times when there are concerns, you can hardly get anyone to answer the phones, and when they finally manage to answer, they are just as confused as the parents whom they supposedly serve because of the failure of the administration to communicate pertinent information to the staff.

Still no dress code that was being followed by students nor enforced by teachers and/or administrators! IT WAS REALLY EMBARRASSING! Students had been walking around the campus ALL YEAR LONG wearing any and everything – No school blazers (supposedly required) were being worn by many students; rather, all types of outer jackets were being worn (some even with inappropriate writing on the front), females were wearing all types of mini-skirts, 2 & 3 inch heels, and tennis shoes with socks - So much for a dress code or the Chapel uniform! And let’s not forget the Assistant Principal—when did wearing Capri pants become appropriate or considered professional dress for an administrator? As pointed out before, how could you hold students accountable to professional standards when there were no exemplary standards being displayed from the administration in this regard? Really, what could have been said to the students? No wonder the teachers never felt comfortable enforcing the dress code!

If it wasn’t bad enough for transcripts to be tampered with by unauthorized volunteer/consultants during the 1^st semester, during both semesters, teachers were coheres by the administration to change and/or alter grades on students’ report cards to reflect honor roll and to pass students who were otherwise failing. How unethical! Let’s not mention the IOWA Test of Basic Skills where the allotted time was altered for students thus resulting in the violation of the test guidelines. You should be advised that this was common knowledge to the parents, staff and students because it is constantly being discussed around the school. Your teachers are not happy about this! Is everyone on the administration clueless? Does anyone realize that all it takes is a phone call to the accrediting agencies or the media to report these actions?

Cheryl Ward is STILL being paid (of course without being furloughed), and has yet to show where she has actually raised money for the school—and the sad thing about this is that ALL of you deacons are aware of the above, yet you continue to close your eyes. There were some real sacrifices made to get this lady with the hope that she would actually raise funds for our school. However, it seems that the only thing that she has been capable of is collecting her paycheck. ARE YOU STILL NOT BEING GOOD STEWARDS? Certainly this shows what good stewards you all really are! Let’s keep it real, considering the financial status of the school, does it really make sense to keep this lady? Ask yourselves why is she still on the payroll?

Out of curiosity, do any of you find it rather strange that Greenforest McCalep Christian Academic Center-- A Supposedly Black African-American Top-Notch School-- has been in existence now for 21 years, yet despite the existence of a marketing person (Cheryl Ward) being employed and paid by the school, the pastor and his new administration did not feel the necessity to have some type of recognition or celebration in honor of this great “milestone” before the school year ended. This is sad! What a perfect opportunity this would have been to market the school, and in the process boost the enrollment! So so sad! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out— maybe someone really does not want the school to exist after all!

And finally, let’s not mention the common knowledge of…. The Lawsuits, the Lawsuits and more Lawsuits! God certainly is not pleased!

Now as far as Greenforest being voted the “best private school in east metro”… Laugh out loud (LOL) it’s a joke! Everyone on campus knows that Greenforest has a long time relationship with the Crossroads newspaper. And besides, who actually called in the votes anyway? Certainly not the people in the community! Therefore, parents as well as the public are being misled into believing that Greenforest is still “All that.” But you know “in desperate times, people do desperate things.”

In good faith, those of us who remained at Greenforest this year really wanted to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt that things were going to be better, but so far, most of what we have been witnessing is the unnecessary changing of things that the new administration were trying to fix that were never broken. It is evident that things have actually gotten worse, and unfortunately Greenforest is continuously heading toward a downward spiral. Have any of you actually thought about how unchristian like things were done right from the very beginning—as a result many wounds were created thus causing parents who sacrificed and invested many, many years into Greenforest to leave because the school has lost its credibility. Your acceptance of things by choosing to remain silent caused not only wounds to parents, students and staff, but it also caused the ministry of the both the school and the Church to suffer. In efforts to boost the enrollment and to keep students, the administration has now resulted in the use of worldly tactics where the weapons of God (truth, righteousness, compassion) have been replaced with the weapons of deceit, lying, and trickery. Let’s face it! Maybe it would help if someone would be willing to take a stand and just simply admit that things did not have to be done as they were, then perhaps wounds will begin to heal and God will begin Restoration. Until then, many of us will not continuing in supporting the school for the upcoming school year, and sadly the demise of the school will continue to be on your hands. Each of you should ask yourselves one question, “where is my spiritual backbone”?

Finally, lest you should forget, we are still awaiting your response. Considering that the school year has now ended, we certainly would like you to point out to us how things have been made better since the termination of key employees, the implementation of a new administration, and all of the above unnecessary changes. Realizing that we cannot go back to how things once were, it is our desire to move toward closure in this matter; therefore, we pray that you will provide us with your timely response.

For HIS Purpose... In His Will,

Green Forest Parents Advocacy Group

Summary of NEW Direction (Update of Changes since Fall 2008)

Deacons of Greenforest Community Baptist Church:

Happy Holidays!

We greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior. It has been a little over 8 months since you last heard from us but we hope you did not assume that we became apathetic to our cause of restoring the vision of Greenforest McCalep Christian Academy to that of which the TRUE Visionary saw. I am sure you all can recall that old familiar saying “if you remove the Head, the Body will surely die.”

Well, since the November 2008 untimely termination of the Greenforest McCalep Christian Academic Center’s “Head,” Headmaster Walker, (done in the name of the school going in a new direction), we just wanted to provide you with an update or summary of what is and has been taking place with our “once upon a time” Great Academic Center. We were all led to believe that this change was necessary in order for the school to be taken to the next level. Listed below are some of the results of this “new direction.”

▪ Veteran and experienced teachers terminated (without advance notice) in the name of low student enrollment (however, new teachers (some inexperienced) were hired as replacements).

∙▪ Former elementary principal (Mr. Carter) abruptly resigned (December 2008) due to stress deriving from unethical employment practices.

▪ Former (newly appointed assistant principal) Mrs. Mizzell resigned (Jan 2009).

▪ Former middle/high school principal, Mr. Fritz, abruptly and unethically terminated. He was good enough to hold things together and serve as Interim Headmaster, (only to be used to maintain accreditation status which was being jeopardized by the termination of the headmaster and the decisions made by the Pastor and Church/School board) but apparently not good enough to serve as principal for the upcoming school year. Again, a decision supposedly made in the name “cut-backs” and a new direction.

▪ Former academic center counselor (Ms. Blatch), after 14 years of employment was forced to resign due to humiliation stemming from meeting with new headmaster (Clarke) prior to his official “coming on board” informing her that her position as counselor would be replaced by someone else, and therefore she would possibly be reassigned. (No solid confirmation on the reassignment).

▪ The untimely and unchristian-like termination of After School Director, Ms. Speede, without reasonable cause or notice, thus causing the after school program to lose its structure & quality and become just another “babysitting service”, particularly for the middle and high school students.

And the “so-called” reasoning for her termination – “down-sizing”-- yet the decision was made to keep the less qualified person (Hargrave) as director, even though he had been trained by Ms. Speede, and despite the fact (which was common knowledge to everyone) that he was fully involved in the making plans to relocate out of state by the end of the 1st semester, December 2009. (Already Gone)!

▪ The loss and support of many faithful parents who withdrew their students, not necessarily because of the economy or dissatisfaction with the school, but basically because of the administration’s failure to communicate, hear or respond to the concerns, and because of the insensitivity and lack of compassion & Christian attitudes being displayed toward the employees. Therefore, with the opening of the 2009-10 school year, the Academic Center (both Academy and ELC) opened with an all-time low record of student enrollment, which still remains in effect.

▪ The morale of the school among the students, parents and staff has changed from enthusiasm to a very “low-keyed” and “disheartened” spirit. Just solicit responses from some of the parents and students.

▪ The loss of the professional image of the school – many of the academy teachers and staff no longer have a professional image due to lack of an appropriate or required dress code. In some cases, the dress attire displayed by some staff members is not representative of a Christian school. In fact, even the dress code for students has become “laxed” and pretty much gone down the drain…. male students are now allowed to wear radical hairstyles (locks, twists, etc.). What can teachers tell the female students about the length of their skirts or the inappropriateness of the fitting of their dress attire if they themselves are not adhering to the same standards? And what happened to requiring students in grades 6th-12th to wear the school blazers?
▪ The new headmaster, Dr. Clarke, has been openly seen around the campus (on numerous occasions) wearing a “doo-rag” headwear under a cap which he wears turned backward on his head. What kind of message is this sending to the staff and more importantly, the students? No wonder the dress code has become “laxed!”

Dr. Clarke does not present himself in the professional capacity that he serves. For what it is worth, based on the initial profile that was provided to parents outlining the accomplishments and credentials of Dr. Clarke, we have yet to see any of these qualities displayed or implemented at Greenforest. It was stated that he had an open door policy, but to no avail… he is rarely readily accessible to parents. Besides what was the logic behind replacing an existing qualified and experienced headmaster (Walker) with a person we all know could not grow a church school (New Birth) that had notoriety and all the financial resources available to expand the school? Yet to no avail! What were you all really thinking? Honestly, did you really believe that he (Clarke) could take Greenforest to the next level? Were your actions reflective of how a shepherd is supposed to treat one of his sheep? Remember, this was one of your own too, but the scripture does say that a servant is not honored in his own country! We ask you to just for a moment visualize and put yourself in the position of not only what took place, but the manner in which everything was done. Just analyze the chain of events that followed as a result and you will see the damage that has been created. Now would you have wanted to be treated like this? Your decision and actions lacked compassion. “…be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren…”

▪ Despite hiring and paying a supposedly proficient and experienced marketing person, Cheryl Ward, to write grants, and raise funds for the school, to date (a year+ later) no funds have been received. In addition, Ms. Ward is still being paid (to do what?) at the expense of mandatory furloughs for staff and teachers which still remain in effect. Considering the obviously poor financial condition of the school, makes you wonder why she is still on payroll! Are you all being good stewards? And to provide further insult, Ms. Ward has been soliciting funds from the staff and teachers as well as the parents. Again, after an entire year, guess she was never successful in soliciting funds from the outside, so she is now attempting to solicit from the inside! (For your information, there is a parent who is prepared to provide a grant to Greenforest of approximately one-hundred thousand plus dollars; however due to the unsatisfactory conditions and the unchristian-like ethics that are being displayed at school, at this time the parent does not feel comfortable in providing these funds at the risk of possible embarrassment to her company).

▪ The sentiments from the new administration is that in the past Greenforest did everything wrong, so much that this administration is now going overboard in trying to do things differently. This is causing much undue stress to parents, students and staff. . As a matter of fact, the school is now labeled as a “boot camp”. If it wasn’t broken, why try to fix it? Makes you wonder, for the past 20 years, did Greenforest ever do anything right?

▪ There is a lack of courses/electives being offered this year (as have been in the past). Due to low enrollment and shortage of teachers, some classes had to be combined where some teachers were teaching multiple subjects in the same class. In addition, transcripts have being manipulated by unauthorized persons.

Like anything, Greenforest was not a perfect school, but some of the things that made the school unique were the Christian values, the ministry of being a family, and the fast-track course of academics which placed students in some of the most prestigious colleges and university in our nation. However, the new administration has been adopting many policies trying to make our school just an average Dekalb County public school. For instance: Unauthorized retirees from Dekalb County were brought into Greenforest to evaluate student transcripts, and made claims that our students who took advanced placement and honors classes during previous school years did not earn these grades. Upon their advisement and recommendations, the new administration tampered with these transcripts and had these credits removed, thereby requiring students to retake these classes. This, of course, resulted in the withdrawals of students. Strange thing about this situation is that credits from these classes were accepted by Dekalb County from former students who withdrew in the past and enrolled in Dekalb County schools, and also accepted by the prestigious colleges and universities that many of our alumni graduates attended. And, if you must know, if we had wanted our children to attend a Dekalb County public school, we would not have made the financial sacrifices over the years to place them in a Christian school (such as Greenforest) — for public school is FREE. Those of us who made the sacrifice to remain are daily facing the reality that our school is now void of this “once felt uniqueness.” And what’s really puzzling is why would anyone want to tamper with the reputation of one of the largest and most successful “African-American” school in the southeast region?

▪ Finally, as a result of your unnecessary changes, do any of you realize that hearts are heavy, people’s livelihoods were destroyed and negatively impacted, false accusations and rumors were spread jeopardizing the good names and reputations of people, corporate practices were adopted (use of security personnel) which caused humiliation to employees once they were terminated, and some of the academics of former students (causing them to withdraw) and current students who still remain were negatively compromised? Sadly, the vision of the school’s founder (Dr. McCalep) is quickly being diminished. Will anyone be bold enough to admit that a big mistake was made? It is never too late to make a “wrong” right!

Although it was a difficult decision, many of us left, and some in good faith remained with the hopes that things would eventually get better. However, unless we are missing something, for those of you who supported the decision of the pastor, and voted to have the headmaster terminated, (which resulted in the above) the questions that we propose to you as we prepare to go into the new year and into the beginning of the 2nd semester, can you please provide some type of input as to how this direction has made an improvement in our school, and do you feel that the school and/or the church are now more financially stable due to these changes?

Let’s face it… it’s evident, the Head has been destroyed – now the Body is sadly and slowly deteriorating!

We have decided to become more than the "Watchers" that we have been for the past 8 months. We are going to march around the walls of Jericho until the walls that YOU ALL HAVE ALLOWED TO BE BUILT, FALL. Only you can decide which side of the wall you will be on when it comes tumbling down.

Again – Happy Holidays! Parents of the Advocacy Group pray that peace, harmony, compassion, and Christian values & ethics are restored at Greenforest now, for the New Year, and forever more.

SELAH!! AMEN!

Please check back later for updates.