The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • B1

Filename: B1-METRO-AJCD0612-AJCD DateTime created: Jun 11 2012 Username: SPEEDDRIVER02 Magenta Black ib AJCD Tuesday, Jun 12, 2012 METRO IB The Atlanta Journal Constitution Tuesday, June 12, 2012 Rain delays opening of extra lane on Ga. 400. 7003 Delivery: ajc.comcustomercare or 404-522-4141 News: newstipsajc.com or 404 APS CHEATING SCANDAL Panel 526 backs firing principal District says elementary school head failed to keep testing safe, secure. WHERE THEY STAND NOW About 89 educators of 178 suspected of cheating remain on the Atlanta Public Schools district's payroll, including teachers and administrators. They can make their case to keep their jobs before an APS tribunal.

Once the hearings are held and terminations are recommended, the matter goes to the school board for approval. If the board upholds the decision, the employee is terminated immediately. nal to fight for her job, failed in her duties to ensure the testing was secure and above board. Dukes-Walton has denied participating in test Dukes-Walton cheating. "She did not provide ap- YOUR SCHOOLS ion is that it was Dr.

Walton's responsibility to ensure that there were no opportunities for individuals to assist students in any matter that might Maude King (front right) and Robert A. Moseley (left) were among the capacity crowd packed into the DeKalb County School District board meeting in Stone Mountain Monday to learn the school district will be short an additional $12 million the fiscal year staring July 1. johnny Crawford jcrawfordajc.com DeKalb budget tightens grip have been inappropriate." Slater Elementary is one of 44 Atlanta schools implicated in test cheating in a state report released last year. That investigation uncovered evidence that about 180 educators including 38 principals may have been involved in cheating. Testing analysis from 30 Slater classrooms showed a number of wrong-to-right erasures so high that they could only reasonably be explained Cheating continued on B2 PHILANTHROPY Tech gets a record gift Alumnus donates $50 million to school.

Official say funds will transform the business college. By Laura Diamond ldiamondajc.com A Georgia Tech alumnus donated $50 million to the business college the largest single cash gift in the institute's history and one officials said will transform the college. Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson said Monday the previously unannounced donation has already had "an Scheller unprecedented impact" on the business school, now one of the nation's top-ranked programs. Tech has so far received more than half the gift. The donor, Ernest "Ernie" Scheller graduated from Tech in 1952 with a degree in industrial management.

In appreciation of the gift, the university renamed the business school the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business. Scheller first mentioned his pledge during a 2009 meeting in Pennsylvania with business Dean Steve Salbu. He asked Salbu what he thought of having the alumnus' name on the college. Salbu felt "total euphoria" when Scheller described his intentions and called the money a "transformational gift." "Business schools are competitive like a cutthroat arms race and you need the resources to execute your vision," Salbu said.

"Ten years ago we were a Gift continued on B3 district and Centennial Olympic Park next year. The extra money is needed to pay storage costs for streetcars that are expected to be finished ahead of schedule, months before the line becomes operational in 2013. That pushes costs for streetcar acquisition to about $19 million, up from the original $17 million budget. The committee approved adding $750,000 to an existing MARTA continued on B3 By Edward Mitchell emitchellajc.com Selena Dukes-Walton, former Slater Elementary School principal, should be fired for failing to prevent test cheating, an Atlanta Public Schools tribunal ruled Monday. APS attorneys argued Dukes-Walton, the first principal to go before the tribu- Truth-O-Meter Pol id Fact Georgia Tax foe slights transit figures Portland, has "never gotten over 12 to 15 percent ridership" of its public transit system "in the past 12 Steve Brown years." Fayette County Commissioner Steve Brown, duringaforumMay22 By Willoughby Mariano wmarianoajc.com Georgia temperatures are beginning to heat up.

And so is the rhetoric over the proposed 1 percent sales tax hike to fund metro Atlanta transportation projects. Transportation tax opponent Steve Brown recently told metro voters that Portland, is a cautionary tale for fans of public transit. Yes, Portland. That town whose residents are so in love with its buses and rail that others mock them for it. Brown, a Fayette County commissioner, brought up Portland as an argument against transit projects during a forum hosted by the Republican Women of Cherokee County.

He called it "the most transit-friendly city in the United States of America." "And they've never gotten over 12 to 15 percent ridership in the past 12 years," Brown said. The metro Atlanta tax, which is up for a vote July 31, would raise about $7.2 billion for road and transit projects. It would fund 157 projects in metro Atlanta, including roads, bridges and rail. No rail is slated for Cherokee County. Among the reasons Brown opposes the tax is his belief that it would fund too much mass transit.

First, a word on "ridership." Transportation policy wonks use this term to refer to a very specific thing, and it's not what Brown described. "Ridership" is the number of times a passenger boards public transportation. In metro Portland, that number is rising. Fourth quarter 2002 data show there were about 288,000 boardings on Portland's TriMet public transit system on an average weekday, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Ten years later, it was 323,000.

That's an increase of about 12 AJC PolitiFact continued on B3 propriate oversight for testing in her school," testified Karen Waldon, APS' deputy superintendent for curriculum instruction. "APS' opin finance chief, Michael Per-rone, revealed Monday that the county assessor is now projecting a 9 percent drop. "That," Perrone said, "is roughly a $12 million hole that we're going to have to fill." It increases the projected deficit next year from $73 million to $85 million. The increase is so big that it nearly wipes out the 1-mill tax increase that a slight majority of board members was endorsing. The 1-mill tax increase would generate an extra $14.8 million while bring- "That is roughly a $12 million hole we are going to have to fill." Michael Perrone DeKalb Schools financial chief Frederick Daniels said at a board meeting the transit authority has forestalled more cutbacks and hikes for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

He couldn't promise a repeat for 2014, though. MARTA raised basic oneway train and bus fares to $2.50, from $2, last October. System officials say they avoided more hikes and cuts this coming fiscal year because additional federal dollars became available for operating costs and through cost After $60 million in cuts, board learns district needs millions more. ByTyTagami ttagamiajc.com Just as the DeKalb County school board was set for a final negotiation on its budget Monday, new information changed everything: The school system has even less money than previously thought. Officials have spent weeks hashing out an austerity budget that included $60 million in cuts.

They thought they were close to a consensus, but they learned Monday that they have to cut or raise an additional $12 million. The board had been operating under the belief that it was facing a 6 percent drop in the value of taxable property. That would have resulted in a loss of $24 million in revenue. But then the school system's YOUR COMMUTE ing the school system within about a mill of the cap set by voters of 25 mills. The newly revealed loss in property values led board members to postpone their budget decision despite a looming deadline.

The budget covers the 2013 fiscal year, which starts July 1. Normally, school systems should have final budgets in place by then, but they can run past that date with monthly spending resolutions. (Officials said the "drop dead" date for submitting a budget to the state is Sept. 30.) That will leave little time, though, to sign contracts and prepare teaching teams for the fall semester. "Based on the information we just received," board member Jay Cunningham said, "I don't see how we can move forward tonight." The nine members of the board voted unanimously to postpone their debate until 1 School budget continued on B2 cuts.

Daniels said the board has hired a consulting firm to help the authority increase savings and operate more efficiently. "We want to make sure we look very closely at our expenses," Daniels said. Before the full board meeting, members of a board committee raised concerns that the Atlanta Streetcar project already needs an extra $750,000 to get four streetcars scheduled to start chugging between the MLK historic MARTA riders dodge fare increases For a year, at least, as transit agency gets federal funds boost. By Steve Visser svisserajc.com MARTA riders can put aside any concerns about further increases in basic daily fares or service cutbacks at least for one year under an $800 million budget approved Monday. MARTA board Chairman Black IB AJCD File name: B1-METRO-AJCD0612-AJCD DateTime created: Jun 11 2012 Username: SPEEDDRIVER02 Magenta.