Salacious new details were released in the saga of disgraced former Bibb county Superintendent Romain Dallemand. Dallemand Sex Harassment Report Details Claims By Subordinate For those from other parts of the state or country, he was the superintendent in Macon, GA which is in middle Georgia and was responsible for around $52 million of missing funds. He was an incompetent buffoon that left the school system far poorer and in shambles. He was also a paranoid egomaniac with an active libido that ruled by fear and intimidation.
When his house of cards began to collapse upon itself, he somehow managed to force the Board of Education to buy out his contract that had only been renewed a few months before for around $350,000. Although the Board explained they felt this was the best move at the time to save money, get rid of him quickly, and move the school system forward, many in the community including yours truly feel this was a short-sighted mistake.
The Board of Education had all the leverage and by that time Dallemand was becoming desperate to leave town because he knew his empire was collapsing. The rats were fleeing his ship and it was only a matter of time before all these financial and sexual scandals would become common knowledge. Had the board looked long-term instead of short-term and had a few more poker players who could spot a bluff, I think Dallemand would have settled for a much lower amount given his desperation at the time in to get the hell out of Dodge while he was not behind bars. In fact had they stalled a while longer he would have simply left in the dead of night on his own accord.
More importantly by that time there was enough leaks already to fire him with cause. But I am also keenly aware that Thelma Dillard, Wanda West, Tom Hudson, and Ella Carter who represented 50% of the eight member Board of Education would never have agreed to what was good for Bibb county as they were still under the influence of Dallemand’s Kool-Aid it appears. (Or far more likely were trying to protect their own asses. ) The fact that Bibb county has an even number of 8 instead of seven is a whole other issue. But even with their support, Dallemand was still desperate to leave town and I would be beyond shocked if he would not have taken a much lower severance package had the four competent Board members (Miller, Sipe, Downey, Farmer) stuck to their guns and had a bit more warrior spirit. Lester Miller was the sole samurai who stuck to his guns in a 7-1 vote. Dallemand had no stomach for a fight or a lawsuit by then and would have folded like a bad poker hand had they used their leverage. But alas what’s done is done…
A few of his fellow board members need to have Miller’s level of resolve in the future especially when it comes to dealing with people like Cliffard Whitby who was just given a school property for free in the Promise sale. How he managed that is anyone’s guess. Short-term appeasement and short-term money savings will only encourage the money grabbers to come back for more. The BOE needs to do a better job in 2015 of excising the cancer of the Bibb County school inflicted by the likes of Cliffard Whitby, remnants of Dallemand, do-nothing educrats, and use far fewer executive sessions. Root out the nepotism, cronyism, and enforce the honesty Code of Ethics on people like Judie.
The latest article in the Telegraph however is unrelated to all of his numerous financial scandals which were the main cause of his desperation to flee town post haste with pockets loaded full of taxpayer gold. Instead this speaks about a former highly (read overly) paid employee named Alicia-Allen Carter who claims that then-Superintendent Romain Dallemand made repeated, unwanted sexual advances toward her and suggested he could further her career if she would have sex with him.
The article details numerous allegations that Carter levied against Dallemand. But even though these are her own recollections it seems to suggest she was complicit and fully aware that her promotion to a do-nothing position that paid over $110,000 a year to delete critical comments on Dallemand’s blog meant that she was hired for ulterior motives. I believe most everything she revealed was likely true (if slanted in her favor and with numerous omissions), but I also imagine she was fully aware that she was a partner and not a victim and her $110,000 salary and perks was the reason she kept her trap shut for so long. Once she could no longer suck money from the taxpayer straw Dallemand provided she is suddenly became a victim. 🙄 That dog won’t hunt Ms. Carter.
In fact the only victim it appears are the taxpayers of Bibb County that were paying her $110,000 to do essentially nothing. The other victims are the teachers who work their asses off and have far more impressive résumés and work ethics and received less than half the salary of Carter and all these other do-nothing educrats collecting six-figure salaries. The fact that she waited until after she was fired by the new superintendent who quickly realized her position was bogus also speaks to her complicity. She should be grateful she managed to bilk the Bibb taxpayers for as long as she did and shut the hell up.
The Bigger Story is Edward Judie: A Dallemand Minion Still in Town
The article in the Telegraph brought us many more details of her allegations but it was really nothing unexpected or shocking. It was basically more of the stuff we already knew or at least suspected. What was of more interest to me was a comment by David Oedel under the article itself.
Oedel is a law professor who wrote a weekly op-ed on Sundays for a while. Charles Richardson is the head of the editorial section and was also a staunch Dallemand defender and advocate. Richardson’s bizarre defense of Dallemand likely had far more to do with the fact that Dallemand hired his wife to a similar do-nothing position like Alicia Carter. Richardson who had largely flown under the radar with his folksy and uncontroversial “observation editorials” as opposed to true editorials that offered actual insight and analysis was suddenly thrust in the spotlight and he panicked and it showed. Trying to mount a convincing defense of someone like Dallemand requires a far better writer and wordsmith than Charles Richardson who is more suited to whinging than reasoned analysis.
He made a rather inept attempt to defend himself, his wife, and Dallemand in a multi-part series he called “The Accounting”. But instead it only embarrassed him further when I exposed the fallacy of his arguments and misinformation. It exposed his conflict of interest and inability to argue anything remotely salient. He abruptly ended that series when I thoroughly humiliated him and called him him out in public. Unlike Oedel he couldn’t fire or silence me.
Comment below is by David Oedel in the comment section to the Sex scandal article
While researching and writing for the Telegraph under Charles Richardson, I explored a similar story about one of Dallemand’s lieutenants having inappropriate relations with an apparently-overpaid Welcome Center employee. What was apparently “inappropriate” included both academic ghost-writing of academic papers by the smart, attractive woman for Dallemand’s male lieutenant so that the lieutenant could get a higher degree, plus the rumored possibility of sexual relations inappropriate in such a setting, that is, between an employer (the lieutenant, himself married) and an employee (now deceased, apparently from unusual but natural causes). Richardson’s wife may have been a fact witness to the situation, as she too was employed at the Welcome Center by Dallemand in the same sort of position as the deceased woman. Richardson’s wife was one of three who held similar remarkably-highly-paid positions at the Welcome Center. Rather soon after I tried unsuccessfully to speak with Richardson’s wife about her deceased colleague’s relationship with Dallemand’s lieutenant (a guy who had also served as Richardson’s wife’s supervisor), I was summarily fired by Richardson with no meaningful explanation other than the bizarre suggestion that I should have complained to Richardson directly about his odd editing of my pieces rather than resorting to have to correct them on the comment board. Bizarre because I did complain directly to Richardson about his odd edits, and implored him repeatedly to run proposed changes by me in advance of publication.
The Dallemand lieutenant Oedel is referring to in the comment above is Edward Judie. A local blog called We Are Politics that had always stayed on top of all the various Dallemand sagas, reported back on 5/4/12 this story about Ed Judie. Another highly paid educrat making north of $100,000 annually in a questionable position. He was hired by Dallemand, but it seems their egos clashed and they were apparently not on good terms. I suppose king cobras and puff adders don’t like to share the same snake oil territory. Only so many gullible people around to buy the oil they were selling.I discovered that Mr. Judie is working on his online Doctorate program with City University of Seattle. The way I found that is that he purchased several of his textbooks with Bibb County taxpayers money. I was highly upset at first, but have since been informed by sources that he has an allotment given to him that allows him to charge the school district for his textbooks. I’m still not happy, but fair enough….Although I still don’t think it’s right.
I then received a tip that a consultant by the name of Veta Coger was hired by the school system to help write some special reports for the Taj Mahal also known as The Welcome Center and that she was also helping Mr. Judie with his homework. (Mr. Judie has stated that it was in fact a review of his assignments.)…All the while as a paid consultant for the Bibb County Board of Education.
I encourage all of you to click this link and read the full article and emails. Via an open records request there are numerous emails between Judie and Coger that on the surface at least suggests that Coger sure seemed to be doing the work for his degree and was hired for that purpose. Coger, Alicia carter, and Charles Richardson’s wife all worked at the Taj Mahal AKA the Welcome Center which is where all the overpaid and under qualified do-nothings collected fat salaries for apparently posting on Facebook all day.
The Macon Telegraph has completely sidestepped this story. As far as I know Judie is still working here in Bibb county in his position.Could it be that if Judie were investigated it might mean Richardson’s wife’s job would also be in jeopardy or fall into scrutiny? Richardson’s firing of Oedel who wanted to delve further into this story certainly seems to suggest Richardson was doing his absolute best to make this all go away.
I challenge anyone to read the Code of ethics for Georgia educators and tell me how Judie has not been investigated under the honesty clause of the Code of Ethics along with so many more of the Dallemand rats who are still working and stinking up our school system that include Richardson’s wife and many others.
But Charles Richardson and others at the Telegraph did not count on alternative media outlets in Middle Georgia like Global Watchdog and our bulldog tenacity to cover these stories they tried so desperately to sweep under the rug.
We also welcome a response by Mr. Judie to hear his side of the story. Our goal is always to report the truth and that requires hearing and reporting both sides of any story.
As a Bibb teacher I would like to thank you for shedding light on Judie and other do-nothing educrats as you called them that sit in the ivory tower and do practically nothing while earning two and three times the salaries of us teachers in the trenches. Occasionally they issue dictates and more red tape to make our lives harder then return to playing Candy Crush or posting on Facebook before they leave early every day. Dr. Smith made some progress but there is still much left to be done. Many schools have principals on ego trips and try and run the schools like dictatorships.
I have friends that are teachers in other states and I know this is a reason why Bibb has always done poorly. In other school systems teachers are paid far better and also treated with a great deal more respect. If you want Bibb to improve then treat our teachers with more respect. Give them more power and input to run their classes and lessons. Pay them what they deserve. Fire the majority of the do-nothings at the ivory tower making around $100,000 and use that money to pay teachers what they deserve. The central office only needs a skeleton crew to function. They try and justify their jobs with idiotic policies and constant changes from fads that change yearly. If they would simply get out of our way and try and make our jobs easier instead of harder with less red tape you would see a big improvement. We have no time to focus on what really matters which are lesson plans and teaching and our students. I spend more time on useless red tape, forms, and bureaucratic bullshit than I ever do on pedagogical matters because there are only so many hours in a day. Thanks for this wonderful blog that finally speak for so many disenfranchised teachers who lacked an advocate.
You are also spot on about Mrs. Richardson. She is widely despised by most teachers because we all know how much she makes to do so very little. We have teachers with Masters and Doctorates that have taught for decades making far less than Mrs. Richardson or Ed Judie who do nothing to help students in Bibb. And unlike Judie we didn’t need help to complete our degrees!
It is not like we didn’t try to warn you. It seems some of your BOE were blind, deaf, and dumb until it was too late. At least we don’t feel quite so bad up here in Rochester, MN since we escaped with a lot less damage than you guys in Georgia. Take our word and really look closely at anyone he hired. We have finally managed to remove all the bad apples Dallemand hired who tended to be unqualified at their positions and were only hired because they lacked a spine to stand up to Dallemand. He tried to bully us teachers up here as well but with a lot less luck. We have a much stronger teacher union than you guys in Georgia which seems to allow people like Dallemand to thrive so easily. I think it is also a reason why teachers are generally happier and students perform better in states with a teachers union than in ones where a rogue super like Dallemand can run roughshod over anyone with the threat of firing them for not kissing his boots. Treat your teachers better, provide a safe learning environment, and give them the resources and support they need and your schools will improve. It really is that simple. A good superintendent should largely just be invisible and get out of our way and we can do the rest.