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Schools

School Board Tables Calendar Debate

After hours of arguing, the 4-3 majority for the traditional calendar stands firm.

It appeared that Cobb County Board of Education member Scott Sweeney of East Cobb's Post 6 had heard enough.

After five minutes of listening to Post 5 member Wednesday to rescind the Feb. 17, Sweeney said what he thought of Banks’ proposal.

“I move that we table this item indefinitely,” said Sweeney, whose post includes and high schools.

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Although he made the motion during the discussion period, Sweeney delivered a clear message: He and the other board members who voted for the Aug. 15 start to the school year–Chairwoman Alison Bartlett of Post 7 ( area), Tim Stultz of Post 2 () and Kathleen Angelucci of Post 4 ( and high schools)–weren’t going to reconsider their decision.

Banks, whose Post 5 covers Pope, and high schools, and the other board members who voted to keep the balanced calendar, Lynnda Crowder-Eagle of Post 1 (, , and high schools) and David Morgan of Post 3 (, and high schools), each asked Bartlett, Stultz, Angelucci and Sweeney to consider waiting to implement the traditional calendar until the 2012-13 school year instead of this August.

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Morgan said the calendar issue had become like an “albatross hanging around our neck.” He wondered how the board could move forward with the frustration and growing animosity some in the community were feeling toward the board.

Community members were even more passionate in their statements to the board at Wednesday's 8 a.m. work session. Most of the 33 people who spoke during the public comment period supported to keep the balanced calendar, which starts two weeks earlier to finish the first semester before the December vacation and offers more weeklong breaks during the school year.

Speakers included two members of a Girl Scout troop that sold 2,500 boxes of cookies to finance a Tennessee trip they now won’t be able to take because the newly adopted traditional calendar eliminates the September break included in the balanced calendar.

Among other speakers, Leah Ashe talked about the difficulties for her and others who share child custody. Kevin Kitchen said he had to make vacation requests for his job at AT&T about a year in advance, and it will be hard to change those plans.

Enrique Garza called the board’s return to a traditional calendar after one year of the balanced calendar a mistake and threatened that the community will continue to fight.

“You can still amend this mistake. We all make mistakes,” he said. “If we move forward, and you go back to the drawing room and find the right reasons to do this, we will abide by it. But if you don’t give us good reason for this, we will fight you. We will fight you here or fight you in the court of public opinion because we are right. You are wrong. We will win. You will lose, and I say this with total respect.”

Garza’s fiery comments fueled the boisterous group of balanced calendar supporters in the Central Office boardroom, many of whom raised Restore the Trust website signs.

Still, not all the speakers opposed the traditional calendar.

Nancy Mangiante said she voted for Banks because he campaigned for a later start to the school year, and she's upset that he changed his mind. Jim Stoll said he supports the traditional calendar because “students go to school to learn and use their summers to learn to live.”

After a lengthy debate among board members, Crowder-Eagle attempted to make a motion to delay the return to the traditional calendar until the 2012-13 school year. But Board Attorney Clem Doyle said she couldn’t make a motion different from Sweeney’s, which was still on the table and which Angelucci had seconded.

Without much delay, Sweeney, Bartlett, Angelucci and Stultz voted to table the calendar issue indefinitely, drawing shouts of “Recall," "SACS" and "Shame on you” from balanced calendar advocates. The anger over the calendar has led some people to to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to question Cobb's accreditation.

One supporter yelled, “Even the superintendent doesn’t agree with you!”

“I think they’re ignoring the people,” Joan Keene, who has two children in Cobb schools, said after the meeting. “Many reasons were given today that were valid. They haven’t provided the data that they based it on. It’s terrible. It’s terrible. They’ve put themselves up on a pedestal, and it’s shameful, and I don’t think it’s going away.”

Parent Rochelle Smith said she doesn’t care which calendar is used, but she's upset about the process behind the decision.

“I’m just concerned going forward because I’ve lost my trust,” she said. “I definitely will keep involved with what’s going on, and if I’m not here, I’ll watch (the meetings) online.”

Wednesday's work session was the first Board of Education meeting streamed live online for the general public. The archived video should be available within days.

At the conclusion of the meeting, which spanned nearly a 10-hour window, Bartlett said the state's likely reduction in the number of required instructional days could solve some vacation issues. 

“We’re waiting for the state to finalize the number of instruction days and the parameters around it, then we’ll be able to address concerns of the citizens for the holidays and already established vacation plans,” she said.

District Chief Financial Officer Mike Addison provided a glimpse into the funding woes behind a reduced school year during his monthly budget report. After making an estimate in January of a $20 million to $35 million budget shortfall for the next school year, Addison revised his projection to $40 million to $50 million Wednesday.

The gap grew when the increased its estimate of the decline in property tax collections from 7 percent to 9.5 percent, Addison said.

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