Should Spring Breaks Be Staggered?

Depending on whom you ask, spring break just ended or happened weeks ago. Are the staggered spring breaks a good thing, or should schools aim to schedule their breaks at the same time?

It’s back to school today for students in Cobb, Douglas and Paulding counties. Spring break for the three county school districts was held last week, and pupils are returning to the classroom for the last remaining weeks of school. But students in these three districts didn’t get to enjoy their time off along with all their peers from other school systems. For instance, nearby Bartow County held its spring break the first week of April. Spring break also varies for students at local colleges. While those attending Chattahoochee Technical College got their break from classes last week, students at Kennesaw State University and Georgia Highlands College took their break the first week of March—no classes were held at KSU March 2-8 while …

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MCAA Aces CRCT For Second Year

Criterion Referenced Competency Test scores were released this week.

MCAA Aces CRCT For Second Year

Criterion Referenced Competency Test scores were released this week.

For the second year in a row, almost all students in grades 3, 4, and 5 at Marietta Center for Advanced Academics met or exceeded the standards on the Criterion Referenced Competency Test. Test results were released Thursday by the state Department of Education. At MCAA, 100 percent of third-and-fourth-graders met or exceeded the standards in reading, English/language arts, science and social studies. At that grade level, 98.9 percent of students met or exceeded the standards in math. Among fifth grade students, 100 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in reading and social studies, 98.8 percent met or exceeded the standards in English/language arts and science, and 97.7 percent met or exceeded the standard in math. Another …

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Lost Mountain Middle School To Encourage Cell Use

The middle school is part of a pilot program that will allow students to use their cell phones and laptops as tools in the learning process.

As part of an experimental program to enhance the learning process, the days of teachers taking cell phones away from and disciplining students who are using their devices in class may be over at Lost Mountain Middle School. Billie Jean Holubz, an eighth-grade teacher at Lost Mountain Middle, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that "it's about time" the school system allow the use of cell phones. She said she has been considering requiring her students to research and blog about lessons, and then post those on the classroom's webpage. "For too long our students have been limited to using paper, pencil and books as learning tools," Holubz said. According to the AJC, Daniell Middle School has been chosen to join Daniell and Floyd middle …

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REPLAY: School Board Passes Budget

The Cobb County Board of Education approves the same three-furlough-day plan it rejected Thursday as three members change their votes.

We covered the furlough days—the debate and the outcome—in the live blog and the comments, but let's lay it all out here as well. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa's recommendation for the three-furlough-day budget included a calendar placing the furlough days Dec. 21, Feb. 15 and May 30. The logic of those days: David Banks, who represents East and Northeast Cobb, first proposed switching all the furlough days to Feb. 20 to 22, then cutting a day off the end of winter break and moving that vacation day to Feb. 19, creating a weeklong February break just like the former balanced calendar. After a break in the meeting for the staff to work out the alternatives, Banks adjusted his proposal to use two of the furlough days in February, on the …

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Fred Farkel

11:52 am on Thursday, May 9, 2013

Anyone who claims to be an educator in this state is most likely shamed anyway. This entire system has been exposed for what it is. A political experiment on kids and a fleecing of the taxpayer. These people have no shame. Thats one of the biggest problems we face in society today. No morals, no values.   more ›

REPLAY: Cobb School Budget Impasse

Watch the video of Thursday night's Board of Education meeting to see how the budget failed, Teach for America passed and more.

We've replaced the live stream with the two-part recording of the 3½-hour school board meeting, so you can replay the parts of the meeting that interest you most. We'll have more from the meeting in the morning. In the meantime, we welcome suggestions for a budget that could win at least four votes. The Cobb County Board of Education is scheduled to vote tonight on the final fiscal 2013 budget, the school calendar that accommodates the approved furlough days, a contractor to prepare for a SPLOST IV referendum in March 2013, and the pursuit of donations and grants to support 25 Teach for America teachers in South Cobb starting in the 2013-14 school year. The board is meeting at 7 p.m. at the Cobb County School District's Central Office, 514…

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Oldtimer

8:51 am on Friday, May 18, 2012

I would be willing to bet there are certfied, experienced teachers will to relocate to Cobb.   more ›

LIVE: School Board Talks Budget, TFA

Watch the Cobb County Board of Education also tackle the Harrison ninth-grade center and reapportionment and start a conversation.

Note: The video feed will work only while the meeting is running. It will not pick up the archived video after the meeting. The Cobb County Board of Education is holding its monthly work session this morning at 8:30 at the Central Office on Glover Street, and we can't remember an agenda packed with more potential controversy. In the past that would have meant two words for Cobb County Patches: "live blog." But while we've had lots of people watching those live blogs, we haven't gotten much conversation. So we're trying something different today. You can watch the live stream of the school board's meeting right here, on your favorite Patch site. And you can comment right away on what you're seeing and hearing. So whether you're fired up …

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Schools Budget Number: One Speaker

Only one person spoke during the only public hearing scheduled on the Cobb County School District's proposed $841.9 million spending plan for fiscal 2013.

So only one person, Educators First head Tana Page, spoke during the public hearing, although to be fair, at least four teachers spoke during the teacher salary hearing at 6:30. You can recap the brief meeting in the CoverItLive blog above. But I'll reiterate the questions from that blog right here. What does the lack of turnout from the public and, for that matter, the board members mean? Do Cobb County residents not care about the schools budget? Are they happy with the proposed spending plan? Do they think the school board doesn't care what they have to say? Let us know what you think in the comment space below. The Cobb County Board of Education is holding its only public hearing on the fiscal 2013 budget for the Cobb County School …

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Rufus Wienerhammer

11:30 pm on Tuesday, May 8, 2012

I find Cobb county's education budget excessive and would like to see more of that money relocated and used to build additional jails and penitentiaries. Spending money on education is worthless while children are still being subverted by criminal elements.   more ›

Preliminary Cobb Schools Budget OK'd

The 6-1 vote keeps the school district moving toward final budget approval May 17, but no Board of Education members seem happy with the plan to close a $62.5 million deficit.

The Cobb County Board of Education voted 6-1 Thursday night to give preliminary approval to an $851 million budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. But school board members made it clear that their action was procedural and they are not prepared to give the current plan final approval May 17 without seeing other options. The preliminary budget closes a projected $62.5 million deficit by increasing class size, reducing the number of teachers by 350, furloughing employees for five days, cutting the school year to 175 days, making media center paraprofessionals part-timers, delaying step raises by half a year and spending $21 million of reserve funds, among other actions. The district needs 75 more teachers to decide in the next month …

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Parents Can Join School Calendar Panel

Apply by Monday, March 26 to help set the 2013-14 Cobb academic schedule.

The chance to stop arguing about the Cobb County School District calendar and start doing something about it has arrived. The school system is forming the calendar advisory committee proposed last fall by Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and, after much discussion, approved by the Board of Education. Each of the county’s four PTA councils—East Cobb, Jessye Coleman, South Cobb and Tom Mathis Sr.—gets two members on the committee, which also will include teachers, administrators and community representatives. The plan is for the committee to meet three to five times, starting in August, and recommend a 2013-14 calendar to Hinojosa in September. The hope, perhaps futile, is that the committee can come up with a calendar that bridges the bitter…

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