Time for More School Calendar Talk

Last month’s work session took eight hours, and the regular board meeting encompassed three hours. With another full slate, Wednesday's 8:30 a.m. work session for the Cobb County Board of Education at the boardroom could turn into another marathon.

The school calendar is back on the agenda in a discussion to be led by board Vice Chairman Scott Sweeney of Post 6. The school district's new balanced calendar has been a constant topic sine Sweeney, Tim Stultz of Post 2 and Kathleen Angelucci of Post 4 joined the board in January.

The balanced calendar roughly splits the academic year in half with the first semester ending before the winter holidays.

Opponents say the calendar creates too many disruptions for students and forces students to ride non-air-conditioned buses during the hottest days of August. They prefer a return to a traditional calendar with school starting in mid-August and fewer weeklong vacations.

The calendar drew remarks from seven of the 21 people who spoke during the public comment period at the Jan. 27 school board meeting. Of those, five spoke against the balanced calendar, and two supported it.

The board also will continue discussing a cellphone tower T-Mobile wants to build on Compton Elementary School property. At the last board meeting, 10 people spoke about the tower at the Powder Springs school: five against the tower, four for it, and the city’s mayor, who asked to table the issue.

Among other items Wednesday, Superintendent Fred Sanderson will provide the board with a comprehensive annual financial report, a quarterly financial report and budget update, a math curriculum update, and a report on “Teaching & Learning Through Technology.”

Modifying the superintendent's monthly budget update will be the subject of a board discussion led by Sweeney. Other topics include upcoming budget meetings and charter schools.

Board member David Morgan of Post 3 plans to lead several work-session discussions, including revising the 2-year-old strategic plan.

He said his proposed changes, including breaking out details on Iowa Test of Basic Skills results, will make the document more complete. "Right now, it only gives composite scores, and I think what we should do is give scores of where the students are tested—reading, language arts, math, science and social studies.”

Morgan also wants the Cobb schools to institute protection for whistleblowers in light of reports that Atlanta Public Schools teachers were targeted for reporting cheating on standardized tests.

“We need something explicitly a part of our policy in case there are some unsavory acts going on in our district like possible waste, fraud, abuse or anything, without fear of retribution or reprisal,” said Morgan, whose post includes South Cobb, McEachern and Pebblebrook high schools.

Per a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools directive, the board also will discuss development and training for its members.

“If we’re going to govern as well as we can, we need to constantly have training to be better board members,” Morgan said. “We don’t know it all, and we can all learn. We need training, and we need people to come in and give us training. I just think that provides for a win-win situation all the way around.”

Board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett also is expected to discuss board training. Patch could not reach her for comment.

Morgan also wants to talk about the impact of chronic course failure on certain high schools. He said Math 1 is the most common course to trip up high-schoolers, and he worries that some students aren't able to take higher-level math classes later because not enough students are reaching those classes to justify offering them.

“I don’t want a kid not able to take a class because another kid is chronically failing a class,” he said.

Board priorities are the final topic Morgan wants to discuss.

“We should set some priorities so we’re not just jumping from month to month with whatever that will be on our mind,” he said. “This will help us to be more mindful of what a given board member will bring to an agenda. If we have a defined vision and ideas, then I think that will bring more continuity to meetings.”

The full agenda is available here.