Cobb Schools to Launch Online Calendar Survey

After three community members told the board they were in favor of the current balanced calendar to start Wednesday morning’s work session, board members dived into the issue and decided to launch an online survey of calendar options.

This is the first year Cobb County has used the balanced calendar, which roughly splits the school year into two semesters before and after the winter holidays. Opponents think the calendar provides too many breaks for students and forces them to ride buses without air conditioning during the hottest days of August. Opponents want to return to the traditional calendar, with school starting about mid-August and fewer weeklong vacations.

New board member Kathleen Angelucci, whose Post 4 includes North Cobb and high schools, presented the board the results of what she said was 10 years of research into school calendars.

Angelucci said Alabama’s public school enrollment is roughly half of Georgia’s, but a researcher determined that cutting 10 days from the school calendar in August would save Alabama almost $300 million.

“I was really surprised by the savings there,” she said.

After the meeting, Angelucci told Patch that the balanced calendar also has affected local business and SPLOST revenues. She said with school starting earlier, Six Flags White Water changed to weekend-only hours in August and lost $2.4 million in revenue, according to information provided to her by Republican state Rep. Matt Dollar.

As he has since the calendar issue came up early last month, Post 5 board member David Banks, who represents Pope, and high schools, stated his opposition to returning to the traditional calendar next year.

“When we adopted the balanced calendar with the previous board, we made a covenant with the teachers and the business community for three years, and I’m going to honor that covenant,” he said. “There’s no compelling reason (to revert to the traditional calendar). We are all getting e-mails from our constituents, and it’s running 2-to-1 to keep the balanced calendar.”

Board member Lynnda Crowder-Eagle, whose Post 1 includes , , and high schools, said the e-mail she has received is even more heavily in favor of the balanced calendar.

“My e-mails are running about 2½ times for the balanced calendar,” she said. “I don’t know if the academic calendar has any importance on the academic performance of the students. I’m with Mr. Banks. We have a three-year covenant. Eighty-four percent of Cobb County educators want this balanced calendar. I don’t think the balanced calendar matters. What matters is that we keep our word.”

Crowder-Eagle later said she has heard from constituents who weren’t initially for the balanced calendar but, having experienced the calendar this year, are now for it.

Board member David Morgan of Post 3 said about 35 people attended his town-hall meeting Saturday at Pebblebrook High, and 22 of them favored the balanced calendar.

The school system has used "three different start dates in three years, and, for me, that’s a lot of movement, and to me that’s really tumultuous,” said Morgan, whose post covers Pebblebrook, South Cobb and McEachern high schools. “People who went to my town-hall meeting and who are e-mailing me are for the balanced calendar. I have a hard time not letting this play out. It’s hard for me to reconcile three different start dates in three years.”

Post 2 board member Tim Stultz requested seeing some examples of what a later school starting date would look like. Stultz’s post includes Campbell High and H.A.V.E.N. Academy.

Angelucci later said budget concerns, not the “jacked-up” number of e-mail messages, should determine the calendar issue.

Crowder-Eagle countered by asking Superintendent Fred Sanderson whether teacher absenteeism rates have declined this year.

“In the first semester, we were actually down 8,700 days. It’s several hundred thousand dollars,” he said. “That’s 8,700 days for students with their (regular) teachers. It’s cheaper to cool out a building than to heat a building. But we’re talking a tenth of the budget. I don’t think the cost factor is significant enough to debate.”

Post 6 board member Scott Sweeney, whose post includes Wheeler and Walton high schools, proposed that the board provide the public with three calendar options by the Feb. 17 regular meeting. Crowder-Eagle was concerned that wasn’t enough time.

Board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett, whose post features Osborne High, suggested Sweeney and Angelucci meet with Sanderson on the three options and post them on the school district’s website by 3 p.m. Friday. The public would be able to vote on those options until 1 p.m. Feb. 17, and Director of Communications Jay Dillon would report the results to the board that night.

Crowder-Eagle worried that some people wouldn’t know an online survey was being conducted.

The board voted 5-2 to post a survey asking the community to select among three calendar options. Crowder-Eagle and Banks voted against using the online survey.

The board concluded the 75-minute morning session by going into executive session to discuss land, legal and personnel issues. One of those personnel issues was the superintendent search; board consultant Don Rooks of the Georgia School Boards Association was going to give a presentation on the 16 applicants for the position. Bartlett has said the board hopes to name the three finalists in April.

Clarification: The closing quotation marks for a comment from Kathleen Angelucci were misplaced in the original version of this story, although the meaning and context of her remark were conveyed accurately. The Post 4 school board member said the amount of e-mail on the calendar issue was "jacked up," but she did not use the exact phrase "jacked-up e-mails."