Process Proposed for Cobb School Calendar
Superintendent Michael Hinojosa wants a committee to help enact a schedule at least nine months in advance.
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The Cobb County school calendar, the issue that never dies, is back again today.
The county Board of Education’s work session will include a discussion of Superintendent Michael Hinojosa’s proposal to create a process that will calm the controversy.
His plan would add a three-step process to craft the two-year calendar:
- The superintendent would form a committee representing the various interests in the school system to study the options and recommend at least two to the board.
- The committee would start its work in August and make its recommendations by Oct. 1.
- The board would adopt the calendar at least nine months before its start.
No such process guided the board through calendar changes and proposals this year.
North Cobb’s Kathleen Angelucci, East Cobb’s Scott Sweeney and Smyrna’s Tim Stultz joined the board in January determined to overturn the balanced calendar, which was enacted in November 2009 and went into effect in August 2010. With the support of Chairwoman Alison Bartlett, whose district is south and west of Marietta, they succeeded on a pair of 4-3 votes in February.
The resulting calendar pushed this school year’s start back two weeks to Aug. 15, eliminating a weeklong September break for which some teachers and parents had booked vacations.
The calendar came up again and again:
- Angelucci and Bartlett, for example, took criticism at town-hall meetings.
- David Banks, who represents East and Northeast Cobb, made repeated attempts to reconsider the calendar. His last proposal failed in June.
- Angry parents used the open-records law to obtain hundreds of pages of school board email messages and other documents related to calendar discussions.
- The county grand jury called the entire school board to explain the calendar decisions and other actions.
- The accrediting agency for the school system forced Hinojosa’s predecessor, Fred Sanderson, to answer questions about board governance and raised a threat to the system’s accreditation.
The current calendar runs through the 2012-13 school year.
Bartlett told the Marietta Daily Journal that the board supports having a process but needs to work out the details.
In comments posted with the proposal, Board Attorney Clem Doyle raised questions about the timeline. He noted that the grand jury recommended the board adopt calendars 12 months in advance and worried that the committee wouldn’t have enough time between August and Oct. 1.
Angelucci prefers setting the calendar a full year in advance, the MDJ reported.
Doyle also raised the possibility of making the policy more flexible: “Does the board want to allow for some mid-year changes to the calendar, perhaps limited to minor changes, with less restrictions? Sometimes unforeseen circumstances (due to weather, for example) require a tweak.”
Hinojosa also recommends mandating a weeklong holiday at Thanksgiving as a part of the board policy.
Doyle offered a more flexible alternative: “You might instead use a phrase similar to the Christmas holiday phrase: ‘Thanksgiving holidays to include Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving at a minimum.’ ”
The school board’s work session starts at 8:30 a.m. at the Central Office, 514 Glover St., Marietta, but the day’s agenda indicates that the calendar discussion will come in the afternoon.
KK
5:59 am on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
More policy only creates more bureaucracy. Be careful what you wish for folks. The bureaucrats will hide behind this policy in the future and you'll be bound and shackled to it.
Beth
8:24 am on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Kurt,
You seem to have followed this closely and be familiar with the situation. What is your solution to the calendar issue? I wish it were as simple as starting after Labor Day and ending before Memorial Day. Please offer any suggestions to those of us who would like to avoid another countywide, embarrassing debate!
Vanessa
5:17 pm on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Funny, Angelucci did care about setting the calendar a year in advance back in February, why does she care now?
KK
10:52 pm on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Beth, I have never and will never profess to have all the answers. The only opinion I have about the calendar is that this entire issue is ridiculous- regardless of which calendar one prefers. I am not at all convinced that a reasonable calendar starting after Labor Day and ending at Memorial Day is even possible. Folks seem to be overlooking the fact that systems that start after LD go to school well into June. The balanced calendar crowd seems oblivious to the possibility that such is a step towards year round schools. I personally believe that the balanced calendar supporters are actually being used by bureaucrats who want year round school. Being the parent of young children, I am of the opinion that school should end when learning and instruction end, which seems to be when the CRCT's are done in April.
A few months ago, while the issue was being so hotly debated, I did go back and watch the meeting in which the balanced calendar was voted. The board room appeared packed and there were some 25-30 speakers (don't quote me on that, I watched it months ago, and it was a lot of speakers). Then board chair, John Abraham, even called the police officer to the front of the room in what looked like an attempt at intimidation to me. What struck me was that the speakers were all opposed to the calendar. It left me wondering where all the impassioned balanced calendar were then?
KK
11:01 pm on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
If it were so great for our children, why weren't all the balanced calendar supporters there to make their case to implement it in our schools? If it was so crucial to student achievement, why wasn't the CCAE actively working to implement this panacea calendar for the children they claim to care so much about?
When it was passed, there was a lot of complaining about it having been passed and the manner in which it were done.
I have watched a few more recent board meetings at home and online, including the one where they reverted back to the later start date and witnessed FAR worse behavior on the part of the public than I saw in previous meetings. The chairwoman had ample reason and opportunity to call for order, clear the room or call the police officer to the podium to remove more than one crazed parent. Had Allison Bartlett cleared the room or called the police officer to the podium the balanced calendar people would have broken out their ptichforks.
The whole issue is stupid. I've wandered off this reservation, but the reality is that what our kids do when they are in school is what is important. The kids seem tested to death and it is ridiculous. The system needs to get out of the way and let the teachers teach.
KK
11:02 pm on Wednesday, October 12, 2011
I must thank Vanessa for proving my point about the balanced calendar crowd. It doesn't matter what these people do- you will attack them. Looks to me like Angelucci got the message. She appears in agreement with you on the issue of one year notice, and you attack. This is exactly why I say it is ridiculous.