Tentative Cobb School Budget Vote Expected

The board of education is scheduled to take an initial vote at Monday's called work session.

After two grueling work sessions, the Cobb Board of Education has scheduled another one for Monday as it faces a deadline for tentative approval of the fiscal year 2014 budget. A special meeting has been called for 1 p.m. on Monday as the school board continues to work to close a projected deficit of $86.4 million. Monday's work session will take place in the board room of the Cobb County School District headquarters at 514 Glover Street, Marietta. The meeting also will be live-streamed on the CCSD website. The board is expected to vote for tentative approval, which it is required by law to do in order to advertise a public hearing on the budget. That public hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday, May 14, at 7 p.m., and final budget …

• Photos (1)

Opinion: Angelucci Insists on Transparency

She refused to drink the SPLOST Kool-Aid.

Move to Censure Banks Falls Short

The Cobb Board of Education voted Wednesday against a motion to initiate proceedings against board member David Banks.

After trying for two months to formally rebuke one of her colleagues, Cobb Board of Education member Kathleen Angelucci couldn't get enough votes to trigger an official hearing on the matter.  On Wednesday morning the school board rejected, by a 4-3 vote, her motion to conduct censure proceedings against David Banks, whom she accused in July of violating numerous board ethics policies.  Voting with Banks to deny the motion were board members Lynnda Eagle, chairman Scott Sweeney and vice chairman David Morgan.  Alison Bartlett and Tim Stultz voted with Angelucci in favor of the motion, which according to school board attorney Clem Doyle would have initiated a hearing process that would have called for a 30-day advance notification, the …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (1)

Cobb School Board Delays Censure Talks

A proposal to take action against newly re-elected member David Banks will resume in September.

The Cobb Board of Education was supposed to discuss a possible censure measure against one of its own members on Wednesday, but that move has been postponed. Board member Kathleen Angelucci, who last month proposed censuring colleague David Banks, asked for the delay so the full board could take up the matter.  Fellow board member Lynnda Eagle was absent from Wednesday's regular work session. A discussion of the options facing the board has been put on the agenda of its Sept. 12 work session. "If this board does vote to proceed" with a motion to censure, Cobb school board attorney Clem Doyle said during the meeting, "I would recommend that it be confined to the issue at hand, in order to be fair to all." Angelucci, who represents Post 4 (…

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

Cobb School Board Member Wants Colleague Censured

Kathleen Angelucci claims David Banks violated board ethics by contacting school employees about his political opponents.

Cobb Board of Education member Kathleen Angelucci has publicly accused one of her colleagues of unethical behavior and has asked for him to be censured.  At the end of the board's long business meeting Thursday night, Angelucci claimed that David Banks "compromised school board ethics" by seeking to obtain information about a political opponent through Cobb County School District employees.  Banks is in a difficult re-election battle in the July 31 Republican primary for the Post 5 seat, which includes the Lassiter and Pope high school districts of East Cobb. Angelucci, who represents Post 4 (Kell, Sprayberry and North Cobb high schools), said Banks "attempted to influence the election" by admitting in his own e-mail newsletter than he …

• Photos (2)

Cobb School Board Fails on Budget

The Board of Education has until June 30 to find a compromise that at least four members can support for fiscal 2013.

The Cobb County School District has to go back to the chalkboard after the Board of Education failed to approve the fiscal 2013 budget Thursday night. The school board has until June 30 to pass a budget for the year that starts July 1, but after the extensive debate Thursday, the path forward is unclear. A special meeting will be scheduled to search for an answer. The seven board members staked out at least four distinct positions on the proposed $841.9 million budget—none of them matching the administration's recommendation. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and Chief Financial Officer Mike Addison entered the meeting recommending the same budget that the school board passed April 26 on a preliminary basis. It features 350 fewer teachers …

• Photos (1)

New Life for Harrison 9th-Grade Center?

The Kennesaw high school's full $14.5 million project will get another vote for school board approval May 9.

Harrison High School’s full $14.5 million package of renovations has another chance. Cobb County Board of Education member Lynnda Eagle, who represents Harrison as part of her West Cobb district, asked Chairman Scott Sweeney to add the SPLOST-financed project to the agenda for the school board’s May 9 work session. Sweeney agreed, and David Banks also backed the move. Sweeney added the Harrison project as an action item, meaning the board will reconsider its March 22 decision to delay the school’s proposed ninth-grade center indefinitely and proceed with other planned repairs and improvements separately. Eagle’s request, in the final moments of a 2½-hour meeting, might offer real hope for the Hoya Nation. She had explained during the board…

• Photos (1)
• Videos (1)

Parents Skeptical of School Board's Openness

The Cobb County Board of Education approves a memorandum promising to comply with state laws on records and meetings without admitting past violations.

A Georgia senior assistant attorney general focused on the Cobb County Board of Education’s future rather than past “serious accusations” during a training session Thursday on open records and public meetings. Stefan Ritter said the allegations of open meetings violations weren’t bad enough to warrant more than the training and a memorandum of understanding to ensure compliance with state laws. “We did not think this was as egregious as some of the violations we’ve seen” elsewhere, Ritter told Patch. “Nonetheless, we look at this in a forward way. Our goal is not so much to punish people, but to seek compliance to the law.” The memorandum of understanding says that if no evidence of new open records or open meetings violations comes up in …

• Photos (3)
• Documents (1)

Angelucci Joins Majority on Voting Map

The Cobb County Board of Education's North Cobb member criticizes an alternative plan presented by David Banks.

The Cobb County Board of Education approved a reapportionment map presented by Chairwoman Alison Bartlett on a 5-1 vote at Wednesday morning’s work session. David Banks of Northeast and East Cobb’s Post 5, who presented two different maps to board members the past two weeks, cast the dissenting vote. Lynnda Crowder-Eagle of West Cobb’s Post 1 didn't attend the meeting. Banks said he emailed board members his two reapportionment designs and worked with Crowder-Eagle on his first map. He also said Wednesday that because he did not hear from any board members about his maps, he assumed they had no questions. “I’m greatly concerned that Mr. Banks has made no effort in working with the board as a whole,” Kathleen Angelucci of North Cobb’s Post …

• Photos (3)