Saturday, May 18, 2013
The $856.3 million budget approved Thursday includes 5 furlough days and 182 teacher cuts through attrition.
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved a fiscal year 2014 budget that includes five furlough days for teachers and staff, a reduction of 182 teaching positions through attrition, a half-year step increase for employees and taking $41 million from reserves to reach a balance. After the board voted down three other budget proposals -- including an amended version of the tentative budget with a full-year step increase for Cobb County School District employees -- it went back to something it could pass. The $856.3 million budget, which takes effect July 1, is similar to the package that the board tentatively approved on April 29 and that closes a deficit of $86.4 million. Voting in favor the budget were board chairman Randy Scamihorn…
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
"You're going to destroy the county if you don't fix the problem," educators told school board members Wednesday.
Only a small handful of people turned out for a public hearing on the proposed Cobb County School District fiscal year 2014 budget Tuesday. But they packed a raw, emotional punch. Several teachers and coaches at Walton High School were especially vocal about budget proposals that they said would increase morale problems and stress levels that have been building up for several years. Among the proposals included in a tentatively adopted budget (see green column in attached PDF) include 182 teacher position cuts through attrition, a mid-year cost-of-living increase, higher insurance costs for teachers, larger classroom sizes and five furlough days. Those components are part of a budget plan that addresses an estimated deficit of $86.4 …
A blogger questions the differences in achievement at several schools on Smyrna-Vining Patch's Local Voices platform.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
The public is invited to comment on the tentative fiscal year 2014 budget.
The Cobb Board of Education will hold a public hearing Tuesday on the proposed fiscal year 2-14 budget. The hearing takes place at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover Street, Marietta. A salary hearing will precede the hearing at 6:30 p.m. A public hearing is required before the board formally votes to adopt the budget. On April 29 the board tentatively adopted a budget (see attached PDF) that includes numerous spending cuts, staff and teacher reductions, borrowing reserve funds and furloughs to eliminate an $86.4 million deficit. The school district also has prepared a page on its website with more detailed budget information, including a place for members of the Cobb public to …
Monday, April 29, 2013
The board of education is scheduled to take an initial vote at Monday's called work session.
After two grueling work sessions, the Cobb County 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. 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 …
Friday, April 26, 2013
Opposition to Common Core curriculum standards resulted in 4-3 votes against new texts starting with the 2013-14 academic year.
The battle against Common Core curriculum standards came to Cobb County Thursday night. Opponents of the federally-embraced guidelines filled the Cobb Board of Education board room to strongly protest spending $7.5 million for new mathematics textbooks in the Cobb County School District. And after some heated debate, and by 4-3 votes in two separate votes, the board made those opponents happy in rejecting the measures. They were at their most vocal right before the votes, when board member Kathleen Angelucci pleaded for more time due to a "groundswell" of concern about the new standards in numerous states, including Georgia. "When Common Core was adopted, nobody knew what was in it," she said. "It's like Obamacare. You vote for it, then …
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Tentative approval of the fiscal year 2014 budget has been pushed back to next Monday.
Members of the Cobb County Board of Education remain far apart on how to close a significant budget deficit and have delayed an initial vote on a fiscal year 2014 spending plan for the Cobb County School District. At the end of a nearly four-hour work session on Monday, the board agreed, in a 5-2 vote, to conduct another budget meeting next Monday, April 29, at 1 p.m. The board was to slated adopt a tentative budget Thursday, an action that meets a legal requirement to advertise a public hearing. That hearing, scheduled for May 14, must be publicly advertised 14 days in advance. Next Monday's work session is 15 days ahead of the hearing. The board has scheduled May 16 for final budget approval. But Monday's work session further revealed …
Monday, April 22, 2013
The Board of Education continues its discussions at a 2 p.m. special meeting.
After getting a newly revised set of options for balancing the fiscal year 2014 budget last week, the Cobb Board of Education will hold a special budget meeting on Monday. The meeting takes place at 2 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District Central Office, 514 Glover Street, Marietta. Last Wednesday, the board received requested changes in the budget proposal that would restore some proposed teacher reductions through attrition, provide a mid-year cost-of-living increase for district employees and carry over $10 million in fiscal year 2013 leftover funding to reach an $838 million balance. The proposal still calls for five furlough days for all district employees and using $22 million in district reserves. The district's …
Thursday, April 18, 2013
But school board members remain divided over how to balance the numbers for fiscal year 2014.
Cobb County School District officials Wednesday presented a fresh set of options for balancing the fiscal year 2014 budget, but school board members rehashed familiar arguments for addressing a projected deficit of $86.4 million. In a lengthy work session on Wednesday, chief financial officer Brad Johnson offered a new proposal that gets to an $838 million balance by ditching several suggested cuts board members didn't like. Reductions in magnet school transportation and outsourcing custodial services have been placed below "a line" of 18 specific revenue and expense items that achieve a balance. But that didn't satisfy some board members worried over increased class sizes, steep teaching reductions through attrition and other cuts they …
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Details of suggested cuts to close an $86.4 million budget deficit weren't received well at a work session Wednesday.
Getting used to what's being called "the new normal" isn't going to be easy for the Cobb County Board of Education. After absorbing more details of a proposed fiscal year 2014 budget that recommends deep cuts in several key areas, school board members on Wednesday demanded more options as they try to solve a projected $86.4 million deficit. That's because many of the suggestions provided by Cobb County School District officials were hardly to their liking. During a long and at times heated work session, school board members told Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and the district's chief financial officer, Brad Johnson, that they weren't happy with a 13-point list of proposed cuts and changes to achieve a balanced budget. "This board needs to…
Brian
1:26 am on Monday, May 20, 2013
Cobb needs to do more research on the impacts of consolidating students into larger schools and fix the issues these actions have caused. The main part of the reason that King Springs is outperforming Nickajack and Teasley is that King Springs is a much smaller elementary. You can't completely make up for the community you can get in a really small school, but I imagine that Cobb B.O.E. … more ›