Cobb School Board Approves Calendar

By a 4-2 vote, the board adopted Superintendent Michael Hinojosa's recommendation to begin the 2013-14 school year on Aug. 7.

The Cobb County Board of Education adopted an academic year 2013-14 calendar Thursday night that left some members of a specially-appointed calendar committee disappointed. By a 4-2 vote, the board approved a recommendation by Superintendent Michael Hinojosa for a 190-day instructional calendar that would begin on Aug. 7, 2013 and conclude on May 21, 2013. Included in the vote was an amendment by board member Alison Bartlett to use fall semester instructional days for possible furlough days that may come up during future budget deliberations. Hinojosa's recommendation was a modification of various proposals considered by the calendar committee, which was made up of parents and school system teachers and staff. While that panel could not …

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Frank

1:01 pm on Friday, October 26, 2012

There was no consensus within the Committee. This article omits the perspective of a calendar committee appointee who spoke at the board meeting last evening who disagreed with the split calendar committee recommendation..   more ›

Cobb School Calendar Vote Scheduled

A member of a special calendar committee is upset with Superintendent Hinojosa's recommendation for the 2013-14 school year.

Several proposed calendars for the 2013-14 academic year will likely be up for discussion when the Cobb County Board of Education holds its October business meeting Thursday. A vote is scheduled on adopting a calendar, but the measure became more complicated at the board's work session earlier this month because of multiple proposals that were submitted. The meeting Thursday will take place at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover Street, Marietta. An executive session is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nine different proposals for next year's school calendar have been floated for possible action. They include a recommendation from Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, as well as proposals from board …

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School Calendar Proposals Increase

The Cobb school board was presented nine different calendars on Wednesday.

Sorting through nine calendar proposals for the 2013-14 school year will occupy a good bit of the Cobb Board of Education's for the next couple of weeks. That's how many different proposals were presented during Wednesday's work session. The board is expected to vote at its business meeting on Oct. 25, but the job of whittling down that list has become more complicated. Board member David Banks and Superintendent Michael Hinojosa detailed their calendars prior to the work session. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, board member Alison Bartlett also has submitted a proposal (see attached PDF), as has a calendar committee created last year at the behest of Hinojosa, who said during the meeting he has no preference.

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Cobb School Calendar Issue Resumes

Proposals by Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and board member David Banks will be discussed at Wednesday's work session.

Multiple school calendar proposals will be brought before the Cobb County Board of Education on Wednesday, restarting a debate that embroiled the board for much of 2011. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who urged the board to create a committee to tackle calendar planning, will be offering a different calendar than conflicting recommendations by the panel. School board member David Banks, a central figure in the school calendar controversy when it first came up in early 2011, also will be submitting his own proposal. The discussion will take place at the board's monthly work session, which begins at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover Street, Marietta. The entire agenda is …

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School News To Use

Balanced Calendar Back on Agenda

At Wednesday's work session, David Banks will propose moving up the start dates for the 2012-13 school year.

Scott Sweeney's first meeting as chairman of the Cobb Board of Education on Wedesday will feature an old subject.  David Banks, Sweeney's fellow East Cobb representative on the school board, wants to move up the start of the 2012-13 school year two weeks to Aug. 1.  His proposal is one of many items on the first regularly scheduled work session of the year, and it rehashes the familiar school calendar arguments that occupied much of the school board's activity last year.  But as The Marietta Daily Journal indicated on Tuesday, it's unlikely Banks' move will garner much support on the board, which has been split along 4-3 lines on the issue in the past. The work session begins at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Cobb County School District main …

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Letter to the Editor

'Twas Almost the Night Before Christmas in Cobb

This letter by Acworth resident Robin Gantek was originally posted on Marietta Patch. We are posting it again here because of the large response it received.

‘Twas almost the night before Christmas and all through Cobb County Schools were still open for its students, teachers, and townies. The stockings were hung by the chimney with rushed care, No time for traditions that were typically there. The children were nestled, all snug in their beds But visions of exams danced in their heads. And mama in her kerchief and I in my cap Could not settle down with our family at a last. When all around my house there arose such a clatter I sprang from my bed…I know what’s the matter! Away to last winter my mind flew like a flash, When the three new board members had started to clash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to so long ago. When, what to my wondering mind did…

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Pro-balanced school calendar website launched

The Cobb Parents site says it's not too late to change the 2012-13 Cobb County School District schedule.

Backers of a balanced Cobb County School District calendar have launched a website in the hope of changing the schedule for next school year. Cobb Parents started last week and offers a link to email the seven Cobb Board of Education members at once. The goal is to persuade them to switch from the current traditional calendar to the balanced calendar the district used in 2010-11. The board dumped the balanced calendar with less than six months’ notice Feb. 17 on a 4-3 vote, and the Cobb Parents organizers hope for a repeat in reverse. “There is a unique opportunity for Cobb County to come together to give input to the board on the 2012-2013 calendar,” said Thom Gray, a father of four, including three in Cobb County schools. “The board’s …

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CCSD Submits Final SACS Report

Smyrna's Tim Stultz says Board has been "working together" and being "good stewards."

The Cobb County School District submitted a progress report Wednesday in the hope of closing the books on last spring’s inquiry by its accrediting agency. Cobb Superintendent Michael Hinojosa told the Marietta Daily Journal that the report addresses the concerns of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools bullet by bullet and should resolve the accrediting agency’s concerns. School Board Member Tim Stultz of Smyrna told Patch, “Even though there are different viewpoints and philosophies by different members, the Board has been working together to ensure that the school district is providing a quality education while being good stewards of tax payer funds.” The SACS Council on Accreditation and School Improvement sent the school …

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Cobb Schools Calendar Committee Not Ready

The Cobb County School District will create a proposal for a smaller group to work on the annual schedule.

The Cobb County Board of Education voted 6-1 Thursday night to reject a proposed calendar-setting process, but only after Superintendent Michael Hinojosa agreed to withdraw and rework the policy. Having established that 22 of the 29 people on the calendar advisory committee created under the proposal would have been selected by or represented Cobb County School District officials, board Vice Chairman Scott Sweeney presented an alternative. Sweeney, who represents East Cobb’s Post 6, suggested an 18-member committee, equally split between community and district representatives and chaired by a nonvoting member. Board members wouldn’t appoint any of the committee members. Sweeney’s proposal calls for two parent representatives each from the …

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Calendar Rule Vote on School Board Agenda

Tonight, the Cobb County Board of Education will discuss the rule that guarantees at least nine months’ notice for calendar changes.

Five of the seven Cobb County Board of Education members were at Wednesday’s South County Elementary School Attendance Zone Redistricting meeting at Campbell High. Kathleen Angelucci, Tim Stultz, David Banks. Scott Sweeney and Alison Bartlett listened to concerned parents last night, and tonight the board is expected to vote on an administration-backed school calendar rule that would guarantee at least nine months’ notice for calendar changes. The new rule would create a 29-member committee of community members and district employees that would recommend at least two calendar options to the school board. Banks of East and Northeast Cobb’s Post 5 told Patch he would prefer for the board to receive “one option that I accept or reject.” “The …

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