James Young, a member of the South Cobb Academic Taskforce and an Austell parent, sent the letter below to each Cobb Board of Education member before the last school board meeting on Jan. 26. Only Cobb BOE Chairman Scott Sweeney responded.

An Education Story…

In 2003, my wife and I were told that both of our kids (then 2 & 4) were developmentally challenged and had a reduced capacity to learn. My daughter, the youngest, was still not talking and my son was slow to retain information.

In 2005, it was again forecast that each would have difficulty learning and that we should prepare for a "long road to travel" in educating them. In 2007, we left the public school system because a new, formally trained teacher could not effectively teach our son and our concerns met the deaf ears of the principal.

We entered a newly formed charter school which showed much promise. Yet, the school lacked effective leadership and the managing organization failed to step in when needed. In late 2009, we returned to public school with our two kids in tow and our zoned school seemed to have undergone a total turnaround.

Unfortunately, after giving it the "ol' college try", times two, we left public school again at the end of the 2010-11 school year. We are currently enrolled in Georgia Cyber Academy (GCA), a state run charter system with approximately 10,000 Georgia students enrolled.

During this timeline, our kids have done very well– winning awards and representing their respective schools and classes at district level competitions. More satisfying is their eagerness to continue to learn and grow.

But this isn't about their success or what great parents we are. This is about us recognizing early that there was potential for a problem and doing everything we could to mitigate the issue forecasted. Our decisions were unpopular with friends and we often overanalyzed our research– making it difficult to come up with meaningful supporting data. Nevertheless, we pulled the proverbial "trigger" each time - aimed specifically "center-mass" of our target– to properly educate our children. 

It does not matter to us what people think about our choices. What matters is that our children are exceeding the dreadful expectation that was forecast by teachers, administrators and psychologists. What matters is that we cared enough to do what was necessary to provide effective education for not just one, but both of our children.

TFA or no-TFA, Post 3 deserves some alternative solutions for educating the masses–not a specific school or set of schools. Should TFA be voted down, I eagerly await the alternative solution that will replace it. What we've been doing as a District does not work for every Post, school, classroom or child - to include local partnerships with local universities that don't deliver the promise of significant performance increases. Greater parental involvement is vital and would help a lot, but if parents are distant (related to school involvement) that is no reason to issue a "virtual" waiver that allows "the system" to just give up and "keep it moving."

Our hope is to return to public school at some point. When inquiring about what our options were, related to challenges we had in our most recent year in public school, a district employee told my wife, "You should just move." 

The professionals that predicted we would have a "long road to travel" were correct. It has been a long road and we're only as high as middle school. One thing they could never have predicted was that the road would be littered with kids who were just seemingly abandoned because of who their parents are and where they live.

Jay

Editor's Note: Jay Young is a photographer and has freelanced for South Cobb Patch.

What solutions would work in South Cobb schools? Tell us below in the comments.