Cobb Grand Jury: School Calendar Change About Keeping Campaign Promises

The Cobb County grand jury has closed its inquiry into the Cobb Board of Education without finding anything out of which to make a case.

The grand jury issued its findings Thursday afternoon in a written report covering about two pages. The full report is attached to this article.

The grand jury met with six board members April 1 and with the seventh, , on April 28, both times in the presence of the board’s attorney, Clem Doyle.

South Cobb Board of Education Member David Morgan told South Cobb Patch in March that having board members appear before the grand jury  is not "an uncommon occurrence, but they’ve never called the entire board at one time since I’ve been on the board."

The meetings with the school board members came “in response to the overwhelming concerns and request presented to the Grand Jury.”

The grand jury came away from those sessions knowing what observers of the school board have seen since three new members joined in January: The board has deep divisions to the point of being dysfunctional at times. But the grand jury found nothing illegal.

Most of the grand jury’s report focused on the board’s decision on a 4-3 vote in February to drop the new balanced calendar and revert to a more traditional school calendar. Complaints from parents and teachers also have highlighted that change, as did a March letter of inquiry from the regional accrediting agency for the school system and Superintendent Fred Sanderson’s response to that letter last week.

The grand jury’s calendar findings:

• The school board has the power to set the school calendar.
• The grand jury does not have the power to pick or recommend the school calendar.
• The calendar switch fulfilled the campaign promises of the three new members of the board, Tim Stultz of Smyrna, Kathleen Angelucci of North Cobb and Scott Sweeney of East Cobb, and was not based on student achievement, attendance, discipline, retention, teacher morale or operational expenses.
• The school board’s majority did not consider the effect of the calendar change on private schools. The grand jury said it got no answer when it asked whether the change’s proponents considered the effects on the community.

The grand jury offered one recommendation: “If changes to the calendar are to be made that at least one year notice to the public be given to allow for a smooth transition.”

Beyond the calendar, the grand jury also reported that four members of the school board did meet with a candidate for superintendent, although the report does not say whether that meeting happened before or after the person applied to replace the retiring Sanderson.

After Northeast Cobb/East Cobb board member David Banks that such a meeting was improper, if not illegal, Bartlett and Sweeney denied any wrongdoing. Bartlett said the conversations with the job candidate happened in a networking context while the person was deciding whether to apply.

On another issue, the in January at which the new members elected without Banks, Morgan or West Cobb’s Lynnda Crowder-Eagle present, the grand jury questioned all seven board members, and “they conceded the meeting was not an emergency, and Sunday meetings do not fall under the usual protocol of the Board.”