Morgan Pushes For Changes; Budget Deficit Disappears for Cobb Schools

For about two hours last week, School Board member David Morgan, whose post represents South Cobb and Pebblebrook high schools, presented options to help close the achievement gap in the county.

Many of these possible solutions were brought up at his town hall meeting and included changing the requirements for the Teacher of the Year award and bringing in 25 Teach for America teachers for the upcoming school year.

The board had until Friday to decide about TFA, and most of the members voiced that it simply was not enough time to make the decision.

To preface his efforts to close the achievement gap, Morgan presented data that showed the number of students in the county that repeatedly failed core high school courses.

Cobb County Schools Superintendent Fred Sanderson said, “This has been a problem for a long time.”

He said the percentage of failures has not changed over time, which is a problem.

Morgan argued that if students who repeatedly failed core courses were required to take those courses again in summer school, then during the school year teachers would be free to teach advanced courses to the high-achieving students instead of re-teaching the failing ones.

Any child in the district should be able to take the classes he or she chooses, Morgan explained, without “being held captive” by those who continually fail courses.

However, Lynnda Crowder-Eagle, whose Post 1 serves Allatoona, said students who fail the first time should be able to repeat courses at their home high schools. She suggested that a specialized diploma, such as a vocational one, could be offered to these repeatedly failing students so that they could be successful in other ways.

Kathleen Angelucci, whose Post 4 serves North Cobb, pointed out that regardless what kind of diploma a student receives, he or she must pass the state-required core classes to graduate high school.

Morgan also introduced a different way to communicate a strategic plan, which would allow board members a quick view of the progress and status of their posts versus that of the district.

The data presented by Morgan showed that Posts 2, 3, 5 and 7 do not have schools that meet the district reading average.

Crowder-Eagle said, “I don’t want the listening public to think this is a surprise (to us.)”

When it came to TFA, Stultz and Angelucci said they did not want to rule it out for the future, but could not vote to support it because of the time constraints.

Crowder-Eagle was not in support of bringing more TFA teachers to the county.

A frustrated Morgan said, “It seems like a slap in the face to the community… board members are just kicking the can down the road.”

Budget Deficit Disappears For Cobb Schools

About a year ago, Chief Financial Officer Mike Addison delivered the painful news that 734 positions needed to be cut to eliminate a $137 million budget deficit.

But after three years of cuts, and despite warning last month of a possible deficit of $40 million to $50 million, Addison likely won’t be the bearer of bad news this year.

Addison, a 28-year district employee, was all smiles Wednesday as he told the Cobb Board of Education that he anticipates presenting a “balanced budget without a shortfall” in June for fiscal 2012, which starts July 1.

“As we’ve gotten more information, we’ve revised our estimates, and we’re not going to have a $50 million budget shortfall,” Addison said. “It’s absolutely a very good feeling to not have to be searching for more areas to cut. But we are going to have to maintain the cuts we’ve already made. We just don’t have to make new ones.”

A combination of factors changed the financial story. The state’s net revenue collections in February increased $148 million from February 2010 to $715.3 million, a jump of 9.2 percent.

Addison said actual state revenue collections are tracking higher than the Cobb school system budgeted. Not having to account for an anticipated $27 million cut in state austerity funds contributed to the higher tracking collections.

Another factor is that Cobb County's property digest, the basis for property tax collections, is not declining as much as expected, according to the Cobb County Tax Assessor’s Office, which will issue final numbers in June. The assessor now projects a 7 percent dip in the digest, compared with a 9.5 percent fall previously predicted. That improvement also helped Cobb County this week.

Addison also gained optimism from increased state collections of $95 million in individual income taxes, $33 million in sales and use taxes, and $9 million in corporate income taxes.

Addison told the board he will submit a budget based on 20 mills. But Superintendent Fred Sanderson said the 20-mill rate will include a $1.1 million rollback through excess SPLOST funds. The bottom line is that the millage rate for property owners will remain at the current 18.9 mills.

Board member David Banks of Post 5 (,  and  high schools) said the rollover maneuver, which the district also used last year, could help preserve jobs. Without it, the district would have to make cuts to avoid raising the millage rate.