This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Schools Try Again on Calendar Committee

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 would have been selected by or represented 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.

Find out what's happening in South Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Board members wouldn’t appoint any of the committee members.

Sweeney’s proposal calls for two parent representatives each from the high schools, middle schools and elementary schools, two business community members, and a representative of higher education. The school district’s representatives would come from human resources, curriculum/special student services, athletics, music, graduation, finance, SPLOST/construction, operations/transportation and leadership.

Find out what's happening in South Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Sweeney also wants the committee’s calendar recommendation to be determined by a two-thirds vote to force a consensus. The committee would meet in public at the Central Office boardroom.

Board member Kathleen Angelucci of North Cobb’s Post 4 agreed with Sweeney’s suggestions, as did Hinojosa.

“In concept I agree to a lot of those, but obviously that’s a major change, so we’ll have to take that back and consider it and bring back a modification,” Hinojosa said. “We’ll obviously withdraw the rule at this point and go back and study it.”

Still, David Banks of East and Northeast Cobb’s Post 5 made a motion to . He cast the only yes vote.

The administration will bring a revised policy back to the school board.

After a 22-minute discussion, the board voted unanimously to award Baldwin Paving of Marietta a $663,892.71 contract to , which houses 230 buses.

The board also voted 7-0 for an amended motion put forth by Tim Stultz of Smyrna’s Post 2.

Stultz originally wanted to table the item because of its timing and the inability right now to accomplish the project’s full scope, which included clearing trees and flattening a hill to pave an additional 50 bus parking spots.

Stultz’s amended motion states that if the paving isn’t completed before winter makes it too cold to put down pavement, the board can revisit the item March 1 with a change order to spend $387,000 on the 50 additional spaces.

That’s contingent on the SPLOST III reserve fund increasing; it has only $500,000 now.  

Mike Demery, a vice president of Baldwin Paving, told Patch his company’s schedule for the project is roughly two months, but “weather-related delays are something we can’t control.”

“If the school board is ready to issue contracts, we can turn around those contracts in a matter of days and can start as soon as we get a notice to proceed,” Demery said.

The board also voted unanimously to spend $500,000 on resilient athletic flooring for 13 elementary and middle schools from SnapSports Southeast.

The Alpharetta company said it could install the flooring over three days at , Garrison Mill, , , , , and  elementary schools, and intermediate schools, and , and middle schools.

The board approved its legislative priorities on a 6-1 vote with Banks dissenting. The board replaced the general goals of the past with specific priorities this year in preparation for a Nov. 14 meeting with the county’s legislative delegation:

  • Reinstate funding for technical college dual enrollment.
  • Keep state employee benefits costs the same.
  • When passing legislation, keep in mind the local financial impact on school systems.
  • Provide flexibility to set the sales tax rate for a SPLOST at any amount up to 1 percent; it’s 1 percent or nothing now.

Two seventh-grade students, a sibling of a student, a parent and a teacher addressed the board during the public comment period. They pleaded to keep Imagine Mableton open at least another year.

The board voted 4-3 in September and to close the school after this school year.  

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?