The axe falls in Cobb where teacher firings stun parents. Are we moving to bare bones schools?
Allatoona High School parents in Cobb are upset over the mass firings of more than a dozen teachers, including the head coaches of the school’s football, basketball, baseball and soccer teams. But word is spreading that the firings are deep and deadly in other Cobb schools as well.
School board members in Cobb approved the elimination of 734 positions as part of a solution to close a $126.7 million budget deficit. The cuts include 579 teaching and 56 paraprofessional positions, as well as 68 central office and support positions.
I was also told that at least eight math teachers and about seven science teachers are gone at Campbell High School. The school has already lost about 28 teachers, with the count expected to climb higher today when PE and special ed teachers are notified. (Updated at 5:45 Wednesday.)
Can anyone explain to me how systems can afford to lay off science and math teachers when the Georgia chancellor keeps telling us that Georgia is not graduating enough of them?
There is no way that such extensive cuts won’t be felt by students. And this week we are seeing the results.
Update at 5:10 on Wednesday. I received this e-mail from a Wheeler High student that I wanted to share:
As a soon-to-be graduate from Wheeler High School, I feel as though the public deserves to know the mass chaos that has been going on in our local schools due to the budget cuts. 20% of our teachers are being cut. However, the teachers being cut are not restricted to half-time or “needs improvement” teachers. Also being cut are younger teachers, teachers who teach our newer Post-AP classes
However, because these classes and teachers are newer, they apparently lack the “seniority” to keep their jobs regardless of the incredible work they have done in the classroom. Attatched is a letter that I have written to the school board explaining my concerns, a letter that explains a position which dozens of my peers support.
Also of interest to you may be a local protest taking place on the sidewalk in front of Wheeler High School on Friday from 3:30 to 5:00 to show our disapproval of the measures taken to eliminate our most gifted teachers from our schools
It appears we are going to stripped-down schools in Georgia that only offer the basics, which some people applaud, believing that parents ought to be the ones to find and underwrite sports programs and debate teams for their kids.
Please take a look at these notes I received from readers and let me know what else is happening in Cobb. I am sending all the information to our Cobb reporters.
One reader told me that Cobb cut six of the eight agriculture/horticulture teacher, including a teacher at Pope who had 14 years at the school, 26 years total with the system and was a two-time Teacher of the Year.
The reader suggested that one of the strikes against ag/hort programs was an ill-fated policy decision by the state to force all career tech horticulture programs to add a mandatory intro class “Agriculture Science and Technology.”
“This significantly dropped the number of students selecting the classes,” said the reader. “You can imagine how popular this was with metro students who only see farms on TV. A real shame since Hort, Landscape and Floriculture classes gave students an into actual jobs in the metro area. Cow stomachs and hog feed recipes are just not that relevant here.”
I also received this note from a Lassiter parent:
I saw the piece in this morning’s AJC about firings at Allatoona H.S., particularly focusing on sports coaches and a planned parent protest. My teen, a Lassiter H.S. student, reported last night that she heard at school yesterday that a dozen Lassiter teachers are being let go.
This includes several coaches, as at Allatoona, but also Lassiter’s only Chemistry teacher, allegedly. (I thought science teachers were hard to find in Georgia. My child is supposed to be taking AP Chemistry in the fall, so I’m wondering who will be teaching this class – or if it will even be offered).
My information is at third hand, from a student, so I can’t guarantee its veracity in any way. It could be wrong. However I’m hoping the AJC will be able to provide some coverage on the impacts on Cobb schools, as teacher renewals and non-renewals are taking place this week. As a parent, I’ve been very concerned ever since the $130-something million budget shortfall was made known.
According to the AJC on the Allatoona firings:
“This is devastating to our school,” PTSA co-president Angie Santy told WSB.
“We’re just losing so much,’ Santy said. “We are losing a passion for a school that’s just incomprehensible. I just don’t know how we’re going to pick it back up.”
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310 comments Add your comment
V for Vendetta
May 12th, 2010
10:42 am
Is it just me, or does this seem really excessive to close a $137 million gap? Surely there were other, more wasteful, places where they could make up that much money. Why does it seem to be so extreme in Cobb?
high school teacher
May 12th, 2010
10:53 am
Agreed, V. We are awaiting the news at our school of who will stay and who will go. Our elementary school is cutting either the music program or the art program; they can only keep one next year. I have one son who loves music and another who loves art, and it makes me sad that children won’t be able to broaden their horizons in both areas. For me, deciding which fine arts program to cut is the equivalent to asking which toe you would like to have amputated – pinky toe on the left or right.
What Happened?
May 12th, 2010
10:54 am
What happened to Cobb’s promise of performance-based non-renewals? I don’t know a single teacher with less than three years with the county who received a contract this week, no matter what area in which they teach. That doesn’t sound performance-based to me…
Randy
May 12th, 2010
10:55 am
V for Vendetta you are right! However, you are dealing with the government. Waste and government go hand and hand. I feel for the government school teachers that are getting caught up in this situation. However, I will never understand how a parent can depend on the government to educate their children.
Tony
May 12th, 2010
11:04 am
This is exactly why I always sent my kids to private schools. No government bureauracy and all the waste and politics that go along with it.
incredulous
May 12th, 2010
11:08 am
I wonder what “waste” the previous posters have in mind, specifically. How curious that the schools would choose to cut teachers, if there’s plenty of superfluous “waste” that could be cut instead. However, I think those folks just make an ideological assumption that all government programs are wildly over-funded and wasteful at all times. Would that this were true, under the present circumstances.
Disgrace
May 12th, 2010
11:10 am
The Cobb County School Board’s actions are a total disgrace. Firing good teachers based on some subjective, 15-20 minute “evaluation” by an administrator with an agenda—what a total joke. No wonder GA schools are so messed up with these morons in charge making dumb decisions like this. Who’s evaluating all these overpaid, clueless school administrators and board personnel, who do little except collect paychecks??????
john konop
May 12th, 2010
11:10 am
This will be a major issue in the general. First school czar Kathy Cox should have froze all travel and expenses and minimally cut back her staff to the bare bones. Second the local school distracts should of rolled back Administrative pay by 20% as well as eliminate 20% of them. Also we should have implemented fuel fess per student and raised prices on lunches and products sold at school. And than if needed we cut teachers who actually do the work! We need real leadership now!
Citizen
May 12th, 2010
11:11 am
1) all teachers with sub standard annual evaluations were let go first.
2) Senority per academic area then kicked in.
3) Teachers who started new programs, moved from one area to another started over in senority. My spouse was asked to start a new program, glad she said “NO”.
4) Not ONE administrator was let go. In fact, at the principal level and above they get a financial perk!
5) Hope the Marietta super is willing to come over to Cobb after the elections.
6) There are rumors that in some cases senority was counted from other systems while it did not count for other teachers.
Rebecca
May 12th, 2010
11:12 am
My son is very upset that his horticulture teacher is being let go. He feels she is one of the few teachers in the school that really cares about her students. The teachers that NEED to be let go are the ones that don’t really like kids and don’t like teaching and therefore do a poor job. I know my kids have had several of those types and if the school system would target those teachers first, they would probably save enough money to be able to save the teachers who really deserve to keep their jobs.
GOB
May 12th, 2010
11:14 am
At my school they’ve drawn out the process of letting teachers know if they won’t receive a new contract over 3 days. They started Monday, and a lot of teachers thought they were safe when they didn’t have the principal come to their room, but then they spent all day yesterday going around again.
My school also lost several head coaches, and it wasn’t as if people were lining up for those spots before. Next year is going to be…interesting.
Not so anti-government
May 12th, 2010
11:15 am
Do any of you people who complain about “government” schools drive on “government” roads?
Depend on “government” police to protect you? Rely on the “government” military to fight our
enemies? If so, why is the “government school” such a bad thing?
TheTruthHurts
May 12th, 2010
11:16 am
Change happens from the top down…this is something that administrators are unwilling to accept. You can’t solve problems with same thinking that got you into these problems.
V for Vendetta
May 12th, 2010
11:16 am
incredulous,
Trust me; there is enough waste in government schools to erase the national debt. (Hyperbole? Sure. But it is excessively wasteful.) The central offices of all the metro school districts are bloated beyond belief. They would do well to let go of the people with vague titles who don’t seem to do much of anything. Too bad they’re making the decisions.
Ummm
May 12th, 2010
11:19 am
I would imagine that the third-hand information your Lassiter parent shared is not truthful. I can’t speak to whether certain teachers were fired. But I have a hard time believing that a school as large as Lassiter has only one chemistry teacher.
TheTruthHurts
May 12th, 2010
11:20 am
I have an idea…why doesn’t the Cobb county school system require parents of children to prove they are citizens of the United States? If you have a disease and you just treat the symptoms, the disease will likely always exist.
gravity
May 12th, 2010
11:20 am
It’s too bad the North Cobb lascrosse coach was not included in that group
Maureen Downey
May 12th, 2010
11:21 am
Umm, I agree and I have asked the Cobb reporter to check it out and will post. I have also e-mailed the Cobb spokesman and will post his response.
Maureen
john konop
May 12th, 2010
11:29 am
Maureen,
Why not ask Kathy Cox and the local district why no cuts to the high ticket administrative staff first? Why they think they are more important than teachers?
Just a thought...
May 12th, 2010
11:32 am
While you’re at it, check into the last minute move to shut down Oakwood High School. What a travesty. Oakwood was one of the few places that at-risk kids still had a chance. That whole ordeal is shady… bringing in a private firm to replace the hardest working and most caring teachers in Cobb. Yet no one wants to investigate.
Attentive Parent
May 12th, 2010
11:38 am
Do student athletes in Cobb pay to participate in sports or has the school district been covering the costs of fielding teams?
V for Vendetta
May 12th, 2010
11:41 am
Attentive Parent,
There is normally a cost associated with playing sports. For some sports (cheerleading, for example), it can be quite high.
Momof Coaches
May 12th, 2010
11:46 am
My son lost his position as well, he was a teacher and head coach, every high school in the County lost members of coaching staffs as well as many sponsors for clubs and activities. It is indeed very sad for these dedicated, often yonger professionals.
Cobb as well as most counties supplement coaching supplements and most transportation costs. Any other monies come to programs by way of individual gates receipts which are used to support all athletic programs at the school, not ust those sports that bring in the revenue.
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May 12th, 2010
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What is going on!
May 12th, 2010
11:57 am
My spouse was let go because they hired a Spanish speaking teacher from out-of-state to do the same job.
JC
May 12th, 2010
11:57 am
Sonny Perdue just does not care about education, plain and simple.
Used to be proud Lassiter parent
May 12th, 2010
11:58 am
I am a Lassiter parent whose daughter will be a senior next year. She came home very upset yesterday with the news that many of the best teachers are being let go. The only AP Econ teacher will be gone. My daughter is signed up to take AP Econ next year. She’s also in AP Art and is afraid that her AP Art teacher will be let go. There are at least 2 math teachers who every parent in the school knows are incompetent beyond belief, but neither of them lost their jobs. There is a rumor also that some of the teachers got their “pink slips” from the volunteer office students. I’d really love to know if that’s true. Im just glad my daughter has only one year left in this devastated system.
Question
May 12th, 2010
11:59 am
Here’s a few questions for you Maureen, why do the new football coaches at Lassiter, Wheeler, and KMHS get to keep their jobs for next year but those who have been here for 2 years or fewer are gone. How is that fair? Also, if they county is hurting so bad then how could we afford to buy out the KMHS contract at Parkview while he doesn’t teach a single class at his new school?
Maureen Downey
May 12th, 2010
11:59 am
@V, Even though parents pay some costs, sports programs are typically subsidized in most systems. I would suspect that if the total costs — training, field maintenance, training films, transportation to games, equipment, coach salaries — were placed on parents, the fees would be much higher than they are now. Our system also picks up the fees for many kids whose parents can’t afford it.
Maureen
My school...
May 12th, 2010
12:00 pm
…lost one of its administrators, so the “fact” that no administrators were let go is not true. Many are being placed back into classrooms, too.
???
May 12th, 2010
12:00 pm
Forget Sonny Perdue, Republicans do not care about “public” education, plain and simple.
MercerU
May 12th, 2010
12:06 pm
This whole process is disgusting!!! People wonder why Georgia is ranked so low in Education….. Is this going on in any other states as well? Why in the world are they laying off Math & Science teachers?? I thought they were in short supply??
Tony
May 12th, 2010
12:09 pm
“Not so anti-government”, your comment reveals what a fool you are, nuff said there.
Maureen, I understand that a Middle School in East Cobb (figure it out!) also fired a recent Teacher of the Year, seniority lost simply because she changed departments.
The district is bloated at the administrative level and the admin is useless at that. No real cuts there though.
Why in the world would anyone want to be a teacher in Georgia?
need2ndjobtopaybills
May 12th, 2010
12:11 pm
As an 8 year veteran teacher of CCSD, its been extremely sad to watch my friends and coworkers be let go over the past couple of days. My sister-in-law still has not heard whether or not she has a job next year in another CCSD Middle School. Why is that as all of these actions have been passed down to us via the Supreme Beings of CCSD, none of the teachers have bothered to show up to protest? When organized protests were held, very few of us showed up to defend our careers and our students. I know I was there but the turn out was dim and made me ashamed to see so few of us willing to speak out – I know that CCSD has us all cowed and afraid to make a move in case it results in job loss, but isn’t that what is happening anyway? It is frustrating to watch our board members sit on their throne and survey the kingdom and decide that I must go but they can stay, draw their retirement, plus their yearly salary along with 20 paid vacation days a year, but I must fight to pay every single bill I receive each month. Why is that when a teacher speaks out about the unfairness of it all, we get jumped on and told that we aren’t worth a hill of beans (so to speak). It’s no wonder we are not respected by our school board as parents and other citizens don’t even respect us. Until people start realizing that without teachers to educate our future, their is NO future in Georgia. It’s a sad place to be and hope to goodness that this RIF CCSD is carrying out comes back to bite them in the butt and HARD because they are doing a great disservice to our children with all the wonderful teachers they are cutting this week!
What is going on!
May 12th, 2010
12:11 pm
Shortfalls are blamed on the housing crisis and reduction in property tax. Do illegal immigrant parents pay property tax for their children to attend our schools? What is the cost of dealing with illegal immigration within the schools? Why is no one addressing this issue?
Tony
May 12th, 2010
12:11 pm
???, you are a fool too. How can you blame this on Republicans, it’s Liberals who own and have owned for a long time the public school system. Good grief.
Tough to swallow but Republicans rule
May 12th, 2010
12:16 pm
Republicans rule Cobb County and the Tea Party membership wants to cut all forms of government spending and tax payer responsibility. Public school has been in the cross hairs for years by the religious right (Republicans) who want money for homeschooling and private schools but now the fiscal conservatives (also Republicans) are joining the fight.
Jim
May 12th, 2010
12:16 pm
First, there are several ways to elect a Teacher of the Year at a school. If it’s done by students, it’s often the “easiest” or “most fun” teacher. Secondly, the guidelines for Cobb’s layoffs were laid out for everyone to see before they were announced. They are simply following their plans and not making exceptions. Imagine the uproar if the head football coach at a school should have been cut, based on seniority, and wasn’t.
As the spouse of a teacher and parent of two kids, I hate what is happening to Cobb’s schools. However, we must remember that many systems around here have let many teachers go. The difference is that they have spread the lay-offs out over two years. Cobb has made all their cuts this year.
I’m praying for all the friends who lost their jobs.
Lynn
May 12th, 2010
12:17 pm
Coaches are being let go at many schools. At the south end of the county, many coaches are the financial support for the programs they coach. The meager supplement plus family funds are used to support programs that would not survive if parents alone were paying the fees.
My spouse is the field maintenance man, fundraiser, janitor, uniform washer, transportation chief, coach, mentor and academic supervisor for his players. In addition he successfully teaches a difficult academic course at the AP level and above. He provides money for clothing and food for those in need. He makes sure students who need tutoring get there as well. He also sponsors several other school activities.
All of this for a school that wanted all teachers to be marked as less than proficient this year. If he didn’t think he was making a real difference, he would return to the private sector and our family would have the benefit of more time and money.
What is going on!
May 12th, 2010
12:23 pm
Seniority is the worst way to layoff teachers…you end up cutting the freshest, cheapest teachers. Why not offer early retirement packages to the highest paid teachers? The corporate world has been very successful doing this. I’m not sure if it is against the law or not.
JC
May 12th, 2010
12:23 pm
What is going on – if they live somewhere they pay property taxes, it may be through rent.
You Asked
May 12th, 2010
12:24 pm
Maureen,
We were just informed last night that Cherokee County schools no longer subsidize transportation, equipment, music or uniforms for the Band programs. We were used to raising money for travel, uniform fees, instrument fees and other fees for activities but the amount the schools kick in for the arts is minimal and getting smaller.
The Choral music teacher at one of our kids schools was forced to choose between sheet music and bus transportation for festival last year until the parents came up with the difference.
Bright Idea
May 12th, 2010
12:25 pm
Cobb County schools…too big to fail. Yeah, right. Public education in Georgia….While Kathy held it, Sonny neutered it.
GA Economics Teacher
May 12th, 2010
12:27 pm
Jim,
The teacher of the year is selected by the staff. Students do not participate in the process.
What is going on!
May 12th, 2010
12:30 pm
JC – What is going on – if they live somewhere they pay property taxes, it may be through rent.
————————————————————-
So if 20 people live in one house, how is that handled?
John Q
May 12th, 2010
12:31 pm
Cobb has a principal or two from out of system with less than 2 yrs experience in the county yet they still have their jobs and vacation roll-over pay!
Chief Wiggum
May 12th, 2010
12:32 pm
Apologies if this posts twice, the first one is not showing up…
I’m not a Cobb County parent, so that it for what it’s worth.
Times are hard EVERYWHERE. And I do mean everywhere. School teachers are not immune to this, although they have been for a long time. Can’t judge a teacher based on performance, and when they’re let go due to seniority (or lack of), that makes folks mad, too. Face it…most teachers consider it a lifetime appointment, the penultimate “government job”.
Do you think parents were whining about losing art teachers during the Great Depression? I’m sorry if your child can’t get the art classes, or learn the violin at school, but those are perfect programs to become extracurricular. If you want your kid to do that, pay up.
And those who whine about Sonny Perdue or the Republicans…admit it…you want to say that the money spigot should run full, and HOW DARE a Republican to not provide all the money the school systems want!
I have no idea how much waste is at the admin level versus the teacher level, but at my daughter’s elementary school (K-5, less than 800 students), there are 4 autistic teachers, 3 resource teachers, 2 speech teachers, and 8 special ed support teachers..oh and 2 ESOL teachers. SERIOUSLY? When I was in elementary, we had ONE teacher per class, 3 admin (principal, assistant, and secretary), one gifted teacher, one special ed, one gym teacher (who had two schools), one art teacher (who had two schools), and a media specialist.
There seems to be a lot of bloat in teacher assignments.
JC
May 12th, 2010
12:33 pm
What is going on! – Families with 10 kids don’t pay more property taxes than familes with 1 kid.
What is going on!
May 12th, 2010
12:34 pm
What is going on! – Families with 10 kids don’t pay more property taxes than familes with 1 kid.
——————————————–
i meant to say, multiple families living in one house.
What is going on!
May 12th, 2010
12:36 pm
How much state and federal funding is used on children of illegal immigrants?