Cobb school chief to SACS: Stark divisions on board, which is ineffective. Widespread anger over calendar vote.
Here is a fascinating and candid response from Cobb County Superintendent Fred Sanderson.to the concerns of the accrediting agency SACS over recent school board actions.
Sanderson faults the board on many fronts. Please click on the link and read the entire letter, which is quite amazing for its criticisms, especially in the calendar reversal vote.
I am just sharing a small part of the five-page letter on the blog – Sanderson’s response to SACS’ concerns that the calendar vote “eroded public trust and public confidence in board members’ ability to govern stemming from the “efforts of four board members to exclude their fellow colleagues and use their personal and political agendas to drive school board decisions, including the decision regarding the calendar.”
Sanderson responded:
The process of approving a system calendar in February 2011 was legal, but did not represent the spirit of effective governance. The board was hasty in raising the issue and voting to replace a three-year calendar that had been approved by a prior board, and had been in effect only five months. The effort to change the calendar was led by three newly elected board members, along with one veteran board member who is also board chair.
In November 2009, when the three-year balanced calendar was approved, board member
Alison Bartlett stated, “I was not willing to change the calendar because we had already set it
and I thought it was wrong to go back and undo what we had already set where people had
already set their calendars, so that is why last time I voted the way I voted because it wasn’t
right to go and do that.” In February 2011, as board chair, Ms. Bartlett did vote to change the calendar just six months prior to the start of a new school year.The newly elected board members had campaigned on the issue of changing the calendar, but should have recognized their first priority on being sworn in was to become acclimated to and informed about district operations, and trained in the basics of school board leadership and effective governance. Had these first steps been taken, the new board members and one
existing member may have considered a more productive consensus-building approach to
honoring their campaign promises.Instead, these four board members immediately brought the issue to the table for a vote,
despite the division it caused with their three board member colleagues and within the
community. The board chair appointed two of the newly elected board members to work with
the superintendent to develop alternative calendars. Additionally, the board chair directed
administration to conduct an online survey of stakeholders on the calendar issue and present the results to the board in less than one week’s time. The survey results indicated
overwhelming opposition to changing the calendar, but the four board members nevertheless
put the item on the board meeting agenda and, by a 4-3 vote, changed the school-year
calendar.The result has been widespread anger and distrust among a large contingent of the district’s stakeholders. Many stakeholders have voiced their displeasure at board meetings, public forums and in the news media, and have complained that the four board members who voted for changing the calendar failed to provide a valid rationale for doing so other than the fact that they campaigned on the issue. Other stakeholders have submitted multiple Open Records Requests to district administration asking for data pertaining to the calendar issue and board member emails. Retrieving information in response to these requests has consumed many hours of staff time. Additionally, on April 1, 2011 the entire Board of Education was summoned to appear before the Cobb County Grand Jury to answer questions about the calendar approval process, among other issues.
The calendar issue has created stark division between the four supporting board members and the three opposed. One of the opposed board members, David Banks, has used his constituent email newsletter, David’s Grapevine, to publicly criticize his four colleagues, and in at least one instance used the district’s email network to distribute the newsletter. These actions are a clear violation of district policy and the board’s own ethics policy.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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146 comments Add your comment
@Mike
April 30th, 2011
8:35 am
Mr. Sanderson promised in a public board meeting that the board would have the opportunity to review his response to SACS. I do not believe the system’s attorneys saw the letter. I do not believe the CCSD board reviewed the letter, or it would not have been sent like this. It is a personal attack, and vindictive. I agree it is grounds for firing.
Cobb History Teacher
April 30th, 2011
8:48 am
@Juts Wondering
Well Said!
Teacher-Mom in Cobb
April 30th, 2011
8:51 am
Am now officially a member of Team Fred! I read his entire response, and it was quite accurate. The newest board members are in way over their heads. Unfortunately, all of this is infighting is making the recruiting of a new superintendent even more difficult. Who would want to come to a system that is attacked on a daily basis by its local paper (Marietta Daily Journal) and has a board that can’t agree on anything?
I hope Allison Bartlett enjoys her last year and half in office because she will be voted out come November of 2012.
My 3 cents
April 30th, 2011
8:53 am
@ another comment: just wanted to address the remediation that you mentioned in your post for one of the 5th graders. For the past couple of years there has not been CRCT summer school for students who did not meet in math/reading in 5th & 8th grade (no funds). These students would still have to retake the test but the county put the task on the local schools for coming up with a way to “remediate” the students during the school day. It’s a terrible situation especially because it has to be handled differently from school to school. In one school, there might only be a handful of students that don’t meet so you might only need one or two teachers to work with those students. In another school, you might need 8-10 teachers to do this with 8-12 students in each session for 3 hours a day (which is what summer school would have been). The students who are remediated typically are targeted during the year from their performance in class and on benchmark tests. When the results come back (hopefully the end of this week) if the students passed, they will leave the remediation schedule or begin it. I agree there is a disparity between many of the schools in the county but there are also major differences in enrollment as well. That is something I’d love to see the board address- it’s completely unfair to have a MS with 1400 students surrounded by other MS with 800.
As for the BOE, it’s not so much “they campaigned on the issue so they stood up for it, blah blah blah,” the board is being investigated (and they have had to testify in front of a Grand Jury) because of the manner in which they reversed the calendar and other questionable decisions they have made and potential violations regarding the search for a new superintendent.
For a county that has always patted itself on the back heavily and tooted its own horn, all of this negativity should be a concern for it (as well as why superintendent candidates are backing out of consideration).
And as far as the projects/work over breaks: our principal has sent out a memo before every single break informing the staff that we are not to assign work over the break and this memo is coming from the area superintendent. If your child is getting inundated with projects, you need to take that up with your local school and not attack other teachers on here about it.
Cobb History Teacher
April 30th, 2011
9:00 am
@War Jacket
Two points to go along with what you said.
1. Remember the Chinese and the Indians don’t test everyone. They realize not everyone is cut out for post-secondary education so they place them in technical and vocational programs which in most cases are more important that turning out college graduates. When you have a pipe burst in the winter a well-trained plumber is far more important that a PhD in physics.
2. Remember we’re Americans we want our cake and we want to eat it too. We want a long summer, and breaks during the year (when they’re convenient for the family, and when they’re not we’ll just pull our kids and go to Disney World anyway and expect all the missed work to just go away) but we also want our kids to learn a lot. I want my children to play and have fun and get A’s. I want my child to get multiple chances to turn work in even if it is 2 – 3 weeks late and the class has moved on to a new unit. I want discipline in the schools but I don’t want my child held accountable when they break the rules. When my child is wronged I want revenge, when my child wrongs someone else I want forgiveness.
I could go on.
Teachincobb
April 30th, 2011
9:24 am
Just want to make note of the fact that many parents who were opposed to the balanced calendar originally have changed sides since it was implemented because they see the good it does for the students in lack of burnout. It has been refreshing this year not to see the sheer numbers of absences by teachers and students alike because they get the down time they need to stay fresh and healthy. In addition, office referrals for student misbehavior are down sharply. No one seems interested in the facts, in fact many parents just want their “daycare.”
My wish is that the emails from the board members would be made public. My understanding is that they (the four) spent more time on email trashing other board members and teachers than they did actually looking out for what is best for the students or the county. It is incredibly discouraging ro work for a group who has NO RESPECT for their employees. Cobb is being made a fool of while these four continue to dictate.
Another West Cobb Parent
April 30th, 2011
10:16 am
Teachincobb is correct that the board has no respect for thier emplyees. An effective leader is willing to listen to thier employees. Bartlett has failed to build a cohesive board and refuses to listen to the stakeholders in the district. She turned in her politics card to the three new board members to become chair. Now she has to vote the way the new three members want her to. She should have refused the special meeting in January and taken the time to listen to the stakeholders. I firmly place the blame for this mess on Bartlett as she is not an effective leader.
UGAJD
April 30th, 2011
10:24 am
Public education in metro ATL is a mess… and the mess starts at the top. Thank God my children go to private school.
love2teach
April 30th, 2011
10:32 am
@ Cobb History Teacher and Teacher Mom in Cobb: Well said.
As a teacher, voter, and now active political campaigner in Ms. Bartlett’s district, I hope that Ms. Bartlett understands why this next year and a half my be her last years in office. Her divisive “leadership” style continues to drive down the quality of education in Cobb.
@Love2teach
April 30th, 2011
10:54 am
Do you have a plan to convince the majority of Bartlett’s district, which is not in West Cobb, that she is unfit for office? It’s the first time anyone has ever paid attention to us. We see her as supportive, and could care less what calendar anyone wants. We just want our children educated, and our schools given the same opportunity for success.
AJinCobb
April 30th, 2011
11:32 am
@CobbMomOf3,
“… but many of us did not know that we would actually change our minds and end up LIKING the balanced calendar until we had a chance to see the effects on our children. After seeing this, many of us who had in fact voted these people into office realized that we had been wrong and that the balanced calendar was in fact better for our children. At the time they were voted into office, we had not actually LIVED the balanced calendar for more than a few months. With time, the realization that our children were doing better, test scores were improving, (at a time when increased class sizes, etc. gave us every reason to expect them to go down this year) attendance was improving…these truths started to sink in and many of us started changing our minds about the traditional calendar being for the best.”
Thanks so much for posting the above comment! I grew up in a foreign country where the school calendar is much more like Cobb’s short-lived “balanced” calendar. Therefore, I always favored the idea of the “balanced” calendar – I knew from personal experience that it would be better for most children, and I was deeply frustrated by all the good parents I knew who were campaigning vigorously against it, I guess because it was unfamiliar, and American culture is fairly conservative. People’s first reaction to the idea of change tends to be that they don’t like it and don’t want it and the old way has been working fine.
My child is a high-schooler and I did notice that all his friends (and their parents) were very much liking the regular breaks in the school schedule. They were all very enthusiastic about how it made life management less stressful. Oh well, so much for that. It was nice for 2010-2011.
sup faux pas?
April 30th, 2011
11:46 am
i really am not sure i understand sanderson’s position: he and the former school board members pushed thru a balanced schedule and, when the voting populace shows their displeasure he takes it out on his employers? i think sanderson – like any administrator – is certainly allowed an opinion; but in the final analysis, shouldn’t he be more selective with how he disagrees publicly? after all, he really doesn’t have any say in how he will implement a board decision; he is just required to do what he is told, regardless of his opinion. honestly, how can the board retain someone who so flagrantly demonstrates disdain for its policies? i’m not even debating the worth of one calendar vs. another: i am questioning how sanderson is able to have a job after throwing his bosses under the bus.
Another West Cobb Parent
April 30th, 2011
12:22 pm
Bartlett is not supportive. She’s voiting the way the three new board members are voting. She has to vote with them to return the favor of making her chair. A good leader would have been able to avoid all of this by engaging all of the stakeholders and building an environment where all concerned have a voice. Instead they have pushed thier own personal agendas. Bartlett is clearly the one to blame for this mess in the first place.
I don’t care about the calendar. What I’m furious about is how it was handled and how there was no open discussion on the facts and figures behind the decision. If they had a good reason to vote that way then explain it. Instead they went with the because I said so route.
TimR
April 30th, 2011
12:23 pm
As a Cobb Parent, I am both saddened and proud. While I do not know Fred Sanderson personally, I have found him in public settings to handle himself professionally and always exhibits a strong desire to act in a manner that is best for the education of our children. I am saddened that as a group we would elect individuals that would place their campaign promises and personal objectives above what is best for our county and for our children. Though I am sure he may have a professional opionion, I did not find any instance in Fred’s letter where he expressed a preference for either calendar, only a desire for a board to 1) value the input from the whole of it’s constituents and 2) support and improve the work of the professional administrators tasked with educating our children.
Cobb voter
April 30th, 2011
1:21 pm
To East Cobb Parent. Evidently your children are having a different experience than my child had. He was educated by some very good teachers and some so-so teachers in the Cobb County School System. He did his homework, participated in class, studied, had lots of extra-curriculars. Cobb County schools and teachers gave him such a good foundation that he graduated with distinction from the honors program at his college and did his graduate work at an Ivy League.
This is not about bragging. It is about affirming how good the schools are and can be. I think we are tearing our schools apart arguing over calendars and grading systems. I agree, the last board played bad games, was too secretive, and that Sanderson was complicit in some of it. But, I don’t think changing the calendar or changing the grading system is going to suddenly improve the educational opportunity of our children. They are side issues, touch points that generate more anger against some amorphous “other” than actually deal with improving education for the kids. What made the difference with my child was good teachers and constant parental support. I know Cobb County has many good teachers. I am not so sure about the parents.
NY Teaching Vet
April 30th, 2011
3:08 pm
@ Just Wondering – well done!
South Cobb parent
April 30th, 2011
4:45 pm
The contempt in which career educators are held on this blog and in our society explains much of the failure to educate in our society. Teachers and administrators have a lot more experience with children than most parents whose exposure to groups of children consists of a couple of birthday parties a year that most pay someone else to host. In one year a rookie teacher has more interactions with more groups of children than the average parent in ten years.
Why do we need school boards to begin with? If not to serve as a voice for the community, which the Cobb board clearly is not, what do they do but hinder operations and create false issues? All the people who lament the level of education of Americans might be surprised to learn that the countries which have exemplary systems do not have local school boards.
For the record, Tim Stulz (CCSD board member) may have given speeches about the calendar, but his campaign website had no content whatsoever save his slogan “accountable leadership.” (Accountable to whom is my question.) He did not answer various questions submitted to him by journalists to put in on-line election guides, nor did he answer the questions put to him by the League of Women Voters, and his opponent did. I researched both of them. I find the claims that he ran on this issue laughably false and disingenuous. That he campaigned at all is questionable. He lives in my neighborhood, and no one even knew who he was or that he lived here. And he won by a hair. A mandate, to be sure.
To the Uninitiated and Vacuous Fringe Element
April 30th, 2011
5:31 pm
To the uninitiated and vacuous, you know who you are. You’re the ones that don’t have a clue what uninitiated and vacuous mean, yet portend to know what’s best for the Cobb school system. 99.9% of you could not begin to have the ability to teach a class day to day, year to year, much less have an opinion about how a system is to be run. You have no idea what the position of being caught between a clueless school board; unreasonable, uninvolved parents; unprepared students; and a federal government that just throws policy at a wall to see what sticks. Teachers are caught in the middle and the students will ultimately be the ones to suffer. Why do you think so many who wanted to be a teacher all their lives, acquire years of education, but are ready to quit once they find out the job is more about paperwork and bureaucratic busy work than teaching. Keep treating teachers as second class citizens and the state will end up dealing with a labor union that will be far worse for the state, but better for the teachers. Keep making stupid decisions, see where it gets you.
Cobb pays a connected law firm millions because the school board does not possess the skills or the I.Q. to make educated, legal decisions regarding school system policy. I say get rid of the school board and have a professional superintendent who knows how a system should be run and is engaged with the community.
Patrick Crabtree
April 30th, 2011
5:52 pm
SACS should stay out of political battles and worry about instruction. Boards should disagree and have the ability to change their minds. There is a way to rid the board politically and that involves the voters. Voter’s rights should never be usurped. No one company should have the power to undo voter’s choice. We are public institutions not private companies. The problem is there are those who would like to lie to the public to make everything “rosy.” This is unacceptable. This is bullying at its best, not democracy. Cobb voters….if you don’t like what the board did, recall them and stop short cutting the process.
madaboutmath
April 30th, 2011
7:04 pm
@Teacher-Mom in Cobb–Right on with your comment about the Marietta Daily Journal. Did you see that article where the four dysfunctional board members were called reformers and Davids fighting against Goliath? Made me absolutely sick. I cannot read that newspaper anymore.
Red Herring
April 30th, 2011
7:05 pm
the school superintendents and administrations are overpaid. when they can’t make simple decisions such as these without creating a “war” type atmosphere then something is wrong. Georgia needs to pass a law requiring counties to pay the excess of any salaries of school personnel that are in excess of the Governor’s salary. That would help bring the state’s budget and local budgets under control. There are way too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to Georgia’s education system and vastly overpaid ones at that. The taxpayers should be the ones in revolt.
MS teacher
April 30th, 2011
7:57 pm
The 3 board members campaigned to vote in a better calendar. I think we can all agree that the calendar they chose is not better.
Chris
April 30th, 2011
8:36 pm
I graduated from Cobb schools and now I’m about to send my first through the system. If it weren’t for the actual educators, I wish I weren’t. You can’t initiate a new calendar on a three year basis, then have people elected on changing it after three months and then vote to change it after six. It’s ridiculous.
My kids and I really aren’t going to be affected by either calendar, but it pains me to know that the new board solicited an opinion and ignored the opinion. I also genuinely feel for the one teacher, for example, that booked her non-refundable wedding and honeymoon for the fall break in September that now isn’t there.
Cobb Educator
April 30th, 2011
9:00 pm
As a Cobb Educator, it pains me to see the system going through all of this turmoil. When I started working in Cobb 20 years ago, I loved the schools and their reputation in the state. I thought about how much better the education system was than where I grew up. Now… I am glad my child is graduating this year. Cobb County Schools have forgotten about our greatest investment- OUR KIDS. NO ONE is putting the children first. EVERY policy implemented should put the children first! The adults are really ruining the futures of so many children because of their own selfish agendas.
Cobb History Teacher
April 30th, 2011
9:12 pm
@Chris
Good point. If they ran on a promise to change the calendar they why didn’t they just change it? Why solicit the citizens of Cobb and then change it even though the survey (de-rigged and all) said leave it be?
Teacher
April 30th, 2011
9:19 pm
It saddens me to read comments from teachers who are so defeated by the difficulties we find ourselves in as educators. Though the challenges we face are very real and mostly uncalled for, our work is noble and necessary. The students who sit in my class are not responsible for the overburdensome federal regulation, disfunctional school boards, or dwindling resources. They are there because they need to learn. And I need to teach them.When they enter my classroom and we begin to work together wonderful things happen. No school board member ever sees it, no empoyee of the Federal Education Department is a witness, no policy maker is privy. Put it happens. I know it. My students know it. And the world is different because of it. No teacher should ever lose sight of how powerful teaching is. They denegrade us in the press, but they don’t know. Politicians blame us for everything, but they don’t know. We know. We know the nobility of helping students reach their highest potential. We’re there when their worlds are expanded and their skills developed and refined. Amidst all the clutter, don’t lose heart.
Cobb History Teacher
April 30th, 2011
9:32 pm
@Chris
Good point. If they ran on a promise to change the calendar why didn’t they just change it? Why solicit the citizens of Cobb and then change it even though the survey (de-rigged and all) said leave it be?
PapaG
April 30th, 2011
10:41 pm
This law giving the governor the power to remove board of education members have only opened the door for superintendents who disagree with board members the opportunity to get even and get them ousted. Many superintendents will use this to their advantage when they can not get their way. This is evident in many of the cases. And why have local boards of education the target? No other elected official can be removed this way. Who removes the governor when he steps out of line? Oh, I forgot. We, the voters do! Give me a break GA legislature. This law needs to be repealed.
money now
April 30th, 2011
11:06 pm
the cobb school board—dysfunctional, embarrassing. These morons are on the board only to get contracts for their connections and family–nothing more. they are totally ineffective at making schools better.
still there
May 1st, 2011
12:04 am
@West Cobb Parent – you say teachers get 10 more weeks than a worker in the private sector to take care of personal business. And then you lay a blame bomb on teachers and accuse of ineptitude.
First, you did not compare the holiday, sick, and vacation days given to those in the private sector. Also the longer a worker stays with a firm/goverment the most leave he/she will have accumulated. Of course that varies by business, but should be considered in your analysis. (And by the way for all readers please remember that teachers are only paid for days worked in school. Teachers do not receive holiday pay or vacation pay for days not worked. We are not paid for required summer training or time wasting conferences. Plus unlike police officers or other public servents prone to furloughs, we have to still do our work and meet the same deadlines even through we are furloughed.)
Second, teachers most often do not have the flexibilty to take off a couple of hours for a doctor visit, banking/legal matter, or even to answer or make important personal phone calls. We do not have the luxury of making up hours missed by working late or working through lunch. We are also responsible/accountable for what happens in our class and with our students even if we are not there. We can’t put anything on hold. Besides many teachers, myself included, do not want to be out since it can take time from learning. However, with 6 week scheduling we are able to keep up with our own health needs better than in the traditional calendar where most work. Also we are measured by our attendence since the school itself has to pay for the sub teacher.
Third, why the “mean” attitude toward teachers anyway? We are just like everyone else just trying to do the best we can in this shrinking economy and are trying to find ways to break through to kids in distractions of the contempory world. We, better than anyone, know the importance of what we do. Stop the hating. We’re doing our best to help your kids. There’s pluses and minuses to any career path. And like every profession there are good, average, and bad. And like everywhere else the bad is the minority. Blame bombs do nothing to problem solve and especially do not move a conversation foward.
Ben
May 1st, 2011
4:22 am
Just another thing for people to whine about. Move on folks no story here.
I_teach_in_Henry
May 1st, 2011
7:12 am
The balanced calendar has reduced the number of teacher absences (saving money), student absences, and mental fatigue. Students do need one day (not a week…!) to swing back into the routine, but the difference was really noticeable when we lost our Feb. break due to make-up snow days. You could tell by the end of Feb. that they were losing focus, and needed a break.
There is NO reason why a balanced calendar cannot begin later in August. However, for some reason, people in GA are allergic to the idea of going to school in June. I keep proposing that we start at the end of August (as we did when I began teaching in GA 15 years ago) and go later into June. June is cooler than August…it makes sense.
Also-although the buildings are air conditioned/heated during the time off, I can promise you, the entire building is NOT (one of the reasons I refuse to go in in the summer. Windowless, hot, humid classrooms are not conducive for working).
Henry parents whined at the beginning of the balanced calendar also. We heard how ‘inconvenient’ it was for them (yes, because our job is NOT to educate; it is to conveniently watch your children). However, I have YET to meet a parent who wants to go back to the traditional calendar. Many have cited how much cheaper family vacations are after Labor Day,and most of our students take family vacations then.
I personally like it; just when my kids are getting mentally fatigued, we have a break. Even the skeptical teachers realized the benefits after seeing how the kids behaved/focused when we lost our break this winter!
I_teach_in_Henry
May 1st, 2011
7:17 am
@still there..
THANK YOU.
You’ve cleared up (AGAIN) so many myths about our “easy, cushy, jobs.” Recently someone said how “nice it must be to have all that paid time off.” Imagine their shock when I explained that we are not paid; we get checks over the breaks because they stretch out my 190 day salary over 12 months.
Also, you forgot to mention the totally worthless “contracts” we sign. Ours don’t have our salary OR work location; they use the “the legislature hasn’t set the salary scale,” excuse to weasel out of the law.
My contract also specified I would work for 190 days and get paid for 190 days. However, in Henry, we took 8 furlough days this year (6 in 2009-2010), and our salaries were adjusted accordingly.
This is despite that “legally, binding, contract.”
Now, had I gone to the BOE and said, “Hey! I know I signed this legally binding contract to work 190 days and get paid for that, but I’ve decided to take 8 days off-and you will still pay me,” I’d be fired.
An administrator I know told me once that the contracts are for the BOE-definitely NOT for the teachers…..
Chillahill43
May 1st, 2011
7:36 am
Hey if y’all can read this thank a teacher. Why? Because It’s not parents teaching their kids. No the parents are too busy bi$;!ing and moaning about why the teachers are overpaid And underworked. These same parents that sit and watch American Idol and play playstation games with their kids are too self absorbed with their own needs to help the kids learn. Johnny cant read- well I took em to school in my new vulvo- johnny cant write? Hmm I got him a new smartphone, hz wrting semz gud 2 me- kewl!!! Johnny cant think? Hmmm maybe its because he stayed up till midnight watching Rasslin- oh johnny can name every wrestler to walk across the stage on TV. Show him a picture of Shakespeare and watch that befuddled look appear.
The parents don’t want to help their kids! They want to blame a teacher. Start doing your jobs at home, maybe a No or two; You know, be a parent not one of their pals.
And no I’m not a teacher, but I do know that 90% of you People out there couldn’t teach. But yall got the blame game and bit($ing and moaning down good. It takes dedication and hard work to teach. And while ya’ll or at Disney, most teachers are working to prepare for the next year. Not expecting someone else to do their jobs for them . Like most of todays parents.
Ron
May 1st, 2011
8:16 am
Ben is right. Many years ago I took a class on stress control. One of the first things I learned is that you should only worry about things you can control. I guess many parents think they control everything that goes on and without accepting reality they like to complain and blame others – especially teachers. Apparently this makes them feel better about their own inadequacies and deficiencies. Get over it.
confused
May 1st, 2011
9:20 am
A balanced calender school year is a joke. More breaks is not the way to improve education. If you still feel you need one then why not start in September and end in late June? And while I am at it SACS is a corrupt joke in itself. They have thier own agenda and ideas and they can strong arm school systems to run the way they want. Thier system of giving the superintendent almost total control takes that control one step farther away from the voters.
TeacherMom4
May 1st, 2011
9:34 am
Just an aside about the Disney price complaint (so important, right?): The Northeast has had February vacation forever. I grew up with half the population of my state headed to Disney World the week of Presidents Day. Their pricing for February did not change when Cobb County, GA decided to have vacation then; it’s always been that way. It is high season for them.
I see the value of a February break because the spring burnout rate is so high in both kids and adults in school. I think it’s especially bad here because school starts so early in August. We’ve been at it for a long time before spring break, with only a few weeks left of school after. The fact that we have 2 weeks in the winter doesn’t really remedy that because we’ve been in school for so long already. To be honest, I would far rather have the schedule I grew up with: start after Labor Day, Columbus Day off, Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving off, 1.5 weeks at Christmas, semester ends mid-January, week of Presidents Day off, one week in April (week of the 18th–Patriots Day for Mass. and Maine), end of school in mid-June. But, really, it’s not worth getting all worked up about. I get paid the same regardless of start and end dates or vacation scheduling.
Like many other teachers on this blog, I had other jobs in private industry prior to teaching. I can honestly say that while I enjoyed days off in those jobs, I didn’t need them like I do now. I could go six months or a year without vacation and not get too stressed out. Teaching is a whole different level of stress, most of which is caused by factors beyond my control.
Teasley Parent
May 1st, 2011
11:48 am
I am a product of the 1960s and 1970s Cobb County School system. I can honestly say it is embarrassing to watch the Board on television. It’s sometimes sounds like a SNL skit but all too often I realize this isn’t comedy on purpose. I don’t see one person on the board that seems head and shoulders above the others. They are kind of a motley crew that seems more into their own petty bickering than anything else. I was against an August 5th start last year and anyone who supports that calendar I think is more focused on Cobb County funded baby sitting than their child’s education.
Fed up in Cobb
May 1st, 2011
11:55 am
With all the hype about the calendar issue, many have forgotten about last year’s debacle regarding the RIF. Fred Sanderson and the other BOE members approved the system whereby they allowed a brand new teacher evaluation system to be used to “justify” the RIF of dozens of teachers, many of whom were highly effective and beloved.
A majority of those teachers were “re-hired” by the CCSD however, several EXCELLENT and proven, highly effective teachers – including one teacher whose students’ test scores were the highest in the grade level of the school- were “let go” due to personality conflicts with their principal and assistant administrators who, in turn, inflated ridiculously minor issues into something worthy of ending these teachers hard earned careers.
I am the FIRST person to agree that teachers who are “simply earning a paycheck” with no effectiveness (or worse) in student achievement should be let go. The problem is that the system that Fred and the BOE enacted didn’t really care about true teacher effectiveness and there were no legitimate ways to counteract the system that was put into place. Despite what some think, there are no unions in Georgia and the advocacy groups that pretend to be in support of teachers also are beholden to administrators.
When you consider that for one teacher, at least 40 different parents/taxpayers of Cobb, who, by the way, ARE supposed to be the people who maintain the top spot in the CCSD organization chart:
http://www.cobbk12.org/centraloffice/superintendent/10-11_org_chart_0211.pdf
when we tried to speak up regarding this teacher’s PROVEN effectiveness with our own children, our opinions were COMPLETELY dismissed and disregarded as irrelevant. Instead of investigating the administrator’s/ assistant administrator’s intentions, they fired the teacher and promoted the administrator! WHAT?
Now, the “word on the street” at school, where this highly regarded teacher was Rif’d, is that the assistant administrator has committed several MAJOR CRCT violations. So, Fred, are you going to look into this situation and have SACS look into the truth of the assistant administrator’s incompetence (there are MANY more instances of incompetence that could be shared) or is the calendar issue going to be more important to you in the waning days of your contract?
If you continue to ignore this issue and instead continue to worry more about who wins in the calendar issue, without paying attention to the REAL needs and success of our children, it will prove to me and the rest of Cobb that the CCSD has completely lost its way.
Fred, please make your final swan song a good one, the children of Cobb need it. Let’s worry more about substance than about appearance.
TimeOut
May 1st, 2011
2:59 pm
In many other first-world nations where high school teachers also work a ten-hour day, first and last classes of the day are cancelled (teachers are not responsible for ’supervision’ so they may study/work where they choose) and classes during the rest of the day are covered by other teachers. There are no substitutes. Martyrs don’t staff the classrooms. Rather, teachers hold hard-won, coveted positions for whom the community members in general demonstrate much respect. This isn’t Mars. These are other places on this planet. Our students deserve no less than those of other prosperous countries. They are well-served by a community that holds them accountable for the use of their time, their conduct, etc. Teens who share minimal or no accountability for their academic performance or their respectful conduct toward others will not profit academically or in terms of character-building as much as those who do. Many of our parents are doing an outstanding job. The community does not always make this easier. Frequently, the ’standards’ of many interfere with responsible parents’ attempts to raise their children to be the kind of people we would all want living next door. Such people can contend with any calendar, any time. However, a shorter summer, perhaps no more than six weeks, would allow more class time. This will be of benefit to students who work while they are there. For others, it just increases their opportunities to hassle and bully the former, as well as their teachers. If we could ‘just say no’ to those who refuse to learn, who refuse to behave, we could accomplish so much more.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
May 1st, 2011
6:55 pm
Isn’t it time for us Georgians to replace our excuse- and appearance-based public schooling with results-based public education?
Warrior Woman
May 2nd, 2011
11:18 am
Sanderson threw the school board under the bus because the new members refused to cave to his chosen calendar, instead of representing the people that elected him. There is nothing unethical about keeping your word, which the new members did. Sanderson and the old guard are symptomatic of what is wrong with Cobb schools. Sanderson created this debacle by encouraging people that support the balanced calendar to write SACS.
@Just Wondering – YOU may not give assignments over breaks, but that is NOT what my children have experienced in CCSD schools. Assignments over breaks are routine in their schools, to the point of sometimes have a major project in every class assigned a day or 2 before break and due within a day or 2 after break. We’ve had teachers tell us that assignments will be due the Tuesday after break instead of the Monday when school resumes, so that the teacher can say they’ve complied with county policy.
@CobbDad – From what I’ve seen, it’s Banks, Crowder-Eagle, and Sanderson that are unethical and dysfunctional.
Posterchild
May 2nd, 2011
2:02 pm
Does anyone know if the calendar issue is set in stone for now? I might be working in Cobb next year, so it would be good to know. Thanks!
Just Wondering...
May 2nd, 2011
5:02 pm
@ Warrior Woman – then you need to take up the issue with your children’s principal, and not complain about it here, where it does no good. My children, in competitive East Cobb schools, didn’t have a problem with work assigned over breaks. I don’t (nor do most of my colleagues) give projects over breaks – your children’s situation doesn’t negate that. My reality is my truth, and yours is yours. It doesn’t make either of us incorrect (or liars). With 69 elementaries, 25 middle, and 16 high schools, don’tcha just think it might be likely that we could both be right??
What, me worry??
May 2nd, 2011
10:27 pm
Worried about the calendar? Dissent among the board? Maybe they could get some tips from these two on being lovers, and not fighters:
http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/teens-accused-of-having-932694.html
@just wondering
May 3rd, 2011
6:34 am
All Cobb Schools are different, because all principals are different – some excellent, and some that …well, need more “training”. I too have issues at a Cobb Middle School with teachers who have not entered grades in Pinnacle since March. We also had “packets” of work due over break. We also had grades taken on CRCT practice tests (?) Sadly, the principal is contacted, and does nothing. In fact, the principal pretty much does whatever he/she wants. This is the legacy of Fred Sanderson – if you are or your husband is a close friend of Mr. Sanderson’s, there is no accountability. His letter to SACS did not surprise me one bit. Hopefully, a new superintendent with no ties to the district will be hired to clean up this mess.