Banks' School Calendar Plan Fails, 5-1

The Cobb County Board of Education voted 5-1 Thursday night to kill a proposal to less than two months before the start of classes.

The only yes vote came from the plan’s author, David Banks of East and Northeast Cobb’s Post 5. Lynnda Crowder-Eagle of West Cobb’s Post 1 abstained.

The four members who formed the majority Feb. 17 when the and its Aug. 1 start date again were united behind the more traditional calendar and its Aug. 15 start: Chairwoman Alison Bartlett of Post 7 south and west of Marietta; Vice Chairman Scott Sweeney of East Cobb’s Post 6; Tim Stultz of Smyrna's Post 2; and Kathleen Angelucci of North Cobb's Post 4.

Joining them in voting no was South Cobb’s David Morgan of Post 3, who joined Banks and Crowder-Eagle on the losing side in February and to put the proposal on Thursday’s agenda.

The revival of the calendar debate drew 10 speakers during the public-comment period Thursday. Most of them backed Banks’ plan.

But Kennesaw parent Gordon Bartel, who expressed a preference for the traditional calendar, had strong words about the need for board members to make a final decision.

“I wish the board would get their act straight,” he said.

While most of the comments from the public and from board members covered familiar ground, Sweeney made a 10-minute presentation to try to put the issue to rest.

Before showing PowerPoint slides, Sweeney used Banks’ own words from his March 20, 2009, e-newsletter against him. Sweeney said Banks made two statements against changing a calendar with only five months before the start of a school year.

“The agenda item that Mr. Banks presented today is just 46 days before the 2011-2012 school year commences,” Sweeney said.  

He also said Banks acknowledged that the recommended at least one year’s notice before a calendar change. Some advocates of the balanced calendar responded by yelling, “You didn’t give us a year!”

Sweeney’s slide show focused first on the argument that the balanced calendar has boosted test scores.

He said overall district test scores did improve during the 2010-11 school year, but the numbers are worse “when you peel away the skin of an onion” and look closer.

Focusing on the countywide improvement in Iowa Test of Basic Skills results, Sweeney showed that in most cases more than 40 percent of schools saw no improvement or had a decline in scores for the grades taking the test.

Sweeney then took aim at the belief that the balanced calendar reduced absences. Although attendance improved by 4.2 percent districtwide in the first semester of 2010-11 compared with the first semester of 2009-10, Sweeney pointed out that attendance got worse at Pebblebrook, Campbell, Oakwood and Kell high schools by as much as 23.9 percent.

“While the balanced calendar is good for some, it’s not good for all,” he said at least twice before ending his presentation with a district map showing more than 30 Cobb schools with worse attendance records in 2010-11.

Banks later told Patch he had thought his proposal would garner more support from his colleagues.

He said he doesn’t plan to discuss the 2011-12 calendar again. But future calendars are another matter.

“For this year,” he said, the issue is dead. “You can’t do anything now. But I’m going to continue to fight for what the constituents want.”