Parents Can Join School Calendar Panel

The chance to stop arguing about the  calendar and start doing something about it has arrived.

The school system is forming the  proposed  and, ,  by the Board of Education.

Each of the county’s four PTA councils—East Cobb, Jessye Coleman, South Cobb and Tom Mathis Sr.—gets two members on the committee, which also will include teachers, administrators and community representatives.

The plan is for the committee to meet three to five times, starting in August, and recommend a 2013-14 calendar to Hinojosa in September.

The hope, perhaps futile, is that the committee can come up with a calendar that bridges the bitter divide between  and .

A balanced calendar starts at the beginning of August, ends the first semester before the end-of-December vacation and scatters weeklong breaks through the school year. A more traditional calendar starts no earlier than mid-August, ends the second quarter in January, and doesn’t have weeklong breaks in September and February.

After the school board  to drop the balanced calendar despite an  showing strong support for that schedule, board member David Banks  to try to switch back.

The board  in January.

Banks, up for re-election this year, represents a part of East Cobb, serving , and  high schools. On the  is Kathleen Angelucci, who represents .

If you want to take on the very public task of jumping into the middle of this argument, your application is due Monday, March 26, to Lori Sweet, the 9th District director of the Georgia PTA.

You have to be a PTA member at one of the Cobb public schools. You can check the attached PDF for your PTA council if you’re a PTA member at a school elsewhere in the county.

A printable copy of the East Cobb Council application form is attached to this article, or you can download a Word document of the form at the school district website.

The district will let you know by May 1 if you’re selected for the committee, which will be unveiled to the public that month.

No word on how the district will make the selections, but parents surely will be watching closely for any signs of an effort to stack the panel for either side of the debate.