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

Schools

Walton's Boozer, Tennis Aces Honored by School Board

Also: Garrison Mill Elementary gets a new principal.

Before tackling charter school business on Thursday, the Cobb Board of Education took time to honor athletic achievers at Walton High School. 

Among those recognized were the eight-time girls tennis state champion from . Under coach Roberta Manheim, the Lady Raiders have compiled a 147-match winning streak, breaking a state record established in 1972. Five of the nine seniors on the 12-person squad plan to compete in tennis at the collegiate level, Manheim said.

The Walton tennis program also was inducted in the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night.

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

Retiring Walton boys soccer coach Bucky Boozer also was recognized as he concludes a 27-year coaching career at the school that included six state championships, including this spring. The other titles came in 1986, 1995, 2002, 2006 and 2008.

In other news involving East Cobb schools, Garrison Mill Elementary principal Paula Huffman resigned, effective June 30. She will be succeeded by  assistant principal Jonathan Giesler. At  assistant administrator Patricia Alford was promoted to assistant principal at the school.

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

* * * * * *

The school board granted the proposed Turning Point Charter Leadership Academy School of Excellence and STEAM Academy of Cobb an additional 30 days to address the problems that led the  administration to recommend rejecting their petitions.

Turning Point received an extension on a 6-1 board vote Thursday night.

Chairwoman Alison Bartlett of Post 7 south and west of Marietta, Vice Chairman Scott Sweeney of East Cobb’s Post 6, Kathleen Angelucci of North Cobb’s Post 4, David Banks of East and Northeast Cobb’s Post 5, Tim Stultz of Smyrna’s Post 2 and David Morgan of South Cobb’s Post 3 voted yes. Lynnda Crowder-Eagle of West Cobb’s Post 1 voted no.

STEAM’s extension followed a 25-minute discussion and a 5-2 vote. Bartlett, Banks, Crowder-Eagle, Stultz and Morgan voted for the extension, and Angelucci and Sweeney were against it.

A third proposed charter school, Foundation Charter School’s Cobb Charter Academy, was rejected as part of the board’s consent agenda.

Turning Point and STEAM join two existing charter schools,  and , as 2012-13 school year petitioners to receive extensions this month. The district administration also recommended rejecting the Mableton school’s proposal, while the Smyrna school asked for the extension before the board received a recommendation.

Bartlett said each group has until July 21 to submit a revised petition so Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction Robert Benson and his staff can review the new information.

Because the petitions typically arrive in 3-inch binders and require 10 to 12 staff members to spend 30 to 40 hours analyzing them, Benson told the board he couldn't make recommendations to them until September.

Board Attorney Clem Doyle suggested that the board meet with Benson in the near future about “tweaking” the charter school policy to ensure the process is as efficient as possible.

Sweeney agreed.

“In these tight financial times, tasking our staff with a constant review of this information and going on with these extensions is costly from a personnel standpoint,” he said. “I would encourage any future charters to essentially have, let’s just say, their ducks in a row when it comes to presenting this information to the district because these perpetual extensions, I think, are going to be fewer and far between.”

Also at the meeting, the board awarded Atlanta’s Cablik Enterprises a $334,250 contract for renovations to  and unanimously approved the personnel report.

Also at the meeting, independent audit firm Bates, Carter & Co. of Gainesville reported the results of a performance audit of the SPLOST III program. The audit found “no incidents of noncompliance.”

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?

More from East Cobb