Thursday, March 21, 2013
Teacher layoffs have not been recommended as the projected budget deficit for FY 2014 has jumped to $86.4 million.
The chief financial officer for the Cobb County School District is proposing five furlough days, hundreds of school-level staff reductions, borrowing from reserve funds and cancelling an employee cost-of-living increase to help balance a fiscal year 2014 budget deficit that has grown to an estimated $86.4 million. The proposed cuts do not include a recommendation for teacher layoffs, but savings through attrition. In a special budget presentation to the Cobb Board of Education, chief financial officer Brad Johnson said his estimates were revised up from nearly $80 million earlier this year, largely due to rising insurance costs for district employees. He is projecting $894 million in expenses against $807.6 million in anticipated revenues…
Friday, March 1, 2013
The Cobb school superintendent's contract was due to expire on June 30.
With no discussion, the Cobb Board of Education voted Thursday night to extend the contract of Superintendent Michael Hinojosa through the end of calendar year 2014. By a 5-2 vote, the board approved an extension -- which is not a renewal -- for Hinojosa, whose initial two-year contract was to have ended on June 30 of this year. Board member Kathleen Angelucci tried inserting an amendment to delay the decision pending the results of surveys from staff, teachers and parents, but her motion gained the support of only one other colleague, David Banks. They voted against the extension, with board chairman Randy Scamihorn, vice chairman Brad Wheeler and members Scott Sweeney, David Morgan and Tim Stultz voting in favor. "I'm excited about it," …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Cobb and Marietta school superintendents are panelists at today's National Alternative Education Association gathering.
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Thursday, February 7
From a press release issued by the Cobb County School District: Dr. Michael Hinojosa, Superintendent for the Cobb County School District, will serve as one of several guest speakers in a panel discussion of public school leaders at the National Alternative Education Association (NAEA) Annual Conference Feb. 6-8 in Atlanta. Dr. Hinojosa will be joined on the Superintendent’s Panel by Marietta City Schools Superintendent Dr. Emily Lembeck; Richard Storm, principal of Union Alternative School in Oklahoma; Susie Bunch, Director of Schools for Lexington, Tennessee City School system and Anthony Pack, Superintendent of Monroe County Schools in Forsyth County, Georgia. The NAEA is a support and advocacy organization for educators who work with …
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
The Cobb schools chief's open letter on the Newtown shootings and school security.
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Wednesday, December 19, 2012
On Monday Patch published an article about the response of Cobb school officials to the Connecticut school shootings. The following is a statement issued by Cobb County School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa about the same topic. Dear Cobb County Schools Community, We all are in shock and disbelief at the tragic event that occurred last Friday and our hearts pour out to the community of Newtown, Connecticut. As a result of this terrible, senseless act, many concerns about safety have carried over to our own community. I want to reassure parents that Cobb County schools are as safe an environment for your children as you will find anywhere. We have state-of-the-art security resources available, including: In addition, all of our …
Monday, October 22, 2012
Cobb school superintendent Michael Hinojosa and State Rep. Ed Setzler will appear at a PTSA-sponsored event next Monday.
Lassiter High School will be the venue next week for a public forum on HR 1162, a proposed charter school amendment to the Georgia Constitution that appears on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. The Lassiter PTSA and the Mountain View Elementary School PTA are sponsoring the forum, which begins next Monday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lassiter Theater. Lassiter is located at 2601 Shallowford Road in Northeast Cobb. State Rep. Ed Setzler (R-North Cobb), the head of the Cobb legislative delegation, will speak in favor of the amendment. It would allow the Georgia Department of Education to create a committee to approve charter school applications without the authorization of local school boards. Michael Hinojosa, the Cobb County School …
Friday, September 28, 2012
The give-back to teachers and staff will cost the school district $3 million.
One of three staff furlough days imposed by the Cobb Board of Education for the 2012-13 school year has been eliminated. By a 5-2 vote, the board granted on Thursday a paid workday to teachers and support staff that will cost the Cobb County School District an estimated $3 million, to come from reserve funds. Voting against the measure were Tim Stultz, of Post 2 in the Smyrna area, and Kathleen Angelucci, of Post 4 in North Cobb. They objected because of another significant deficit anticipated for the 2013-14 school year. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said no detailed analysis has been done yet, but estimated the hole will be "at least" $40 million. In May, the board approved the three furlough days in closing a $62 million gap to …
Friday, April 13, 2012
The Cobb school superintendent wants to avoid cutting teachers to balance the budget.
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Friday, April 13, 2012
Superintendent Michael Hinojosa would rather dip deeper into reserves than resort to layoffs if attrition doesn’t meet the Cobb County School District’s plan to cut 350 teaching positions. The school system is 200 teachers short of that 350 goal, Hinojosa said during Wednesday’s Cobb Board of Education work session. But even though that’s behind the predicted pace, he said he expects attrition to do the fiscal dirty work. Last year Cobb schools lost 320 teachers from this point until the end of the school year, Hinojosa said. “I think it’s unfortunate, the bit of news that you bring up—the people leaving aren’t matching up to expectations—because the last thing we want to be in position to do is to lay off teachers,” said board member Tim …
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Apply by Monday, March 26 to help set the 2013-14 Cobb academic schedule.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2012
The chance to stop arguing about the Cobb County School District calendar and start doing something about it has arrived. The school system is forming the calendar advisory committee proposed last fall by Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and, after much discussion, approved 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…
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The new Cobb school superintendent has made major administrative changes and tackled the touchy calendar issue. What grade would you give him?
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Since he began his tenure as Cobb schools superintendent, Michael Hinojosa has reorganized his top administrative staff and attempted to settle the long-raging controversy over the school calendar. He inherited another thicket of trouble in a set of complaints from parents that reached all the way to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Georgia Attorney General's office. He wants to overhaul the process by which principals are selected. He appears to be trying to say all the right things as he learns his way around Georgia's second-largest school district, whether it's improving overall student perfomance or closing the achievement gap areas of the county such as South Cobb. After nearly six months on the job, …
Friday, December 2, 2011
One board member says the group has been "working together" as "good stewards."
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Friday, December 2, 2011
The Cobb County School District submitted a progress report Wednesday in the hope of closing the books on last spring’s inquiry by its accrediting agency. Cobb Superintendent Michael Hinojosa told the The Marietta Daily Journal that the report addresses the concerns of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools bullet by bullet and should resolve the accrediting agency’s concerns. School Board Member Tim Stultz of Smyrna told Patch, “Even though there are different viewpoints and philosophies by different members, the Board has been working together to ensure that the school district is providing a quality education while being good stewards of tax payer funds.” The SACS Council on Accreditation and School Improvement sent the school…
Leo Smith
5:56 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
Fund the Teachers 1st! Together we can create better legislation for local education funding. Fund the Educators 1st. LIKE the developing FACEBOOK effort at https://www.facebook.com/EducationFundingPetition -Decrease Teacher Furloughs -Fund Learning Objectives over Buildings -Engage Citizens with a November Ballot on SPLOST Votes -Prioritize Projects Based on Community Needs -Hold the System … more ›