Cobb School Board Approves Calendar

By a 4-2 vote, the board adopted Superintendent Michael Hinojosa's recommendation to begin the 2013-14 school year on Aug. 7.

The Cobb Board of Education adopted an academic year 2013-14 calendar Thursday night that left some members of a specially-appointed calendar committee disappointed. By a 4-2 vote, the board approved a recommendation by Superintendent Michael Hinojosa for a 180-day instructional calendar that would begin on Aug. 7, 2013 and conclude on May 21, 2013. Included in the vote was an amendment by board member Alison Bartlett to use the brief fall break days of Oct. 7-8 or to delay the start of the school year if furlough days are added during future budget deliberations. Hinojosa's recommendation was a modification of various proposals considered by the calendar committee, which was made up of parents and school system teachers and staff. While …

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Wendy Parker

7:04 pm on Friday, October 26, 2012

Got that corrected Frank, thanks for letting us know.   more ›

Cobb School Calendar Vote Scheduled

A member of a special calendar committee is upset with Superintendent Hinojosa's recommendation for the 2013-14 school year.

Several proposed calendars for the 2013-14 academic year will likely be up for discussion when the Cobb Board of Education holds its October business meeting Thursday. A vote is scheduled on adopting a calendar, but the measure became more complicated at the board's work session earlier this month because of multiple proposals that were submitted. The meeting Thursday will take place at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover Street, Marietta. An executive session is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nine different proposals for next year's school calendar have been floated for possible action. They include a recommendation from Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, as well as proposals from board members …

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School Calendar Proposals Increase

The Cobb school board was presented nine different calendars this week and isn't close to deciding on any of them.

School Calendar Proposals Increase

The Cobb school board was presented nine different calendars on Wednesday.

Sorting through nine calendar proposals for the 2013-14 school year will occupy a good bit of the Cobb Board of Education's for the next couple of weeks. That's how many different proposals were presented during Wednesday's work session. The board is expected to vote at its business meeting on Oct. 25, but the job of whittling down that list has become more complicated. Board member David Banks and Superintendent Michael Hinojosa detailed their calendars prior to the work session. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, board member Alison Bartlett also has submitted a proposal (see attached PDF), as has a calendar committee created last year at the behest of Hinojosa, who said during the meeting he has no preference. 

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Cobb School Calendar Issue Resumes

Proposals by Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and board member David Banks will be discussed at Wednesday's work session.

Multiple school calendar proposals will be brought before the Cobb Board of Education on Wednesday, restarting a debate that embroiled the board for much of 2011. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who urged the board to create a committee to tackle calendar planning, will be offering a different calendar than conflicting recommendations by the panel. School board member David Banks, a central figure in the school calendar controversy when it first came up in early 2011, also will be submitting his own proposal. The discussion will take place at the board's monthly work session, which begins at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover Street, Marietta. The entire agenda is available …

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School Calendar Committee Reaches Agreement

The panel has hammered out a calendar for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years.

The 21-member group charged with creating a school calendar for the next two school years has reached an agreement on the divisive issue and produced calendars for the next two school years. According to the Marietta Daily Journal, the 2013-14 school year would start on Aug. 1, with a fall break in late September. An additional winter break would be held between Feb. 14-17.  The next task of the group, which includes Kell High School's new principal Dr. Ed Wagner, is to narrow their two calendars down to one in order to present it to School Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa. Hinojosa expects the Cobb County School Board to vote on the new calendar some time in October.

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Parents Can Join School Calendar Panel

Apply by Monday, March 26 to help set the 2013-14 Cobb academic schedule.

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…

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Calendar Back on School Board Agenda

At Wednesday's work session, David Banks will propose moving up the start dates for the 2012-13 school year.

Scott Sweeney's first meeting as chairman of the Cobb Board of Education on Wedesday will feature an old subject.  David Banks, Sweeney's fellow East Cobb representative on the school board, wants to move up the start of the 2012-13 school year two weeks to Aug. 1.  His proposal is one of many items on the first regularly scheduled work session of the year, and it rehashes the familiar school calendar arguments that occupied much of the school board's activity last year.  But as The Marietta Daily Journal indicated on Tuesday, it's unlikely Banks' move will garner much support on the board, which has been split along 4-3 lines on the issue in the past. The work session begins at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Cobb County School District main …

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Greg T

10:48 am on Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Jack S - My honest opinion is that when I was a kid, I needed the breaks throughout the year. The summers were too long and I forgot a lot of what I learned the year before. Studies do back up my experience as normal not anecdotal. People resist change ,but the balanced calendar does make for a better learning experience. Maybe the reason people keep wanting to go back to this issue is that they …   more ›

Cobb School Calendar Ignites Debate

The Cobb school board's decision to revert to a "traditional" calendar was the top local education story for 2011.

It was the issue that refused to go away, because the heated emotions it engendered took months to cool down. When the deeply divided Cobb Board of Education voted 4-3 in February to revert from a "balanced" to a "traditional" academic calendar, the decision set a lingering wave of anger from factions of parents on either side of the matter who didn't back down.  East Cobb's two elected representatives also came down on either side of the calendar issue, and like many parties in this story, did not waver in their views. Comments from parents poured in to East Cobb Patch and other news outlets for weeks after the vote, and they contine today.  David Banks, who represents the Pope, Lassiter and Sprayberry High School districts, vowed to …

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Cobb Submits Final SACS Report

One board member says the group has been "working together" as "good stewards."

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…

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