The Cobb County School Board on Wednesday approved a "balanced calendar" that will shorten summer break for students and staff. The vote was 4-3.
Members who voted for the new calendar were: Lynnda Crowder-Eagle, Holli Cash, John Abraham and David Banks.
Members who voted against were: David Morgan, John Crooks, Alison Bartlett.
The decision sent angry parents pouring into the lobby, with one saying, "they voted, and now we'll vote them out."
"I'm just shocked," said Karen Jaundon, who has a child at Hightower Trail Middle School and Pope High School. Tears welled as she spoke.
"They didn't listen. This came so fast," Jaundon said.
The new calendar is set for the next three years. Jaundon said she is considering putting her children in private schools in Fulton County or homeschooling them. Others, she said, are doing the same to avoid the change.
"The kids don't want it," she said.
Abraham, the board chairman, asked early in the meeting for a vote on the new calendar.
His request was met by gasps coming from parents who packed the Cobb County School District board room for Wednesday's session.
Moments earlier, parents lined up before the panel, ticking off the reasons why changing the school calendar is wrong:
-- Test scores aren't higher.
-- It will be more expensive
-- Students can't get summer jobs.
-- Athletes have less time to practice.
"There's not one shred of credible evidence," supporting a lengthened school year, said Vivian Jackson, who has a child in elementary school and one in high school. "Did you hear one person in favor?"
Jackson, however, said it's a done deal.
Some Cobb parents worry that the system is drifting toward year-round schools.
Under the balanced calendar, school starts the first week of August and ends right before Memorial Day. In exchange for the shortened summer break, school would be out for a week in September and in February.
School system officials say they conducted a survey of employees that showed 51.1 percent favored the balanced calendar.
Four options were being considered:
1. Current Calendar: Most closely resembles the 2009-2010 school year calendar; first day of school is second week of August; last day of school one week before Memorial Day.
2. Mid-August Start Date Calendar: First day of school begins one week later in August; three-day Thanksgiving; Winter Break shortened three days; last day of school one week before Memorial Day in 2010-2011; 2011-2012.
3. Current Calendar Plus February Vacation: Resembles current calendar but adds week off in February; last day of school is Friday before Memorial Day.
4. Balanced Calendar: First day of school is first week of August; one-week vacation breaks at mid-term in September and February; last day of school is Friday before Memorial Day.
Cobb School Superintendent Fred Sanderson said teachers were polled on the four calendar options. Most chose the balanced calender, followed by the current one.
Board member Alison Bartlett said teachers from at least five different schools were coerced in voting for the balanced calendar, again drawing gasps from the audience.
Bartlett said changing to a balanced calendar sends a mixed message about whether the Cobb School District wants to save money. Faculty and staff did not work on Fridays during the summer, cutting back on energy costs in an attempt to save on electricity bills, she said.
Starting school in August would mean schools would be running the air conditioning more often, increasing costs. What's more, she said, putting buses on the roads two weeks earlier in August adds to metro Atlanta's smog problem.
"Our asthmatic kids are going to be sitting on buses that are 90-100 degress, here’s reality," Bartlett said.
Many parents threatened to remove the school board members during the next election, saying they had campaigned on keeping the calendar the way it is -- -and then changed their minds.
Board Chairman Abraham said he told constituents that he would not change the school calendar when running for the school board. But on Wednesday he said he changed his mind after considering that a balanced calendar would curb discipline issues, increase student morale and -- most importantly -- beef up student achievement.
"Our job is teaching and learning," he said. "We're asking teachers to do more; they are on the front line. It's a new type of thinking."
As Abraham spoke, parents muttered their own thoughts:
"Liar."
"Prove it."
"Whatever."
About the Author
