To date, their major accomplishments have been only two. First, keeping one of their campaign pledges, they moved swiftly to reverse the ill-advised three-year calendar and return to the previous calendar.
Second, they hired, following an interview lasting less time than Kroger spends interviewing sackers, a new superintendent, Dr. Michael Hinojosa. His actions, thus far, can best be described as resembling the workings of a “loose cannon.”
Without securing permission from the school board, he signed a contract, dated August 2011, with Teach for America, to place 20 uncertified teachers in our schools. This came to light as a result of his request to enter a second agreement for an additional 50 uncertified teachers. Thus far, only three teachers have been hired, under the original clandestine agreement.
It was also learned that local business leaders have been solicited to provide funding for the “accelerated” training program of Teach for America, which consists of two five-to-six week “summer camp” training sessions. The school board was led to believe such funding had been secured. In fact, it has not.
Secured emails indicate that Hinojosa is working with board member David Morgan to establish the STEM charter school in an area which is currently being served by a charter school, Imagine International Academy. Manpower from the school district is being used to assist in this effort. Morgan, whose wife, State Rep. Alisha Morgan, (D-Austell) is a big supporter of the STEM charter school, cast the deciding vote to deny renewal of the charter for Imagine Academy. Can you spell “conflict of interest?”
It is reported that an item on the school board agenda was abruptly pulled without notice. The story is that it was pulled when Dr. Hinojosa learned that he did not have the majority vote to get passage of the request for the second agreement with Teach for America. How could he have learned that save through the use of an illegal “straw poll?” How’s that for transparency?
In a most ill-advised move, he made personnel changes and gave pay increases to non-teaching staff members, even as teaching professionals suffered under repeated assaults on their earning power.
The known infractions and seemingly irrational actions of Dr. Hinojosa lead one to wonder if what we know is only a small portion of a much larger and more complex problem within the district, the “tip of the iceberg” so to speak.
At the last board work session, permission was sought to proceed with three SPLOST projects, all of which are substantially over budget. When questioned about amounts over budget, SPLOST Administrator Doug Shepard made the statement that he feels comfortable with the funding. No board member questioned him further about the finances, which seems incredibly short-sighted in light of the fact that SPLOST collections are less than anticipated due to the ongoing economic conditions. Shepard has now resigned from CCSD.
The transportation department spent money to equip a hundred buses with cameras to film drivers breaking the law relating to passing school buses, but nobody checked to see what would happen to the evidence gathered. It is useless, under current law. Without a change in the law, the money was wasted.
Given all the foregoing, it is obvious that the board needs to be discussing these issues and not some verbose, detail-laden Strategic Plan which could be condensed into three words, “Educate our Kids.” Everything else is secondary detail.
Board Chairman Scott Sweeney has yet to put any of the above items on the meeting agenda. One board member, Kathy Angelucci, is insisting that the charter school and the Teach for America issues be discussed, but is getting no support at this time. A recent change in board procedures mandates that, unless two members request it, only the superintendent or chairman can put an item on the agenda.
If Sweeney, and/or others, feel these issues will go away, they are mistaken. We don’t care who gets hurt or embarrassed, we want results. The people of Cobb County deserve better representation than we have previously had. We thought we finally had it.
When do we see some evidence of it? We have waited a year, with little or no improvement in the status quo. When does the promised reform start?
Pete Borden is a retired masonry contractor in east Cobb.
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The balanced calendar may or may not be "ill advised," I prefer it, but do not see it as a big enough issue to wrap a campaign around. I can live with either calendar. There are much more important issues.
However, anyone who couldn't see that these "reformers" were one issue campaigners are as clueless as they are. Now, we have a group that implemented their primary (and basically to them only important) campaign promise and they have no idea what to do now.
As the saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for." Well, you got exactly what you asked for.
Every time this guy writes s column, you make the same boring remarks, aimed at tbe man and not at what he says.
I have a suggestion. since this guy obviously irks you (seomthing personal, no doubt), why not just skip his columns and save the rest of us the embarrassment of your inanse non comments?
I'm not the only one that expresses comments about how redundant and boring his comments are.
Perhaps you should follow your own advice.
Of course, I would be satisfied if someone did an audit of the department. More than a few people know about them pressure washing the engines before DOT inspections and maneuvering around the grand jury's probing. The jury recommended continued monitoring, but that has not happened.
You act as though I stand alone in my criticism, but that's not true. They've fired any and all employees to keep others in line, the board has all but ignored the issue and apparently I'm the only journalist willing to talk about it. My children ride the school bus every day, and I have a vested interest in keeping them safe. Money spent on useless technology, taking away from a budget that includes maintenance and upkeep, concerns me as it should all taxpaying citizens. You tell me: what good are these cameras, just sitting on there doing nothing, when so many of the busses don't even have safe tires? This was a lack of vision by management, and I have no doubt a good percentage of the out of work managers in Cobb county could do a better job than the current occupant of the position. They would certainly be more popular with the employees, in any case.
Reformers my foot !
"the blasted calendar that so many teachers want."
I do not know how many AND why they want a balanced calendar.
"They saw improvement in so many areas last year."
Studies in other locations around the country show this is not true. Some do imprioove a little, some slip a little.
I add this and I am not for or against either calendar, but I am for the truth.
One of many findings in school districts over the years
Naylor, C. (1995). Do year-round schools improve student learning? An annotated bibliography and synthesis of the research. BCTF Research Report. Section XII.
There are a substantial number of studies which are conducted by researchers (with no vested interest in either supporting or opposing year-round schooling) which conclude that there appears to be NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE in achievement between students in a year-round school and those in traditional calendar schools.
Of the studies which conclude that students in year-round schools do achieve at a higher level, the differences in achievement are RARELY SIGNIFICANT. To paraphrase: sometimes the authors provide a far more optimistic summary than the data can support.
"If the goal of education is to maximize the number of students in poor areas who pass standardized tests in a cost-effective manner then SOME year-round sites can contribute to this goal. If the mandate of the education system is wider, and if equity is of any concern, then year-round schools are clearly more limited on the evidence to date."
Again, balanced or traditional, I have no vested interest in either. I am a retired person, I am tired of watching "cherry picking" to prove a point when , in fact, the argument about the calendars has been going on for nearly 20 years, with studies showing that there is no advantage to the balanced calendar and there is additional expense to it.
Do whatever the majority wants, but please stop using false data to prove your point. You sound as bad as professional politicians.
What was the quid pro quo, I wonder?
I think we can expect more self-dealing, stupidity and ineptness.
Also, thank you MDJ and keep it up!
You seem every bit as clueless as your namesake. You totally missed the entire point of Borden's comments. All the things he enumerates, while not new information, have something in common.
They are all recent and have all happened on the watch of the current school board. The column is a reminder to the board of why they were elected, in the hopes that they, along with apathetic people like you, would be be inspired to do something about the ongoing problems.
Board, for years you've neglected investigating Transportation and shirked your duties to ask full questions when Rick Grisham comes to you for taxpayer dollars -- millions of them. Where is the grand jury now? Who successfully turned off the past investigations? Who at the GA DOT profitted from looking the other way when certain things occurred? And, finally, when will the cameras installed be there for a purpose. By the time the tail wags this dog, the technology will probably be too old to use or some other excuse and they'll have to re-bid the contract. Board, why don't you check into the initial contract for the equipment that is unusable and make sure it was fully above board? Of course, that would entail doing some work.