MARIETTA - As expected, an evaluation team will recommend that the Cobb County School District's accreditation be renewed for another five years with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. At the same time, the accreditation team did see a need for improving board member "teamwork," and dealing with "negative perceptions about what the district's doing."

Two dozen educators toured the school district Monday and Tuesday to determine whether to renew the district's accreditation. The decision is significant because most colleges will not accept students who don't graduate from an accredited school.

Dr. Nikki Armato, a SACS administrator who led the review team, gave the school board the good news in a preliminary report on Wednesday.

She said her 27-member team visited 24 schools, interviewed all seven board members, 194 administrators, 381 teachers, 114 support staff, 221 parents, community members and business partners, and 278 students in an "objective and unbiased" process.

"They fell in love with Cobb," Armato said. "And for many of the team members, this was an experience where it was like, this is one of the best districts we've ever been in. So we would like to thank you for teaching us so very much."

Armato praised Cobb for its focus on individual students, for its teachers who "love" data, for its "great" business and community relations. She said Cobb staff feel "very empowered," and praised how the district embraces diversity. An interview with a high school student on the topic of diversity left her almost crying, she said.

Armato also spoke of the district's challenges, such as its size, diversity and equitable distribution of resources.

"Another challenge is the influence of negative perceptions in that you want to present a positive image, you want the PR to have a positive impact and point of view, and very often there are negative perceptions about what the district's doing, and the impact of it that are undercutting and derailing some of the hard work and good work you're doing," Armato said. "...So how to deal with the influence or the impact of those negative perceptions does present you with a significant challenge."

The team's recommendations, which the district is required to comply with, are to: increase board training and teamwork; develop a method in which to assess whether individual schools are meeting the accreditation standards; and implement a system-wide approach in pursuit of continuous improvement. She said the district talks about continuous improvement but doesn't deliver. She compared it to having a great recipe, buying all the ingredients, but not yet making the meal.

She also said the district has a vision that is not being incorporated to the fullest.

Cobb school board Chairman Dr. John Abraham thanked her for the report.

But Kimberley Euston, a Mount Bethel Elementary School mom who works for PriceWaterhouseCoopers and attended the meeting, described Armato's presentation as "a beauty pageant."

"It was absolutely a dog and pony show. It was a beauty contest and I'm very disappointed in what I'm seeing with this school board," she said.

District spokesman Jay Dillon said the accreditation team met with PTA leaders Monday, "as well as with a couple of parents who were either specifically asked or specifically requested to be interviewed."

Dillon refused to reveal names.

Commenting on the PTA leaders, Euston said she resigned from the GA PTA State Legislative Committee after tiring of the organization "rubber stamping" the wishes of superintendents.

Others parents, such as Tom Harper, a Kennesaw Mountain High School parent and attorney, tried to meet with the accreditation team to share his thoughts about the school system, but said they wouldn't meet with him. Commenting on his thoughts about the "unbiased" report, Harper said, "John Abraham is in a better position to know than I am.

"He, unlike me or anyone else that I know, was allowed to participate in the process," he said.

Euston said what troubles her most as a parent was to learn that they only spent two days on their research to get the accreditation.

Harper related how an Alabama judge was once asked how he could rule so quickly in so many cases.

"He calmly explained that he did it by only listening to one side of the story. When asked if he thought that was fair, he said, 'probably not, but it is much easier than having to consider both sides,'" Harper said.

Added Euston, "The recommendation from the SACS committee today said that we have made great strides over the past five years, but we haven't done a whole heck of a lot over the past five years, and that concerns me," she said.

One of the reasons Clayton County lost its accreditation was because of its dysfunctional board, she said.

"And board government is a key issue that we have. We have board members who flip-flop on their promises to the public, they don't listen to parents, they don't listen to teachers and that's a big concern of mine," she said.

Euston said she heard nothing about holding students accountable to rigorous national tests.

"Our children's test scores continue to go down on federal tests such as ITBS scores; however, our state test scores on the CRCTs continue to go up. That is a serious problem. And I didn't hear that addressed today by this committee," she said.

The district will receive the team's written report in 30 days. The team, meantime, will send the report with its accreditation recommendation to AdvancED's Accreditation Commission, which makes the final decision in January. SACS is a division of AdvancED.

AdvancED CEO Mark Elgart explained after the meeting why there weren't specific examples of controversial issues listed in the oral presentation, such as the board's practice of violating the Open Meetings Act by voting in executive session.

"What we look for is corrective actions in those areas. For instance, which this team didn't deal with, the whole matter of the Open Meetings issue. We asked and the district provided a response to us indicating how they were going to move forward to make sure that doesn't happen again. These things will happen. In districts this size there are going to be problems. It's their reaction and their ability to manage those problems going forward (that is judged). If they continue to repeat themselves over a period of time, then you may have a pattern, but sometimes those things will happen, you have to have a response to be able to move forward in a very efficient way," Elgart said.

Moreover, the report would be far more detailed than the oral presentation, he said.

Elgart spoke of the first recommendation to the board, that dealt with board training.

"You have a board here that is essentially new. Many of these people have never been on a board of education before. And there needs to be a focused systematic way in which this board receives training. Not just one time, but ongoing. It's not a position that you can just walk into and know how to do," he said.

Board member David Morgan said most people were looking for the approved accreditation recommendation.

"On the other hand of the spectrum, when you look at the recommendations, I think No. 1 about a board being more polished, I think it's no coincidence that that was No. 1. I think that as a collective we can vastly improve as policy makers," he said.

In February, Abraham invited Elgart, who is based in Alpharetta, to speak to the board about best practices. In that meeting, Elgart praised the board as "a pioneer" for being the first system, along with Fulton School District, to obtain accreditation as a district in 2004. He told them at the time that since there hasn't been a SACS visit in the last five years, Cobb was in good standing.