MARIETTA - The Cobb County School District plans to turn Oakwood High School, an alternative education school, into a "digital academy," with a private company providing "computer assisted instruction." Meantime, teacher and students say they were kept in the dark regarding the plan and some school board members say they did not know such drastic changes were to be made when they approved the measure last week.

The plan was part of the school board's move on April 22 to slash 733 positions throughout the district. Details of the plan were included in a document titled Alternative Educational Reorganization Plan that was sent to board members from Superintendent Fred Sanderson's office one day before the vote.

"The Digital Academy would replace the program presently found at Oakwood," the document states. "Ombudsman will be the service provider for the Oakwood Digital Academy."

Ombudsman is an educational service program based out of Libertyville, Ill., that educates middle and high school students who are on long-term suspension or expelled. The district already used the program and the board voted to renew the district's $1.6 million contract with Ombudsman at its April 22 meeting. Based on the district document, the plan to turn Oakwood into a digital academy will save the district $2.2 million with, apparently, no extra payment to Ombudsman.

Currently, there are 25 district teachers at Oakwood High School who educate about 250 students in classes from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. With the new plan, teachers from Ombudsman will be available on-site at Oakwood Digital Academy to lead the computer-assisted classes and direct and answer student questions. The academy will offer three, three-hour class sessions per day, five days a week, and one night school session four days a week. Oakwood Digital Academy will serve 180 students with the new plan, about 70 less than it does now. Those additional students, district spokesman Jay Dillon said, will be served by an expansion of the district's Performance Learning Center program.

Several former Oakwood teachers are protesting the new plan for Oakwood, saying that keeping the school as it is now is more important for its non-traditional students than saving the district money. Oakwood, located at 1560 Joyner Ave., near Dobbins Air Reserve Base, offers an alternative environment for non-traditional students and those seeking a second chance at education.

In a letter to the Journal, former State Rep. Roger Hines, who taught for 11 years at Oakwood, said the impact the teachers there have on students and the need for a successful alternative educational school far outweigh the cost savings from restructuring the school.

"Having struggled with budgets as a state legislator, I know the difficulty and the weight of budgetary decision-making; however, there are other realities beside budgetary ones, and one of them is that our large schools are just not getting the job done for all students," Hines writes.

Former and current Oakwood students are protesting the district's plans and have started a group on Facebook called, Save Oakwood High School, which had 177 members as of Tuesday afternoon. Many of the comments on the site are from former students who say the school and teachers at Oakwood are the only reason they got a high school diploma.

Dillon said Oakwood Principal Rusty Hill met with his staff on Monday and told them about the plans for restructuring the school, but no district officials have been to the school yet. Dr. Donald Dunnigan, the district's chief of human resources, is expected to meet with the staff on Wednesday to let them know how the plan will work and how the current teachers will be reassigned to schools throughout the district.

A current Oakwood teacher, who wished to remain anonymous because of fear of retribution, said the staff meeting with Hill was the first time the teachers heard of new plans for the school. The teacher also said Oakwood staff has not received written confirmation from district officials about their transfers.

Board member Alison Bartlett maintains the board should have had an open discussion about the proposed alternative education changes before voting on them, and said that she didn't know that her vote for the teacher cuts included the changes at Oakwood. She said she did receive the reorganization plan from the superintendent last week, but assumed the board would discuss it at its next meeting on May 12.

Dr. John Crooks also said he did not know that his vote to restructure alternative education would have such drastic effects on Oakwood.

"That was honestly news to me," Crooks said of the plans to privative the alternative education high school. "I understood that Oakwood was part of the piece, but I did not know that specifically. I did know that my vote did alter alternative education, I just didn't know how. My position is that if something's happening to my schools, I pretty much go and do the research."

Crooks said he assumed Bartlett had done the research since the school is in her post, and he trusted her judgment since she didn't pose any questions about the plans at the April 22 board meeting.