Feedback from readers about the column calling for a later school start date:

Fiscal conservative: This hysteria is amazing. YES, summer has arrived! As for the kids, if you didn't let them sit around in air-conditioned rooms all day playing video games etc., they would not be so unaccustomed to a little bit of summer when it arrives each year. By getting your kids out of the perpetual sequestration of the cool confines of the home, you will reduce the incidents of kids passing out at band camp and football practice during the summer months. That said, the change of CCSD schedule IS stupid. ... Just like most of the CCSD board.

Thanks a lot: Thanks for a very informative column. Sounds like Walton in GA and Wilkes County NC have good programs that might actually increase test scores. Anyone with common sense would know that children can't do well in excessive heat, and furthermore, this business of having a week off here, 2 weeks off there, does not help with the education of the children. Each time there is a break, it takes time when the kids return to get back on track. These people who call themselves "educators" are jokes. They should, everyone, be replaced.

Stan Jones: Come on, Donnie! This school start is not even in the same league with the many other BoE faux pas. It doesn't matter when you start. What matters is when you finish and finishing before Memorial Day trumps the middle of June by miles. Those students and parents complaining now will look forward to the three added breaks when they come. Get away from us with your 160 day calendar; just another ploy in your editorial policy to erode the quality of the CCSD by hook or crook. You are no friend of the Cobb school system.

Sensible: Love the new schedule and can't wait to take a fall vacation with my family. I also like the option of taking a winter vacation in February. Now I will spend less because rates will have come down, I will enjoy the beach more because it will not be as hot leading to a better rest and I will help to stimulate the economy by spending dollars! Is our next step closing down the schools in January because that costs the most to heat?

?Samuel Adams: What about those of us who don't go on vacation, have to find babysitters for kids, etc? Wait til the crime rate goes up during the weeks off due to unsupervised teens. Other districts report more teen pregnancies with such calendars and they've gone back to more traditional calendars because they are proven money savers.

No Dummy: Well designed, reputable studies on student achievement are indisputable on this, Don. While the length of the school year itself does not seem to increase net student learning through the year, lengthy idle summertime breaks account for steep learning retention losses ... yes, students backslide if their minds are not actively engaged.

dmckee9613@aol.com