The session was scheduled at the behest of absentee board member David Morgan, who seems to miss more meetings than he attends. In fact, if this were a real "team" and not an elected board, his coach would have cut him long ago.
THE TEAMWORK WEEKEND is a pretty quixotic idea when you remember that two of the seven board members are lame ducks - having gotten booed off the field by the fans, so to speak - and a third, Holli Cash, is in a hotly contested race to keep her seat representing Smyrna. Remember also that Superintendent Fred "Coach" Sanderson, seeing the handwriting on the wall, got out front of the expected voter backlash in the July primary and announced in June he would retire next June 30 when his contract runs out. Now there's speculation that he will hang it up even sooner - by New Year's Eve - and thereby avoid having to deal with incoming board members Kathy Angelucci and Scott Sweeney, who ran as sharp critics of him and the board.
But what's really goofy is that LCE apparently didn't get the message of the July elections. Voters sent a message to the Glover Street school headquarters, loud and clear, that a new school team is wanted. They want a new super, they want a new deputy super, they want a new board attorney and they want to get rid of what they consider some of Sanderson's dead wood in the central office. They also want a later school-start date instead of early, early August. Also they want a board chairman who is the antithesis of CE. One who will focus board meetings on academic issues and boot most of Sanderson's dog and pony shows, which lengthen meetings with little substance and help keep the board from discussing weightier, academic-related matters. In short, the public wants to send the current team to the showers.
ANGELUCCI AND SWEENEY promised change with a capital C and now, with the help of holdover board member Alison Bartlett, chances are improving that they can deliver.
But back to LCE's "Team Building" session Saturday. This is the same board that several weeks ago brusquely tabled board member Dr. John Crooks' impassioned plea for the system to pay the $41,000 in legal expenses he incurred while defending himself from a voter recall effort prompted by his successful effort to sneak a vote on a controversial cell tower onto the agenda last summer with no warning to the public. Crooks said he was told by board attorney Glenn Brock the move passed muster with the Open Meetings Act, but Cobb Judge Mike Stoddard later ruled it did not. Crooks has made plenty of missteps on the board, but he was acting on the advice of the board attorney on this one and can't be blamed.
The recall effort failed, but Crooks still hoped for reimbursement and was shocked when the board gave him a hard time about his request, essentially throwing him under the bus.
The board won't decide until next month whether to grant all or part of his request. Yet it's hard to see the "team-building" effort as sincere when one of the "team" has been hung out to dry by the others.
Another example came last December when most of the board rudely and publicly castigated Bartlett for saying she'd been told by teachers that their principals had pressured them to support the early school-start in a non-anonymous teacher/staff survey about various calendar options.
Her reward for speaking openly and honestly was described by some as "a high-tech lynching." She was threatened with public censure by then-board Chairman Dr. John Abraham and fellow board member David Banks demanded she resign her seat right then and there. With teammates like those, who needs a team?
THIS WILL BE LCE's second try at team-building. You'll recall the brouhaha over her first attempt last winter, when she talked the board into holding a team-building retreat at a resort in the Georgia mountains at taxpayer expense even though the board was facing its worst budget crisis since the Great Depression, a shortfall in revenues that ultimately caused the board to lay off 1,000 teachers. Bad weather ultimately caused that retreat to be held in town at the Cobb Chamber offices, but whatever "leadership" lessons were taught that weekend didn't stick, and the team-building was a bust.
INCIDENTALLY, AT HAS LEARNED from several board members that controversial Deputy Superintendent Dr. Steve Constantino, a Sanderson protege, told the board this week not to consider him for Sanderson's job. Those board members suspect Constantino will serve through next summer then resign in order to let the next superintendent bring in his own leadership team.
THIS WEEKEND'S LEADERSHIP SUMMIT will take place in the tiny boardroom at the Brock Clay office and will be open to the public. But be warned: By the time the seven board members, superintendent, staff, board attorney and the public crowd in, it may resemble the stateroom scene from the Marx Brothers' movie "A Night at the Opera."
New board attorney Clem Doyle of Brock Clay, who is taking over the board account from Glenn Brock, reportedly was not informed of the teamwork meeting until late in the week and most likely had to rejigger his plans for the weekend as a result.
The bottom line: This is a school board that almost never talks about how to raise the academic bar. It prefers instead to chase windmills like "team-building" when the season is about over and much of the present team is about to head to the lockerroom for good.
But as sportsfans have been saying forever, "There's always next year."
LT. GOV. CASEY CAGLE’S talented communications director, Jaillene Hunter of Marietta, spent her last day on the job Friday, leaving to spend more time with her family. Hunter is married to Mitch Hunter, a political strategist for U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta), and runs Hunter Public Strategies, counting among his clients Sam Olens, the Republican nominee for Georgia Attorney General.
The couple has a 15-month-old son, James.
Mrs. Hunter was hired by Cagle in December 2006, several weeks before his inauguration as Georgia’s first Republican lieutenant governor. Before that she lived in Washington, D.C., serving as press secretary to Rep. Dave Weldon of Florida. Mrs. Hunter said she will miss her friends in the media.
“However, I plan to pursue contract PR opportunities which will allow me to maintain those relationships across the state. Working for the lieutenant governor has been the highlight of my career and it has been immensely rewarding to work for such a dedicated public servant,” she said.
COBB Superior Court Judge Jim Bodiford, who is running for re-election, attended Thursday’s Marietta Kiwanis Club meeting and was introduced by lawyer Matt Flournoy, brother of Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy III and the son of late Judge Bob Flournoy Jr. Said Matt to the club, “I’m a judge of good judges and (Bodiford)’s a good judge.”
THIS WEEK’S ABRUPT RESIGNATION of Superior Court Judge Ken Nix after allegations of sexual harassment was the talk of the courthouse and elsewhere, including the Kiwanis Club. Flournoy conducted the club raffle as usual, reminding members that it raises money for its “Never Shake a Baby” project.
“You should never shake a baby!” Flournoy exhorted. Chimed in club executive director Pat Huey, “But you can shake a babe!”
Retorted Flournoy: “Not if you’re a superior court judge in Cobb County.”
IN THE DARK: MARIETTANS UPSET that the power went out among businesses on the north side of the Square Tuesday evening can thank Councilman Philip Goldstein.
Goldstein, who has long had plans to raze the Cuthbertson Building located on that part of the Square and build a five story mixed-use building in its place, had a crew conducting soil compaction tests to determine the kind of structure that best suits that property.
But in the midst of drilling, the crew clipped an underground conduit, prompting Marietta Power to have to come out and turn off the transformer to repair the damage, leaving a couple of blocks of shops without power from about 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. — the heart of the dinner hour, among them Shillings and Willie Ray’s restaurants and other tenants of Goldstein, who is one of downtown’s largest private landholders.
As to when Goldstein will actually raze the Cuthbertson building and construct its replacement, he told AT there is no firm date to report.
THERE WERE HUGE CELEBRATIONS all over Marietta and the rest of the country 65 years ago this weekend, thanks to the welcome news that Japan had surrendered, ending World War II. That country had been brought to its knees by the air offensive spearheaded by B-29 Superfortress bombers like those built at the Bell Aircraft Plant (now operated by Lockheed Martin) in Marietta. To the dwindling remnants of “The Greatest Generation” who labored at the plant during the war — or who braved fire at the front — we offer a special salute, and a big “Thanks,” on this anniversary weekend.
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I don't doubt there's occasional bad behavior among the courthouse crew. But if you really want to delve into inappropriate relationships and similar shenanigans, trot on over to Glover Street and nose around about relations among central office staff, administrators, and principals (even between principals at neighboring schools). Especially in the southern part of the county . . .