Petition for the August 1st Calendar

We were to have the balanced Calendar for 3 years! We have not even finished the first year - we need to table this until we can gather data. I know that Teacher have been absence less and that saves the county money! All four people that voted for the 15th starting date will be voted out anyway! So let us keep what the majority of Cobb County wants!

You need to share this with the news~ this is important for everyone to hear! Thanks for looking it up~ please share it with anyone who will listen~ what kind of message are they sending to the people of Cobb Co?

#13: Blake Tippens - Abuse

I agree with you statement 100%!

I sure hope there is a next step to this, such as making them give us back the calendar we prefer. I am not clear on how the 4 who voted against this calendar can justify themselves. Was is pressure from the 6 Flags corp? Chamber of Commerce? Was it really the Utilities? Something else entirely? They need to fess up.

If it was big business, could we please see the studies and how those two weeks really effect our county. If it's the utilities, could we just keep this calendar but push it back two weeks so we start on the 15th but don't get out until June 15? Does it really save millions? Where can I see this on paper?

Honestly, what I care about is really what I witness in my school and home. I have been working in the schools about 8 years and this is the first time I am not seeing the glazed look of stress and defeat which usually starts to settle on the teachers faces this time of year. My children are happier- thus happier to learn. My staff at the school seems to know that breaks are right around the corner and attendance is better than ever. I am happier.

People say- "Well it's not about that, it's about the students education and you are only worried about yourself, your vacation, you!".
No. Not. True. I do not think ANY calendar will make that much of a difference in testing scores. I think they make a heck of a lot of difference in students and staff attitudes though. Is the Aug 1st start date somehow lacking in education? School is still in session the same amount of days.
What's the next step here?

There were holes in the voting process.... I heard that some went to local libraries to make additional votes and other had their children voting on their laptops. We need a ballot... just one per family to get an accurate count.

The current calendar was voted in effect for 3 years last year, so therefore we should not have needed to vote this year. Since we were required to vote and the results were overwhelming for the balanced calendar, the board members should respect what the community wants.

Elected officials should represent the people!

There is no reason why more than one person per household couldn't vote. It was per person, per computer. You never know, a student may have a different opinion than their parent, or a husband different from a wife. It never said one per household. It said one per computer.

#30: Mother of 6 in the Cobb County School System - What are we teaching our Children?

I agree with your statement 100% and I brought up these concerns at a forum that Tim Stultz from Post 2 hosted on Wednesday.  We have always been supportive of our schools and my family has volunteered at our lkocal schools for years.  As a parent of a middle and high school student in Cobb county, I am so disappointed with my representative.  The four board members that voted to change the calendar have completely disillusioned our young adult students.  This change has directly effected them and has them questioning if their voice inthe community really counts.

#27: Roxanne Lopez - The New Old calendar

I am so disappointed that our school board representatives did not listen to the members of their community and I have been very vocal about their decision.  I also feel like there is no reason to punish Six Flags since they have not done anything wrong.  Let's not lower ourselves to the standards of our school board representatives.

Tim Stultz, Kathleen Angelucci, Scott Sweeney and Alison Bartlett have created a name for themselves with their vote against the balanced calendar. Names that will be remembered next time they run for office.

To break a commitment to stay with a calendar for 3 years AND to go against the majority wishes in a community shows your utter lack of respect for your duties as public servants.

I prefer the August 1st start date.

I hate this current calendar. I want my kids to have a summer vacation and not have to go back to school on August 1st. There has got to be a better solution that the three made available.

If all the people want something, isn't it the job of the board to uphold our decision?

While the new board members were voted in on the traditional calendar, I find it disturbing that they didn't give the balanced calendar at least a year or two of the committed three and look at the actual Cobb County data before reversing all of the hard work, reasoning, data, debate, effort and time that was put into the original decision. There were good reasons for the decision in the first place....so much so that two board members actually went against their election promises and voted for the balanced calendar! Of course, public opinion has completely supported the balanced calendar as well! So....go ahead and listen to Cobb Needs Summers...probably partnering with businesses like Six Flags....instead of looking at actual data and listening to the teachers and parents that bothered to show up at the meeting! It is very disappointing to know that our elected officials are spending so much time and effort on reversing well founded decisions. Meanwhile....the families of Cobb County, who have adjusted and made plans....and embraced the balanced calendar....are having to readjust and reverse plans. In my case.....my son has greatly benefitted from the breaks and we have taken the opportunity to enrich our son's education and life experiences during these breaks.

As a dedicated employee of CCSD, I will not sit by and allow the newly elected board members to disregard the teachers, parents, and students, because they have a personal agenda.

The 4 members of the Cobb School Board say they voted that way because of a campaign promise - baloney! Voters may have known that they preferred a later start date, but we had NO idea they meant to change the 2011-2012 calendar in February. We already had a calendar approved! And if there was any doubt of the public's opinion, it came through loud and clear on the survey. Were their loopholes in the survey - sure. But, I'm sure if the reults had been reversed with a later start date preferred - that would have been used to justify the vote. We need to go back to the original calendar!

#55: Sue - Voter Fraud This is true. Some went to college computer labs, logged onto every computer in the department, and voted "once per computer". Is it really fair that one person gets 42 votes in whereas someone else who has access to only one computer..and plays fairly..gets one vote?

 

There are concerns that many people used work/home/other computers to vote several times... I for one do not believe the vote was nearly a majority as one thinks.

At Christmas now you can travel out past New Years without having to rush home on the most expensive travel dates to get back.

But.

I've heard of several friends and family that only voted for Aug 1 because of the Christmas break start time but favored the the August 15th start.

The September break was useless and if you are involved with football or band you aren't getting that week off anyhow.

Too bad they can't shorten the Thanksgiving break and add it to a February break or even move spring break to march to split up the last part of the year better.

As a student of Cobb County and as a young adult I will not sit by and allow these newly elected Cobb County board members to pass a new calender with an agenda set for them to do so. None of these board member care at all about Teachers, parents, or staff members, they only care about their assignment given to them and themselves. We should have a voice, did you look at the votes? Obviously something has been done that is not allowed. If our votes and our voices will never be heard, what will happen next? Something is not right within these board members and we need to know what it is. As citizens of the United States we should be allowed rights and we should be allowed the chance to votes (a democracy, sound familiar?)

#19: Lynn Bixler - Cobb County August 1st start date calendar 

 

Now that we have over 800 signatures on this petition, what do we do with it? Can we use this to push for a special vote? We need to act on this quickly to show that this blatant disregard for the will of the people will not be tolerated in our community politics.

We want the same caldendar as we had for the 2010-2011 school year.

I am so tired of hearing about this!!!! Do you really think the ONLY duplicate votes came from those who support the Aug 1st start date? I don't think so~ enough with it! The people of Cobb have spoken and 4 who were elected to represent just told us they don't care what we say! It is their job/ responsibility to represent the community and they didn't.