Six Cobb Schools Honored
By State for Advanced Placement Success

Six Cobb County high schools were named 2008 Advanced Placement (AP) Honor Schools on Feb. 13, 2008 by Georgia Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox. The AP Honor Schools program recognizes schools that have committed to providing challenging Advanced Placement courses to as many students as possible.

Campbell, North Cobb and Pebblebrook high schools earned recognition in the AP Access and Support Schools category. This designation is for schools with at least 30 percent of AP test takers identified as African-American or Hispanic and 30 percent of AP exams receiving scores of three (3) or higher.

Lassiter, Harrison and Walton high schools earned the AP Merit School designation, for schools with at least 20 percent of students taking AP exams and at least half of AP exams receiving a score of three (3) or higher.

Read more on the District Web site.

Office of Accountability Releases 2007 Student Achievement Report

The District's Office of Accountability has released its annual Student Achievement highlights report for 2007. The document serves as a brief overview of student performance and achievement by providing test results and analysis.

Download the District's Student Achievement Report in PDF format.

District Releases
2007 Annual Report

The 2007 Annual Report for the Cobb County School District is now available online. Released online for the fifth consecutive year, the Annual Report provides 24-hour access to a comprehensive overview of District operations, financial results, testing data, and school-specific information from the past year.

The online report provides parents, community members and the news media instant access to key facts and figures regarding enrollment, school programs, operations, test results, the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), and more.

SPLOST UPDATE:
The good news story of SPLOST continues for Cobb County taxpayers. In January and February 2008, the school board:

• Approved a recommendation to purchase eSafe hardware and software products to replace the District’s existing internet content filtering solution. The solution will meet CIPA guidelines. The bid was awarded to RBTi at an estimated annual cost of $275,460.

These projects were part of the SPLOST II program approved in 2003. To view the agenda items for the projects, click here.

Cobb's Gina Coss Named One Of 10 Finalists for
State Teacher of the Year

Gina Coss, fifth grade teacher at Sedalia Park Elementary School and the 2007-08 Cobb County School District Teacher of the Year, has been named one of 10 finalists for the 2009 Georgia Teacher of the Year by State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox.

Mrs. Coss was selected from among 141 district winners throughout Georgia who applied for the statewide honor. Her application was reviewed and chosen by a panel of educators (including past Georgia Teachers of the Year), business leaders and staff members from the Department of Education. The Department of Education’s panel of judges will visit Sedalia Park in late February to observe and interview Mrs. Coss. The state winner will be announced during a special banquet May 9 at the Georgia Aquarium.

Read more on the District Web site.

Board Receives Financial Report, OKs Fund Balance Expenditures

In February, the Board of Education received the District’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The report presented a clean financial review from independent auditor Ross Lane & Company, LLC.

In addition, the report highlighted many statistics and figures representing the District’s overall financial health. One important element of the District’s operating budget is the reserve fund. The District’s reserve fund represents a fallback for the operating budget – funds available in times of financial emergency, and to support academic initiatives such as purchasing new textbooks or providing the local portion of teacher raises approved by the state. The reserve fund is entirely unrelated to the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) program and does not contain any funds from SPLOST.

General accounting principles recommend school districts maintain a reserve fund balance equal to at least one month’s operating expenditures. Currently, the minimum recommended reserve balance would equal $75.7 million. In recent years, the Board of Education has made a concerted effort to restore the reserve fund balance to an adequate percentage of operating expenditures. In the current fiscal year the reserve fund balance reached a healthy 13.4 percent of operating expenditures. This balance has allowed the Board to address specific academic needs, including the Board’s recent authorization to use the reserve fund to purchase textbooks and issue middle school planning grants. Once those expenditures occur, the reserve fund balance will total $106.2 million and will represent 12.42 percent of annual operating expenditures.

See the Finance section of the
District Web site to download the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.