Board Gives Approval
To 3rd Grade Report Card

By a 4-2 vote, the Board of Education approved adding a standards-based report card to third grade beginning in the 2009-2010 school year. Standards-based report cards, which measure student performance as it relates to the Georgia Performance Standards curriculum, were previously implemented in kindergarten through second grade. A subcommittee of parents and educators appointed by the Board to study the issue recommended that the report cards be added to third grade. The Board later voted 6-0 to prohibit the implementation of standards-based report cards beyond third grade.

More information about standards-based report cards is available on the District Web site.

Dickerson Band Wins First Georgia Exemplary Performance Award

The Dickerson Middle School Band Program has been selected by the Georgia Music Educators Association to receive the first ever GMEA Exemplary Performance Award. The Exemplary Performance Award was established to recognize middle school bands that achieve outstanding results in all areas of performance. Read more on the CobbCast blog.

District To Provide Guidelines For New Student Transfer Law By July 1

Beginning with the school year 2009-2010, parents of students enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school in Georgia may elect to enroll their child in a school that is located within the school system in which the student resides other than the one to which the student has been assigned by the local board of education if such school has classroom space available after its assigned students have been enrolled. The parent shall assume the responsibility and cost of transportation of the student to and from the school. No later than July 1, 2009, each local school system shall establish a universal, streamlined process. In accordance with HB 251, the Cobb County School System will provide information about the District's process by July 1, 2009.

Click here to read the text of HB 251 on the District Web site.

SPLOST UPDATE
Program manager appointed; school construction projects get green light

At its May 28, 2009 meeting, the school board approved hiring Brookwood/PBS&J as program manager to oversee three major SPLOST III construction projects. The projects include ninth-grade center classroom additions at North Cobb and South Cobb high schools, and the construction of a replacement school for Eastside Elementary. The replacement school will be constructed on the current site. Brookwood/PBS&J will be responsible for management and oversight of the programming, design, and construction, including a one-year warranty, of the projects.

On Jan. 29, 2009, the District released an RFP for the selection of a program manager for the three projects approved by Cobb County voters last fall as part of the SPLOST III program. A committee comprised of members from CCSD Construction, Project Services, SPLOST Accountability, and Procurement Services departments, as well as two outside subject matter experts recommended by Board members, evaluated vendor responses to the RFP. Responses were evaluated for compliance with all terms and conditions, specifications, requirements and content related to the evaluation criteria identified in the RFP. The contract was awarded to Brookwood/PBS&J in the amount of $998,800. More information about the projects, which should be under way soon, is available here.

The good news story of SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) continues for Cobb County taxpayers. The following agenda items approved by the Board of Education are SPLOST-related and/or involve the use of SPLOST funds. In May 2009, the School Board:

• Approved re-prioritization of SPLOST II contingency funds and awarded Bid 09-59, School Bus Digital Video Systems for the Purchase of 196 Digital Video Recorder Camera (DVR) Units to be installed on the remaining Special Education Buses. The contract was awarded to AngelTrax Bus Video - IVS, Inc., in the amount of $298,747.

• Approved re-prioritization of SPLOST II contingency funds for re-roofing of Fair Oaks Elementary School at proposed budget cost of $450,000.

These projects were part of the SPLOST II & III programs approved Cobb County voters in 2003 and 2008. To view the agenda items for the projects, please click here . To view the proposal for the SPLOST III referendum approved Sept. 16, 2008, please click here.

Cobb High School Students Show Gains, Continue To Top State and Metro Areas On Graduation Test

Cobb 11th graders increased their average score in three of four content areas on the 2009 Georgia High School Graduation test. Recently released GHSGT results show that Cobb students also once again surpassed statewide average scores in all four subject areas, as well as the average score of a comparison group of metro Atlanta districts.

In fact, 85 percent of Cobb students passed all four content area tests this spring – English/Language Arts, Math, Social Studies and Science – compared to just 80 percent statewide. Cobb County as a district has outperformed the state in each of the four subject areas for five consecutive years.

Earlier this school year, district administrators outlined an aggressive plan to improve high school performance; results from this spring’s GHSGT seem to indicate that the plan is having an impact. The 2009 results include several noteworthy areas of gain, especially among subgroups of students whose performance is a critical component of whether schools make Adequate Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Read more and view data tables on the District Web site.

Cobb Fifth Graders Increase Passing Rate on Writing Test

Despite a slight drop in the mean score, the percentage of Cobb County fifth graders meeting or exceeding standards on the 2009 Fifth Grade Writing Assessment increased over 2008. Eighty-three percent of fifth graders in the Cobb County School District met or exceeded standards, a two-percent improvement from 2008. Both the percentage of students passing and the mean scale score for Cobb students were higher than state and metro Atlanta results even though Cobb scale scores dipped by two points, from 220 to 218.

Read more and view data tables on the District Web site.

FY2010 Budget Public Forum On June 3

The Board of Education will hold a second public forum regarding the FY2010 budget on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. The meeting will take place in the Board Room of the District's central office at 514 Glover St. in Marietta.

Detailed information about the FY2010 budget is available for review on the District Web site.

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