Cobb County School District

common sense parent Thank you to all the teachers who put up with our kids who many times do not have the best interest of the class time at the forefront of their thoughts! Thank you too for using your own personal time and money to further your classes and our childrens education--it does not go unappreciated!! Thank you too for usually listening quickly and speaking slowly to us parents who can be very defensive of our "parental skills" and time spent teaching our children how to act appropriatley on public time as the public helps to pay for class time.

common sense parent don't start back to school during the time of the year when more electricity is used and when more bus drivers will suffer heat stroke

Thank you "the voice of many" I want to be sure this comment doesn't get lost... The Voice of Many I have read the over 300 comments listed below and not one of them supports the idea of cutting teachers or their salaries. Most are in support of raising the millage rate and cutting more top-level positions. Why is this? Are all of the comments below from teachers who are biased? Nope! Are all of these comments from uneducated Cobb county residents? Nope! We, the members of this community, are telling you what we want to see happen. If nothing else, raise the millage rate and don't implement furlough days or Step delays. We want the teachers teaching our children to be motivated to go the extra mile for our children. Very few people would do anything extra if you told them year after year they were expendable, and that is exactly what you are telling them when you propose cutting their pay once again. We don't mind paying more property taxes! This is a Cobb county problem and we the people of Cobb want to help. It makes no sense to make the teachers take the hit alone each and every year.I hope the purpose of allowing people to add these comments was to find out what the community thinks and take it into consideration. PLEASE LISTEN TO US...THE TAXPAYERS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS! Our teachers, the ones who know what is needed in the classroom, are telling you and I what we need to do in order to support them. WE HAVE TO SUPPORT THEM!!!

@Tired of the whining First of all, I am not talking about spending extra time grading papers or getting some things ready for my classroom. I am talking about being mandated to stay after school for meetings, school activities, and training on our own time without pay. If we do not stay after school hours to attend such things, it goes against us on our evaluation. My husband is a firefighter. When he is being trained, he is getting paid for the training. When he is asked to work overtime, he is being paid for that. The supplies he uses at work are provided for him by his city. Teachers have to use their own money for classroom supplies. Since when in the "private sector" are you asked to buy your own supplies for your office? As far as being off in the summer. Our paycheck is only for the days we work and it is spread out for an entire year. Many teachers attend training through the county during the summer without pay in order to benefit their students' learning.

Shame on you Parents First of all I am not a teacher and would not step into their shoes if you paid me 10 times what they are making and 6 months off a year. I am a parent that spends much of my time volunteering at the schools my children attend. I am sorry to say that a very high percentage of the children that attend school are rude, too privileged and disrespectful. I will not even touch the fact that some drive nicer cars then then the teachers who work and pay for theirs. I too have worked in the private sector in management and know what it is like to only have 2 weeks vacation a year, but luckily did not have the pressure of making sure that all my employees perform on tasks, if they did not I would fire them. These teachers do not have the option to kick a child out or fire them from school if they do not get it, but rather spend countless hours coming in early or staying later to offer tutoring. I choose to stay home with my children and do with less and be a parent first. It was me and my spouse that brought my children into this world and feel responsible for their actions, manners and that they learn what they are taught at school and become a successful and college educated adult. The old saying is those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Well you have thrown enough of stones. However, I agree with the comment that you should spend a entire day at school in the classes and see just what they go through. This includes parents, board members, and all who work down at Glover Street. Parents need to get behind our teachers and work to bring back the CC schools that all other counties envied years ago.

Easy Solution Herman Cain for Superintendent

Concerned Parent Where are you adding the additional five days you are shortening the school year?

TO CONERNED MOM - FROM LEBRON WOW AT YOUR COMMENT! HA!!!!

Concerned Mom Wow at some of these comments.

Furlough Days Really? Option B? Are you kidding me? This is ridiculous. Board members, way to go. Make the teachers start in July. That will for sure bring the morale up.

Chis Bosh Started from the bottom now we're here

Chis Bosh Started from the bottom now we're here

Nate Robinson SCREW YOU LEBRON!!!!

Lebron James GO Heat!!!!!!!!!!!

Really? In what world do teachers get 3 months off "to sit on their butts"? You are the misinformed butt. Teachers have less that two months vacation and most get part-time jobs, work summer school or are enrolled in school. People such as yourself should send you children, if you have any children, to private school and see what you encounter. Students aren't brighter, just that parents are more involved. Public school teachers take all in and we love all equally. You chose your private business career, as did we as educators, so stop trying to compare the two because we are hit with another 5 furlough days again for next year--and, yes, I am searching for a summer position to make ends meet!!!

T. Davis Again, the children suffer. Why can't the county eliminate one meal provided to the students? Make the parents responsible for their breakfast and only provide lunch? That way the cost for food is reduced and the staff are not required to get there as early.Increase the cost of lunch to $3.50 and provide nutritional food. Parents need to be more involved in their children education as well as feeding them.

Tired of The Whining To the Cobb county Teacher below: I'm sick and tired of government workers like yourself who seem to think the private sector doesn't work. You said you work many hours without getting paid unlike other jobs. YOU MY FRIEND ARE IGNORANT. I have a salary. If a project hits my desk that requires me to work overtime even until midnight, guess what, I do. No overtime. No bonus. Also, my insurance has gone up every year. Time away from my family and myself. Unlike you, I don't get 3+ months off during the year to sit on my butt whining. Maybe you should become more educated of the private sector workers and realize we work hard, if not harder, than you.

Cobb County Teacher Sad, sad, sad....It is sad to see that teachers are once again being beat down as if we have no worth! We continue daily to inspire children regardless of the budget cuts. We have to use our own money to purchase classroom supplies. We spend a lot of our own time taking away from our families researching for activities to go along with the Common Core. We continue to do what is best for children regardless of how much we are made to feel worthless by the board. However, in order to get back my furlough days I will be using all of personal days. I will not be attending any mandatory after school activities. That is my time with my family. You can not cut our pay, give us more students, give us less resources, etc, and still expect us to stay after school for other activities. No other job requires their employees to work after hours for free.

Frustrated teacher Thanks Cobb County School Board for once again putting the entire burden of the budget on the backs of the teachers and continuing to devalue education. As a parent, teacher, and homeowner in Cobb County I am ashamed of what our school district is becoming. Teacher morale is at its lowest - we cannot continue to do more and more with less and less. You won't even provide Math teachers with textbooks for goodness sake and you expect them to have the time and resources to create their own. And if you don't think class size has an impact on test scores you are dead wrong. We got our CRCT scores yesterday and every teacher I spoke with saw a correlation between their class size and their test scores.

DRESS CODE ALL COBB COUNTY SCHOOL NEEDS TO BE IN UNIFORM. THE WAY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS COME TO SCHOOL IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!! EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE ON ONE ACCORD!!!

Parent My daughter has been attending the same elementary school in PowderSprings for 4yrs. and this is one of the worse school years for her.Out of all the school years, the only grade level was perfect was her 3rd yr. The teachers she had in 3rd grade was AWESOME!! they showed that they was there for the kids and not for the pay check. They was there when you needed them and they went the EXTRA MILE TO HELP!!! her 4th grade yr. was worse her teachers actually belittle the kids who were struggling by not EXTENDING THE HELP and by paying more attention to the kids who was on a higher level then the ones that was struggling. NOW HERE'S FOR 5TH GRADE!! My daughters teachers this yr. was not good Well AT LEAST ONE OF THEM !!! I mean I thought that she was going to be a wonderful teacher as I expected at the meet and greet but, I WAS WRONG! I explained to the teacher that I'm one of those parents who loves to come and check out and sit and observe, and she said that was fine just email us and we will let you know when is the best time! Cool , ok but when I to ask when was the best time to come and sit I never saw that day! WHen it comes to COMMUNICATION it is NOT in her vocabulary AT ALL! she let's the other teacher do all of that I have never received and email from her since school has started and now it's is over! When she sees me at school functions she doesn't acknowledge me the other teacher does !! PERFECT EXAMPLE:FIELD SHE SAW ME AND STOOD BY ME AND DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING! My concern today is are they anymore teachers who loves what they do ? Because it seems as though a lot of them bring their personal problems to school and is there for the money not for the kids!! Now I have a child who will be starting kindergarten when school starts but don't want to send her there for this reason what should I do , when you can't relocated to another school?

angry ESP (paraprofessioal) Cobb what is wrong with you? I understand some things are to be cut but the paraprofessionals. How do you expect the teachers to teach with out paraprofessionals in the class. You don't want to give us a contract so you just treat us any kinda way. This is not fair we work just as hard as the teachers if not harder than some of them. We are the back bones of the school. If you lay us off and we don't find other jobs what are suppose to do?

netdragon STOP with the million dollar teacher conferences, for one thing. Then you need to look at what negative impacts consolidating schools has on students' education. Why a small school like King Springs is doing so much better than any other elementary school and what you're doing wrong with the large schools. If you can't balance the budgets even with combining schools, then why sacrifice the kids' education until you figure out why bigger schools are not doing as well.

Frustrated teacher A huge thank you to the group of teachers from Walton HS that spoke up for the teachers in CCSD. You did an excellent job and your peers appreciate the effort of speaking up for teachers, who continue to carry the entire burden for the deficit.Unfortunately, I'm sure it fell on deaf ears. It is so sad that there is NO HOPE for an improvement in teacher's lot in Cobb.

Concerned Community Member My children have graduated and I think they got a very good education. I was a very involved parent and was in the schools weekly and sometimes daily. My philosophy was that if I could help a teacher it gave them more time to teach my child. At that time I had concerns, but generally I thought things were fine. If I thought something was lacking we tried to address it at home or with the teacher. Now I substitute regularly in the schools and I am horrified at the changes. Cutting teachers is having a very big impact on classrooms. Just read all the teacher entries and see how poor teacher morale is. New teachers are not getting hired and we are missing out on the young and enthusiastic. Crowd control is their biggest challenge. Parents you need to take notice because every year your child will have more kids in the classroom. Cobb used to take pride in their lower classroom size. Cut out main office personnel. How many administrative positions do you need? Teachers know how to teach. Older teachers and principals can mentor them. Parents if you don't complain these classroom sizes will be the norm. You hold the power-complain vigorously!

Relocating I am pulling my three children out of Cobb Schools and we are heading North--Cherokee County---better schools, low taxes, less crime. We are tired of the abuse to educators and our children

Dedicated School Nurse I am so dissappointed that again this year, the efforts, contributions and needs of the School Nurses have not been addressed. To be recognized for the degrees and licenses we hold as Certified vs Classified staff. To be compensated fairly for the hard work, dedication and tireless hours of care we give to this county. To be listed as 100% employees instead of .88% To be treated like any other employee in this county and add salary steps to our benefits. Do not include us in the furlough days. The county gives the employees 1/2 step back during the year, but each year, we continue to loose money. Provide for continuing education. Would you want to go to a physician who was not current on medical changes that happen daily? Thanks

@Cobb Mom What newsletter? All the teachers at my school want to start later. When they first made next year's calendar and I saw that we had to come back in JULY I was so upset. Teachers do not want to start back to work in July. We'll still get two breaks with the later start date in August. I don't know why other teachers want the other option.

Cobb Mom It is not the school's responsibility to take the kids to the Boys and Girls CLub. They can put in an After School Program until 6:30 if the majority of students need it. Your wrong...I am a single Mom who needs ASP and Daycare for my children. I do not expect the Gov't to take care of that problem, I PAY from MY BUDGET for that care. Those other families should too. I concur on this point: You'd have another million immediately if you put off the virtual learning idea another year. One third of the deficiet of the current tentative budget. If we can't buy books, and are cutting teacher pay and school days, why are we investing in this idea?

Cobb Mom I just read on David's newsletter that teachers favor Plan B for furlough. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The kids are just back from Winter Break and headed to SB in April and teachers think a week in Feb is good idea.....Are the teachers drinking or smoking? Plan A is the better choice. ANY choice that has school start closer to September not the first part of August is a better choice. There is an unmentioned Plan C. Put the days in October during the time kids are already off...Oct 7-11 instead of the currently proposed 7 & 8.

William Bailey Coob County citizens will know that the school board is serious about educating our youth within tight budget constraints when they first look inwardly and cut central office personnel dramatically. Ut is unconscionable that teachers must bear the brunt of cuts while the central office is bloated with well intentioned workers who actually contribute little to the education of our kids.

Just a lowly teacher in Cobb The "Current Cobb Teacher/Future Teacher Somewhere Else" person really summed up it up for myself and most of the teachers in which I communicate with on a daily basis. I do my job and I do it well, but I no longer give so much of my time, money, and effort as I did in the past. I have been beaten down and I do what I have to do and no more. The morale is indeed at a all time low. My school has a toxic environment in which teachers are constantly worried that the County, via their many administrators, can find any reason to "RIFF" (reduction in force) their accomplished teachers and replace them from the never ending supply of new teachers at a lower cost. Another reason to do this is the elimination of higher pay with advanced degrees earned. Imagine that, teachers not encouraged to learn on their own. The funny thing is that the County thinks we should be "doing more with less", if you work in Cobb you may remember that slogan from last year, and this is not the case. Keep it up Cobb County! One day soon this county will be just another DeKalb Co, APS, or Clayton Co with the whole country laughing at the south ability to educate. Cobb has taken full advantage of the budget situation, and will continue to so since the cuts are only affect teachers at this point. Parents can still send their kids off to school regardless of what we as teachers endure. After all, we are just a bunch of whiners as we were called at the onset of NCLB. I remember being called this because the public claimed teachers did not want to be held accountable. But, just as I knew NCLB was not an obtainable goal, I also believe that the effect of the massive cuts to teachers and education will be evident for many years to come. My suggestion, change the requirement years to retire from 30 to 25 and I will be one less advanced degree (in my teaching field), accomplished, and experienced teacher the County and State will have to pay any longer!

Concerned Mom Cobb County has gone downhill in its educational standards. The focus is on testing rather than on teaching our children. The district needs to find alternative methods for cutting the budget that doesn't negatively impact the quality of education our kids should be getting. Increasing class sizes and cutting teacher pay all have a negative impact on the quality of education our children receive. In addition, the Board seems to be more interested in what other surrounding counties are doing than what we are doing in Cobb County. It is ridiculous to have earlier start dates to be "in sync" with Paulding or Cherokee Counties! It's ridiculous to have start dates in early-August, period! If I wanted year round school for my children, then I would move to another county. There is so much waste by starting school in early August -- higher electricity bills because the schools are running the air conditioners during the hottest month of the year. Summer vacations are cut short for teachers and families, especially for those that are involved in school bands or sports programs because the practice schedules get moved up even earlier (into mid-July) because of earlier start dates. It's time we get back to the basics -- the ultimate goal of the Cobb County Board of Education should be to ensure that the students of Cobb County get the best education they can and in a manner that does not deter from their learning.

Common Sense You'd have another million immediately if you put off the virtual learning idea another year. One third of the deficiet of the current tentative budget. If we can't buy books, and are cutting teacher pay and school days, why are we investing in this idea? And right now? Reading the numbers lets us know it's really not going to save that much in the long run...so what is the motivation behind pushing this idea right now? Who has something to gain?

Board members need ot be fired. Dekalb did it, let's get rid of the entire and the Superintendent..

Clifford Gwyn, Para Hi concern; where do our priorities be, education or budget!!!

Classifeied Staff Please do not make us take furlough days 2 or 3 day in a row. That would be to hard on us.

Hi Concerned Teacher: As an Educator, yes, I agree that the Common Core is rigorous; however, some of it is too analytical for children at the elementary school level. It is setting up some students for failure. It is my professional opinion that these standards are written for middle schoolers and high schoolers, as well as elementary aged "gifted" students who can think abstractly. But, in general terms, children in elementary school are still very literal and should be taught the good, old fashioned way through hands-on experiences and repetition. I believe that my life experience and Psychology background, prior to going into teaching, qualifies me to make this judgement. Several of the 8-10 year old students I tutor are really struggling with these Common Core Standards, and learning has become a very frustrating experience for them...

Concerned teacher, again. Another disturbing trend is the move away from teacher led instruction to computerized instruction. The problem lies in the fact that American education has always been about imparting not only the content areas (English, math, science, and social studies) but also the values of our democracy. Values are taught via human interaction. Moreover, children learn to interact with others, by doing just that, interacting with others who are both like and unlike themselves. This doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens when students interact with high quality teachers ando ther peers. Thus, I contend, that as we spend more and more on tech toys for our schools and less and less on our teachers our children's educational achievement will fall. This belief is held by many others, many of whom are techies themselves living/working in the Silicon Valley. For example, here's a quote from the Seattle Times (October 22, 2011): I fundamentally reject the notion you need technology aids in grammar school," said Alan Eagle, 50, whose daughter, Andie, is one of the 196 children at the Waldorf elementary school; his son William, 13, is at the nearby middle school. "The idea that an app on an iPad can better teach my kids to read or do arithmetic, that's ridiculous." The article continues to say that many techies are sending their kids to schools where there is NO technology...because they believe their children can learn better unencumbered by technology, which they will learn anyway on their own time at home. Eagle knows a bit about technology. He holds a computer-science degree from Dartmouth College and works in executive communications at Google, where he has written speeches for the chairman, Eric Schmidt.

Concerned teacher Attending last month's board meeting was disturbing to say the least. The disrespectful manner of the anti-Common Core group was shameful. It was a group with a mean age of 70+ touting that Common Core was bad....saying it was decreasing academic rigor, particularly in mathematics. Working in the schools every day, I can say without hesitation that is absolutely NOT TRUE. Common Core has most definitely increased rigor. To make sure this wasn't just my opinion, the following day I queried every teacher and PTA parent I ran into ...everyone, bar none, confirmed that Common Core has increased the rigor of English language arts AND math instruction. Teachers may be "covering" fewer topics in an individual grade level, but that is because they teaching eacg math skill till students achieve understanding and MASTERY of the topic. Moreover, the transiency rate at our schools (and schools across the nation) is at an all time high with no change in sight. Thus, when students are taught the same content, regardless of where they live, when their families move to another county or state, they are still on track and don't lose out. The anti-Common Core folks are claiming that it "violates state's rights." What about the rights of students and families to have a seamless high quality education regardless of where they live or move to. Common Core is rigorous, Angellucci, get out of bed with the Tea Partiers who have a political axe to grind and don't know the facts. In other words, talk to your teachers, administrators, and parents not 70+ year olds who have no real stake in the deal.

Cobb is the Pits I got out of corporate America several years ago, and decided to pursue my passion; which is teaching. However, after being in the Cobb system for just over two years, I realized that, if anything, the environment, dog-eat-dog gossiping, and morale is even WORSE in the public sector. So, finally, I said enough of this and now I'm going into business for myself. It is a horrible situation how dedicated teachers can no longer share their passion for teaching children what they REALLY need to know or provide fun, teachable moments while imparting knowledge because principals are cracking the whip on their teachers to ASSESS, ASSESS, ASSESS while mandating teachers to provide test prep. rather than quality, learning opportunities for their students. How do these principals sleep so well at night?

Boys and Girls Club To the person who suggests to stop the transportation to the Boys and Girls club, you are self-centered and heartless. It is obvious by your comment that your kids probably don't need that type of service or perhaps, you don't have young kids. However, there are some children who would then be going home to an empty house, unsupervised. What is wrong with you?

College visitations Option B allows high school kids more chances to visit colleges (while they are in session).

18 yrs at Cobb Teacher Oops! Long day today. I meant to write breaks in Sept and Feb but could not edit after submitting my comment. Too tired to be voicing my opinions!

18 Yrs at Cobb Teacher The year that the calendar included breaks in Sept and Oct was my best year of teaching to date. Please go with option "B" since the board will never bring back that terrific calendar. Also, please show me the amount the county saved on subs that year! I know that I took far fewer sick days than any other year. The students performed better with these breaks as well. And last, why start later in August when all the surrounding counties start earlier because they have the two breaks? I live in a tri-county area with my subdivision being in both Cobb and Paulding counties so some of the kids start two weeks earlier than others! Since these are "Furlough Plan A and B" I feel strongly that it should really be the people who will go without this pay who decides which plan to go use and not parent or the board members!

$75,000 Before more teachers comment on not making no where near $75K, here is how the number is calculated for budgeting purposes. Average teaching salary of 50K and 25K for benefits, this is what we cost on paper.

Cobb Teacher I prefer furlough option B as it provides breaks during the year, which will help with the burn out factor.

Furlough Days Please choose Option A. I've been polling fellow teachers and we all agree. We want a later start date. No teacher wants to go back to school in July. Ask us. Email us. Do what we, the teachers, want. Please listen this time.

Cobb Mom Furlough Proposal A is the better one. Please vote yes to Plan A....the kids will start school on Monday 8/12 with that plan. In Starting School in early Aug is rediculous. I would really like to see how much is spent cooling the gym and buildings off in that time. If we went to longer days, but from Sept - May with less "student holidays" in the year how much would that save?

Cobb Mom Cut the Kindergarten all together...Let it go to the Daycares/Privitatzation like Pre-K. Stop the transportation for the Boys & Girls Club. Increase the After School Program price but keep it open until 6:30 PM so that it can be competitive with the Daycares. Plus kids can do the after school clubs then. Keep the Fine Arts. Decrease staff at the central office, and increase teachers on the local level.

Political Corruption It all boils down to political corruption from the superintendent of the schools, area superintendent, the school board and principals.They do what they want instead of what's best for the students and teachers. I'm running as fast as I can to get away from Cobb!

latest update Okay here is the latest update on how embarassed we should be as a school system. Fulton 3% cost of living increase and 10% increase in supplements. Last Year they received a $1500 check at the end of the school year and a 1.5% bonus at Christmas. Gwinnett has balanced the budget and their will be no furlough days. Heres the icing on the cake. Dekalb has a surplus of 25 million dollars. We on the other hand are 80 million in the hole, furloughed 5 days and if you checked your mailbox today at your school they are cutting the local supplement ( high schools will have 40 in a class). Yes, that is correct we are worse off than Dekalb. Again, we have a revenue problem. We must raise millage( 18.9 to 20 mills= $20 million.(School board does this). Local representatives must raise property tax exemption to 65. ( $60 to $70 million). Problem solved. But heres the good news, next year we will only have a projected 62 million dollar deficit. I will sleep better tonight knowing that.

Husband of a Cobb County Teacher As a husband of a current Cobb County teacher I cannot remain silent any longer. I find it difficult to believe that a county as large as Cobb County continues to run a deficit every year. Where is the fiscal responsibility? Then every year there are no raises for teachers but the workload and class sizes increase every year. Do you and the other board members realize or even care that teachers are actually making less money than they were five years ago when you factor in the cost of insurance, etc. When does it end Mr. Scamihorn? Good quality teachers are exiting the profession because they can no longer afford to remain in it. If insuring that teachers, who are molding our children and the future leaders of tomorrow, are not taken care of financially, than I ask what are the priorities of this School Board and the County Government? Also, for those parents who complain about the teachers in Cobb County maybe you should walk a mile their shoes before you comment on something you know nothing about.

Teacher I have taught in Cobb County for 13 years and I have never seen our school system in such terrible shape. Teachers and students are frustrated because of the difficulty managing behavior in overcrowded classrooms. Instead of teaching what we love in a manner that will engage our students, we are pressed to 'teach to the test'. As we all know, those precious test scores are all that matter anymore. I truly do not understand how the Superintendent and the school board can expect educators to continue to take pay cuts and deal with increased class sizes, and still manager to give 100% to our students. I became an educator because I love children and I love teaching, but apparently that does not matter to Cobb County. We seem to have lost sight of what is important, the students. The students suffer because of Cobb County's actions to balance the budget. CRCT's, EOCT's, benchmarks...that is what Cobb County prioritizes over providing a quality education for our students. Cut athletics? I couldn't imagine not going to my students' football and baseball games to cheer them on. Cut Fine Arts? It would break my heart to never attend another band performance or choral concert at my school. Instead of going to work happy and excited these days, I worry about how I will afford to pay my bills next year because of another pay cut. Instead of staying after school to come up with fun and exciting activities for my students to do in class, I leave right after school to work my 2nd job that I need to supplement my income. Whoever thinks teachers make $75,000 a year is obviously misinformed. According to the Cobb pay scale I should be making $47,000 per year, but I have not brought home over $41,000 in 3 years. Cobb County shows us year after year how little they value their teachers and students, not that they will ever read this or care if they do. I am a high school teacher and I have a solution that will help our budget. We allow our students to take courses over and over until they pass in high school. If we make students pay a fee to repeat classes then that could help financially and possibly motivate our students to pass the first time. This might also deter some of our 18-19 year old freshmen and sophomore students to drop out instead of allowing Cobb County to continue wasting our money educating them.

For the Teachers Yes, there are some bad teachers, but there are many excellent ones. There are good and bad Public and Private schools. Whatever you choose as a parent, please do research on the school and be willing to support them. Public schools have done an excellent job. They are required to teach everyone!!! If they could pick their students and parents, the results would be wonderful.

Part Of The Solution It is a shame that those who say ALL teachers are bad has to generalize so, fact is many of us are dedicated and energetic, you let the others cloud your judgement. Personally, I have spent thousands out of my pocket to supply my classroom, never ask for materials, and yet am subjected to parents who send kids to school with an iPhone and no materials. The issue is not your teachers, it is those running the district.

Thankful I'm so grateful that my husband has a decent-paying job with benefits. I pray that this remains the case, so that I do not have to EVER subject my 2nd child to the over-crowded, understaffed, and unhappy schools in our nation's public school system. Cobb is just about the same as all the other schools; no better, no worse. I'm also thankful that my firstborn is gifted academically, so that he will not suffer from the anxiety that plagues many of our students today who are over-tested and not provided with developmentally appropriate scholastic achievement expectations. Good grief, our schools are a bloody messy! Run while you can, before your children become permanently damaged............if at all financially possible, pull them out of their public schools and send them to private school, or homeschool them. Your kids will thank you later!

My own opinions I am fine with a 4 day school week for the kids. Half days, or 3 days a week, for kindergarten is fine. Do not increase class size! It frustrates the teachers and the kids. It is a lose-lose situation. Learning can not take place with 34 kids to one teacher. Do not cut out P.E. Kids need the movement and exercise. Ugh....may someone help us all!

Kim Change school hours so bus routes can be combined. Elementary could be dropped off, then 20 minutes later the high schoolers dropped off, then 20 minutes later the middle schoolers.

LESS MONEY Absolutely agree with that person!! Teachers are not up to par '''''' '''''' vvvvvv

less money Maybe if we didnt waste money on teachers that cant teach we would have plenty to upgrade the schools!!! Fix the teachers before you fix the school, because they suck plain and simple!

Concerned parent Maybe the board should think about using SPLOST dollars (maybe next vote) to pay for education since the budget can't accomdate teacher salaries, low student-teacher ratios. It is great there has been money for new bigger schools but without the staff and money to maintain what's the point....

Bottom line Cobb NEVER listens! They do as they please! The board needs to be ousted and so does the ineffective Super!

Why make teachers pay for your poor budgeting skills???? Teachers are on the frontline! They are the why and how kids get an education....but all you can do is cut their pay again!!!!!! Cut the excess elsewhere, not the teachers. I am a teacher for Cobb, but am seriously considering leaving for Cherokee where they have an increase and are not treated like trash!!! Shame on you!

@Don't sacrifice our teachers Opening windows sounds like a great idea - except that all the newer schools don't have windows that open.

Don't sacrifice our teachers Teachers are the foundation of our children's future. If we do not value our teachers, how can we honestly say we value our children's education. All teachers are of equal importance, and yes that includes Music and Art teachers too. So why do we want to cut teachers' pay or get rid of some of them just because we think they are not important. Let's cut back on or get rid of some things that aren't as important. There are many ways to cut costs and to cut back on wasteful spending. In order to achieve it, it will take some sacrifices. For example, we could lower our schools' utility bills. By installing ceiling fans in each classroom and opening up windows or vents to circulate air from outside, thus reducing the use of air conditioners and lowering the power bill. Another effective way would be to turn off lights and computers at the end of each school day. The savings could be hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, if not millions. With that in mind, the schools' water/waste bill could greatly be reduced by getting rid of in-school lunches. Mandate that every parent should provide a home-packed lunch for their children at the cost of each parent, of course. Not only would this lower the water/waste bill, it would lift the strains endured by the schools due to free and reduced lunches. If parents can buy Happy Meals for their little ones at McDonalds, then there shouldn't be any problem providing a home-packed lunch on a daily basis. There are also other ways we can cut costs and wasteful spending within the schools. For example, paper waste/costs could be reduced by using the double (front/back) printing feature on copying/printing machines or investing in some for schools that have not updated. Although this might touch a nerve in some parents, but to be honest there should no longer be extra printed material in second languages. By doing this, not only would it reduce the paper waste/costs, it would also encourage some parents to be fluent in English. Finally, this message is to all of our leaders in education as well as for parents. We need to put our children's education first. We shouldn't have to sacrifice our teachers. Because when we continue to do so, what we are really doing is sacrificing our children's education. That being said; my final note to some parents would be to please let your kids know that it is important to respect others as well as their teachers. Because when they disrespect and disrupt the class, it takes away from the time teachers have to teach. (Note: this is not a complaint by a teacher but rather just my thoughts as an observant parent.) Oh and my last thought would be that more money from lottery sales should go into school funding instead of the actual jackpot. Does a single person really need 300 to 600 million dollars?

A Gym Teacher I do not understand why we should do anyway with gym! Gym outside school is not readily available to all students. Many children come from households that do not have the income to put their child in sports outside of school. So, we punish all students because people are upset with gym teachers who have Specialist degrees. I am once of those gym teachers with a Specialist degree. I am no different than my coworker who teach math, English, science, etc. It should matter what subject we teach to determine our pay. We do more than watch students run around the track and pitch. We teach students the important of living a health life, team building, socialization, self esteem, and we even act as counselor and mentors. Are we so unimportant because we teach gym? I was in the same classroom as many of my coworker, who teach math etc., and we have the same degree a Specialist in Ed Leadership. Not all teachers who teach core classes, have advanced degrees in their subject area! So the solution is a paraprofessional teach gym? Now, who is the smart one!

Principal Having principals teach a class is a great idea. I think it would actually make me a better principal if I actually knew what was going on in the classrooms. My teachres get paid half as much as me and they do twice the amount of work. I am willing to help out during these trying times.

Intangibles Hey community members, We can help our schools by providing lunches for our teachers. Parents can organize this for their local schools. Next school year, let the staff wear jeans to work everyday. These little gestures will probably go a long way!! It's a way to say thank you during these trying times.

Board Members I see you trying!! Our current system is no longer valid. We were able to stay afloat with this model of education when the revenue was fruitful. Those days are gone! Make the hard decisions, like Mr. Morgan was eluding to. Do not kick this can down the road. I like the idea of administrators teaching one class period; this could become the new norm.

Why are you surprised?? Parents, let's be honest; we send our kids off to school to be tended to for several hours. Our schools are expected to feed our kids for a buck and some change. Where can this happen in the real world? Schools are expected to provide books for our students...parents of college students, go ahead and laugh at that, right? Cobb schools are funded through Quality Basic education formulas from the State and local property tax revenues. Hey community members and teachers, both revenue sources are drying up. Have you taken the time to watch our board operate, probably not. They are working with a poop sandwich we created for them. We as parents expect the best for our kids and rightfully so, but it will cost us. Sports, music, art are very beneficial, but this can be done outside of school at the parents expense. There are plenty of sporting leagues outside of school. Send your son or daughter to music or art school. Gym in school is a waste of time and money. There are high school gym teachers with Specialist degrees making over $75k and pulling in coaching supplements. For what, to watch students run around a track or pitch softballs. What ever happen to reading, writing, math and science. Our national school system as a whole is ranked in the middle of the pack internationally. This is what happens when our school system is asked to provide every service known under the sun for our students. The schools have become a babysitting service. Parents complaining about computers being the means of direct instruction, get use to it now because it is already happening in college. The teachers who are complaining about salary cuts, go in the real world and find a job paying $50k plus. Special education is another joke. The co-teaching model works well when both teachers are knowledgeable of the subject area, but in some situations a special education with an English background is thrown in a math class for support. How ridiculous and waste of assets. These special ed teachers become photo copy experts and grade entry specialists. With that being said, here are some possible solutions: *Parents who want the arts and athletics in school...you provide it outside of school. *Focus on the basics: reading, writing, math and science. The schools can focus on these areas to prepare our students for the real world. Parents take a look at the curriculum and educate yourself. Why do we need to study British Literature? * Implement the "Strawman" computer based classroom. * Do away with gym teachers with specialist degrees and replace them with para-professionals. * Have school administrators teach a class period a day to help teachers classroom sizes. Remember, we are here for the students. Your day is not that busy. * Replace teachers on Professional Development Plans with new, highly motivated new young teachers. * Schools..quit being a day care center. Parents take responsibility!! * Teachers, parents and community members, our students learn best from their peers. Collaborative pairing and problem solving tasks promote higher order thinking. So if you are not specifically doing this, you are not a solution to our problem. Good luck Cobb County, your children need you!!

Part of the Solution More and more it is becoming evident that the board nor the superintendent cares about the opinions of their constituents or their employees. They have forced so much red tape upon the teachers and pack classes so full that sometimes they are not safe. Yes there are classrooms with 40 students in them, yes there are many with 35+, and few have 32 or less. While I am not as ticked about the furlough days as some, I am angry that teachers and classrooms are always the first places they look to cut. Raising the millage rate to 20 mills and cutting some high end jobs would be the most obvious choices. We just approved SPLOST for capital projects, how about a permanent sales tax to fund education. Oh or how about being the first county to approve an electronic gambling casino and implement a local tax on it for education??? As a Cobb educator technology is important to me and my students and right now we are behind the curve in this area, and everyday we get further behind. All classrooms are not equipped with interactive whiteboards, computers are slow and outdated, networks are unreliable, and we lack the ability to communicate effectively with parents because we do not have VolP phones in every classroom. Let us sell some sponsorships and find ways to get businesses involved in private funding opportunities. Cut all central office staff pay for those making over $55k by 5%, because that is essentially what you are doing to us. You want discipline issues to be reduced and absenteeism to go down, then go back to the balanced calendar like the community was promised. As middle school teachers we work 8:45 to 4:30 everyday, and that does not count anything that happens after school. The only time we can go to the doctor or take care of our families is if we take off work. The extra time off allowed us to do that. High school and elementary schools start and finish earlier, thus having the time we do not. That is never considered either when you think about the calendar. Common core is here, buy the books we need to support instruction, that is simple enough. The state will not opt out and we will have a version of it one way or the other. I care deeply about educating our students and try to remain positive, but the beat down we take from central office and parents is starting to take its toll on educators. Morale is low because everyone is worn out. If anyone from the SACS group is monitoring this debacle they have to be awaiting another complaint from parents. It is time to stop treating this like the federal government and cutting services, and to treat it like we care about our kids and cut from the top down first.

Tired As a teacher with extracurricular responsibilites (yes, I get a stipend. Which,by the way is 1/10 of what someone outside of teaching makes), I work about 60-70 hours a week year round and I am the bread winner for my family. I keep asking myself, how is Cobb County year after year in the same predicament. MONEY MANAGEMENT!!!! In my house I have a zero-based budget. Why can't the county do the same thing. How are Marietta City Schools getting a raise but we aren't and we're losing teachers, again???? Cobb has an affluent and broad tax base, we have a major mall, restaurants and a major highway running through our county. Are you honestly expecting an educated individual like myself to believe that this is the best answer. I work hard and care about kids but I am constantly being told,"Just be lucky you have a job." Not exactly motivating me to do my best.

Resident/Fulton County Teacher I totally agree with many of the comments. However, we are getting a 3% pay increase but Cobb County teachers get paid more than Fulton. I agree that the county should not cut teacher and increase class size. It is overwhelming for the students and teachers.

Greg Clark CCSD Board: Please provide accurate information regarding the offering of contracts to central office employees. Were central office staff contracts complete prior to the approval of the budget? If so, the possibility of trimming central office staff was never a consideration. If this is correct, then only the teachers were subject to not being offered a contract for the 2013-24 school year. This is would be an astounding and less than above board method of approaching the budget. Parents, administrators, teachers and any concerned tax paying citizen consider the following: Increased class sizes – Neither the board or 2013-2014 budget information will say to what extent. Here are the current states per Cobb County for the 2012-13 school year. Kindergarten: 24; Grades 1-3: 25; Grades 4-5: 32; Grades 6-8: 32; Grades 9-12: 34. As with most standards these can be variable with special waivers or other not so obvious standards. For example, measurements are often taken across grades. If one class has 35 and a second has 28 then the class size average between those two is 31.5. Seemingly meeting the standard, unless you are the student in the class of 35. The rumored class size increase is to 35. That's an increase of nearly 10%. How would the average person react if you were propose an 10% increase in their workload coupled with a decrease in pay. Furlough days and school year reduction – An total of five furlough days during the reduce 175 (previously 180) school calendar year. Even if the 2013-2014 standard of 175 days is used then teachers are being asked to educate our children to the common core standards (an entirely separate issue) and prepare them for standardized testing (another separate issue) with 3% less instructional time. If you consider the calendar is essentially reduced by 10 days (from the previous 180), they are forced to complete this in 6% less time. If the average persons' work calendar was reduced by 10% it would mean removing 26 working days from a calendar year. The average month has 22 working days. What would your reaction be feel if you were asked by your employer to take a reduction in pay, increase your workload by 10% and accomplish it all in 11 months instead of 12. Dedicated and talented teachers are being asked to sacrifice and students quality of education made to suffer while so many other feasible and acceptable options for the 2013-2014 budget are or were available. CCSD parents, demand accurate, truthful and honorable information from your board members. Demand a board and superintendent with the skills necessary to manage such an organization. As with so much, its a spending, management and priority problem, not an income problem. Vote in the upcoming election for a board member in your district that will represent the best interests of your child's education and reward the teachers responsible for their success.

The Voice of Many I have read the over 300 comments listed below and not one of them supports the idea of cutting teachers or their salaries. Most are in support of raising the millage rate and cutting more top-level positions. Why is this? Are all of the comments below from teachers who are biased? Nope! Are all of these comments from uneducated Cobb county residents? Nope! We, the members of this community, are telling you what we want to see happen. If nothing else, raise the millage rate and don't implement furlough days or Step delays. We want the teachers teaching our children to be motivated to go the extra mile for our children. Very few people would do anything extra if you told them year after year they were expendable, and that is exactly what you are telling them when you propose cutting their pay once again. We don't mind paying more property taxes! This is a Cobb county problem and we the people of Cobb want to help. It makes no sense to make the teachers take the hit alone each and every year.I hope the purpose of allowing people to add these comments was to find out what the community thinks and take it into consideration. PLEASE LISTEN TO US...THE TAXPAYERS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS! Our teachers, the ones who know what is needed in the classroom, are telling you and I what we need to do in order to support them. WE HAVE TO SUPPORT THEM!!!

Tim Villegas - Special Education Teacher Open Letter To The Cobb County School Board: Support Teachers…Don’t Cut Them To Whom It May Concern: All across our country this Spring, school boards are looking at millions of dollars they need to trim from their school district budgets. I don’t envy your position…it seems like an insurmountable task. How do you provide the necessary supports for schools when revenues are dwindling or simply not there? I am not contemptuous enough to say that I know each and every line item that needs to be erased or preserved from your budget, but I would like to leave you with some food for thought (if you are still with me). It is tempting, since the majority of your operating budgets goes to teacher salaries, to balance your budget by cutting teaching positions, but by doing so, think about what you are telling the public and educators. You are saying that teachers are not valued and they are expendable. You are saying that a program, a curriculum, or a piece of technology is more important than an in-the-flesh person whose mission is to educate your children. You are saying that student-teacher ratios do not matter to the welfare of our students and educators. It is no surprise why parents pull their children from public education and enroll them in private schools…it is not just because of the behavior of the other students or that they want religious education. In large part, parents pull their children out to take advantage of the low student-teacher ratio, because it does make a measurable, positive, long-term impact on our students. There are two things that schools can not exist without, the first being children and the second being the teachers that educate them. How can school districts make good on the promise to a generation of young people that they will have access to an exceptional education system when we are not willing to pay for the adequate number of teachers? Beyond this, we need to overhaul our outdated and archaic funding systems and change existing education paradigms to achieve what the typical school should and can look like in the future. It will take forward-thinking board members to advocate for how the principals of Universal Design for Learning can be utilized to bring up the achievement of all learners and smash the barrier between special and general education. Most importantly, it will take board members and the general public to put pressure on local and state governments to find ways to increase revenue for teacher salaries, because at the end of the day, we still need to pay for them. I am well aware that my voice is but one in a sea of concerned educators, but the overall feeling I get is that teachers don’t feel listened to. So perhaps you, who are in charge of balancing the school district budget and casting a vision for the future, should start listening to educators. But what do I know? I am just a teacher.

Parent The prinicipals are already doing this in their schools, we can save money right here: Area Assistant Superintendents (6) assume primary operational, managerial, administrative, leadership development, and oversight responsibility for the elementary, middle, and high schools of assigned K-12 clusters within the framework of the School Leadership Division. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cobb Teacher I am a teacher in cobb county who hold a Masters degree and I do NOT make $75,000 a year. Where in the world do you come up with the figure?! Most of my co workers do not make this amount either and we have all been in the district for many years and have the same educational background.

Rosalind Robinson-Bell Please support our teachers. The school board should survey teachers to develop solutions to our budget. Please don't hire a company and pay them thousands of dollars to do this. Teachers should be provided a method to email, mail or call in suggestions to balance our budget with the least amount of impact on student learning. If this is already in place, these suggestions should be given top priority. Positions outside of the classroom should be the first cuts made to the budget. Primarily salary cuts should come from the central office. I agree with the suggestion of the 4 day week and cutting bus service, but not as a means to cutting expense...If these cuts occur, parents would be severely impacted which might lead to an increase in parental involvement regarding offering solutions to our current crisis. As a parent, I am willing to pay more taxes or do whatever is necessary for the education of all Cobb County Students> I am also willing to do whatever is necessary to support our teachers.

Kathleen Stewart Cobb has a budget of $45 million plus for transporting children. Cobb is cutting teacher's pay, yet you are giving students a ride home that live within walking distance of the school. There are students that live in subdivision that touch school property. They could walk across to their house in less time than it takes for them to board the bus and wait for the driver to depart. Other students live less than 5 blocks away. Buses drive through the same neighborhoods three times, twice a day. That is a lot of gas for tax payers of Cobb to pay. Why? The elementary, middle school, and high school students can not all ride the same bus because the older ones will pick on the younger ones. That is easy to stop. Make the older ones walk. Middle school and high school students are old enough to walk to school. Maybe if some of these students walked they would be too tired to fight and get into gangs. I understand taking the very young to school, but by middle and high they are old enough to walk. If you want to make an except for those that live on the far edges of a school district I could understand. Any middle or high school student living within a mile of their school should walk. It will save millions of dollars. Students that are at the edge of the district could all ride one bus instead of driving through the same neighbors three times, a day, twice a day. If the older student pick on a young student put them off the bus for the rest of the year and let them walk. That will solve that problem.

Please be accurate! Special services for eligible students starting at age 3 is a Federal Law! Some administrators may be wasteful but, in my experience of 28 years, they determine whether the school "works," or not. Principals run a corporation/business without the compensation of other CEO's. Additional administrators are needed for support - personnel, students, parents, scheduling, testing, academics, discipline, paperwork, dismissal, office, etc. etc. Having spoken to other seniors over the last several years, there is unanimous agreement that we would gladly give up exemptions to paying school taxes. Schools not only affect home values; they are as much a part of the community as are firemen and police officers, and other necessary services - therefore, everyone should be required to support them.

@lets sum it up I just want to finish your comment. Dont forget that neither of those counties have splost to help with money spent on maintenance for their schools. Oh yes and they refused to pay for new text books for science and math from the splost IV projects, which they could but refuse.

lets sum this up I am going to sum up the current state of Cobb county schools. We have and 80 million dollar deficit. Fulton teachers are getting a 3% raise, Dekalb has a 14 million deficit. Yes, that's what our said, Dekalb is in better shape then we are.How embarrassing is that. We have a revenue problem. Amen to Desperate and Janella.

Just a thought... I don't think they're cutting 10 days from the calendar. The 5 days they're cutting from the calendar for students are the same 5 furlough days for employees.

Concerned employee This is ridiculous. I am having a difficult time understanding how we can sacrifice our childrens education in such a way. There is mjre money spent on unnecessary positions such as school psychologists, parent liasans, graduation coaches and the list goes on. The ones who really teach and whose positions are really needed,such as classroom teachers are the ones being cut. It makes no sense. It is a shame that education has come to such a low position. We should not wonder then why our children are not at the level of education that we would like them to be when we stuff children into a classroom with 30 or more students. Instead, we spend more money on programs to help them. What is needed is less "programs" and other unnecessary positions eliminated, and more teachers to actually teach students. Then test scores would rise. Students would be happy, parents would be supportive, and, well, you get the picture.

Parent/Employee Any responsible superindendent and board saw this coming years ago, so why do we act surpised every spring? Poor leadership! Ever heard of planning for a rainy day before that rainy day hits you in the face!

Desperate I am in a dilemma, I have a doctorate degree and have worked for the county for more than 18 years. The salary schedule states that I am making approximately $75,000.00, but I have not made more than 67,000 dollars in many years. Now I am faced with the loss of 10 more work days. As the primary provider in my home, I am concerned if I can afford to stay with CCSD or do I need to apply in another county were I can make much more money. Yes, teachers teach because we love the job, but that does not mean that we do not need to make a descent living. I love where I work and I love the students with whom I work, but my situation is getting desperate and I am not sure how much more money I can afford to lose and stay with CCSD.

Janelle Crowell We must raise the millage rate here in Cobb County, as long as the revenue generated ONLY funds the general fund for our schools. Cobb County consistently performs well even under financial duress; it is time our taxpayers reward this system. I am a conservative voter. Usually conservative voters are opposed to any tax increases; however, common sense dictates that agencies that are proven successes should be rewarded for efficiency and maintained by a budget that meets the needs of the community. Revenue that DIRECTLY funds teacher salaries is justifiable. Study after study shows that quality pay attracts and keeps quality teachers. This is the underpinning to property values and the investment in our children, who will hopefully grow up to be innovators and contributors. How can we achieve this if we are not willing to be contributors now?

millage rate Maybe WHEN (not if) the almighty test scores start to fall, somebody will listen...

VERY concerned parent, tax payor - Remember? The one who pays your salary? As a parent of a middle school child with learning disabilities I am very concerned about not only increasing the class size but decreasing the number of days in the school year. How is this benefiting our children? The cuts should come in ADMINISTRATIVE positions such as the SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS themselves, administrative staff within the school and the Cobb County School District administrative staff? No teaching positions should be eliminated. No furlough days for our teachers. No decrease in the number of school days. No increase in class sizes. Online learning? Seriously? Our children are to be TAUGHT BY TEACHERS - not a computer. Get real people. Benefit the children. Not your own pockets.

Cobb Teacher,Parent,&Graduate @Cobb Parent posted twice...Get facts before speaking. Board members make less than $20,000 a year. All government employee salaries are posted on the webpage Open.Georgia.Gov. Also, to other comments posted...please realize that the Board does not make the budget, the Superintendent and other Administrative people make the budget and the Board either approves or disapproves it.

COBB PARENT LET 1 PRINCIPLE COVER 2 SCHOOLS , CUT PAY OFF THE BOARD MEMBERS AND GET MONEY FROM SPLOST.

Disappointed CCSD Teacher It seems incredulous that the millage rate cannot be on the table for discussion but teacher salaries and furloughs are always the "conversation". CCSD loves to splash their high test scores on its website along with its bogus attempts for community input, yet it consistenly bites the hand of those that have the largest impact on test scores - the teachers. Teachers are numb and defeated. Stop the disrespect and cycle of disregard that top administrators have for the well being of their teachers.

Cobb Parent Maybe CCSD can have another 1/2 million vote to see what we really think and ignore it. The one question can be do we support cutting more teachers? NO Can we raise the milage? YES Can you increase class sizes? NO Can you do away with senior exemption? YES

10 DAYS ARE UNACCEPTABLE •Reduce school year from 180 days to 175 days •Five furlough days for all employees

Current Cobb Teacher/Future Teacher Somewhere Else What the hell is the big deal about raising the millage rate? Cobb County could generate $20,000,000 with this one adjustment and as a result not have to implement 5 furlough days or delay the teacher's Step increase. I guess as a teacher this is more obvoius to me than the folks working on this budget, but the way I see it, we will have to continue cutting teacher pay every year. Why exactly would someone want to do this unless he/she is trying to justify systematically reducing the amount of teachers. A person can't expect good teachers to really put up with this type of abuse. Seriously, can soomeone please explain why we wouldn't just increase the millage rate? This would allow the entire county to share the burden of this budget deficit instead of just the teachers every year. Trust me people, if you really don't think treating teachers like this is affecting your child's education you are living in La-La Land! The teachers find ways to do less work when they are getting paid less. Many of the little extra things teachers do because they use to love their job have stopped being done over the past 3-5 years. It may seem that our schools are still doing well, but teachers and administrators also know how to show the public what it wants to see. Do you really think fewer teachers can do more of the work more effectively now? The folks dealing with this budget are thinking from the bottom up instead of the other way around. The last person in the educational process I would want to make feel angry, anxious, depressed or under-appreciated is the person who directly works with my child for 8 hours a day! I would bend over backwards to keep the teachers as happy as possible because at the end of the day, if the teacher ain't happy, ain't nobody gonna be happy! Administrators think they can threaten teachers into pretending to be happy and giving 110% effort for 70% pay, but the teachers have figured out numerous ways to make administrators think they are being compliant! For the sake of the students, DON'T KEEP SCREWING THE TEACHERS!!! Teachers are compassionate to a point, put teachers ran out of patience a few years ago. The idea that teachers don't teach for the money is true. However, teachers don't expect to be treated with respect and supported by their administrators, community, and office personnel. This hasn't been the case for years and the PTSA bringing us cupcakes every once-in-a-while isn't cutting it. Wake up and do what is right by your teachers. You get what you pay for in every facet of life and teaching is no different. If you pay us crap, that is what you will get!!!

Current Cobb Teacher/Future Teacher Somewhere Else After looking at the budget, I thought it was humorous that they had to compare Cobb to other counties when it came to cutting Central Office positions. Why don't we compare other sections of the budget to surrounding counties as well? Why are we comparing ourselves to others counties in the first place? That is a pathetic attempt to justify not cutting Central Office positions! I hope the online teaching model works quickly because soon there aren't going to be enough teachers left to teach! Once again, politics has turned a mountain into a molehill to keep money in the pockets of those who have no idea what goes on inside the schools.

Amend Splost to cover salaries!!!! We have to amend SPLOST to allow us to use those funds for teacher salaries. My neighbors thought they were "supporting teachers & students" when they voted for SPLOST. What they didn't understand was that the $ can't be used for teacher salaries- which would reduce class sizes and improve student learning.

contradicting isn't it? Oh, and implement EVERYTHING Experience Teacher mentioned. I do hope SOMEONE with some intelligence is reading this at the district....

contradicting isn't it? So the district itself is trying to push the virtual classroom huh? I don't understand how people think homeschooling is the answer. So I should pay sales tax, SPLOST Tax, local tax, property tax, etc. but my child shouldn't attend public school?? So basically I should pay a board's salary while the teacher's struggle to maintain and pull my child out of school, quit my job which pays for the roof over our heads, all because the budget needs to be balanced. I am getting REAL irritated with this whole situation. Maybe we should take a look at how much standardized testing cost the district as well. Oh, and I could care less which calendar we have, although, I have to say the balanced one makes more sense if you are trying to cut costs.

Cobb County Tax payor Thank you for the informative video! It really helped me understand the present budget deficiet. You have been doing a wonderful job of educating our young people even with the deminishing funding over the last few years. It sounds as though the next year with be even more challenging!

Cobb Parent The balanced calendar is not the solution to the budget problems. It would require more expenditures to implement. Plus, the county keeps all sports schedules going during breaks,the constant starts and stops are disruptive, and starting school even as early as proposed this August stinks. Must cost a lot to run those air conditioners the first few weeks of August. The board should take a hard look at unnecessary spending instead. How about a cut to school board salaries as a start.

Calling all teachers who are retiring or are retired - - - Form a co-op homeschool group! Parents would flock to you.

Annoyed Again I think the Balanced Calendar was not given a fair chance. As we were told in meeting "We want to follow Paulding Counties" way of doing things. Of course that was a few months before their School Superintendent walked out on his position. But they do use the Balance Calendar system and it seems to work for them. Cut the Big Man's pay along with the ones under him. The teachers already make sacrifices using their own money for the supplies in their classroom's. Which by the way are full enough without adding more student's. Most Senior Citizen's live on a tight fixed budget and have paid their dues, leave them alone. Check the pay scale from the top and then maybe you will see where budget cuts should come from.

concerned neighboring county citizens I hope all of the concerned parents attend the public forum and have an opportunity to be heard.

??? You are right disappointed parent. NOTHING YOU WRITE ON HERE MATTERS.

The Well Trained Mind - former teacher, homeschooling advocate Parents: if you have the financial means and/or are willing to sacrifice, consider pulling your children out and homeschooling. Tired of increasing classroom sizes, your child being treated like a number, while only educated to keep up with the 'lowest' student in the class (due to the associated disciplinary problems of mixed ability classrooms that are not adequately staffed), excessive standardized testing, and low (understandably) teacher morale? Do yourselves a favor and look into homeschooling options. Pick up a copy of "THE WELL TRAINED MIND", A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer & Jessica Wise. You will gain some insight into a viable alternative to public education. If, upon reading, you are not impressed by this option, there are many others that would benefit your child, and prepare him or her for the future a whole lot better than a public education today. As a former insider, I can tell you that both students and teachers alike are devalued by those who run our public schools. School buildings are devoid of creativity or a sense of community with common purpose. The undue stress placed on teachers and staff are, inadvertently, passed on to their students. If you seek a better environment in which to educate your child, he or she will thank you later for not being complacent and taking the "easy way out".

Parent Over 70 million of state funding was cut from our budget just this year. A larger percentage of funds is spent on student instruction in Cobb than in many other metro counties. We have made cuts to address the budget problem year after year and as noted in the board meeting today, we will most likely face a deficit of at least 65 million next year. Enough is enough. I am tired of low morale, furlough days, increased class sizes, and threats of cutting important student programs. We need more revenue. I will be contacting our Cobb Delegate regarding the senior exemption. As in other counties, I don't think seniors below a certain income should pay school tax, but I think those that can afford it should. I think the senior exemption was a wonderful thing to do for our seniors when we could afford it, but now we cannot afford it. I will also be contacting my state representatives and asking them to fully fund QBE. I wish we could rewrite SPLOST as well and even use 5-10% toward our operating budget, when necessary. We are already exceeding projected collections.

Bus Monitor/ as a parent concer Go back to the balance calendar. Everybody seems to like that even the students.Having more students in class room can be more distracting.Teachers go fast already and they want have much time with the students to answer question and also foucus. Driver and mointor cusdaions lunch room worker lunch room monitors already get the lowest pay. If though parents don't like the balance calendar everybody else seems to like it.

Veteran Teacher So the school board, Trs and the taxpayers wins when I retire next year! Congratulations on saving money when I'm gone from teaching. Of course I feel as though I'm being pushed out from a career I've loved for many years but just not worth dealing with people who think we aren't worth the "so called" money. What I think what should be done has fallen on deaf ears for a few years now so I won't waist my time voicing what I think would help with the budget.

Disappointed Parent Is anyone on the board or Cobb Administration even reading these? I am beginning to think this is just the same ploy as the "survey" about the balanced calendar - asking for our opinion when you really don't care.

Concern Parent Why are we even talking about this when no one ever listens. how about we allow teacher to teach. Find administrators who support their staff and adhere to the rules for ALL their students. Loss some board member or reduce their pay so that we can keep the great teacher we have. I mean really is it that hard to figure out!!!!!

Reality The reality of this financial situation is that we are not bringing in as much property tax as we need to. Therefore, we need to get rid of the the Cobb County School Tax Exemption for those 62 and older. Cobb County is getting "older" and the schools are receiving less money because those 62 and older are not moving out of the county bc of this tax. Maybe is could only be temporary but it needs to be addressed!!!

Parent/substitute teacher Use more parent volunteers. In private and charter schools parental volunteers is mandatory. They could help in various areas to cut some positions or help with paperwork, etc

lala chesse crackers

Bus Driver Go back to the balanced calendar. It was never given a fair chance to see if it worked or not. Cut the pay from the top where the largest payroll is. Custodians. cafeteria workers, bus monitors,bus drivers etc are on the bottom of the payroll. Start with the top person's pay. Work from there. And again the balanced calendar was not given a chance to see how much money it would save. Overloading classrooms is not the answer. Teachers should not have thirty some odd students.

Concerned Parent Common Core is another looming financial threat to the school system. The schools will have to buy new books and force Teachers do change their teaching methods. Why do we do this to ourselves over and over again? It's harmful to the students and the Teachers. In turn, everyone suffers.

Cobb Resident Here are my suggestions: 1.) Cut local school administrators across the board. Elementary is fine with a Principal and one AP or AA in most cases. Middle schools only need three administrators. High schools will of course vary, but for example, a school currently employing a principal, four assistant principals, two assistant administrators, and a magnet coordinator could greatly be reduced. It could honestly be an effective school with a principal, two assistant principals, and two assistant administrators. 2.) Cut all magnet coordinators, county-wide. Their duties can be split between teachers (possibly department heads) and administrators. 3.) Do not touch clerical staff. The school clerks and secretaries do most of the real work while administrators do the bare minimum. 4.) Make principals stop being figureheads and actually be involved in the direct administration of their schools. 5.) Make administrators carry more duties or teach a class each. 6.) Significantly cut central office administrators.

School employee First: Get rid of Area Superintendents Second: Turn off all computers at night and during the summer. Third: Only one media specialist per media center. If more help is needed have two paras. Fourth: No more class room kitchens. Getting rid of thiry to fifty small refrigerators and coffee makers per school would save lots of money. Fifth: Turn off the lights when noone is in the room.

Teacher Here are my suggestions: 1) No more professional development--waste of time and money; 2) no more area superintendents--waste of money; 3) reduce number of people who work at the county office; and 4) reduce the number of administrators in schools--waste of money. (Many of them don't do the jobs they are assigned efficiently or with any degree of intelligence or common sense.)

Teacher @Ironic2, educational funding is left up to the state and local government...congress really has nothing to do with it.

Why ask... Apparently the opinions of Cobb taxpayers and all school stakeholders make no difference to the board so why even put this on the website? My opinion as a stakeholder (parent of children in Cobb schools and employee of the Cobb County School District is that all of the board members who voted in direct conflict with the majority of the stakeholders (regarding calendar) should have their positions eliminated. They are not doing their job to represent the constituents. Same goes for the new superintendent if he DOES NOT listen to the majority.

@Parent/Employee At Parent/Employee, you are a perfect example of why we need great teachers. First of all, your grammar is ridiculous. Secondly, you must have never taught in a kindergarten class with 24 five year olds....paras are absolutely necessary. I wish more EDUCATED people would make some useful comments.

Parent/Employee Get rid of old,bring in new.Employees that been with the CC at least 25 years should kick rocks!!! across the board in all positions. I see everyday working in the CCS district,we have cafeteria managers, not doing anything,waste of money!! We have Custodians that is to old,and Head Custodians that sits on they buttocks everyday allday,waste of money!!We have them in our schools,Trust!! The Electricity and A/C is uncalled for to be on everyday allday in our schools, waste of money!! Maintenance dept,working on a Saturday,waste of money!! Para's there are no need for them,waste of money!! But please don't get rid of our educators who are teaching our children. Also our children needs activities such as,art, music,sports etc.

Science Teacher I second the idea of furlough days after the CRCT. Why are we (teachers) always the first to go? What about some of those county office positions? Why can't some of those jobs be done by ONE person not three, or four...

Math Teacher I am very disappointed in the decision of math textbook adoption being voted down. Our math textbooks that were going to be chosen would of been a great asset in the classroom. The book had many resources for the parents, teachers and most importantly the students. Even if we get rid of common core the books still would of been a great textbooks for our students. The middle school books had great lessons that broke down the concepts for the students to understand and many practice pages. The students were able to write directly in them and take all of their notes in them. I just wish someone would of showed the board the books before they just voted them down. I like how you vote yes to all of the construction projects with the SPLOST money but when it was about something academically you voted no! Every math teacher is truly disappointed that you voted for us to continue to teach our students with outdated resources and in some cases no resources at all! Thanks again!!!!

Old fashion is not all bad! Should have said this...(I guess this is a case in point...Get distracted and touch the screen on the wrong spot = submit) I guess our illustrious Superintendent is trying to tell us that 6000+ years of civilization (not to count the interpersonal relationships upon which education is based) can all be replaced by a bunch of computers and a few facilitators. If it were so simple, why didn't we think about it before? Maybe because it's an other fad?

Old fashion is not all bad I guess our illustrious Superintendent is trying to tell us that 6000+ years of civilization (not to count the interpersonal relationships upon which education is based can all be replaced by computers and a few facilitators. If it were so simple, why didn't we think about it before? Maybe because it's an other fad?

Well said "Experienced Teacher" I think the central office needs to have you pay a visit to them. I think the idea of having different levels of teaching is a better classification system than what they have now.

Experienced Teacher I have almost 25 years of experience. It is invaluable in classroom management and curriculum development. I am on top of my game; teachers with 5-10 years more experience than me are, too. The idea that 30-year veteran teachers should be let go and replaced with new hires is preposterous. Do you really undervalue professional teachers this much to even suggest this? Would you want a surgeon who had performed a surgery 500 times or six? How about establishing an apprenticeship program for teachers with fewer than five years in the field? This way, we might keep more in the profession and have to do less training of new hires. And TFA, seriously? Insulting. I wanted to be a teacher to teach, not to “play teacher” and write off my college loans. This program devalues local universities who teach pedagogy and curriculum to students who actually want to be teachers. Pair young teachers with experienced teachers. Revise and streamline the pay scale to three levels- Apprentice teacher, Experienced teacher and Master teacher. Pay for advanced degrees in field and COLA each year. Master teacher level would be for teachers who step up and lead within the building or the district. Disband the entire central office and send all “coaches” back to the classroom. They can lead at their school or on Saturday or summer optional (and compensated) professional workshops and conferences. Don’t pull teachers out of the classroom for training at a local level. Think first- can this be delivered online? Administrators should each teach one class. Use technology to deliver faculty meetings, professional development and data compiling. Why do we have to attend a training session for each administration of each test each semester? What a waste of time and paper. I received the same handouts four times this year. And an administrator had to waste his time training us each time so we lost his services coordinating whole school issues and discipline when he was repeating the training again and again. We lose hundreds of hours of planning for forced collaboration compiling data on forms and then have to work with colleagues after school to share student exemplars, lesson plans and best practices. Throw out the useless benchmarks. Straw man is a brilliantly ironic name for a ridiculous idea if you understand persuasive appeals and logic. The idea that online classes can replace up to 25% of the district teaching force within a number of years ... really? This would affect high school and middle school students primarily as I doubt that first graders would be receiving computer-based instruction. Cobb County Parents, do you really want your children to transition to mostly online middle school and high school classes monitored by people without college degrees? You should be incensed. As a parent, I am. I taught for a renowned virtual school from another state for five years. It was a good experience but I missed face-to-face interaction with students and returned to the brick and mortar classroom. Parapros can't monitor instruction. Even with a pre-established curriculum, at my virtual school, certified instructors still called students and parents for progress and grade checks, tutored online and over the phone, graded the extended response and essay responses and revised the curriculum. Despite extensive 24/7 support and a brilliant, well-trained, motivated and credentialed teaching faculty, we still lost about 50% of our enrolled students each year because they just couldn’t handle the self-discipline and motivation it takes to complete online courses. And we caught loads of cheaters. Now apply this math to our low achieving students who lack the reading skills, discipline and motivation to complete their work right now in a co-taught class with face-to-face support. With this model, I predict colossal failure and a Cobb County graduation rate of 25%. Is this what we want? The answer, truly, is hybrid classrooms where resources and assessments are online for students to view, read and compete on their own time while class time is for collaborative activities with peers and direct instruction from a trained expert in the subject area. The idea of a parapro supervising a lab of rowdy kids ... hahaha. Is there a surplus of parapros waiting in the wings in Cobb County to take these jobs? I think not. Our labs and computer carts are used to capacity each day. We take pride in our technology, monitor it and maintain it carefully. Our technology is scarce. It would be destroyed quickly without teachers who see the value and need to integrate technology. What kind of incentive would a parapro have to keep kids from eating in a lab, to keep kids on task, to recognize and remediate a struggling student … do you expect multiple disciplines in each lab? I see the parapro job as clock in/clock out, silence the students, push the button for discipline issues, and then leave when the bell rings. With the proposed $31K annually and no benefits, why on earth would a parapro do more than the bare minimum? What about coaching, tutoring, writing college recommendations, sponsoring clubs … will parapros do the unpaid tasks teachers lovingly do, too? Would parapros’ jobs hinge on the test scores of the students enrolled in the labs they supervise? Would they adjust or differentiate curriculum for the myriad learning styles, SPED, language, motivation and home life issues that a typical teacher deals with daily? Many changes can be made in Cobb County so that the district can maintain the reputation of stellar schools that deliver visionary and vanguard education. Why not ask the teachers first? Since we are on the front lines every day, we could tell you what we need and what we could do without. I, personally, don’t need new textbooks or weekly training and meetings. I don’t really need all the pre/post-planning days. More planning days during the year would be helpful. I haven’t seen the area superintendent in more than three years. District personnel cars, drivers, cell phones, meals, travel … cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. Adjust the temperature in my room from sweltering and meat locker to something more economical and reasonable. Outsource secondary school custodians and grounds keeping. All employees except human resources could be 10 month. If extra work needs to be done in the summer, pay that person’s daily rate on short-term contracts. Bus kids 1.5 miles or more from the schools. In other areas of the country, a thriving enterprise of entrepreneurial stay-at-home moms start school ride businesses for kids within the 1.5-.5 mile radius and pick up/deliver kids door to door. This would add local jobs! Charge parents an annual materials and registration fee. Charge students to retake classes and for summer school. Four-day work week ... why not. Offer flex time, job shares, part time and extended day contracts more readily. Finally, if we find items cheaper online or in local stores than the pre-approved venders sell them, then require the venders to match the lower prices or let us make the less expensive purchase.

IRONIC2 Isn't it ironic that Lawmakers passed a bill Friday to ease air traffic delays before catching their own flights home for a week off, leaving unchanged other painful effects of the across-the-board spending cuts mandated by Congress' sequestration law. Why won't Congress help the teachers who can't pay their bills?

CRCT I like the idea about furlough days during the CRCT week. Let the kids go after testing is complete for the day (they're not learning anything that week because they're tired after 3 hours of testing). The afternoon time could be furlough time (or maybe half-day teacher workdays)

Yall forgetting the balance with school and community THEY ARE NOT GETTING RID OF ISS FOR ITS NOT A FUNDED PROGRAM PEOPLE. It is required to have a certified teacher in it for its dealing with instruction and direct contact. Parapro's have no certification, most dont have degrees, they are not teachers, nor have they been trainined in instruction or discipline. Thats like saying we will now let "subs serve as the principal to pay less out than the principal's pay".. ISS is important, for it came about in the 80's in the first place to replace the HIGH numbers of discipline problems in the school classroom and the HIGH numbers of kids at HOME and in the STREETS. It made the crime rates go up, and more and more kids were becoming a menace to society or in jail to much. SO, ISS was an alternative by the department of education to help these problems and to help teachers get a break from kids who disrupt class toooooo much. PLUS many times in lower grades, parents will not come, or want to come, or cant come to pick em up when they NEED to leave school due to disruption, so we are left to deal with them when some parents play games and use the school as a free BABY sitter, and will not come and get them after a major fight. If your neighborhood is doing bad then your schools are doing bad most likely. Yes send them home if they need to be, but with sooooo many "attendance laws", you will not really be able to have but so many out at one time each day. Its all a balance. Yes ISS teachers are needed in ISS. IM AN ISS TEACHER, AND WHEN A KID TELLS ME, "I LIKE YOUR CLASS BETTER THAN MY CLASS BECAUSE I ACTUALLY LEARN AND DO MY WORK FOR ITS TO MUCH CHAOS IN MY CLASSROOM", I feel really important, needed, and just like all the other teachers for I am a teacher first. Some teachers dont want to deal with our kids and some just CANT do it due to poooooor management. Tap out to the other systems and ask for advice for Fulton and Gwinnett must have it down packed to be giving their teachers a raise of 3% and NOOOO furloughs. We are the second largest system but maybe the largest in a deficit and poorest management, YET you wanna get rid of ME and ISS teacher who actually does her job and makes a difference. Hmmmm call me crazy but something is NOT right or legal here. PEACE

Retiree Just FYI, retiree's are not costing the county money, you will be there one day and do not want your expenses cut anymore than that you do now. Quit blaming alll types of personnel. However I would like to see for the benefit of ALL that life insurance be cut from the county - tons of money will be saved for the county and if you haven't been told, when you retire, you DON'T get life insurance and so what you could be paying for only pennies at age 30, you will either not be able to get life insurance at a decent rate, or not be able to get it at all. I did not realize that and although my life insurance payment was cheap when I did teach, trying to get something I could afford is out of control. Do the math, start looking and asking now about the cost of life insurance at your age and then at the age of 62 - doubles or triples and that's only if you don't have any illness. Board members please read and listen to what these teachers are saying, they are the ones in the trenches and teaching our students. At all cost students education is and should be number one. I agree with STOPPING the days spent on training at the beginning of the year. Look at areas where teachers jobs are not effected...it's out there. Make a list of everything everyone is saying that is actually workable and rework your budget.

Anonymous @Former Teacher Sorry Former Teacher, but because of your viewpoints we have budget deficits. People who break the law and come here just to have children because we have a law that is wrong, is a travesty and needs to be changed. I am sorry for you that you enjoy your hard earned money paying for kids who do not deserve the same rights as we have. We speak English in this country and I guarantee you, that if you went to another country to live, you would have to learn their language on your dime. The red carpet would not be rolled out for you. As far as your child is concerned, I am sorry that you have a disabled child, but we should not have to pay for him at age 3 to go to pre school. And... I put a child through Cobb County schools and will be thrilled when I don't have to pay school property taxes anymore. Parents need to be responsible for the children they bring into the world. Get rid of the programs that support these things and you will see a major dent in the deficit.

This is getting way out of hand. What I don’t get is all that cut back because there is no money, but have the AC running at a ridiculous temperature (for example) in classrooms that my children have to wear fleece jackets in 90F weather. I live very economically and recycle 100% in my house and I am sure there are lots of ways to save money in any school district other than making teachers and kids miserable, but that would require some thinking and maybe a bit more work, it is so much easier to be wasteful and cut budget on important subject. It is embarrassing…

Parent I have had or have 3 children in the school system. They have participated in the arts and athletics in high school. I do not think art, music or PE are required in elementary school. The instruction is excellent but the students should be focusing on academics during those more formative years. I also think parents should handle after school child sitting on their own dime not using the schools as cheap subsidized assistance. I am all for a four day school week with extended time on the other days it would help with numerous areas of cost and would allow some of the ASP program to be handled by instruction from the teacher. Half day kindergarten does not make any since it would require more bus service and the teachers and schools are already open for the other students. Also, maybe we need to do away with tax breaks for seniors or at least the can pay part of the tax burden. This will only get worse because we are all getting older, and by the way we just entered this category. Everyone needs to help out in this day and time we all need to make sacrifices.

The Best Solution It seems to me the best solution,(for the long run),WE GOTTA VOTE OUT THE BOARD, And hopefully get some bodies in there that knows what they're doing and really want to save our school system!!!! No, it doesn't solve this budget, but keeping the board we have will only make next year, and the coming years much, much worse.

concerned No just like the Federal Government we have a SPENDING problem not a revenue problem. MORE TAXES IS NOT ALWAYS THE ANSWER.

amen amen . we cannot function in our current state. We have a revenue problem. I want a great services for my child , but I dont want to pay for it. Generate more revenue with millage and property tax exemption or I dont want to hear how your child is not getting a good education with 40 in a class.

Common Sense Some Common Sense Measures 1. If you going to do furlough days - do it during CRCT testing. Do half days. 2. Start School in mid-August ( This is not California, AC is required for Hot months). This has never been given serious consideration. Other schools do it and it doesn't have an impact on AC test and end of course test. Change the dates. 3. Cut the number Area Superintendents. 4. Cut all ISS teachers, send the kids home of for OSS or provide a couple of teachers at one area HS to do for Saturday school ( That would cut down on discipline problems and cut positions not needed). 5. Should have participated in Race to the top!! But because of politics over kids and being upset at who is in the White House, let schools suffer. Get your heads out of the clouds, if you want GA to come out of the bottom half in Education then you need to put your political gain aside.

Concerned PDC- Please seek help.

Had Enough As A Teacher Lets just cut out everything except academics. School will last 5 hours a day,thats it. No one gets to keep their child's favorite non-academic subject. they all go. The extended day/baby sitting service that parents enjoy will be over. Either everybody has to pay a little more or we quit trying to be everything to everyone. We have reached the limit at which we can't give you the same services with less and less teachers. Class sizes in core academic classes are out of control yet you want individual attention for your child. Put pressure on your school board member or you get what you pay for.

Disheartened Teacher Let me just first say that as an educator I think these are some of the worst times we have seen in our schools, not only in regards to the budget, but in the view of education as a whole. As teachers we are no longer seen as professionals by the mass majority. We are pushed around by anyone who has an opinion and are made to deal with whatever anyone wants to hand us. Whether it is calendar changes, furlough days, pay cuts, larger class sizes, or changes in curriculum, we have no say in the changes pressed upon us. We are tired, underpaid, and disrespected. I, along with most teachers in Cobb, have a deep passion for TEACHING. I didn’t go to school to have outsiders run my classroom, and if you are not in my room everyday working under the conditions I am faced with, then you are just that…an outsider. I also didn't get into this field to treat children like a number or the pieces of data they have become. I went to school to touch lives and better the students I teach. We have completely lost sight of the VALUE of education and the heart of it, which is the child. You can have as many arguments as you wish about who knows best, but I can tell you that teachers are required to ALWAYS use “ best researched practices”, and I find it funny that class size has been researched for years and that isn’t taken into consideration. The fact of the matter is we are not willing to make the decisions necessary because instead of working as a team, someone with pull has an opinion. I don’t feel sorry for the adults who get their feelings hurt. I feel sorry for the children whose needs aren’t being met.

Frustrated Good job of focusing on the budget at the meeting last night. No wait - you didn't.

Concerned Taxpayer Budget gets are necessary, but they do not have to always be in the classroom. Is CCSD in the business of teaching young minds what is needed to become a contributing US citizen? I never see major cuts for athletics. Yes, booster clubs bring in funds for high schools, but do you really need all the weight lifting classes? My son was a football and lacrosse player, so I know first hand what the classes are all about. Trust me when I say that they could be cut and nothing would be lost. There is no learning going on just conditioning. Cut out the fluff. Also, I do love the art and music, but I think that this should be cut from elementary schools before academic teachers are cut from schools. You are not going to please everyone, but you have to make a decision and lets hope that it is not to cut the academic portion for our children since that is what you are suppose to be in business for. Teaching our children!

Concerned Parent I also feel it is time to tell our state reps to increase money for public education. I believe as a parent I owe it to my children and my educators to voice my opinion. Otherwise, this budget problem will continue. I also wonder how much in local revenue is collected per student in Cobb compared to other counties. One of the reasons counties such as Fulton have been dealing with reduced state funding for education better than Cobb is that they collect more in local taxes. If we are not willing to increase taxes in Cobb that is our choice. However, if we decide to keep our taxes low and/or provide exemptions to seniors, we should not expect our board of education to handle our budget crisis as easily as some neighboring counties. At this point I do feel our board members are doing what they can with the revenue they have. Any choices they make at this point are going to be difficult ones. Parents, please consider contacting your state representatives to voice your opinions regarding funding for public education.

Clean House... Require all 30 year admin and teachers to leave...Bye, bye...

Cobb County Parent As a parent who has their child in Pope High School that offers not only great academics but also music programs that enriches their well being and development. Please be thoughtful about the implications for budget cuts and reductions to support these types of music and artistic programs that have long term benefits both of the student and the community. Take the waste out of the spending for items that derive limited benefits and not to programs and education that have long term benefits and implications. Thank you - Concerned Cobb Parent

So (continued) - some requests I do have a few requests. 1. Please consider several of the suggestions posted on this wall. I've seen a few good ideas that warrant further investigation. 2. All of the below the line ideas that remove fine arts programs, etc. would have a significant negative impact on the quality of our children's education. Furthermore, removing the full day kindergarten program would have a financial impact to parents of those children unless they were permitted in the after school program for the same fee as the older students. If this is the case, then disregard. Also, changing to 4 day weeks would have a significant financial impact, more so than a tax, on parents that would have to pay for daycare for the fifth day. As a results, please leave these items below the line. 3. If the teachers are going to have mandatory furlough days, please have them adjacent to a holiday (surrounding holiday weekends) to minimize the inconvenience to parents who would have to take off work. Thank you.

So First let me say that I recognize that balancing a budget is easier said than done and that there must be trade-offs. I also see from the plan that someone has put a lot of thought into this and it is greatly appreciated.

Cobb Resident It is time to tell our state reps to start increasing monies for education. Looks great to reduce budgets and taxes at the state level but someone needs to make up the loss at the county level. The teachers or the local tax payer. And the losers are our children who are not getting the education they need and deserve. The auto tax change is another example of our state reps not caring about the education of our children. It will have a direct effect on future school budgets. Let's re-write SPLOST so it can be used to fund our school budgets not just for special projects.

FormerTeacher @Anonymous - WOW... could you be more of a bigot, racist and ageist? First, if a child is born in the US they have a RIGHT to free education - regardless of where their parents were born. Second, I have a son born with a brain disorder. Without the FANTASTIC skills of his special needs pre-school program he would not be talking clearer than my Kindergartner nor would he be eating utilizing utensils! I cannot afford to stay home because of the cost of Obama's healthcare fixes that aid in my son's other health needs, so PRAISE special needs pre-K. And finally, way to assume that every elderly citizen HAD children to pay school taxes for or didn't MOVE HERE to avoid paying taxes after a certain age. I would GLADLY PAY A HIGHER TAX if it meant that we educated those kids who do not speak English so they grow up to be successful AMERICAN citizens, and to ensure my son is a productive member of society, and to make sure that when I am old, those ones we paid a little more to educate are taking good care of me!

INSPIRED "Teachers do more than just educate kids. They nurse them, they embrace them, they love them... I cannot think of something more important than reaching that child who came in [to class] uninspired." (President Obama, in his remarks at the Teachers of the Year Ceremony in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday.)

Hope Lost, Why Bother WHY ARE WE GIVING OUR INPUTS?!? EVERYTHING BEING SAID ON THIS FORUM IS FALLING ON DEAF EARS. DIDN'T YOU GUYS LEARN THAT WITH THE VOTE ON THE CALENDAR YEARS AGO?!? IN THE END, THE BOARD IS GOING TO DO WHAT THEY WANT REGARDLESS OF YOUR OPINION.

Just saying @ new ideas to save money. I think your ideas are great, but really do you think CC will put academics before their football program or any other sport for that matter in high school. Sorry you took the time to type all but you sure got my attention with a weight training class that is offered as an elective! Really!!!! @taxpayor, I could not agree with you more, just raise the taxes. We need to do something so a new bandaide is not needed for next year. I would gladly pay more school taxes.

Random Taxpayer Cobb BOE, have the courage to raise the property tax to the legal maximum and thereby increase revenue by ~$20M. Our family will gladly pay this modest increase in school taxes. Property taxes in Cobb are among the lowest in the country. Quit worrying about your re-election and do what you know is right.

Anonymous I do not understand why no one is screaming out about all of the illegal children we are educating including having to teach them English.Undocumented parents should have to pay tuition for their children even if they were born here. We should require children to speak English in order to come to kindergarten. I also do not understand why we are funding 3 year old kindergarten. Oh, they have to have special needs. What a joke;offering free babysitting. Why do we need patent liaisons? I am sick and tired of paying for all of this and more. And... Leave the 62+folks alone. They have already paid their share to educate their kids. Maybe it is time to outsource running the school district. It is almost a guarantee that the $86 million budget shortfall would be resolved quickly.

Admin positions Please don't cut admin positions at schools with excessive discipline problems (if anything, add more so our classrooms can run smoother---without so many distractions from kids that can't/won't do what they're asked)--32 on-task kids are a lot different than a disruptive class of 32.

New ideas to save money...and what about health insurance? There are two categories of folks who have remained untouched with the past five years’ budget cuts. 1) Local school administration. 2) Coaches and PE teachers. Re: #1, remove one AP position at the larger schools and replace with a parapro, who could do some of the tasks like textbooks, lockers, bus counting, lunch duty, etc. Re: #2, I am all in favor of health and PE; however, a Cobb high school that I know of has 8 (EIGHT) PE teachers, which is the same number of science teachers at the school! Students must take 3 units of biology, chemistry, and a third course such as Environmental or Earth Systems to graduate, whereas they only need ½ unit PE and ½ unit health to graduate. Stop offering the weight training classes that are only taken by the football team and don’t run at full capacity. Most of the core subjects, like Language Arts and Social Studies, have dramatically cut their electives offerings (even APs!)—why should PE be any different? Also, has the board considered the impact of Obama Care, beginning in 2014? They propose that a full-time online teacher make $31,000 with no benefits, but Obama Care requires any employee working 30 or more hours a week to have insurance. This seems inconsistent. Teaching online classes can take much longer than teaching in-person classes; the 30-hour per week benchmark will most certainly be exceeded. Finally, PLEASE make the 5 furlough days line up with one of the four-day workweeks so that the staff, students, and district families can have a full week off (the 5th day could be chopped from post-planning).

By the way The "Turf" fields and the theater were payed by SPLOST funds.Hey.......you voted for it!!!

SPLOST If you think it's bad now,wait until the next SPLOST doesn't pass.

Retire Early I'd gladly retire early BUT I can't afford the medical.

guess what By the way I spoke with a friend who teaches in Fulton county and they are getting a 3% cost of living increase and a 10% raise in all additional supplements. My morale just sank to an all time low. For the 1,000th time we have a revenue problem that can only be resolved with a millage increase and change in the tax exemption law.

guess what By the way I spoke with a friend who teaches in Fulton county and they are getting a 3% cost of living increase and a 10% raise in all additional supplements. My morale just sank to an all time low. For the 1,000th time we have a revenue problem that can only be resolved with a millage increase and change in the tax exemption law.

guess what By the way I spoke with a friend who teaches in Fulton county and they are getting a 3% cost of living increase and a 10% raise in all additional supplements. My morale just sank to an all time low. For the 1,000th time we have a revenue problem that can only be resolved with a millage increase and change in the tax exemption law.

Teacher for Cobb I have been a teacher for Cobb for 25 years. I do not make anywhere near $70,000. I really should and wish that I did. I have a Masters Degree in Education and I make $56,000/yr. It's approximately what I made about 8 years ago. If we had stayed on the balanced calendar, we would have already saved a lot of money! I agree that if we are going to be furloughed, at least put those days together. I'd like to also suggest that an incentive plan for teachers who are within 3-5 years of retirement could work - give a little $ incentive and I know MANY who would retire early.

k What about the consulting firm they paid that recommended the Principals, to declutter their offices? How insane is that? Audit???

Teacher I am certain that substitute teachers cost the county a huge amount of money. Why not incentivize perfect attendance amongst teachers? Perhaps a bonus check at the end of the school year (or even a semester)given to everyone who did not miss a day. When I taught at a large district in Texas, teachers with perfect attendance had their names entered into a drawing. In May, names were drawn and winners were awarded airline tickets, gift cards, baseball tickets, etc. Most of these items were donated by the community. Teachers felt like their attendance mattered, and they all made an effort to come to school every day imagining themselves with their prizes at the end of the school year.

Soft Spot I think I am right in saying that "get your fact straight' is an employee of Glover St and should get back to work thinking of a creative idea for the budget cuts rather then sit on here and post comments. I know if I was your boss I would be docking or rather a salary cut for your actions. Let's face the facts you are not going to cut athletics, music or art so what are you really going to do. It is a fact that down south they put more emphasis on sports then any academic classroom in our schools.

out raged citizen! 15,000 spent on a survey to ask parents if they like the new superintendent! and then you wonder why you don't have any money!

get the facts straight The turf field at our school is going on 4 years and not one dollar has been spent on upkeep. Get your facts straight! The new turf is totally different from the old turf. The old turf did not give like grass and caused burns,which caused many of the injuries ( ACL, ankles. shoulders, concussions). The new turf does give like grass, causes no burns, and is soft as grass. Get your facts straight! Our injuries have been no worse with turf than grass in football and lacrosse! Get your facts straight, and by the way the colleges and pros went away from the old turf and many have replaced it with the new turf. Do your homework and take a hard look. Yes their is more grass than turf, but they do not have the same issues as far as a large high school in terms of usage! Keep misinforming the public physical therapist. Oh thats right you care about the children more! Hey next time a child comes in with no insurance work on him for free!

Concerned Cobb Teacher 1. Unreal that Cobb County CONTINUES to have these massive budget shortfalls when other nearby counties have stopped the bleeding. As a teacher here, I must say it is quite disappointing. I have witnessed and continue to witness excellent teachers fleeing to nearby systems. How can this not be attributed to our Board? Aren't they running the show? 2. The vote on the balanced calendar was absurd. Who puts up a very public poll of staff/parents/community members, witnesses overwhelming response in one direction, and then acts in a completely OPPOSITE direction? What was the point Board? An exercise in futility? Did you hope to get a different answer so you could act in your own interests and say you enacted the will of the county? How can we feel you are listening now when you have so clearly ignored us in the past? Quite simply, it created a lack of trust. 3. Please don't cut academic staff. If the pressure is on us to be academically excellent, increasing class sizes in no way helps us meet this challenge. The football fields are nice, but not as nice as hiring new teachers to help these kids prepare for the REAL world. I remain hopeful for the future and a true believer in the democratic process.

Just Saying After reading way too many comments, I liked the comment about solar panels for heating and electricity. This would of been a far better idea then artificial turf and the grants and recognition for this type of solution could be endless. Not to mention saving the environment! I also liked the idea of senior tax exmption being limited to seniors who actually lived here and sent children through this public education.

@ get the facts straight There are more injuries due to artificial turf, hence is why college and professional fields have gone back to grass. Not to mention your facts are totally wrong about the upkeep of artificial turf, I hope they have that in writing and read the fine print! Also I played on dirt as a child and did effect our school records whatsoever for our team. Bottom line is the all monies should be put towards academics more so then anything else, and splost money can be revoted on as the guidelines of how splost money is spent. Maybe they should of included a second line in the voting in March. Splost can also pay for education materials such as TEXTBOOKS! Enjoy the splost as come 5 years they will have budgets cuts that will have to pay for everything that splost has been spent on. I know let's build another Arts Theatre at all the high schools, who cares if the teachers in the elementaries are getting rained on during the rainy weather and breathing in mold spores! FYI, I am a physical therapist that works with children, most all of my injuries are due to football and lacrosse players and their injuries. Thanks again for thinking of children.

get the facts straight. Okay i have read enough about turf on the fields. First it is part of splost , not the budget we are operating under. Second in the long run it is a cost saver. Here is the breakdown. To maintina a field at a school. Almost every year it has to be resodded. A cost between $5,000 and $15,000, depending on the damage. It has to watered two times a day from the middle of May to the end of September. Thousands of dollars per year. I really would like to know how much it is? Paint to paint field, $2000. Pay someone to cut field. The county does not do it, $2000. It has to cut 2 to 3 times a week during June ,July, and August to get it in playing shape.Rye Grass to be seeded in October, $1000 It also is a money maker for the school. You can rent it out to outside organizations on the weekends, which our school does. A grass field cannot be used at all becasue it has to maintained for the upcoming fall and spring sports. The turf field can be used by your community when no one is on it. Go up to any school and see it being used for free all the time. Ours is all the time. On a grass field their is a sign that says, "stay off the field". A turf field costs nothing to maintain, I repeat nothing ,and is a 24/7 use facility. The estimate of a turf field is between 10 and 20 years, but they really don't know since the new type field have not been around that long. I know we have much bigger problems , but just tired of the misinformation.

In Response to "In Response to Seriously"... When we were in school, there was no such thing as a cafeteria manager. Nor did they have area superintendents, or even a central office for that matter. And I agree, for many children school lunches are their only meals, but others have abused the system.... We need teachers. I also agree with the person who said we need to stop buying empty buildings and paying our superintendent to drive around in a car that is provided by us, along with the insurance. But see, nobody is willing to do anything, so I guess they'll spend the money however they choose and keep shafting our teachers and students.

j It may be worth investigating the ins and outs of getting corporate sponsors for each school marquee. I am sure corporations like Home Depot, Lowe's, Cobb EMC, BBT Bank, Credit Union of Georgia, Lockheed, Bank of America, Regions, Kroger, Publix, Racetrac, etc. would jump at the chance to spend 100k a year to have their logo on a marquee. It this idea is feasible, think how much money would be raised with 100+ schools participating.

Confused parent First and foremost, I knew there was a reason they had paid extra tax money to have the splost vote early this year and hide the budget shortfalls from us. Now here it is! You got me but it will not happen again nor for most of my friends in CC as we will never vote yes again! Raise the mileage rate and pay it off with splost money. I even took the time to read the splost IV budget outline and yes it included projects of at least 40% that had already been completed under splost III. Hmmm are they going to buy more turf with extra splost money. I know the seniors do not want to hear this, but I in no way want to take away there school tax exemption, just tweek it, if you did not send a child to public school in CC then you do not get the exemption. And grandparents who have grandkids residing with you, be honest! and pay the school tax. Just in February of this year I received a call from my sister in NY where an article stated best places for seniors to retire. Well yes, cobb county was mentioned and all its perks for tax exemptions for seniors. I wonder how many other states have mentioned this. I am confused as to how any cuts should effect the teachers and any curriculum course they offer in our schools. This should not even be a option! Yes spend time in our schools, I promise you this, you will not envy them. I hold the highest regard for my childrens teachers as they are always putting our children first. If anything you should be looking at ways to make their job easier not put more pressure. Stop with the bandaids year after year! Fix it now or quit and let someone who can fix it work at Glover Street and I mean all of you there! One area you can cut is the car allowances and the car benefit, you all make more then enough money to pay for your own damn car and insurance for it! To the teachers with 30+ years, if at all possible if you can retire do it now. I know you will leave with some feeling unappreciated, but that is not true, we love and will miss all of you. Let the younger present ones keep their jobs and possibly hire some new ones out of college.

Fan of "concerned tax payer" Great ideas!

Floating Furlough Days How about making the furlough days mandatory unpaid "vacation" days so at least employees could schedule them when convenient? This would also spread out the productivity impact, keeping the district open more days. In other words, the district wouldn't have to shut down completely on any given day and employees would get a tiny benefit of being able to take time off more suitable to their own schedule.

Salaries I know the salaries at the county level are high. Look it up on Open Georgia's website. See where all the '90% of the county's budget is salaries' is going. You will be amazed at the amounts some of the county level employees make, while the people (teachers) who directly influence the education of our students make up to 8 times LESS than Hinajosa himself.

Salaries I know the salaries at the county level are high. Look it up on Open Georgia's website. See where all the '90% of the county's budget is salaries' is going. You will be amazed at the amounts some of the county level employees make, while the people (teachers) who directly influence the education of our students make up to 8 times LESS than Hinajosa himself.

Billy Shears Response to the post about the $75,000 includes benefits. Keep in mind that if the “straw man” scenario compares apples to apples then the $31,500 also includes benefits. The net result is teachers being PAID LESS THAN HALF of what they make now. By the way a list of top ten high schools came out today. Congratulations Gwinnett County on making number 3. What do we have? Oh yeah, new turf!

AAAA I realize these are tough economic times across the board. There are budget cuts everywhere. I feel the district always looks to the local schools as the first source to make cuts. There are other places where cuts could be made. I think that the district is going to have to step out of the box and look at other ways to cover the budget deficits. The local schools are directly impacting students each and every day. Teachers work endless hours beyond the school day to plan engaging lessons, grade papers, evaluate data, and complete paperwork. Pay cuts, furlough days, and increased class sizes continue to push morale further and further into the ground. Before you know it, local school staff will be paying the district to come to work. People pursue a career in education because of a passion for working with children, I would not want to see our students suffer because that passion is swept away. I feel that now more that ever, the leaders are going to have to take drastic measures to decrease the budget deficits without AGAIN negatively impacting local school employees financially. Maybe the Board can make a proposal to use SPLOST funds to cover some of the deficits instead of spending 10 million dollars moving Smartboards. REALLY!!!!! Maybe make a proposal to move retirement to 25 years instead of 30 years. That will assist in getting fresh teachers into the classroom. I feel the teaching profession is going to begin to suffer because people are not going to be attracted to pursue a teaching career because of the difficulty in obtaining a job. Please protect our teachers who make a huge impact on student achievement. They are shaping our students to be future productive citizens. If anything, you should be trying to locate funds to issue pay increases at the local level to make up for the cuts that have already been made, not trying to take more away!!!!!

another thought If it comes down to having 5 furlough days, at least put them all together so everyone can enjoy not being paid by having a vacation. Most people could accept this as opposed to 1 here, 1 there...Let's make it work for everyone.

Idea One idea wouls be to make use of the vacant buildings that the CCSD owns and quit leasing the buildings in Commerce Park. Use the buildings we currently have to house Human Resources and the other offices. If the need work, maybe that could be proposed with Splost money.??

Patrick Thompson Think outside the pie chart. Follow the example in Dublin Schools and the military by putting solar to work along with energy efficiency projects. Stop renting energy and make your own. Be an example to students and save operational costs that can be put back into the classroom. Use local tech school students to help build out these systems while training for future employment. When there aren't a lot of places remaining to get more efficient, this is one to use. Cobb EMC will help...use local Georgia planners, installers, construction industry workers. This is a win for all.

30 year administrators and teachers need to go... Retire or make them retire...They are a HUGE expense, not to mention medical as they get older...

Make the cuts Reduce or elminiate all positions who do not work directly with the students. Our school staffs have endured the cuts and have done their fair time and share of the burden. Time to go to Glover Street and let people go without secretarial help. My husband has run 2 different multi million $$$ companies over the last 20 years and has NEVER had his own personal secretary. We are in dire times which make the need for some drastic cuts that do NOT Directly affect our children. Thank you to the Board Members who have expressed similar beliefs.

Make the cuts Reduce or elminiate all positions who do not work directly with the students. Our school staffs have endured the cuts and have done their fair time and share of the burden. Time to go to Glover Street and let people go without secretarial help. My husband has run 2 different multi million $$$ companies over the last 20 years and has NEVER had his own personal secretary. We are in dire times which make the need for some drastic cuts that do NOT Directly affect our children. Thank you to the Board Members who have expressed similar beliefs.

In Response to "Seriously"... The comment you made about cutting cafeteria managers and the fact that they were brought on board during better times is patently false. First of all, it is a federal law to provide lunch in the schools; it's not an option to cut it. This is due to the fact that a sizable portion of students in schools nationwide are part of the federal Free and Reduced Lunch program. For many of these kids, the hot meal they get at school each day (for free) is the only hot meal they'll get at all. Secondly, Cobb County Food and Nutrition Services is self-supporting and does not rely on Cobb County for funding. We pay for our entire operation and also pay a significant portion of each school's power, water and trash bills. In addition, we pay a type of fee to the county for the privilege of serving Cobb's students. Who, precisely, should run the federally mandated lunch program if there are no cafeteria managers? Just curious. Should we assign that responsibility to the administrators? The teachers? Or should we just open the kitchens directly to the students and tell them to fend for themselves?

Concerned Cobb County Student You all should not even consider eliminating the athletics program! The athletics program include extra curricular sports, personal fitness, physical education, and health. Taking away this program will take away the "requirement" of trying to create a healthy life to kids that go to school. Recess has already vanished AND it's not even a requirement to take physical education in middle school. Also, sports can build friendships and chemistry with kids that go to the same school. Please take my comment into consideration. Thank you. -Anonymous 8th grader

Teachers will not take this financial abuse much longer... Stop having the teachers take the fall for your poor planning! Raise taxes if you must, but teachers are not going to take this abuse forever. Great teachers will leave and go to better run counties like Cherokee and Cobb will have the bottom of the bucket.

JC I am glad that I only have 3 years left in the district. We moved in for the schools but see the decline continuing. Larger class sizes? Are you kidding? I pulled my older child out and put him private school because of large class size in HS and that was 4 years ago. I am getting comments from friends in other counties saying we are getting to be just like them and losing our luster as a great school district. The SPLOST can not be used for salaries, but raising the mil. rate would. To have the best you have to sacrifice a bit. It's either pay a higher tax or pay for private school. Your choice.

concerned neighboring county citizens If teachers have to take 5 furlough days, can they at least have it during one of the break weeks that close by counties have? It would be nice for them to be able to make use of the unfortunate pay loss that they will have to experience. Some of them have friends and family in close by districts on the balanced calendars that they would love to be with.

parent and former teacher First I would like to comment on the proposed elimination of the music programs..could not watch the video so sorry if this is NA but in just looking at the budget proposal this may be a possibility..yes it is below the line but the way I read it that just means it was not in the original budget....anyway... as a future Lassiter parent I cannot imagine that school without its band..it is the school. If you don't think it brings new families into this area (hence money for the county!!!) you are fooling yourself! Beyond that it has been proven that music students CONSISTENTLY score higher than their peers (I'll spell it out for you again...schools get money based on performance..people come to Cobb based on these test scores!). Cobb county schools have long enjoyed a certain status in Georgia based on their results and people have flocked here mainly because of the schools. If these cuts do go into effect you WILL see scores go down, students not getting into the colleges they prefer and people moving OUT of cobb county..then you will have to make more budget cuts to make up the diff....bottom line do whatever it takes to keep academics where it is..that means no teacher cuts, no increasing class size, and no eliminating band!! BTW did not see ANY mentions of cuts to athletics...what a surprise!

Bob Hamilton Cobb County has one of the lowest property tax rates in Metro Atlanta. Instead of having Cobb Teachers absorb most of the impact of Budget Deficits, Cobb County should temporarily raise property taxes, until property values rebound. Increasing class sizes has a negative impact on learning and will make Cobb County less attractive as a place to reside. Teachers have already sacrificed enough in the past four years. It is time to address the fiscal problem by raising property taxes so that we don't have to put a bandaid on the problem year after year.

Concerned Parent and Former Teacher As a former teacher and now parent, I am so disheartened by the choices that have to be made in the next month. I moved to Cobb County for the schools period. Class sizes are too large as it is. Please look in the county office for cuts. Use reserve funds to make it through next year, and let's get our county officials to raise the millage rate for all citizens. Those that enjoy the tax break because they are of a certain age will see their own property values decline as the reputation of the county declines. It is in everybody's best interest to see that the schools provide the highest quality education possible. Is it possible to add a 1% sales tax earmarked to make up for this continuing deficit. I don't know? This problem is only going to get worse. Let's use the reserve funds and work with Cobb's leaders to show that Cobb citizens want to properly fund its schools!

Budget Cuts & Common Core I wonder how much money it has cost the district to implement the new Common Core Curriculum over the same span of time that it has incurred all these budget shortfalls? It doesn't take a rocket scientist.......

Concerned parent, teacher and taxpayer Stop all travel and staff development for two years. No more motivational speakers or outside speakers of any kind for two years. Get a special exemption from the state so we do not have to do any more adoptions for several years. Put a stop to anything that does not have a direct impact on children. As to Mr. Morgan's recent comments regarding changing kindergarten to half day: come spend a day in a kindergarten classroom to see how much is required now. Our students have to read, write stories, add, subtract and do geometry in addition to learning science, health and social studies. Prepare to see third grade reading and math scores plummet if we go to half day kindergarten!

concern grandparent Mr. Banks, It is time to bring up the balance calendar once again!

concerned north cobb area mom I looked over the proposed budget cuts, and I was very much bothered by the fact that there is a chance of removing the fine arts programs in the schools, shortening Kindergarten classes, furloughing teachers, and removing position of the lowest paying jobs in the district. I did not see recommendations for lowering the wages or furloughs for the executives in the Administrative Building. I believe that we are here to help the children become better educated individuals, to prepare them for college, life and careers. There should be more arts and athletic programs in the schools. There is schools in Dawsonville and Jasper that have middle school athletic teams. How can they manage. How about going to all e-books removing the cost to have to replace old textbook. How about rework bus routes to maximize the load of children being taken to and from school. It just seems that there are other options.

Fed up and frustrated teacher Get rid of the travel budget, and any unnecessary functions at the county level. Cut the county level coaches who do NOT work directly with students, the benchmark developers, and the salaries of all administrators at the county level. Eliminate unnecessary inservices. The salaries of the teachers in the trenches should NOT be cut. Give the same number of furlough days to ALL county level staff workers. Give us back our balanced calendar. Do everything you can think of and do NOT increase the class sizes. Thank you for not cutting the arts.

Parent and substitute teacher "Investments" in technology have drained school budgets across the country for years, at the cost of fewer teachers and with no benefit to student learning. As a sub or supply teacher in many schools, I've noticed how we have smart boards but no basic supplies like pencils and paper. We have smart boards but so many students don't know basic math facts or how to write a coherent paragraph. We have smartboards but fewer teachers and crowded classrooms. We need teachers in front of the classroom who can engage and inspire the students and guide them to analyze, to explore, and to think. Please limit technology and invest in our teachers and students.

One More Thought.....Paulette...... All those who run the system should try going back and being a "student" again, and experience for themselves what it is like to be a "piece of data" in today's classroom. They'd feel uninspired; distracted by having to deal with some of their classmates' incessant, unabated behavioral problems; annoyed at the overcrowded conditions of the classroom; bored by the repetition of test prep they receive, rather than authentic instruction; burned out by not having enough recess or "down time"; hmmmm, have I left anything out here?

Paulette ....excuse the typos....should have used Word! LOL

Paulette Del Casale, first: mom; second: child's advocate; third: teacher As a child, I played "school" any chance I could. If my cousins or friends weren't around, I'd even set up my stuffed animals to be my "students". As a mature, adult I finally fulfilled my dream of becoming certified to teach. What a complete disaster and mistake that was! I graduated in December, 2010 during the worst economic times since the Great Depression. However, I stayed positive and focused...with my idealism and high hopes still intact, until.... Between March, 2011 and the present, I have held a number of "non-teaching" positions in a variety of Cobb County classrooms. These experiences have been harrowing, to say it politely. As a sub: Cobb County now prefers to hire only those who are certified to teach, to sub in the classroom. The pay rate......hold on to your chairs, folks.......is a whopping $69 buck-0-roos per pay. Do the math, and I figure up this to be the equivalence of $8.75 per hour. I could only do this for so long before saying to myself, enough is enough of this. As a limited contract parapro: I had the pleasure to work in two of these positions, for....ok, folks, hold onto your chairs, again....$18K and change per year. In these positions, I faced the following: 1) being routinely cursed out by one of my students; touched in the buttocks; and kicked in the ribs, all by the same "nameless" student who was not held accountable for her actions because she was protected under SPED laws and due to the fact that mommy and daddy have a certain "clout" within the County office. 2) In a 2nd para position, within 2 hours of starting my new position, I was called into a meeting by a County nurse who proceeded to introduce herself and tell me that she was there to "train" me to catharize one of the students on my caseload. HELLO! Why on earth did the principal not give me the option of turning the job down, knowing full well that I'd probably not feel "comfortable" doing this task! To add insult to injury, I am a female who was asked to catharize a male student in a dark, bathroom between two classrooms....with NO other adult present!!!!!! Crazy stuff! As a tutor: Admittedly, I really enjoyed this position. However, I resented the fact that students were having to "prepare" for the CRCT weeks in advance of the exams. Talk about wasting precious instructional time on basically "teaching to the test". Education in our public schools today, is so uninspiring. I have thrown in the towel, as well as asked to leave one of my tutoring positions due to my previous post on here. I'm really grateful to have left, though, because otherwise, I'd be administering the exams that I have a huge problem with. At least, my conscience can now rest easy, although I feel as if I have "abandoned" my students. As a supply teacher: I supply taught for 6 weeks, and it was then that I truly realized teaching in today's educational climte, is NOT for me. I want to inspire my students, not break them down. I want to collaborate with like-minded professionals, not gossip about them or be gossiped about. The state of Cobb County schools, and most public schools across our nation, is disgraceful. Hence, these budget cut proposals do not surprise me at all. I'm just grateful that my 6th grader is academically gifted, so he does not stress over the test and isn't placed in classes which include students with excessive behavioral problems. Otherwise, I'd have blown a gasket by now. As for my younger child, she will be home-schooled because like her mother, she isn't good at keeping her opinions to herself and would therefore, be branded a "trouble-maker" by her teachers before too long in a public school classroom!!!

step team Iam upset, theres no step team any more.I mean wheres the fun for the kids? Why cant we have the step team doing peprally's, or any other event. The step team is apart of the school just as well as any other sport that the kids play.I feel that the stepm team should be something that every body can join, boys and girls. This is a sport that everyone can join and they should be known just as well as the other ssports are know. Treat them the same just as you would treat baskectball,football,baseball,soccor,track,band,chours and so on. Make a change at campbell high and Bring on THE STEP TEAM!

A Concerned and Involved Parent As an involved parent of a Walton High School student, I am astounded at the proposed budget cuts for Cobb County Schools and the ELIMINATION OF THE FINE ARTS PROGRAMS! Seriously? Do County Officials not know the benefits of Chorus, Band, Orchestra and Drama? Do they not know how those classes HELP the students? Maybe they need to go back to school to learn the advantages of having those classes included in the day to day circulum? While it is a nice perk for seniors to not have to pay school tax, they have the benefit of living in Cobb County and owning a home here. They should pay the school tax as they receive the benefit of appreciation of their home values by living in a school district that is a draw to families and therefore keep their home values up. Make them pay, or let them move and make room for more families to help support our schools through taxes. As for budget cuts, how about getting rid of teachers that are just taking up space and not teaching our students? How about getting rid of teachers that are coaches, but horrible teachers? How about getting rid of teachers that just don't care anymore? Fill their positions with teachers that want to teach our kids. How about getting rid of administrators that are just riding the wave of successful schools, not by their direction, but by parents that won't let their kids fail, even if that means hiring tutors for their students, because teachers are inadequate? Trim the fat, do not add to higher teacher/student ratio's!

common sense Here's an idea. Payroll cuts. You make less than 40k = 5% cut. 40k to 80k = 10%, 80k -120k = 15% and anything over 120k = 20% cuts. No furlough days. No increase of class sizes. No job cuts. And absoutly no ridiculous spending by the board. Make every penny accountable! This is not rocket science people. And this is not an economy where people can easily run out and get a new job making what they were making or more.

William Edelen I am an out of work teacher. I graduated from the University of Georgia(one of the best education colleges in the state!) in 2007 with a Bachelors degree in Business Education. I also have certification to teach grades k-5. In addition, I've been a substitute teacher in the Cobb County School District since 2008. I'm willing to work for less than 10,000 a year for a chance to teach, yet I can't get hired.

LOOK AT THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY... When businesses need cuts, they start at those positions the farthest from the front line. Why cut teachers and add more students when we have numerous people in the central office who could be cut and the schools still function? No one in the central office should have assistants and we should go to the absolutely fewest people possible between the schools and the superintentant. It won't fix the entire problem but it will make a dent. Everyone who doesn't work face to face with students everyday should be the ones to be cut. Period.

Teacher and Parent In recent years, Cobb and Georgia have taken great strides to raise standards and align our curriculum, and it shows in our ALEC ratings. All who live and work in Cobb Co should be concerned that attempting to resolve fiscal shortfalls by hatcheting staff and programs will be a setback to the progress we have made. There is plenty of fat to be trimmed: consultants, coordinators, professional development, leadership motivational programs, frequent new text adoptions, etc. Trimming would help, but we also need to increase revenue. Unless we want to watch our district go the way of others like DeKalb Co, we should be willing to accept an increase in our millage rate, including properties owned by senior citizens. We must protect the size of our classrooms and the teachers who manage them. If we are not willing to sacrifice a little to protect the quality, strength and vitality of our schools, our children will suffer and our community will decline.

Give Us What We Want Bring back the balanced calander. It will save money, and give everyone what they want. Teachers, faculty member, and students alike need time to relax, all spread out through the year. Seymour heard the people, so give the people what they need.

Watch the Video NONE of the board members want to cut the art/music/band programs at any school level. They took a 'vote' during the meeting.

Think About It If Cobb Co. went back on the calendar we were on for only 1 year and was closed for a week in February and a week in September. How much would it save?

Band Mom I think it is absolutely ridiculous to EVEN consider cutting the arts programs! Do you not see what these programs do for our children. There has to be a better idea out there. Are you trying to drive the families away that moved to Cobb County for all the good programs???? This is asinine and i shouldnt even be considered! I have children in band and sports and none of the programs should be on the block. Are you trying to make our children robots or life/college ready youth?

Concerned parent When you exempt one of the fastest growing age groups from school property tax (seniors) then how are we going to make up those tax revenues?? People who own homes in Cobb benefit from good schools which raise property values. I think it is a great idea in theory to exempt seniors, but how about just the neediest seniors. And it is not even those who are 65, the exemption starts at age 62. Also, we have cheap property taxes compared to many metro counties. The commissioners just need to have courage and actually raise the millage rate. Do something FOR education, not against. These poor teachers keep sacrificing and sacrificing and I don't think they can take much more. The QUALITY of education will decrease with some of the proposed cuts and then there goes Cobb's "brand" for good schools and property tax revenues will go down even more.

fed up grandparent! Before you decide to add kids to a classroom, I challenge each one of you to go into a already overcrowded classroom for a full day ( not just pop in), present an all day lesson plan, take the kids to the playground, to lunch, to their specials, bathroom break, get the kids to the bus line, carpool line and to the afterschool program. Just wondering how many of you would still vote to add more kids to a classroom! :)

Teacher You know, I saw where someone said to check the benefits page to see what teachers REALLY make. That's a good idea, but remember this when you look at that chart...we have not been paid on that scale in five years. There have not been full step increases in that long. IF we get our increase, it only happens midway through the year. They are not paying us what the public thinks we are being paid. To compensate us for our 60+ hour work weeks, they are lowering our salaries every year. Ridiculous...

A Cocerned Student Whoever came up with this budget system shoud be ashamed. Cutting arts, music, and media?! The things that drive students to become creative and enjoy school? Also, increasing the class room sizes is a terrible idea. Students won't get the required attention and will act up. If this budget system somehow actually passes, I will be very ashamed of Cobb County. I was planning on taking percussion in Lassiter High School and maybe even getting a scholarship. I may discuss with my parents to no longer take me to Cobb County school if this budget system is in place. No one agrees with this. Teacher, students, and parents are very upset. Next time, listen.

You have to cut payroll somehow Fact: 90 percent of the operating budget goes to pay staff salaries (and about 60 percent of that number goes to pay teachers). Fact: You could cut out everything else (transportation, utilities, eliminate the entire central office, etc.), and it would not fix an $86 million deficit. At some point, you have to cut payroll expenses, either by eliminating positions or reducing pay, or some combination. The superintendent is proposing to eliminate some positions (bad) through attrition (good), and is also proposing furlough days for staff (pay cut, but at least it won't impact retirement). It's a pretty good balance, and about the best we could hope for, really. Not to mention the board wants to use a bunch of the reserve fund to offset some of the deficit. That's incredibly dangerous for an organization to do, but considering the circumstances I am all for it.

Below the line, folks No one from the superintendent's staff or from the school board has proposed cutting music, band, or arts programs. Those items are listed "below the line", which means they aren't being considered. The below-the-line list also includes cutting transportation, a four-day school week, eliminating kindergarden, and a bunch of other items that aren't going to happen, either. That's why they are below-the-line. The budget balancing document is available for everyone to download above. No need to get overly worked up about cuts that aren't going to happen.

Will you listen this time? The board has never listened to the community or teachers before, so why would they start now? Please remember the calendar debacle and the pleas for input then…which they blatantly did not follow. The community and staff both gave their support for the balanced calendar, but the Board decided to do as they please. No matter what suggestions are made on this message board, the same answer will come down from the board: cut teachers, cut teacher pay, and increase class sizes. How can they even claim the community is not ready for a 4-day work week if they haven’t even broached the subject? The premise that they are not even considering it because of the massive change it would have on the community…seriously, what impact do you think teacher cuts and increasing class sizes, year after year, have on our students’ education? I guess they don’t consider that a major impact on the community.

Somebody find a shoe horn There is absolutely no way that another 4th or 5th grader, his/her desk, and his/he chair could fit in our school's classrooms. Formulas and spreadsheets are one thing, physical space is quite another. I venture to guess that the fire marshall would be quite displeased at the lack of open space in our classrooms now, much less adding 2 or 3 more children to each classroom.

irritated I am a single mother and a teacher who has 2 children. My salary is so low that my children qualify for state assistance for healthcare. That is just SAD. We don't need any more posts about how teachers have it "so good" either.

$70,000 is average teacher pay Please consider that more than 30 percent of your total pay is benefits. This average salary figure of $70,000 includes all benefits. Those have to be paid, too, you know. And to the person who recommended doing away with all central office staff who do not interact directly with kids daily. I guess that would include payroll staff, too, which means you won't get paid. Think before you type unreasonable suggestions. They aren't helpful.

Concerned Mom 1)Raise the millage, this is the only way to keep our schools on top. The property values will remain high, we can't compete with other coutnies that are doing this. Cherokee, Fulton Etc 2)Stop buying text books....I PADS, KINDLES ....the textbooks are not even used anymore since the new teaching methods for MATH are in place. 3)START CARING ABOUT THE CHILDREN'S EDUCATION. WE CAN'T HAVE ANY MORE STUDENTS IN THE 4th and 5th GRADE CLASS. 4) WHY WAS A MULTI MILLION DOLLAR FACILITY BUILT AT LASSITER IF YOUR GOING TO CUT PERFORMING ARTS AND MUSIC? 5) So many people moved here for the schools, so many will move out!!! This is getting ridiculous! RESPECT THE TEACHERS, PAY THEM FAIRLY!!!

Seriously People have made some valid points, but the board will not listen, just as they did not listen when the majority voted on a calendar that never passed. Here are some smarter options: 1) Teachers are held accountable for students' grades; the central office should be held accountable for what they spend and how it's spent 2) I agree, we do not need 6 area superintendents (or we could pay them what a beginning teacher makes). 3)School social workers and psychologists need to be paid through DFCS or the county--not the schools 4)Put all the kids on the bus together instead of making three trips to the same neighborhood. I rode the bus all through school and I'm still alive and doing well! 5) Add extra time to each day and go T-F. Make Mondays a tutoring day and hire only part of the staff to work with the kids half-day to get the remediation they need. But leave the regular salary ALONE! I don't know who came up with $70K, but after 17 years and a Ed. S., the teachers I know still make under $60K. That shows the value we truly place on our teachers.... 6) Get rid of cafeteria managers and literacy coaches; these were added when times were good. 7)Recheck parents whose kids are on free or reduced lunches....many of them drive expensive cars and their kids dress better than most Americans! SO MUCH food is wasted, too!! 8) Stop buying buildings for more central office space. We need more teachers, not office workers. Education is the most mis-managed business out there. There needs to be more accountability on how our tax dollars are being spent. It's time the people use their 1st Amendment rights and speak up for our teachers and children. I have never seen an employee of a restraunt or store actually bring in the products for the customers. Yet, people have no clue how much money and resources teachers provide for their students. They go up and beyond the normal 9-5 job. They teach because they have a heart for reaching children. Don't knock down the very heartbeat of our future generations! Surely, the county can think of other areas to cut, but I just don't see that happening. Bot that's poiltics--seriously.

Concern Cobb County Tax payer The proposed FY2014 budget listed below is simply ridiculous for our children that attend the Cobb County school system. Please do not reduce the teachers position and student to teacher ration. Our kids deserve better::::: Item 6 – five (5) furlough days for all employees Item 10 – remove 226 professional positions – that is 226 less teachers to teach our students. This will result in even higher teacher/student ratios – reportedly a ratio of 34 students to 1 teacher for 4th and 5th graders. Additional budget reduction ideas: Item 20 – cutting all band, chorus and orchestra programs in middle schools Item 21 – cutting all art and music programs in elementary schools Item 22 – cutting all band, chorus and orchestra programs in high schools Item 30 - cutting all media professionals Item 33 – implement a 4 day school week , with longer days Monday - Thursday

REM It is clear that the millage rate must be raised to help, it will not solve the problem but it will be a step towards closing the gap in fund. My understanding is the millage rate is supposed to fluctuate based on need. We NEED it to be raised until the situation improves. It will be painful but not as painful as 39 students in a classroom...

Very concerned parent of 3 I am very disappointed to hear that the school board and superintendent are considering raising class sizes and eliminating more teachers. My husband and I and our 3 kids moved here 2 1/2 years ago from Maryland. We did a lot of research into school districts all over Metro Atlanta and chose Cobb county based on the test scores, parent and teacher recommendations, and the fact that it was easy to find a track of elementary, middle and high schools that all had high ratings. We have had 3 great years at Mountain View Elementary and have had amazing teachers there. However, since we have been here, I have been repeatedly disappointed with the administration of this county. From the calendar debacle that seriously diminished my trust in the school board, to the crowding our school buses with 4 kids per seat, to the repeated cuts in teachers, I haven't seen any decisions being made in favor of our students. As for the new cuts being discussed, I am completely against raising class sizes again. We have already increased them beyond where I feel comfortable as a parent and I have seen a big difference between my 8 year old's kindergarten education and my 6 year old's. Many kids are beginning to fall through the cracks because the teachers don't have enough 1 on 1 time with each student. Raising class sizes again is only going to make things worse. Our goals are to give our kids the best education we can and the choices our school administration are making are not in line with these goals. If our schools don't remain strong, it will affect our kids first, but will begin impacting everyone in Cobb county because our house values will begin dropping. When our house values start dropping, revenue for schools will go down with it, putting Cobb county students, schools and property values in a terrible downward spiral. I understand that we need to keep our facilities up (Mountain View desperately needs updating), but many school systems in the country have a school sales tax that goes to the general school funds as opposed to only facilities. We are going to have some beautiful buildings with empty classrooms and subpar learning. Why can't we use some of the SPLOST funding for teachers? Or why can't we create an additional 1% sales tax to cover teachers and general expenses? Raising the millage rate on property taxes will only help minimally because we are forced to share that with less fortunate areas of the state. My vote would be to use some of the $100 million from reserves for 2013-14 and begin pushing for a change in the SPLOST spending to cover teachers or adding another sales tax for general expenses. If people realized the effect this could have on our children's educations, not to mention house values, they should be willing to pay an extra percent.

It is Your Job To Educate What are our tax dollars being used for? They are being used for politics and keeping people in office. It is not being used to educate our children to their best ability. It is ludicrous to increase class size and eliminate teachers. That decision only makes the problem worse for all. Please step up and do the job you were elected to do and come up with a solution that is best for the children. This comment board has wonderful ideas and solutions. But who is listening? Please do the job you were hired to do.

only solution Heres the problem. We are not addressing the issue, raising revenue. We are putting a band aid on an amputation. The only way to fix our problem is raise the millage( we are the lowest in the area), and fixing the property tax issue. Grandfather everyone over 62, raise it to 65 and then implement what Gwinnet, Fulton and Cherokee do, assessed value and income. The other ideas are great , but do not fix the problem. If we do not do this we will be sitting here next year with an 80 million dollar deficit. Understand it a legislative issue, not the school board.As elected officials it is their job to insure that our county has good public schools, but we must make some noise and make it an issue or nothing will happen. If this continues, we are heading down the road that Dekalb and Clayton are in. The only reason our home values are what they are worth is because we have good public schools. If Atlanta Public schools were good, we would all be living in downtown Atlanta and driving 10 minutes to work, instead we live up here because of the good public schools for our children. I know the statment,"location.location,location", but it shoud be"Location, good schools, location,good schools, location, good schools".

m Please don't even consider increasing the class size, in the past five years it has already increased six students in high school, we are moving from instruction to crowd control. Please make class size a priority instead of the first thing to be cut. Instruction is suffering due to large classes already, two more do not make sense.

Concerned Parent The proposal to add additional children to already crowded classrooms just won't work in many of our older schools. There is no room for additional desks in these classrooms. Prior to across-the-board decisions, the Board needs to actually visit classrooms and look at the crowding. Perhaps additional children is feasible in newer school classroom layouts but certainly not in the schools my children attend.

Concerned Cobb County Parent There are so many good comments here with suggestions about how to cut costs without once again cutting teachers and increasing class sizes. The class sizes are already too large, causing more and more students to fall through the cracks. I volunteer at my son's school often and this year I've seen teacher morale shrink even further. These teachers and support staff are amazing. They work crazy hours for less pay each year in recent years. This year teachers had to implement the national Core Curriculum -- a huge effort with little added support. It seems like we keep asking teachers to do more with less. The children end up paying the price, and ultimately the whole community suffers. Look to these posts for other ways to save money, including raising property taxes and cutting the blanket senior tax exemption. Certainly seniors on a fixed income who cannot afford the taxes should be exempt, but affluent seniors can, and should be allowed to help support our schools. Cut costs and waste in the central office. Cut the unnecessary items mentioned by many, many teachers and parents in these posts. Exhaust all other possibilities before even considering further cuts to teacher and support staff positions and pay. We can't afford to further lower the morale of our teachers while asking them to do more and more. Please listen.

SRW Increasing the class size even by one child should NOT be up for consideration. The class size was increased last calendar year and it is very challenging to teach and manage additional students. In addition to cram them into our outdated 1950's schools is not conducive to learning.

Concerned and involved Cobb Parent I am very concerned over the proposal to raise the class sizes, especially at the elementary school level. The classrooms are crowded, teachers have a hard time managing discipline and having time to evaluate students with that many in a classroom not to mention the time it takes to grade 34 plus elementary school papers every night. It is also a safety issue as that is a lot of heads to count in the event of an emergency and making sure everyone is accounted for in the event of an evacuation etc. In schools where the buildings are extremely old, it is difficult to get so many students even through a bathroom break in a timely fashion and our school has an entire grade level in trailers which are crammed to capacity with 24 students and there are no plans to remove them from our campus anytime soon. I live in a neighborhood where we have several teachers and I routinely see them leave for school before 7 a.m. and not arrive home until after 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. and then they are still working on things for the following day. Several teachers have commented to me that they make less now that they did their first year of teaching due to furlough days and higher insurance costs. I have heard that in our middle school that some of the classes are so large that students do not even have desks already and don't know how you can make the classes much larger and not even have a place for them to sit. I realize the board is trying to whittle down a little bit from everywhere to cover a huge deficit but think as a county we need to look at both expenditure reduction AND revenue generation as far as raising the millage rate and looking at the senior exemption. We are all going to be faced with some difficult choices but I don't believe the benefits gained from raising classroom sizes are going to outweigh the costs to our students and teachers.

PROPERTY TAX Why are we not collecting property tax for schools on all Cobb County tax payers. There are grandparents whose grandchildren use their address to go to our schools, but the Grandparents do not pay property tax for schools. Raise this tax even a little bit and we can gain back some money.

Great recommendations but no one will listen There are a lot of excellent ideas being passed around. Our only hope is someone will read them that make the decisions regarding the budget. The facts about salaries of our teachers have been overstated. The paraprofessional salary is a joke in relation to all they do. But...they love the kids. The school support staff works each day in all types of conditions, both good and bad. The area superintendent has been to our school several times with very few comments to the teachers and staff in the classrooms. Their time in the classroom was 2-3 minutes if that. The superintendent has been to our school 1 time with no comments we were advised of. No comments to employees...our only to the principal. These are employees of our county that are making the big bucks and doing so little. The teacher colleges that have been going on all year cost thousands of dollars each class and nothing is coming from them. I am in the classroom. We pay for subs for the all of the teachers in the meetings, we have days of collaboration when there is nothing to go over, wasted money. We have to stop the waste.

Get rid of the fluff Get rid of or reduce any staff who do not directly interact with students daily. We are in the business of educating children. NOT providing jobs at the central office. We continue to add numbers to the classroom and increase teacher workload and then are not happy when the test scores do not increase. Please CCSD School Board - do what is in the BEST interest of the education of our children.

Get rid of the fluff Get rid of or reduce any staff who do not directly interact with students daily. We are in the business of educating children. NOT providing jobs at the central office. We continue to add numbers to the classroom and increase teacher workload and then are not happy when the test scores do not increase. Please CCSD School Board - do what is in the BEST interest of the education of our children.

Billy Shocked to hear Cobb HS principle to tell incoming freshman and parents to enjoy their last four years of " free" education. I just about fell out of my seat. After emailing principle and reminding her cobbs budget is pushing 1 BILLION dollars for 2014 and is paid for by every adult in the room already. She replied she would take my comments under advisement. Nothing is free. The sooner our kids learn it the better off they are going to be. To have a leader say something so patently false and showing such a lack of understanding of how her industry is funded is unsettling.

Exhausted I get up at 4:00 in the morning and get home at 7:30 p.m. I have an over crowded classroom and an unbelieveable work load. M

Contracts have been given to area sups before teachers... Why would the county give contracts to these area superintendents before teachers???? Corruption and Deceit! Nice job, Cobb! Protect more county employees that are useless and do NOTHING to educate kids!

Willy Teacher do NOT average 75k a year! Turds...

Retire 30 year teachers and admin Retire teachers and administration if they reach 30! If they have had their 30 years, retire them as they have are the ones with the hefty salaries. Areas superintendents are not needed! They prance around the hallways once a year touring the schools. If our superintendent needs so much help, maybe he should be replaced also!

Billy Shears Teacher, taxpayer, and parent Cobb County get your own information correct. A teacher cannot reach $70,000 a year unless you have aT-6 (specialist degree) and have been teaching for 2o years. The absolute most that a teacher can make is $82,000, and that is if one has a doctored and has been teacher for OVER 30 years. Anyone can go to Cobb County’s compensation page (http://www.cobbk12.org/centraloffice/hr/compensation/schedules.aspx) and see what teachers make in the district. I get the distinct impression that because principals and administrators are “educators”, they are included in the mythical $70,000 a year average. Administration does not have 35 students in their office 4 times a day. Stop the propaganda and get it correct! Dr. Hinojosa needs to stop with his covert plan to get rid of experienced teachers, and then push forward with replacing us with less expensive Teacher for America rookie teachers. As a taxpayer and parent, I am as frustrated as any of my neighbors. How many newly turfed fields will aid our children compete in this global economy that we are teaching our classes. With all of the new digital school signs around the high schools it seems that the county is much more interested in looking like they are doing the right thing, rather than actually doing the right thing. I am less interested in a recent graduate going to a job interview and saying that his/her school had a great sign or new turf than being able to express themselves clearly and demonstrate their ability to do math. Cobb County states on their website that when our students graduate they should be a: “self-directed learner, perceptive thinker, effective communicator, collaborative team member, quality producer, and a contributing citizen. I would hope that this is more than an advertising campaign, but a goal that the board keeps in mind.

Area Superintendents ARE needed!!!! Many people comment about getting rid of Area Superintendents. Believe me, if you think they are not needed you do not understand their positions and what they do!! The Area Superintendent is the link between the principal and the school to the superintendent and the support personnel in the county office. They help make things happen for the principal and the school. Cutting them would greatly hurt the schools.

Please Listen I see over and over again to eliminate Area Superintendents. Please do this OR AT THE VERY LEAST, reduce them in 1/2. This is a LUXURY that we cannot afford at this time. Adding students to each classroom and reducing teachers is irresponsible. CLOSE THE CENTRAL OFFICE DOWN FOR AT LEAST 2 weeks this summer. Many of those employees could be 200 day employees anyway. Reduce or eliminate anyone who does not have direct contact with students daily. Get back to the basics and the business of educating our children.

Please Listen I see over and over again to eliminate Area Superintendents. Please do this OR AT THE VERY LEAST, reduce them in 1/2. This is a LUXURY that we cannot afford at this time. Adding students to each classroom and reducing teachers is irresponsible. CLOSE THE CENTRAL OFFICE DOWN FOR AT LEAST 2 weeks this summer. Many of those employees could be 200 day employees anyway. Reduce or eliminate anyone who does not have direct contact with students daily. Get back to the basics and the business of educating our children.

Solar Has anyone ever considered installing solar panels on the schools/facilities? This could result in a HUGE savings in power bills!

4 day work week Please consider this...it is mentioned over and over in these posts...I have read them all, have you, Sweeney? I bet not!

Cobb County Teacher of 17 Years The average salary for a Cobb County teacher is NOT 70,000. I am not even out of the 50s yet and steadily losing money each year. That is outrageous to post such an incorrect statistic. Get it right Cobb, or don't post it at all! Pay me 70,000, and I will wear a smile every day!

billy queen wh oooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! nope this iis wired cuz we payin for bull jkjkjkjkjkjkjjkjkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkjjjkkjjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkno post back erase!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Concerned Taxpayer, Educator and Parent Eliminate from the top. Does Cobb really need all of the area superintendents? Put some of the support teachers back in classrooms. Please eliminate unnecessary trainings, meetings, etc. Teachers already work more time than we are paid for. There is a lot of waste in this county. Do not eliminate the step increase. Please do not add more furloughs for county employees. Think of the families like mine that have two parents working for the school system. (double the furloughs)

Part of the Solution I have spent quite a bit of time reading comments, newspaper articles, watching board work sessions and highlights, and talking with fellow educators and parents. As a Cobb teacher and parent of a Cobb student it is frightening to see where cuts are being proposed. I earned a M.Ed. and an Ed.S. from UGA and UWG online, and I know what it takes to be a successful online learner. Unfortunately the system being proposed does not prepare students or teach them effectively. It will herd them into large classrooms with limited supervision and guidance. Our students, in many cases, lack the motivation necessary to be successful online learners. Further, many of you think that ISS is also just a place to hold students who have behavior issues, and in many cases those classrooms are not structured or ran properly. Those where they are run effectively and efficiently, however, have a huge impact on the discipline and overall function of the school. There are many studies which show that putting non-educators in ISS rooms create more problems than the money created from removing teachers. Add this to the fact that we would be losing some administrators in schools with large student populations who had extra allotments and you have a recipe for discipline disaster. Many of you who support cutting these positions also complain about the discipline in our schools, and you cannot have it both ways. I suggest cutting those extra high paid administrators and creating a position within the teaching pool that would be a discipline specialist. They would help fill in where the extra administrator was removed, have the ability to conduct due process for referrals, and supervise/run the ISS program. Also the ideas being tossed about for privatization are good but I think you need to evaluate who is near or around students more. In places where bus and food service is private, the cost is lower and the product is better. Contracts can be written to allow current employees first shot at the private jobs. Janitorial service needs to remain in the county control though. We rely on these people for a lot of things and they are responsive, privatizing will most likely make them less so. Overall teachers make up less than half the employees in the system, this seems like an issue and a problem to me. Clearly the support staff should be smaller than those responsible for teaching our students. As for students of teachers who live outside the county, well some of us could no longer afford to live in Cobb and were forced to move, while some of us were excellent teachers hired to work there. The cost of our students being there is minimal and with all the other things we give up, well it is a benefit that I think many of us have earned. Reduce central office staff by 15%, do away with secretaries and assistants who have multiple assistants working for them. EPS and Sped Supervisors are redundant, have a lead in each school who performs the same task as the EPS and is given a small stipend for doing the job as well as extra planning time. Academic coaches should tutor and/or teach at least a half day, this would put more qualified staff in front of our students. You cannot have it both ways, we either have to have books or be able to print/copy the materials we need so cut one or the other but not both. We are rapidly falling into the technology wormhole, many times classroom or laptop computer carts are non-functional or outdated and almost impossible to use. Teachers are not all trained equally to use technology and this is a problem. Many schools suffer from a culture that has led them to maintain the status quo and refuse to change or try anything new. This will not change until the morale is boosted somehow. I have worked with and continue to work with amazing educators whose hands are tied by meetings, planning meetings, staff meetings, trainings, and more. Cut out the meetings, encourage cross curricular planning once per month, and drop trainings during the school day. Allow teachers to use this time to prepare to teach. Use the balanced calendar to reduce costs and to encourage students and staff through more breaks and time to take care of personal business. A very astute EBD student told me last year he was having trouble keeping his behavior under control because he was burned out and we can see it in a large number of our students. Given the furlough days, reduction in number of days, and possibility of a 4 day work week, I have created a calendar that gives everyone a break at the end of the nine week periods, still gives us all a week at Thanksgiving and two weeks for Christmas. Shift CRCT tests up a week earlier, and have spring break after the tests. Fewer staff absences, student attendance is up, discipline problems go down, and money is saved. Allow schools to sell sponsorships in order to raise money to use locally. Re-bid contracts for computers and accessories, the county should be able to buy a better machine for less money than I can call up and order. Some suggest barring microwaves and refrigerators from classrooms, well some of us eat in our classrooms everyday and we need some where to keep our food and to heat it up. That is also a minimal cost. Outsource some maintenance activities such as lawn maintenance. This is just the tip of the iceberg, there is money to be saved but not at the expense of the quality of the education or our students. Seriously considering a raise in the millage rate should also be on the table as should requesting the legislature to raise or change the exemption law for older people. Our media centers need their paras, especially in middle and elementary schools where students need a great deal of support in there with research and learning how to use the equipment and search for information properly. Look for cuts elsewhere please.

taxpayer AS A CITIZEN AND TAXPAYER OF COBB COUNTY ITS ASHAMED TO MISUSE CUSTODIANS,TEACHERS,AND PARAPROFESSIONAL.AS A WISE PERSON ONCE SAID WE NEED TO MANAGE THE MONEY THAT IS SET ASIDE FOR OPERATING OUR SCHOOLS.I WOULD BE SCARED TO DEATH TO HIRE A PERSON OFF THE STREETS TO BE OVER THESE INNOCENT CHILDREN.PRIVATIZING CREATES SO MANY PROBLEMS SUCH AS LETTING GO OF CUSTODIANS WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE TO HIRE INEXPERIENCED PERSONS TO DO THEIR JOB.AS A CHILD IN THE SCHOOL THE CUSTODIANS,TEACHERS ETC. WERE SO DEDICATED.THEY ARE THE FIRST PEOPLE YOU SEE IN THE MORNING AND THE LAST TO LEAVE.OH AND PLEASE MAKE SURE WHILE WE ARE SAVING MONEY ALL CENTRAL STAFF NEED TO TAKE A PAY CUT.JUST TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY ITS SO SAD TO SEE OUR LEADERS ASK FOR US TO VOTE FOR MORE MONEY IN SPLOST JUST TO LAY GREAT PEOPLE OFF WORK AND HIRE SOME STRANGERS TO WATCH AND CARE FOR OUR KIDS.NEW BUILDINGS ARE GREAT BUT WE NEED TO INVEST IN THE CHILDREN AND STAFF MORE.IT DOESN'T TAKE A ROCKET SCIENTIST TO FIGURE THIS OUT.COBB COUNTY AND THE SCHOOL BOARD OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF MISMANAGING OUR TAX DOLLARS.

CCSD employee in an elementary school There is a great deal of waste in CCSD. Paper, new textbook adoptions, Benchmark testing, teachers pulled from classes for (training, meetings, collaboration, RTI's, Etc.). Stop the cuts in staff and teachers. We are important to the students and parents. Paraprofessioanls are an intrical part of all classroom and Media center activities. They help with the small group and one on one students whom need extra help. Paraprofessionals also do the jobs other staff will not and without complaint. Here a few ideas for helping with the deficit. 1. 4day work week 2. Eliminate Area Superintendents. 3. Delay the purchase of any new text book adoptions until Cobb's economy improves. 4. Eliminate all the unnecessary benchmark testing 5. Eliminate the excess copy usage. (Most schools have interactive boards. Let the students copy the lesson onto paper.) 6. Reduce forces at the central office. 7. Double check that the students in the school are in that district, some parents will move to other counties or districts and bring their children to school. These just a few ideas. Please Cobb look at the postings, by all these citizens and employees. If I ran my home the way CCSD does, I would be bankrupt.

Cobb teacher and parent of 3 I have been teaching for 21 years and I have never seen morale so low among teachers as it is now. When you are considering where to "cut" spending, why do you always go to the teacher's paychecks first? Furlough days have become the norm, it seems. Each year I take home less pay while costs of everything else go up. I'm also tired of hearing "Just be glad you have a job." That seems to be the cover up for why we are getting the shaft. How do you think our children will learn when they are not in school? How do you expect us to keep teaching "more" with the new common core if we are not in the classroom??? Cobb needs to wake up and cut from the top, cut out all these rediculous speakers "training" that we've had over and over. Let teachers do what they do best - give us back the time in the room and stop stealing our pay!!!

Resigning Teacher/CCSD Parent Wit much sadness, I am leaving the classroom and resigning from Cobby County this year. No longer can I be a part of what I believe is hurting, not helping, children. Money is spent on ridiculous things without consideration of what students really need. Class sizes make it impossible to teach effectively. Reduction of support staff means a compromised learning environment. In these times of dire need, it's vital that we focus on what's essential - instruction. Support teachers. Stop the ridiculous amount of testing that sucks up huge amounts of money and instructional time - for what student growth benefit? Stop spending money on principal coaching programs, new adoption materials that sit in back closets because no one listened to what the teachers said they wanted/needed, new computers that are TERRIBLE and don't work so sit in carts unused, other technology that can't be used effectively because there is no support in the schools when it breaks, holiday cards from one school to another... There are tiny and huge wastes of monies spent on insignificant things on a daily basis...all the while, teachers spend their own money, attempt to do a job doomed for failure from the start, and bear the burden of trying to make a difference where it really counts - with the children.

Judy Register I doubt if custodians have more influence on students than media paraprofessionals. You guys have made working for CCSD one of the most stressful things in my life. I am a 23 year employee of CCSD and do not feel secure and have not for the past three year.

Revenue Here's another idea to consider that could not only generate some revenue, but also expose our kids to their global counterparts. A school district in Maine (as well as other public school districts around the nation) is recruiting tuition paying international students - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/china-students-public-schools_n_844627.html. CCSD could pilot a similar program, and who knows, perhaps the knowledge we gain from implementing such a program could yield the creation of a small "profit center" within the district that could work to not only recruit international students for CCSD high schools, but also other school districts as well. As I stated in a prior post, Education is the core competency of any school district, so let's leverage the wealth of skills, knowledge, and expertise to GENERATE some revenue. At a minimum, can the board please at least discuss the merits of such ideas. The feeling of helplessness that seems to be in the air when watching the budget meetings is almost unbearable, so let's try to take control of the situation! Who knows, maybe we can come up with some ideas to create a small "pot of gold" for the district outside of our Reserves. And instead of the conversation being 100% about what and who we can cut to shore up our deficits, it can also include an element of how can we increase the profit that we make from program x, or program y to alleviate the need to cut teachers and increase class sizes.

Thoughts and Questions Strawman Online Instruction Concept From MindTools.com - If you build something out of straw what do you expect to happen to it in the long run? You expect it to collapse or be blown away! A straw man proposal lacks solid foundation, and it too may be blown away under scrutiny. Is the CCSD Strawman Online Instruction Concept truly a straw man concept or have I misunderstood the use of the word? If indeed CCSD is working within a straw man concept, then I am interested in their Ladder of Inference. Since I count many teachers as friends and close acquaintances, I checked around and found no one who could substantiate the average $75,000 yearly salary. I also found Extended Day teachers who have yet to be paid the full amount CCSD contracted to pay them for the 2012-2013 school year - budget shortfalls, is my understanding. As to the Logistical Comments - Media Centers are often used as General Purpose Labs accommodating teachers incorporating technology into their lesson plans as required on their evaluations and parapros are for additional classroom support not for replacing the classroom teacher, hence the pay discrepancy. There is no mention of student numbers per Online Instruction lab but the inference is 35+ students. With mature, well-behaved students who motivate themselves to excel, the concept might succeed. Are there any numbers available as to what percentage of CCSD students actually meet this criteria? What are the consequences for students who are consistently disruptive within this “orderly, quiet educational setting?” Will the parapro in charge have autonomy in having a student who is disruptive removed/banned from taking advantage of Online Instruction labs? Planning a successful strategy is paramount, otherwise CCSD is just wasting money and more importantly lessening the chance of success for all students who want an education that will prepare them for a positive future.

JUST THINKING It seems in this age of computers, instead of the meetings/inservices/teacher colleges/etc. with expense paid speakers...why are we not utilizing computers. I have taken many courses online and I love it. We need to cut out all of the people who are micro-managing our schools. Our county office could be downsized and summer hours cut. If necessary, the county office could be open 2-3 days a week if necessary. We should stop testing/assessing our children so many times during the school year. It would be nice for the teachers to be able to teach. If we have books, equipment, etc. in the warehouse, let's sell it. Also, the balanced calendar makes more sense now more than ever. Save money where we can. Money could also be saved by not installing astroturf in our high school fields. If we are going to build fine arts/culinary/sports facilities, they should not be as lavish as the facility at Lassiter. This county needs to stop and really look at the many ways to make changes instead of taking staff away from the children with cuts and furlough days.

Science Teacher Science Teacher - keeping it real: The National Science Teachers' Association recommends 24 - TWENTY-FOUR - students in a lab class. Some classes in my school have more than THIRTY-FOUR...and you want to add two more? Really? Here's what's happening: due to safety concerns, my colleagues and I are limiting labs. Yup, limiting critical hands-on experiences for Cobb students because the liability we take is on us if something happens. At 4 per group, 36 (the current 34 + 2 more) kids turns into 9 groups - no teacher can adequately supervise or assist that many groups. It's a liability lawsuit waiting to happen - and something we clearly can't afford. Please, no more students in the classrooms. I'm sure we're violating some fire codes as well.

No name necessary 1. adopt a 4 day work week 2. Eliminate Area Superintendents. 3. Delay the purchase of any new text book adoptions for at least 4 years. 4. eliminate all benchmark testing 5. Eliminate Academic Coaches 6. Reduce forces at the central office. 7. Impose a registration fee for all students who register for public school. This fee could be transferred for students who are moving to another Cobb school. 8. Remove all classroom refrigerators and microwaves. 9. Re-instate the balanced calendar. Evidence greatly supported improved attendance of teachers when the balanced calendar was in effect. Regular attendance of teachers improves student performance as well as eliminates the need to pay a substitute . 10. Local school staff should be used to provide staff development which would eliminate high costs current professional development. Our emphasis in education has been so far removed from our sole purpose--- educating CHILDREN.... children should be the primary reason for all decisions we make......

Happy Teacher I, for one, am a CCSD teacher that is happy to have a job and am thankful to work in a county that values student learning. Sure, at some point or another, we all have our grievances, but when it comes down to it, there are thousands of talented and passionate Cobb educators dedicated to teaching kids and facilitating their growth. Knowing that this district does value student learning, I am hopeful that the school board will also value the learning experiences of our students. Please protect our classrooms and our instructional time. Increasing class sizes is not going to enhance the learning of our students! Don't take away our support personnel! Consider moving courses online... the data available speaks for itself... online learning is highly effective and accommodating of a variety of learners. Think about moving professional learning to an online medium to save some money. Protect our Area Superintendents because (regardless of what many believe), they really do support our schools! Don't impose another salary cut... the teachers can't take it. Consider a 4 day work week... ultimately more uninterrupted instructional time. Remember the "balanced calendar" and the amount of money saved in substitutes and remember how the morale in schools and the attendance rates increased.... let's go back! Look into excess spending elsewhere... don't take things that will impact our teachers and students.

Board Meeting2 Strange how the public didn't get a peek at the "below the line" potential budget-cutting proposals. Did this comply with the Open Meetings law? Board members were openly discussing a list that the public didn't get to see.

Board Meeting Well, they wouldn't even consider a 4-day work week. They said they weren't prepared, etc. GET PREPARED. TALK ABOUT IT PLEASE! You can't continue to give furlough days and cut teaching positions. Those ideas clearly aren't working. There's still a deficit. Cobb County, you HAVE to think outside the box now. The time has come to try something completely different than you've been doing. Please take a look at a 4-day work week, even if it's just every other week.

f I agree with the comment about the SPLOST funds being used for operations. Do we need a 15-20 MILLION DOLLAR theater at a high school??!!! I don't think so (Lassiter). I heard that funds were taken away from completing a new HVAC system at Lasiter, to complete that multi million dollar fancy theater.

Cobb County Resident How many athletic fields will be astro-turfed this year?

Cobb County Resident Re-write legislation so SPLOST can be used to fix the budget until the economy improves. How many concert halls (Lassiter)will be built? H

f I have been a Cobb Co employee for over three years. The department that I am in does not conduct any inventory. I look in the closets throughout the school and see thousands of dollars worth of books and equipment that has never been touched since I've been here. Some say outsourcing custodians may be considered, but as a parent, I would take my kids out of school and home school them in a heartbeat. Every employee in Cobb schools has been finger printed, drug tested and has had an FBI background check. Putting a bunch of unknowns in the schools is asking for a disaster and is a liability. These private company employees bring in their uncles, sisters, brothers and so on, in our schools without knowing a thing about them. God forbid there are students lingering around after school for activities and an outsourced custodian inappropriately touches a student. Not to mention the theft that will take place throughout. Just saying.

Cobb employee and parent Many CCSD employees must work over the summer in order to ensure a successful opening of school. I believe there are a few in each department that would volunteer to be off during the summer to spend time with their children. This would be successful as long as other staff members could take over their duties. I propose an Optional Summer Off program for CCSD annual employees. It would benefit the staff who want to stay home with their kids over the summer and who can forfeit their salary during those months. Employees who want or need to work over the summer would not be affected. It would benefit the CCSD by saving them money and also retaining great employees who might otherwise quit for a job where they would have summers off. Please provide your thoughts on this Optional Summer Off Program.

CCSD Employe and mom of 2 students I agree with so much that everyone has written. CCSD ---- Please listen this time!!!! Stop unnecessary spending - like DISNEY!!!!! A company that is too top heavy always fails - hint hint! I love most of the comments below! So many great ideas. CCSD ---- Please listen this time!!!! CCSD ---- Please listen this time!!!! CCSD ---- Please listen this time!!!! CCSD ---- Please listen this time!!!! CCSD ---- Please listen this time!!!! CCSD ---- Please listen this time!!!!

Cobb County Teacher I am tired of having my pay cut and paying more for insurance. No other occupation would allow such nonsense. It needs to come from somewhere besides teachers. I have worked in Cobb County for 5 years and make less each year because of furloughs, higher insurance premiums and shorter school years. Take the money from other places and pay the teachers what they are worth. Morale is low because we are struggling to exist on the pay we get. I am asked to do more each day with less and less. I deal with behavior issues that should not be tolerated in school. Look at other counties, find out how they are getting along. We are the only county that has had furloughs and pay cuts each year for this many years. I am being treated like a 2nd class citizen when I me educating the future leaders of America. Teachers need to stand up and fight for our rights. I am tired of being told "be happy you have a job" I feel as if I am working in a sweat shop and have to put up with things for fear of being fired. I would get paid more if I was paid as a babysitter. Please stop taking from the teachers. The money can come from other places, we do not need to pay for the latest and greatest and then pay our teachers like fast food workers. Get rid of some of the top. I am asked to teach more and more kids. Central office workers can do more and more with less and less. I am scared for our future leaders. They will not be prepared.

Teacher and parent Get rid of the area superintendents......they were added when the county had budget surpluses and now that financial times have changed they need to go. Resources need to be used where they are out needed and that is in the classrooms. Class sizes are out of control and furloughing teachers only leads to lower test scores and lower morale. How can you expect teachers to want to teach on Cobb when you keep lowering our salaries and increasing our work load. There are a lot of great teachers in Cobb that are looking to either teach in another school system or get out of teaching all together because of this mess. Start cutting from somewhere else please!!!!

Cobb parent of 3: elementary, middle and high school Let's make sure we keep funding the magnet busses and continue to encourage these highly motivated students to succeed. Maybe we can fund them by cutting all expenses related to ISS, if students can't behave in the classroom send them home to the parents. A couple of days of trying to teach your own child at home and losing a days pay at your own job maybe just what some of these kids and parents need. The larger classroom sizes wouldn't be such a problem if the teachers did not have to deal with unneeded student behavior problems. Let's bring back some consequences for bad behavior.

Cobb Parent and Teacher Please, please, PLEASE consider a four day week with slightly longer days. Cutting out every Monday or Friday (or even every other Monday or Friday) would lower costs tremendously. It would boost morale and performance for both students and teachers without taking away instructional time. Teachers in other states who have switched to the four day week have reported that students are more engaged during the day since it was implemented. The extra day would also give high school students an opportunity to take college classes or intern. They can gain extra time working and gaining experience in a business for a full day rather than a few hours in the afternoons. This gives a great jump start for the high school students who would choose to take advantage of the extra day. Also, counties in other states who implement the four day week have reported a decline in absenteeism with both students and teachers because of the extra day out. This of course is good for instructional time with students and it takes out the (very little) money used for hiring subs when teachers call in "sick"...a.k.a. burnt out. As for the parents finding child care for that day out, some high school students would now be free to take on an afternoon babysitting job that would provide experience for that teenager and provide a low cost option for parents interested or in need. I think that this is a viable option for our county. It's one of the least painful and more effective options that we have seen so far. It's not going to solve all of our problems, but since we've cut the salaries too much already let's please try something new.

Inside the CCSD Central Office Staff Development budgets are outrageous and way too much money and time is spent on re-teaching the same old thing. Printing, supplies, hours needed to put together a 1 or 2 day training is not needed and can be cut along with the operating expenses of most of the Academic Division. Most of the money is spent on unused technology equipment, multiple laptops, excessive spending on staff development books and supplies. Cut all departmental operating budgets to a minimum and you will save thousands of dollars. The Area Superindendents positions are not needed. They just send the problem back to the department supervisor to handle. You can employ dozens of hard working para-pros for the salary that each Area Sup makes. Do not wait until they retire, cut them NOW. Cut the summer hours for Central Office employees and save on building expenses and 240 day salaries.

TAKE A MOMENT AND LISTEN Again here we are trying to let the parents of Cobb County know the sad shape of our budget! I am a parent of children who have graduated from the Cobb County School System and I work for Cobb County. School these days is not what you experienced when you were in school. Cobb County adopted the Common Core curriculum for the children this year. We spent many, many, many dollars sending teachers, board members and even Mr. H to Disneyworld to discover Common Core. "DISNEYWORLD!" Many teachers and administrators from East Cobb went to Disneyworld to learn about Common Core. Disneyworld in the summer and with a budget coming that can't be met. If this was that important, could it not be held in Cobb County for all teachers instead of a select few along with board members? We spent a lot of money for this and many of the ideas they came back with have never been used. There were many in-services held with teachers at a huge cost to the county and these ideas have never been used. We have spent many unnecessary dollars on inservice days for teachers paying the teacher and sub for information that will never be used. We have teacher colleges with guest instructors who are spending the entire day at school for weeks at a time instructing teachers on how to teach our children to read. This is Teacher pay and sub pay spent on something our teachers know how to do if we give them a chance to do what they know. Common Core is not the answer to our children being ready for college. Several years ago Cobb County adopted a Math program. My child was going into 6th grade. From that day on.....I spent $50 per week for 7 years for a Math tutor so my child could learn this Math program that has been replaced because it lowered the grades for our children. As parents, we have to do our part to help our children. Please take a moment and think of ways to help finance our budget. Employee furlough days are not the answer. We may save money on salaries for the furlough days but your child will not be in school learning. In the upcoming years you are going to see many great teachers/staff transferring to other counties or no longer teaching. It is happening as I am typing. We are setting our schools up to lose great teachers and other staff. Help!

Concerned Please eliminate benchmark and other non-essential testing. It is a waste of instructional time and paper.Professional development should be offered after school for people who want to go, and maybe a few extra things for new teachers and people on a PDP. Teachers are out of the classroom too much for these things. If we are going to have extra furlough days, PLEASE put them all together so we get a February break or September break. It doesn't make any sense, and it doesn't help anyone out to have random days off through out the year. If we are going to lose instructional days, I think we need to consider eliminating some of the programming that interrupts our instruction- field day, mandatory field trips, assemblies, individual celebrations for passing the CRCT/ reading etc. It would not bother me to have a 4 day week, but I think it would be extremely insensitive toward the parents who work outside the home. In today's economy, extra expenses for unexpected childcare are very difficult. I also agree that the heating and cooling needs better regulation. The heat is too high to wear a heavy sweater in the winter time and often too chilly for short sleeves on hot days. That doesn't make sense. Thank you.

Frustrated teacher and parent All three of my children went through the Cobb County School system and up until about 4 years ago we were pleased with the education they received. I have been working for Cobb Co. Schools since 2001 in various positions and I finally got my degree in Physical Education. I am frustrated that I give 110% to my job, yet I continue to get cut and then offered a limi

Easy Money No more year-round employees. In addition to principals and school personnel, central administrative and clerical staff get a 200 day contract, and schools are closed from June 15 - Aug 1 (except for custodians, which should be outsourced to clean all the schools in the summer). Central Office people shouldn't be working all summer--not much to do when there are no schools, teachers, or students to serve.

Cobb County Parent/Teacher As much as I hate paying more taxes, the truth is "you get what you pay for." It is easy to say cut services but the community loses when our students are not educated. So, how do we increase revenues? 1. When I lived up in Illinois, we did pay a textbook fee and sold our textbooks back to the school at the end of the year. It is not unreasonable to charge students a textbook fee. 2. We could also increase the time between textbook adoptions. I understand the need for updated science and social studies textbooks, but don't understand the need to change math book and language arts books every four years. I teach math and the adoption this year will be a good one because Common Core has changed so many standards around. (For those of you not in the know, Common Core is a good thing. Students in America move with their parents' jobs. Working with students that have learning gaps from differences between school systems and states takes teacher time away from the entire class. Additionally, teaching materials will actually be prepared for a national curriculum so the cost should go down.) Next time the math adoption comes up, save the textbook money and buy some classroom supplies instead. I could use a few rulers so that students can measure instead of reading about it in a book. 3. I like the idea of bus advertisement. Why not let school-appropriate business ads go on the side of and inside buses? Businesses could sponsor a bus for the 2013-2014 school year and paint their ad on the side. I have been shopping business that support Cobb's schools. I want them to stay in business. I want to know who they are. Advertisement is a direct expense for businesses so it decreases the amount of Federal tax they pay. 4. Tax senior citizens who can afford it by re-instituting the property tax on rental property owned by seniors. Use a sliding scale for the primary residences of seniors so it does not impact seniors on a fixed income. We have senior citizens that make more interest on their investments in a month than I make in a year. Why can't they pay property tax? 5. Year round school. Utilize your resources. It doesn't make sense to have buildings sit vacant all summer. 6. Rent out the schools. We rent the building to non-profit businesses, why can't we rent to kid-friendly businesses as well? There are plenty of programs that are established for children similar to the ones within the ASP programs. When I was a student in Cobb there were many enrichment programs offered after school through the schools. The programs generated revenue for the schools. Why did we stop those programs? 7. Increase the millage rate. Our students deserve a great education. Property taxes in Cobb are high for Georgia but low compared to other states across the nation. 8. Cut some of the athletic programs. Do we really need to have year-round sports? Could the different teams share locker and field facilities? When I was growing up the football coach was also the golf coach. Do we really need a coach for EVERY sport? How many Cobb County students have actually gone on to make a living playing professional sports? Did they come back and invest money in the schools that supported them growing up? How many students have become teachers or worker in Cobb County businesses? Where should we invest our limited resources on academics or athletics? Things you should not cut: Technology: We want our students to be globally competitive, don't we? The use of technology is critical to that endeavor. Not everyone has access to the internet, in fact, some Cobb students only have access to food when they are at school. If you don't believe it, volunteer at some of the Title schools. I know the teachers there would be grateful for the extra pair of hands because many of their students' parents are working two and three minimum wage jobs to keep their children from going hungry. They would love to have volunteers to make copies or supervise the lunchroom for them so they have time to eat lunch and go to the bathroom more than once a day during their planning period. Substitute teacher pay: Seriously, do you know how little substitute teachers make? These are people you are entrusting with you children. Who do you know that will work all day without a break or a complaint trying to help students who treat them with unbelievable disrespect for $69. a day? The majority of good subs that I know are parents of students and people hoping to get a job in the field of education. They know how important a substitute position is. If you don't, just volunteer to work in the lunchroom for a week. You will be enlightened. Teacher pay: I am now working 60+ hours a week to do my job. After that I get to tutor because I can no longer afford to just teach and I am not alone. I used to give my students extra help before and after school to make sure they were being successful. Now, I can't afford to give them that much time because I have to supplement my income with a second job. I am not alone. MANY teachers, especially those in single income households, work two and three jobs in order to live. BUSINESS REALITY: The number one cost in any service industry is employee salaries. It is the easiest thing to cut in the short term but usually come back to bite you in the long run.

Summer School So, I know it's not going to be popular, but what about requiring kids to attend summer school if they fail a class? As it stands now, kids can retake a class two, three, or ten times without worry; meanwhile, the schools are absorbing the cost of re-re-reteaching that student, which makes classes bigger across the board. Maybe every student gets one kick at the can; or to be generous, two. After that, the kid and his family have to pony up for summer school classes. You want engaged parents who pay attention to their kids' effort and performance? Make them pay for poor effort and performance!

Central Cuts Area Assistants have to go. No one can legitmize their value on classroom instruction. Similarly, there are directors, assistants, supervisors, and all types of positions that are superfluous to the function of schools. Sure, these people are great to have on hand when things are running well, but what is the point of these positions when the schools are trying to education 35-40 kids at a time? A number of the departments (curriculum, professional learning, technology) should be cut and put on hold until recovery occurs. School employees never see or need these people anyway, so their disappearance will have no impact on the day-to-day work happening in the classrooms. If you cut more teachers, furlough more days, and reduce instructional time, these WILL have a negative impact on the students. I know it's a tough decision, but the Central Office should be a ghost town before you cut anything else that makes teaching and learning more difficult.

Some ideas Address revenue, not just cuts. Property and sales taxes are the lowest in Cobb, which seems nice until schools suffer. Property value will increase and more money will flow into the are if the schools are good. In this decline, who would honestly move here?

Average Joe One idea from a friend in another state: offer incentives to employees who choose not to use CCSD benefits (health, dental, etc). My friend's district offers a stipend of about $500 per year to each teacher for not subscribing to any benefits; that's a drop in the bucket compared to what districts actually pay for employee benefits. If you reduce enrollments in these areas, you reduce the cost of your work force. I think it's sensible, but I am not sure if anyone is listening/reading these anyway.

CCSD Employee I will agree that morale is low among teachers. I agree that there are few answers to our problems. Class sizes are out of hand. There is great discrepancy between schools from one end of the county to the other. Shrink middle level administration. Go to a four day school week T,W,TH,F. Implement computer based learning where applicable. LISTEN TO TEACHERS and PARENTS; not always easy I know. I'm sure that there are some funds some where to build day-care opportunities using elementary or middle schools. (FED or PRIVATE CORP.)School board quit lending a deaf ear thinking you know what's best; listen. i.e. the calendar issue. Build some trust and enthusiasm listen for once, take some advice from professional educators.

Mother of 3 Cobb County Students Please consider a 4 day week with longer days. The kids are bombarded with homework anyway! Do it at school so these kids can have a life. My 10 year old has at least one hour of homework - 5 days a week. My freshman has 2 hours plus! Ridiculous!

Teacher Furloughs aren't the answer. Teachers can barely survive on the salaries we earn now.... To think they are considering adding more furlough days next year is outrageous. How do you expect to keep good teachers and to keep us motivated if we can barely make a living for our families. Not to mention more furlough days also impacts the education of our children. You want high test scores..... Less days in the classroom isn't going to get you that. Discouraged teacher, mother of two, and tax payer.

Teacher Tax seniors based on home value at half the rate as those under sixty five. Raise the definition of a senior to sixty-five. Add crossing guards where necessary and eliminate busses on runs under one mile.

Don't Waste Your Time Cobb continues to ask for input, yet rejects anything that they don't like. I will try anyway... 1. Get rid of Assistant Area Supervisors 2. Have a 4 day week 10 hours per day 3. Eliminate Benchamarks 4. Eliminate most Staff at County Office and farm it out to companies that are competitive and give us a good price and product 5. Stop cutting teacher salaries 6. Eliminate trips to Disney to see Common Core 7. Eliminate Common Core training...it will be something new shortly after they realize it DOES NOT WORK!!!

1stgradeteacher As a teacher, we are extremely discouraged. We cannot take it anymore! The changes, neglect and complete disrespect we receive from the county is sad. Teachers work more than anyone would know unless they were in the teaching field, and yet our salaries have almost been taken away by 30%. There should be a freeze on County Level positions, however, there are still jobs being created beginning at a salary base of $70,000. As a county we need to start up a petition to take to the county legislature regarding the tax exempt law. Overall, many teachers are completely worn out, and it will be interesting when the current population of students are not prepared for the real world. Teachers are not actually teaching them due to other demands such as testing, low morale and the ever changing curriculum.

1stgradeteacher As a teacher, we are extremely discouraged. We cannot take it anymore! The changes, neglect and complete disrespect we receive from the county is sad. Teachers work more than anyone would know unless they were in the teaching field, and yet our salaries have almost been taken away by 30%. There should be a freeze on County Level positions, however, there are still jobs being created beginning at a salary base of $70,000. As a county we need to start up a petition to take to the county legislature regarding the tax exempt law. Overall, many teachers are completely worn out, and it will be interesting when the current population of students are not prepared for the real world. Teachers are not actually teaching them due to other demands such as testing, low morale and the ever changing curriculum.

common sense solutions Lets start off by saying I am a current employee of cobb county. Just to let you know the morale of the teachers is at a all time low and ,"be glad you have a job doesnt work anymore". I am going to give some common sense suggestions for our financial problems. 1. The property tax issue. First, grandfather in everone over 62. I understand some are on fixed incomes so do not change it for them. Second, everyone 61 or younger will now continue to pay. It is not a new tax! Third, we can then institute the 65 year old rule that Fulton, Cherokee and Gwinnett use, Income gap or assessed value of the home in order to receive the exemption.I realize it is not a school board issue but a legislative one. Change it! Without this we are wasting our time thinking we are going to be able to meet our budget. 2. Take a hard look at the 4 day work week. Some of the suggestions as every other Friday or Monday has merit. Monday would be a better choice because of all the extracurricular activities that take place at high schools on Friday night. 3. Do away with Area superintendents and County department heads. They really do nothing thats helps with the day to day running of schools. I'm still trying to figure out what actually they do except call meetings that could of been sent in a Email. Not a lot of money, but something. 4. Cut out all inservices. They are a waste of money. Cut out some of the standardized tests. The testing business is a multi million dollar business for the testing companies. They have us convinced we have to have them. Do not purchase new textbooks. All classes should have a classroom set and the book should be online. Everyone has access to the internet,trust me they do! This has been going on since 2008 and its a broken record. The teachers cannot tighten their belt anymore! No more notches left!.I know I just wasted my time ,but I feel better.

Just a thought Cut the number of sick days in half for teachers, then pay them for any unused days. This will give teachers an incentive to not call in sick and would save on the cost of substitute teachers.

Transportation What about charging parents for their children to ride the bus? Buses are not required in the first place, so imposing a fee to use them doesn't seem too outlandish. It wouldn't solve the money problems alone, but it would generate a little bit of a revenue...

Retired Cobb Teacher In 1978, my husband and I choose Cobb County for two reasons: first the excellent schools and secondly, the low taxes. Our children attended Cobb schools and were all well prepared for post-secondary education. I taught in Cobb for 34 years and still believe that Cobb teachers are second to none! I believe that in order to maintain our dedicated and talented teachers the Board of Education and the Central Office Administration should make every effort to find other means of revenue and should pledge to teachers to maintain classroom size, salary schedules, and the same contracted number of days. I am obviously over 62 and we pay no school tax. Area counties, such as Fulton, Cherokee, and Gwinnett require citizens to be 65 or older and in addition also have an income cap or assessed value of the home in order to receive the exemption. I suggest that you contact the Cobb legislatures and propose a change in the senior exemption that is based on both an age change and a graduated income or home value. In addition to assuring that our grandchildren will receive an excellent education in Cobb, seniors will also safeguard the value of their homes but only if we continue to keep and attract the best teachers.

TEACHER I agree with the 4 10 hour work weeks. I have taught in Cobb County for 13 years and every year our pay has gone down and our insurance goes up.. I have steered my daughter against education for the lack of repect we are given in our profession, pay cuts, and the more we are accountable for as teachers.. Bottom line more work, no respect, and less pay.....

parent, employee, tax payer: all of the above PLEASE!! In regards to way too many comments that elude to what CCSD pays their substitute teachers is any way cause of their budget problems nothing could be further from the truth. These men and women work hard in the care, guidance and yes, classroom instruction of our students. They cover where necessary for teachers when they are ill or receiving continued education, etc. and are often having to do that for multiple teachers within the same day sometimes hardly getting a well deserved duty free lunch break. This has been greatly abused this year because with the low pay offered there are not enough subs in the pool leaving jobs unfilled. Also, too many teachers/schools doubling & tripling up on one sub rather than scheduling as many needed for the day. They are often additionally expected to do the hall, lunch, or bus duty for teachers who for whatever reason can't or do not wish to complete them. Substitute teachers step in to cover for teachers often in situations where he/she is already having behavior issues in the classroom. Imagine what that scenario can be like for a sub. They do all this for a salary that is less than a teenager (hardly old enough to work yet) flipping burgers at McDonalds. Sub pay was grossly cut over the past 1.5 yrs. Cut pay was recovered somewhat for Administration, of course, teachers and others in the school but remained embarrassingly low for subs. It is embarrassing what they are payed and asked to do within their job of direct care/instruction of students. So again, PLEASE, quit referring to the large sums going out to subs until you verse yourself on how in error and comical those statements are! Thank you.

no more no more benchmark testing--takes up way too much instructional time and I'm sure it's costly (we lost over 5 days of instruction this year due to this test)

FYI ASP is not funded by the county and their finances are totally separate from CCSD funds. They pay their own workers, their own utility bills and any extras that they have during these hours.

Retired Cobb County School Employee I feel every option should be exercised before one more pay cut or one more furlough day is put into place. The 4/10 school week should be one consideration. Leaving Fridays open with savings to transportation, utilities, food costs and ASP a ten hour day would eliminate ASP hours ranging from 7:30 to 5:30 and give parents the option of day care only on Fridays. Teachers whom I have had the privilege of surveying have been over whelmingly for the idea and say Fridays could be utilized for planning at home without interruption from "school environment sources". As of this writing, the Cobb County School District has gone from a 64 million dollar bud-get gap, to a deficit of 84.6 million for fiscal 2014. The same methods have been exercised for how many years( furlough days, pay cuts, lay offs etc.) and the same circumstances continue to "plague" this county. One would think more drastic options are necessary to fill the "fiscal void" that seems to have no solution and lingers year after year. I suggest the 4/10 solution be exercised for one year, just as the calendar options have been sought, if after that period the "bottom line" savings don't bear fruition, so be it. But, I feel the savings to the tax payers will merit a continuation and lift the declining morale plagueing Cobb County Schools.

Tired Citizen We need some out of the box thinking. How about family-friendly advertising on the buses? Maybe local businesses can pay to advertise on the schools' marquees. Maybe parents who change schools more than once in a year can be charged a nominal filing or faxing fee. How about charging high schoolers a nominal fee to ride the bus (not unheard of up north)? Science and music classes can have nominal fees that go towards supplies (also not unheard of up north). Maybe Cobb Energy can do an energy audit of each school and provide data on how to reduce energy costs. Adding a few minutes to each day and having no classes every other Friday sounds like a good idea.

Revenue The core competency of any school district is the education of students. I would like to see the Board debate more ideas that pertain to ways that the district can generate additional funds that fall within its core competency. Thus far, the majority of the debate has been around what can be cut. I realize that ultimately the cuts are likely where we are headed, but similar to how saving a little here and saving a little there can add up to a lot; perhaps there's a similar debate that can be had around generating a few dollars here and there that may add up to a lot. For example, we could consider a policy change to allow the district to accept out of district tuition paying students. We could charge $3-$4k per year per student which is similar to what a neighboring district charges for a similar program. After insuring we have secured spots for CCSD residents, if for example, we had 2000 spots throughout all schools in the district that were available and that were in schools that are desirable by out of districts, that would be on the order of $6-$8 million. Considering that we are only talking about available spaces, in existing rooms with existing teachers, aside from costs to administer such a program, it would seem that this would be a very low cost endeavor, with revenues that are likely to more than cover the costs.

With Respect With due respect, please find other options other than furloughs for teachers. Over the past years, we have had an overall 2% decrease in salary(no, we have not forgotten), and continuous furloughs. To add, the Government deleted the tax which is not levied on all citizens. Our checks have dwindled and self-esteem and morale has depleted. Many of us are married to educators, which has compounded the issue. Correct--eliminate texts, eliminate large groups attending in-services where the county has to pay for substitutes--instead, send the department chair and allow them to be the leaders and report what was learned to the staff/department. Stop the waste in schools---I have seen students walk around schools with blankets because the air conditioning was too high and create systems that shut lights off when not in use. Also, please consider the differences among schools. How does the county offer the same equity in a Title I school vs. a Pope or Harrison? With due respect, help the educators that are with your children more hours than that of the parents.

I. Engineer And about the tests... why are we still taking standardized tests on paper? I did notice the recycling bins at some of the schools I toured after arriving here many moons ago -- why not also encourage parents to give their cans and other recyclables over to a fund-raising recycling program? And instead of subs, I'm fairly sure that we could bring in some interns from local teaching colleges and pay them less money.

I. Engineer I meant, "trim the costs" without "trimming the budget." Sorry.

I. Engineer I'm a software engineer and IT consultant. And I do have ideas! Here's a few ways to trim the budget without trimming the costs. ---- 1. --- Kiss texts goodbye. When I was in college, I had a prof make his own text and our cost was $2. When I took an ASL class, our text was a ream of paper that WE gave to the teacher in return for a printed text. I kept it for years and years and still use it! So, ditch the texts and have the school system create the curriculum and books. --- 2. --- Lunch - why are we not encouraging students to bring their own lunches and snacks? And offering healthier options? Fresh fruit is healthier - my kids will often "graze" at home on a bag of grapes which can be toted around and kept at room temperature. And we use a LOT of juice in lieu of fattier or sugary drinks on the market. --- 3. --- Solar electricity should be considered and other means of cooling should be considered in lieu of air conditioning. In my own home, we forgo the air conditioner as much as we can and use box fans throughout the house, creating an effective wind tunnel through the house that cools things down.

Central Office I feel there has to be a better way to help the budget that what is proposed. I know the schools are affected more than those of us at Central Office even though we are affected also. I have seen my workload increase and my pay decrease. But yet the higher ups at Central Office are doing just fine. With the money they are making 5 furlough days doesn't hurt them like it does the rest of us. I feel bad for the teachers who have worked hard for their degrees and was proud to receive them only to work somewhere the morale keeps getting lower each year. I am grateful for my job and tired of hearing "we ought to be glad we have a job" Some of those that are making 6 digit salaries a year should try to make it on what the rest of us are having to do and then see what they would say. Hopefully some better suggestions will come around. There are positions in the Central Office that I feel could be eliminated, I have been there long enough to see they serve no true purpose. These positions are big salary positions also. It's time the county starts thinking about the little people for a change. I think we are giving way to many free lunches to start with. I feel a more investigative approach should be done. I just don't see how other counties are making it with fewer cuts. We are the second largest and have problems every year and it seems the furlough days and etc., aren't working. If it keeps up it will seem we will have to pay the county to work.

Cobb county teacher I have been teaching in Cobb County for six years now and continue to make less and less each year. Another pay cut will not help the situation. The county will just need even more money next year. More creative ideas need to be presented. I agree with the comment about cutting out every other Friday. This would save so much money by not having to pay operational costs for the schools. It would only add 30 minutes to each day and could allow for professional development time to be done during some of those days instead of paying extra for subs. We all need to think outside of the box.

A Cobb Teacher It is sad to know that I'm going to get ANOTHER pay cut this year. For six years in a row I have gotten pay cuts. Our insurance premiums have almost doubled and the coverage has gone down. And yes, I am grateful to have a job (you don't have to keep telling me). Teaching was what I trained for 20+ years ago and teaching is something I absolutely love to do but I am human and my morale (as well as other teachers) is in the gutter. You tell me that my salary is going to be less, I'll have more students in a regular-ed, (not a team taught class has 37 now), and next year I'm going to be evaluated on how my students are going to do on a CRCT-type test! You want me to be the teacher I used to be? Then treat me like the professional I am. I'm looking forward to retirement! Oh yea, the state wants to take that away too! With regard to seniors paying more taxes . . . my parents have already paid their fair share. They put me and my two brothers through Cobb County schools and paid taxes for 12 grandchildren. They should be done!!! Let's ask the illegal citizens to help pay their fair share of educating their children.

Idea Guru Sadly, no matter what we post on here Cobb will not take action.

Mary Shatley I was an employee of Cobb County and respect the fact that times are hard. But to tax the seniors more is crazy. They are already being taxed by the federal on their social security and any other income. And the cost of health insurance is going up. They are on a fixed income not like the younger people who can work extra to get ahead. So I say no to having them pay school tax again. They did that for years rasing their children. So leave the seniors alone to enjoy what is left of there lives.

Good Video Very good video presentation. This needs to be on the home page of each school to help educate our citizens. Also while watching this - it brought to mind the number of out of district students we have. While I would not want to lose any of these dynamic teachers - we do have a high number of teachers who live in neighboring counties who bring their own children to Cobb for school. Their home county gets those tax dollars but Cobb gets none and yet is educating those students. Have we thought about charging to educate these out of county students? Or at least looking into how many of these students we are educating? Would it make a difference in this budget deficit?

Former Teacher and Taxpayer After teaching and living in 3 other states, our family settled into Cobb County 11 years ago. I was shocked when I registered my children for school that I paid NOTHING for my kids to attend public school. In every other state where we have lived and taught, we paid a nominal fee for our kids to attend school. It was generally called something like a "book fee". That is one way to increase revenue. Senior exemption from education taxes, while commendable, just does not make sense as they are still allowed to VOTE on education issues (aka - SPLOST). Up the age that seniors get exempted from taxes to 65 or 70. I realize this isn't a school board decision - but a government one. Call your legislators - this needs to change. Our schools are nearing a crisis and this is another way to increase revenue in this difficult time our schools and country are facing. Our schools are soon going to see decreasing populations as our seniors are NOT moving out and new families are NOT moving in. This will create an even further crisis. STOP ALL UNNECESSARY TESTING. These kids are being taught to take a test vs being taught to LEARN. My own 8th grader thinks the only reason he goes to school is to do well on the CRCT. Give me a BREAK! Do NOT purchase Textbooks this year for ANYTHING. A one year reprieve will not hurt the education of our students. Reduce the amount of staff that do not DIRECTLY affect the students. I have had it watching teaching positions being reduced while increasing class size. Get rid of extra administration, assistants and other positions that do not have daily contact with our students.

A Cobb County Employee I am a Cobb County employee making less money that I did 5 years ago because of the constant budget cuts. I try to stay positive about it because I need a job. I have a husband who supports our income but I see how difficult it is for single income employees to survive with the constant pay cuts....however....I appreciate having a job. I know the budget is difficult for the Superintendent, the Financial Department, and the Board. I don't know where all the cuts should be made and I know it is a difficult task that will never make everyone happy. I do think senior citizens that live in Cobb should pay something in school tax. I also REALLY believe it would boost student and teacher morale to get rid of unnecessary busy testing with the benchmark tests. They take time away from instruction and do not benefit the students. Reducing the days on the calendar by adding minutes to the instructional day could help, too. Good luck!

COBB County Employee And look at that, I reviewed my post for errors, while completely forgetting the title. What a dope. :)

Cob County Employee As an employee of the county, I know what nonsense goes on in the schools. It's ridiculous the amount of money wasted with 'new' curriculum training, food costs, professional development, PAPER WASTE, etc. It sickens me to no end. Anyway, my idea is about the school day/calendar. How about we go to every other Friday off? Think of the money saved by not running the buses, not running the schools, not spending money on the food to feed the children WHO DON'T EVEN EAT IT. (I feel terrible about the food they try to serve. BURNT pizza and biscuits, unripened fruit. It's despicable.) Back to my suggestion...If we took every other Friday off, it would only add 30 minutes to the other school days. I think this is very manageable. But I'm sure it won't fly, because it's something new, and Cobb County doesn't seem to want to try new things.

PDC Ok, so we want to keep up with Japan, right? So, are Smartboards and technology initiatives effective in situations where classrooms are overcrowded and employee morale suffers? I think not. Highly educated and satisfied, respected teachers and staff should be the NUMERO UNO priority at all costs. Then the rest will fall into place. Forget about high dollar, over-hyped curriculum overhauls and increasingly rigorous standardized testing; because guess what? Those curriculum writers and test designers are laughing their way to the bank all at the EXPENSE of our children's happiness and educational experiences. Let's all just stop this INSANITY, and do what is right and just for the students, teachers and staff!!! No more oppression and school days devoid of opportunities for the development of students' innate talents and natural curiosities for hands-on learning experiences. Our public schools of the new millennium are like the sweatshops of yesteryear. Children are treated like cattle by their teachers; teachers are used and abused by their administrators. Think about insiders: am I really exaggerating here? Let's be real with ourselves and face the truth about the current climate of our school system. It is downright depressing. How many individuals in these buildings do you consistently see with a genuine smile of happiness and satisfaction planted on their face? Life is too short for all this, so parents: do what is right for your children, and pull them out! Teachers: evaluate the rules you are following and your purpose in life. Were you put on this earth to oppress children, squash their natural curiosity, deny them of a fair recess time and inundate them with meaningless work all in the name of the almighty TEST? Probably not!

PDC I wholeheartedly agree with the individual who suggested that our Senior Citizens pay their fair share of property taxes. As much as I look forward to having that tax break when I become eligible, in this dire situation in which we find ourselves in Cobb, I'd be more than willing to pay my fair share for the good of our children who are the FUTURE.

Paulette Del Casale - unafraid to have a voice Yes, I am in the Cobb County system. I have been trying to obtain a teaching position since graduating Summa Cum Laude from KSU in December, 2010 and becoming certified in several areas of education. With little hesitation, I have thrown in the towel due to my negative experiences in various schools in the County. The bottom line is this: teachers need to stop being sheep and just say NO! NO to the TESTS and NO to the umpteen interruptions each year for these so-called collaboration days and in-services which detract from what they are commanded to do by the Administrators; namely, to teach to the test. Have faith that if you get canned for being an honest, concerned teacher then something better will be just around the corner. I want to thank all those Principals who did not hire me to teach full time. I want to thank the Principal who hired me knowing full well that I'd be required to catherize a student (without the medical training or being told on my interview), then banning me from ever working at the school again after giving my flexible, 2-week more or less, notice. Thanks to the high school in which I worked on a limited contract, for not renewing my contract because I refused to play along with your dirty politics! Excuse me, if I was upset about being kicked in the ribs by my student. .... I had a small 'taste' of what it would be like to teach in our public schools full time, when I accepted a 6-week supply teacher job. For those 6 weeks, I was an absolute basket case and had ZERO time for my own husband and children. I typically arrived first and left last, yet that was not good enough for the outlandish requirements of our test-driven school system. As a rookie-teacher/substitute, rather than getting some support from other veteran teachers at my grade level, I was literally pulled into a classroom after having been on the job for just a week and BERATED for the horrible job I was doing. This was done to me during my so-called planning time, the nerve! Pffffffft................Cobb County you can take your teaching jobs and put them where the sun doesn't shine. ......... As a tax-paying citizen and concerned Mom, I have decided to do the right thing by my little girl beginning the 2013/14 school year; I will be homeschooling her as she embarks upon her school career as a Kindergartener. I will not subject her to all the petty standards that are imposed on our kindergarteners in todays schools. I don't need her to be so-called 'socialized' during the day by being told to be quiet all the time! My kindergarten deserves so much more than a 20 minute (if she's lucky) recess and semi-silent lunches. She shouldn't have to learn about quotation marks and forced to write in her journal for 30 minutes each day at the age of 5! And, heaven forbid these kids have free Centers time in kindergarten. No, that would detract from their 'learning'!!! DUH! I recommend that if it is at all financially feasible, all educated parents and current teachers out there should SERIOUSLY consider putting their children in private school or going the homeschooling route. Enough is enough for me, and it should be for all the others who are fed up as well!!! Stop being sheep and do the right thing for our children! Bye-bye Cobb! AMEN.

Paulette Del Casale - unafraid to have a voice Yes, I am in the Cobb County system. I have been trying to obtain a teaching position since graduating from KSU in December, 2010 and become certified in several areas of education. But, I have thrown in the towel due to my negative experiences in various schools in the County. The bottom line is this: teachers need to stop being sheep and just say NO! NO to the TESTS and NO to the umpteen interruptions each year for these so-called collaboration days and in-services which detract from what they are commanded to do by the Administrators; namely, to teach to the test. I want to thank all those Principals who did not hire me to teach full time. I had a small dose of what it would be like to teach in our public schools full time, when I accepted a 6-week supply teacher job. For those 6 weeks, I was an absolute basket case and had ZERO time for my own husband and children. I typically arrived first and left last, yet that was not good enough for the outlandish requirements of our test-driven school system. As a rookie-teacher/substitute, rather than getting some support from other veteran teachers at my grade level, I was literally pulled into a classroom after having been on the job for just a week and BERATED for the horrible job I was doing. Pffffffft................Cobb County you can take your teaching jobs and put them where the sun doesn't shine. ......... As a tax-paying citizen and concerned Mom, I have decided to do the right thing by my little girl beginning the 2013/14 school year; I will be homeschooling her as she embarks on her school career as a Kindergartener. I will not subject her to all the petty standards that are imposed on our kindergarteners in today's schools. I recommend that if it is at all financially feasible, all educated parents and current teachers out there should SERIOUSLY consider putting your children in private school or going the homeschooling route. Enough is enough for me, and it should be for all the others who are fed up as well!!! Stop being sheep and do the right thing for our children! AMEN.

Concerned parent and supporter of our teachers I am not sure who came up with the idea not to tax senior citizens but it was TERRIBLE idea. Cobb county is a wonderful place to live that's why people get here and tend to stay here. I know this is an EXTREMELY touchy subject but our seniors still benefit from our schools even after their children are grown...it increases their home values if the schools are strong. Without money our schools are going to go downhill rapidly. We continue to ask more of our teachers, yet every year at this time they are threatened with pay cuts and/or job loss. If our seniors paid even a percentage of the tax it would help the budget immensely. I have had this discussion with many seniors and believe I am lucky to have survived those conversations. But I feel strongly that if you are living in a community and benefitting from said community you need to support it.

A concerned Tax Payer If only we could keep all of our property taxes ... QBE is a ripoff for the large counties. It is the epitome of wealth redistribution. Thanks Joe Frank Harris for nothing. The school board has cut enough days from the calendar, have increased class sizes enough, have cut raises and COLA enough for the teachers. Start by cutting professional development for all but the rookie teachers. Cut all of the inservice days and training. Don't purchase new admin software for grades that will never work as expected and take hours per teacher in training to use. Don't buy new textbooks. Cut the area supers and make the super do his job. Too much duplication of supervisor staff and job justification duties through out the system. Cut out all but the minimum testing (Iowa & CRCT only if you must). I hate to say this, but RAISE the millage up to the 20 max and petition the commissioners and the state reps to raise it to 25 if needed. As long as we are supporting so many small systems with our confiscated money, then we need to tax ourselves to the level we need to keep our system the best it can be. Turn the teachers loose and stand back and watch them teach!!!

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