SACS Attack

Even though our son is off at college, I still keep up with local education news via the newspaper of record in Cobb County, The Marietta Daily Journal.

When we last commented on the Cobb County School Board, there was a massive election taking place which pitted a man with a pony tail versus an event planner in the Republican primary (Humor Me; July 18, 2010). The MDJ, in the spirit of journalism that would rival both Woodward and Bernstein, reported that the pony tail man owned vehicles with out of state license plates. These vehicles were parked in the man’s driveway. This exposure of criminality helped the event planner win the primary and the position on the school board since the Democratic Party decided not to run a candidate in the fall election.

Since that time, the event planner has joined two other new members and together with Alison Bartlett focused their laser beam like attention to the problems that face the public school system in this county and solved those problems with efficiency and grace.

Ha, just joking, this is Cobb County where we not only have to win but we have to crush the spirit of our opponents. The first thing they did was vote on the school calendar.

Back when I was growing up (walking to school, uphill both ways through driving rain, sleet, and snow) the school year began the Tuesday after Labor Day. But, for some reason, the start of the school year started creeping backwards until it seemed like the first day of the new school year was the day after the final day of the old school year.

This, of course, was met with the usual resistance and complaints from parents which led some parents to form a committee called “Georgia Needs Summers”. (In the interest of full disclosure, I once shared a pizza with their Vice President, whose team we never could beat in baseball). Their main focus was that school should start later because it did when we were kids and we turned out great.

In 2009 the old school board approved a two year calendar with an early August start, which was called “The Balanced Calendar”. Of course, the new school board had to change that instead of having another year with the early start. This did not go over well with Teachers and Parents who had come to like all the little perks that come with the “balanced” calendar like a mid winters’ break.

Instead of forming a committee, these people complained to SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools). SACS, in turn, wrote a letter to the school board questioning what is going on in Cobb County.

Question: This is stupid. Can it get worse? Answer: Yes

The Marietta Daily Journal has a column that is supposedly written by an iconic elderly reporter, the editorial page editor, and the owner called “Around Town”. “Around Town” is usually the vehicle the paper uses to take pot shots at those that either they disagree with or don’t like. It is a sloppy work of journalism that never quotes anyone but uses such phrases as “one wag said”, “many think, or “Courthouse observers” to bolster its case.

The April 23, 2011 “Around Town” begins: “With the deadline for a response fast approaching, Around Town has learned several interesting facts about the accrediting agency that sent a threatening letter in late March to the Cobb School Board questioning the board's decision-making process and governance.” It should read, “Around Town has found the SACS website on the World Wide Web on this contraption called a computer”.

“Around Town adds some explanation about SACS including the “eye popping” salary of its head (which, at best, is irrelevant), Dr. Mark Elgart. It operates out of their “swank headquarters” in Alpharetta. “Around Town” doesn’t include pictures so I guess it is “swank” because it is in Alpharetta. “Around Town” asks, “who anointed Elgart to be the guru for good schools?” Maybe the board of trustees of SACS?

To cut to the chase, “Around Town” feels that since the school board was elected and SACS wasn’t it wields too much power. Then kicker: “the board should stand up and tell SACS to go mind somebody else's business.”

This is a bag of stupid.

For one thing, granted the problems of CCBOE are big and they should be worked out by the elected members of the School Board. However, telling SACS to mind its own business is arrogant and reactionary to the nth degree. The last school board that ignored SACS was Clayton County. SACS yanked that county’s school accreditation.

SACS does not like intramural conflict and this letter was their way of telling everyone to cool their jets. It would have been nice if the new school board and waited a while and changed the start date for the 2012-2013 year. It would have been nice if The “Balanced Calendar” people did not freak out and yelped at SACS to help them. But they did and SACS is not a joke. It was irresponsible to “Around Town” to treat it as such.