Thursday, July 26, 2012
The $518.74 million budget does not include increased student-paid fees for extracurricular activities.
The Cherokee County Board of Education on Wednesday night approved the school system’s $518.74 budget for 2012-2013 after Superintendent Frank Petruzielo told four parents who spoke that the budget does not include an increase in costs for parents of students who participate in band or sports. The pay to play idea was introduced last month by board member Kim Cochran as a way to free up more money to be used in classrooms. That’s something that Michelle Dodge, whose four children have played sports in the Cherokee County School System, said would be detrimental. Many students wouldn’t be able to play if their parents had to pay more than they currently do, she said. “There’s no way you could make pay to play equitable,” Dodge said. “The …
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Kyla Cromer and Kelly Marlow were among the featured candidates at this week's Cherokee County Republican Party debate.
Canton's Kyla Cromer and Kelly Marlow, the women vying for the Post 1 seat on the Cherokee County Board of Education, took questions from media representatives, the public and each other during a Monday night debate at the Cherokee County Republican Party headquarters in Towne Lake. Watch what they had to say. Related content:
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
School board candidate Kelly Marlow said her neighbor was "disturbed" by an act of election season vandalism. Turns out, the neighbor told Marlow something different.
Kelly Marlow and Kyla Cromer are running against each other for the Post 1 seat on the Cherokee County Board of Education. Over the weekend, Canton-Sixes Patch received a tip that Marlow's neighbor woke up to find rolls of toilet paper and Cromer campaign signs in the front yard of his BridgeMill home, not the Marlow signs that were once there. Reader Addie Price included a picture of the damage in a blog post she submitted to Patch, an image she said she received from Marlow. In an email Monday, Marlow told Canton-Sixes Patch that her neighbor didn't "want to become part of the story," but was "disturbed by this incident." Tonight, another neighbor said Marlow's characterization of the homeowner's reaction to the alleged act of election …
Friday, May 18, 2012
Pre-clearance on the county's new maps may not be completed by next week's qualifying.
Some members of the Cherokee County Board of Education are still in limbo as to which district map they’ll be qualifying under next week. And, there’s a chance they still may not know when qualifying begins on Wednesday. House Bill 978, which changes the way school board members are elected and draws two members out of their districts, was sent to the Department of Justice for pre-clearance on April 5. The process typically takes 60 days, though school board attorney Tom Roach said he requested an expedited review, which is expected to be completed by June 5. “It’s the worst situation to be in,” Roach said. Should the new district maps not be approved by the end of business next Tuesday, Roach said the county’s election superintendent …
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
He said he will eliminate all teacher furloughs, cut the county dropout rate and never vote for a tax increase.
Pledging to eliminate all teacher furloughs by reducing a "bloated" central office, Cherokee Charter Academy governing board member Danny Dukes said late Tuesday night that he will run for county school board chair. “We all deserve a school board with positive, collaborative energy and an effective leader who works for solutions based on conservative principles,” he said in a statement. “We can have the highest performing school system in Georgia if we put students first and pledge to work with other elected leaders to solve problems. And we can do all this without raising taxes.” Dukes' decision came a little more than a month after he announced the formation of an exploratory committee to weigh the pros and cons of a campaign for the …
Friday, May 4, 2012
The motion to approve the renewal passed with one board member dissenting and one abstaining.
Frank Petruzielo will continue to lead the Cherokee County School System. The Board of Education voted 5-1-1 Thursday night to extend Petruzielo’s contract after the board left the open meeting to go into executive session to discuss the item. Board member Michael Geist cast the dissenting vote, and Rob Usher abstained, citing the fact that he hadn’t seen the contract prior to the meeting. Usher, who raised concerns about not seeing the contract during the meeting, said that the contract wasn’t available during executive session and that he couldn’t in good conscience vote for something he hadn’t read. “They wanted to move forward with it, and that’s fine with me,” Usher said. “It’s nothing against the superintendent. I think he’s done a …
Thursday, May 3, 2012
The governor's office made the announcement Wednesday.
Gov. Nathan Deal will be in Cherokee this morning to sign House Bill 797, which will restore the state charter schools commission if voters approve a corresponding constitutional amendment in November. Deal's office announced this afternoon that the signing would take place at 10 a.m. at Cherokee Charter Academy, which has been ground zero in the county's school choice debate. In a 4-3 decision last May, the state Supreme Court struck down the Georgia Charter Schools Commission as unconstitutional, which nullified its authority to grant charters to schools rejected by local school boards. The court said the state commission could not force school districts to pay for charter schools the local school board had rejected, such as Cherokee …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The school board is slated to vote on a policy that would change Polaris from a school to a program.
The graduation rates of students at Polaris Evening School would be rolled into those at their home schools should the Cherokee County Board of Education decide to change the status of the school. The board is expected to vote at its meeting on Thursday night to delete a board policy regarding Polaris, changing it from a school to a program, which means the school system won’t be required to report its graduates separately from their home schools. Under the new “cohort” graduation rate, the graduation rate at Polaris will drop from 32.8 percent to 18.46 percent. Superintendent Frank Petruzielo said during a first reading on the item that with an 18 percent graduation rate, Polaris could be viewed by the public as a failure. But, that’s not…
Friday, April 20, 2012
The Cherokee County School Board voted 4-2 to approve a resolution, which asks local residents to vote down the charter school amendment in November.
After a discussion that, at times, seemed to grow heated among the Cherokee County Board of Education, school board members voted 4-2 to approve a resolution asking that residents vote down a constitutional amendment that would restore the state’s power to approve charter schools. Board member Michael Geist, who with Kim Cochran voted against the resolution, said that although the school system lost $2.1 million this year because it had 575 fewer students than anticipated, the county saw $4 million more this year than it would have otherwise because of the funding that was allocated to Cherokee Charter Academy. And, that money is being spread among all the students because Cherokee County School District students attend the charter school…
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
During Thursday's meeting, the Cherokee County Board of Education will consider a resolution that asks voters to strike down a constitutional amendment on charter schools in November.
The Cherokee County Board of Education on Thursday is expected to consider a resolution asking voters to reject a constitutional amendment that would restore the state's power to approve charter schools. "The lack of support for public education by those advocating for school vouchers, state-approved charter schools, and other programs that allow public school funds to be redirected to private schools and for-profit charter schools serves to deepen inequalities and the promise of opportunity for every student to become a part of an educated citizenry, achieve the American dream and contribute to the greatness of this Nation," according to a copy of the resolution on the school district's website. The resolution was added to the agenda "in …
Mitchell Black
8:44 pm on Monday, February 11, 2013
No, it does not start or end in the Gold Dome. It starts and ends with our school board, and their overpayed crybaby. Lets try hiring people for our school system who actually care about the children. Starting with the Superintendent and going down to the teachers. The truth is that our school system is awful. Our teachers and principles are lazy, and really couldn't care less about anything but … more ›