Petition for the August 1st Calendar

I do not like the August 1 calendar. But I didn't have a fit when the board passed it before and I had to rearrange my vacation plans. The survey should not have even been done - it's a farce - so obviously easy to abuse. The surveymonkey survey is really only good for questions about Charlie Sheen. But I agree that the real question here is, did the board act appropriately or at least in accordance of the by-laws governing them? In a word, yes. When the balanced calender was implemented, there was a huge uproar then too. The "summer" folk (I'm not part of that group; for my own personal reasons - not vacation - I prefer a later start date)went to work and found people who agreed with them and they ran for office and won. The claim that there was no one else on the ballot does not matter in that it does not affect the outcome of the election nor does it mean those elected should not honor their campaign promises. These three new board members ran and were elected with the calendar broughaha as a major platform issue. Once elected, they followed board by-laws(they are on-line- you can read them) and had the item added to the agenda. Alison had already voted for the later start date so that should have come as no surprise to anyone that she would vote that way. When it came to a vote, the 4 in favor of a later start date won. Just like the previous vote when the 4 in favor of a balanced calendar won. There is no policy that allows one board to tie the hands of future boards. That would totally betray our system of government - which by the way is NOT a democracy but rather a republic -or representative democracy. Hence the constant cry whenever someone votes a way you don't like " wait til the next election and you'll be gone!" Do you really want newly elected representatives to be bound by previous votes? (If so, I also have a petition to reverse the newly elected US republican congress from overturning any legislation passed by the previous congress. Yea - it's the same thing.) Now, if you really want to be effective, read the by-laws. See if you can initiate a policy that would require a calendar approved for the following year not be able to be changed after Jan. of that year. Ex. take the three year calendar plan (which by the way was new - have they ever done three years at once before? NO!) for 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13 passed by the last board. Try to implement a rule that states that an established school calendar for the following year cannot be changed after January of the school year in question. Thus, the board could not change the 2011/12 calendar after January of 2011(January is just arbitrary -do Dec if you don't want to be affected by new board members). Now the 2012/13 calendar year would still be up for discussion - but that could be dealt with later. Just know that it could come back to bite you too. You might find yourself in a position where you could not effect change when you wanted.
That is how you work within the system. All this posturing, whining, and bullying (on both sides) is just embarrassing. And Cobb has had more than it's share in the past 15 years or so.