Muscogee County School Board rejects 2016-17, 2017-18 calendars

With two votes and a bunch of confusion Monday night, the Muscogee County School Board rejected the superintendent’s recommended calendars for the next two school years.

During the 40-minute discussion about the proposed calendars at last Monday’s work session, superintendent David Lewis said, “There is no perfect calendar; if there were, every school in America would be on it.”

A week later, with another 40-minute discussion about the proposal, the board proved Lewis’ point.

In the end, Lewis agreed his administration will survey all school-based staff and give them calendar options, as it did last year, instead of relying on a 19-member committee to give the board more input.

Lewis’ proposal for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 calendars reduced the week off for Thanksgiving break. That was the biggest beef from board members, relaying complaints they have received from their constituents.

The Thanksgiving break was proposed to be Wednesday through Friday instead of the whole week. The committee’s rationale is that most parents aren’t off work that Monday and Tuesday, so the weeklong break for students who don’t have siblings old enough to take care of them was a burden for those parents to find childcare.

The proposals are based on recommendations from the district’s calendar committee, representing all school levels and regions in the system, assistant superintendent Rebecca Braaten said last Monday. The 19-person committee comprised four teachers, three principals, five parents, one representative from a local postsecondary education institution, four district staff members and two representatives from surrounding jurisdictions (one from Phenix City, one from Harris County), according to a document attached to the agenda.

Kia Chambers, the board’s lone countywide representative, expressed concern about approving two years worth of calendars and being “stuck” with a reduced Thanksgiving break without knowing whether “there are bugs to be worked out.”

Based on District 8 representative Frank Myers’ suggestion, Lewis agreed to split his recommendation into separate votes. Board chairman Rob Varner of District 5 asked the board to vote on only the 2016-17 calendar. But after that motion appeared to have passed 8-1, with only Myers opposed, several board members objected, saying they were confused about the substitute motion.

So the board voted on tabling Lewis’ original recommendation, the one with the two years worth of calendars, and that passed 8-1, with only Varner opposed.

Then the board again voted on only the 2016-17 calendar. This time, the proposal failed 2-7, with only Varner and District 7 representative Shannon Smallman voting yes.

Columbus High parking

The board took a major step toward addressing Columbus High School’s student parking problem when it unanimously and without discussion approved purchasing an adjacent property for $250,000.

MCSD operations chief David Goldberg told the Ledger-Enquirer before the meeting that the half-acre property at 1906 Cherokee Ave., owned by R. Walker Garrett, contains a house, which would be razed. It could accommodate 50-70 parking spaces, depending on how it is configured and whether the district spends additional money, probably more than $100,000, to pave over its roughly quarter-acre parcel, including a retention pond, between the school and the property, Goldberg said.

Last year, the parking problem got the attention of school district and city leaders, who met at Columbus High to discuss solutions. Principal Marvin Crumbs said then that the school has 243 spaces for students in its parking lot. He estimated another 250 students park in the neighborhood around the school. City officials have said residents complain about the students taking up curbside parking around their homes.

Senior director

The board unanimously approved Lewis’ recommendation to appoint Shaw High School principal Michael Barden as senior director of technology learning and support. He replaces Jana Reese, who retired in November.

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 8:53 PM with the headline "Muscogee County School Board rejects 2016-17, 2017-18 calendars."