A group of Marietta youngsters and tweens in Cobb County are learning about native plants the old-fashioned way: getting their hands dirty.The kids, some from Sope Creek Elementary School and others from the Franklin Road Boys & Girls Club, are a couple of months into their yearlong project aimed at connecting youths with the outdoors and raising awareness about land preservation.

David Banks didn’t believe school in Cobb County should start until after Labor Day, and he said so on his Web site.But then Banks, one of the newest members of Cobb’s school board, said he started listening to teachers and parents about the downsides of a late start and the potential benefits of a “balanced calendar” with an earlier start and more breaks for students throughout the year.

The Cobb Board of Education approved a 150-foot cell tower at Eastvalley Elementary School even though neighbors have filed a lawsuit to stop it.

The people who fired shots at a man near two Cobb County schools Monday apparently have been in the area before posing as police detectives, Cobb Police Sgt. Dana Pierce said Tuesday morning.Police also have connected them to armed assaults and attempted robberies, Pierce said.

Georgia State University and Kennesaw State University received more than $22 million in federal grants to improve public school instruction.Georgia State’s education college received about $13.5 million to train teachers and keep them working in Georgia’s schools.

The children in Cinda Snodgrass’ fourth-grade class in south Cobb County aren’t doing much homework these days.A third of the children in the class had to flee their flood-damaged homes in the Austell area. All of them lost their school, Clarkdale Elementary, which was inundated last week.

Clarkdale Elementary students displaced by a flood that submerged their school received VIP treatment Thursday when they returned to classes on two different campuses. Their new roommates at Compton Elementary and Austell Intermediate went all out to make a good first-impression.

All Cobb County schools are reopening Thursday, but Douglas and Paulding schools remain closed.

A bail bondsman, a pawn shop and a landfill the community dubbed “Mount Trashmore” surround Milford Elementary School south of Marietta.Parents say you can hear the shots from an outdoor police shooting range a mile away.Now Milford, which educates about 630 students, the vast majority of whom receive a free or reduced school lunch, will be bordered by multilane arteries once Cobb County completes the Windy Hill/Macland Road connector.

He was the class chatterbox.She was the fifth-grade teacher who wanted students to try their best and be respectful.Now, they’re sharing a classroom again. But this time, Jennifer Bozard and Alan Aumann are both the teachers.“I can’t call her Jennie,” Aumann said.

Gwinnett County school officials started the fiscal year with more than $100 million in reserves, but teachers are still being furloughed and a new series of textbooks may be delayed to cut costs.Fulton County, which also had a fairly hefty fund balance last year, is also furloughing teachers.

The Cobb County school board had the right to fire a principal who suggested an employee wear a dress and stilettos, Cobb Superior Court Judge LaTain Kell ruled Friday.“The Cobb County school district will not tolerate employees who act inappropriately,” attorney Glenn Brock said Friday evening.

The superintendent for City of Marietta school system has been named one of four finalists in a state-wide competition.Emily Lembeck is the lone female finalist in the 2010 Superintendent of the Year competition, sponsored by the Georgia Schools Superintendents Association.

Georgia's top-scoring high schools on the ACT were Chattahoochee High in Fulton County, George Walton High, which is a charter school in Cobb, and Riverwood High in Fulton.

Two of the six finalists in a national competition honoring principals are from Georgia.Steven Miletto of Osborne High School in Marietta is one of three finalists for national high school principal of the year.Among middle schools, Sheila Kahrs of Haymon-Morris Middle School in Winder is a finalist.

Several others detained after fight during Chapel Hill-Douglas County game.

Monday is the first day of class for most metro Atlanta schools. As we try to catch our breath for another school year, here’s a crib sheet of school schedules, meal costs and school bus hotlines for all major local systems.AtlantaSchedule at a glance:● Fall break — Oct.

In a normal year, Theresa Hyde and her 12-year-old daughter would be looking forward to the start of school on Monday.But this year, the Alpharetta mom says, back to school promises to be more like back to cruel as her family braces for yet another cold reality – the school bully.

Health care workers, emergency medical personnel, pregnant women and healthy people between the ages of 6 months and 24 years old are among the target groups to receive the vaccine against the H1N1 virus when it first becomes available.That’s one of several recommendations approved Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

While Cobb County has avoided a three-day teacher furlough, it still must grapple with a 3 percent cut in state money this year.All school districts face the same double-whammy. In addition to the furloughs, the state cut the money it regularly sends to each school district.

Cobb County school employees were saved this week from a three-day furlough that counties across the state are facing due to state budget cuts.Still, Cobb County and other districts will face an additional 3 percent cut in state money this year, beyond the furloughs, because of the sour economy.

One hundred thirteen metro Atlanta schools did not make Adequate Yearly Progress(AYP) according data released by the Georgia Department of Education today. The following is a list of metro school who did not make AYP, organized by district. Atlanta Public SchoolsAPS-Forrest Hills Academey Continental Colony Elementary School Crim High School Douglass High School Harper-Archer Middle School Hillside Conant School Hutchinson Elementary School Imagine Wesley International Academy Charter Facility King Middle School Maynard H.

The number of Georgia public schools meeting federal testing goals rose this year, and, for 58, that means losing the stigma of being a “needs improvement” school.An initial report, released Tuesday by the State Department of Education, shows that 79.

Cobb County school employees face layoffs, pay cuts and changing job duties under proposed cuts the board will discuss tonight.

D espite opposition from a roomful of angry parents, the Cobb County School Board voted Thursday night to expand the 3-2-1 report card into the third grade starting in the fall.