It appears the Cobb County school board won’t vote at its Thursday meeting on whether to reverse its controversial April decision to not purchase math textbooks.
An agenda for Thursday’s meeting — set by the board chairman and released Tuesday — doesn’t include time for the board to discuss or vote on the textbooks issue.
Board Chairman Randy Scamihorn said he wanted to give board members more time to study several options that the administration has proposed. He said the board may consider those options at its July meeting.
Board members voted 4-3 in April not to purchase new math textbooks because they were aligned with Common Core, a set of national curriculum standards that specify math and literature concepts students should learn by certain grades.
In a tense board meeting earlier this month, several board members stood firm on their stance against purchasing the books, saying they aren’t sure how long Common Core will last, where state politicians stand on the issue, or whether hardbound textbooks are even needed in the 21st century.
Other board members and a vocal group of teachers say that opposition to Common Core has “politicized” math and that without the books the district’s already lagging math test scores will continue to suffer.
At the June 12 board meeting, Cobb school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa proposed several alternatives to making the $7 million purchase, including buying books that have been altered to remove references to Common Core; buying online resources for teachers and textbooks that don’t refer to Common Core; or buying the originally proposed Common Core textbooks only for middle and high school students.
The board will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at the district’s central office at 514 Glover St. in Marietta.
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