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.
The report card, which ranks top-performing students a 3, and the worst a 1, already is in place for the school system's kindergarten, first and second grades.
The board also heard public comment on the proposed 2010 budget, which contains a 2 percent across-the-board pay cut and other cost-saving measures.
Parents and employees packed the room and overflowed into the hallway. Speakers urged the board to think hard about cuts that don't affect salaries or raises. Several speakers objected to plans to cut three of six consulting nurses in the district and two itinerant nurses who provide support to school nurses.
"OK. I got $54 million to cut. How do we do this and keep everybody's job?" asked School Board Chairman John Abraham, after the public comment period.
The board is not expected to vote on the budget, which takes effect in July, until next month.
School board members approved the new report card expansion into third grade by a 4 to 2 vote. They added a new grade, a 3-plus, as a concession to parents and teachers who said the current system fails to acknowledge high achievers.
"It's the dumbing down of the entire education system," said Tammy Dennington, who opposes the new report card, and joined many other parents, holding signs in protest.
Cobb isn't alone in using the 3-2-1 standards-based report cards. They also have been going home in lower grades in Forsyth and Barrow counties.
"This report card has helped us," said School Board member Holli Cash, speaking of schools where children don't perform as well and who have benefited from a system where parents can hone in on a child's specific problems.
Opposition didn't come just from parents. "The process was flawed from the very beginning. Two wrongs don't make a right," said board member John Crooks, who said the board needs to take another look at the issue and find a way to help lower-performing schools.
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