The accrediting agency for the Cobb County School District is overturning most of its findings in a report it issued last fall following a special review of the district.
The Cobb school district was facing a December deadline to make four required improvements or possibly have its accreditation status reconsidered, but that’s no longer the case.
The head of Cognia, an Alpharetta-based education accreditor, told Cobb Board of Education members Monday at a special-called meeting that it was no longer requiring two of those areas to be addressed.
They include polices for procurement and communications with board members.
The two other areas, relating to board governance, will be evaluated when the Cobb school district will undergo a previously scheduled accreditation review in 2024.
(You can read through the initial Cognia report and accompanying documents here, here and here.)
Dr. Mark Elgart, the Cognia chief executive officer, said Monday that Cobb’s accreditation was never in doubt, and said a letter he sent to Superintendent Chris Ragsdale March 3 was replacing the report of the special review.
(You can read the letter by clicking here.)
The Cognia letter comes as the Cobb school district has been considering switching accrediting agencies, and as legislation is being considered that would remove school board relations from the purview of accreditors.
In his letter, Elgart reassured Cobb school officials that the issues cited in the Cognia special review did not affect what’s happening in district classrooms.
“At no time during the recent process did the teaching, learning, or professional leadership within the system place its accreditation at risk,” he wrote. “The focus of recent engagements with the system has and continues to be on helping the school district improve, and specifically within the area of board governance.”
Cognia conducted the review after the board’s three Democratic members and nearly 50 community members made complaints on a variety of issues.
“This is an engagement about improvement,” Elgart said during the Monday meeting, during which he presented and explained his letter.
Monday was the first time that Ragsdale and the board’s Republican majority have addressed the Cognia report in public.
But board members didn’t discuss the letter or ask questions, and Ragsdale gave only brief explanatory remarks during the 20-minute meeting (you can watch a replay here).
After the meeting was adjourned, the district immediately issued a press release and a copy of the letter.
School districts can ask for a review of Cognia findings if they can determine that they are based on information that is not factually accurate or is misinterpreted.
Ragsdale said the district chose to challenge findings that he said were “inconsistent with evidence” the Cobb school district brought to Cognia’s attention.
In the letter, Elgart acknowledged Cognia’s special review team “did not adequately contextualize or incorporate factual evidence provided by the School District, drawing erroneous conclusions.”
Those teams, he added are “expected to place a higher weight on physical evidence than assertions of opinion or allegations.”
He didn’t explain what that evidence was, but in his remarks to the school board Elgart said that “there was no real issue” with the procurement policies of the Cobb school district.
Some board members and members of the public have complained about how Cobb schools have spent COVID-related federal CARES funding, including purchases of special UV lights and sanitizing machines.
“People may disagree” with how the money is spent,” Elgart said, “but that’s not evidence that the policies weren’t followed.”
He also said that the Cognia special review team erroneously concluded that school board members weren’t being properly provided information by district officials before being asked to vote.
“Additionally, the evidence indicates that the superintendent authorizes and encourages board members to contact members of the executive cabinet directly if they have questions regarding policies, procedures, or operations within those administrators’ areas of responsibility,” Elgart wrote in his letter.
“It is not common practice for superintendents to provide board members this level of direct access and information. This level of access is to be commended. This practice is factually inconsistent with any suggestion that information is withheld from board members.”
But he said the Cognia special review findings of board relations and governance remain valid.
“The evidence remains that this is a divided school board,” Elgar told the board members. “That is something that is contained within the walls of this room, and that is good.”
While he said those problems haven’t spilled over into the academic environment, he said that board members often vote in “blocks”—mostly along party lines—and that’s “a concerning pattern.”
Cognia is requiring that the Cobb school board adhere to policies to “develop a culture of trust” as well as create a plan of accountability for its code of ethics.
“We’re not telling you how to do this,” Elgart said. “We’re telling you that if you do this you will be a better board.”
He concluded by saying that while Cobb is a school district with “a great track record . . . the challenge is how you govern.”
The Cobb school district’s release included a statement from board chairman David Chastain saying that “based on Dr. Elgart’s presentation, the Board is happy to hear Cognia’s review of the Special Review contained inaccuracies which have now been corrected in the letter provided to the District and the Board. Our Superintendent, staff, and families can now fully return their focus on students and schools.”
Related posts:
- Sprayberry graduate announces run for Cobb school board
- Cobb schools: 98% of full-time employees returning for 2022-23
- Cobb schools to hold resource fair for students with disabilities
- Cobb students compete in Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl
- Ga. House passes Cobb GOP school board, commission maps
- Cobb schools distributes more bonuses to bus drivers
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