Walton’s 698-member senior class is the largest in the Cobb County School District in the last decade. CCSD screengrabs.
An eventful senior year for the Walton High School Class of 2025 went off without a hitch on Thursday during graduation ceremonies at the KSU Convocation Center.
The class made of up 698 seniors—the largest in the Cobb County School District this year and the largest in the last decade—includes 563 who will be getting HOPE Scholarship financial assistance to go to college.
“It’s who breathe life into Walton,” senior class president Joel Bishara said. “You make Walton a home for anyone.”
He noted that the school year started out with a small fire on campus, and included tuberculosis testing and a bomb threat that was not considered an active threat.
“It’s hard to believe we made it this far,” Bishara joked.
He told his classmates that “no matter where you are or what you do, we will always be connected. Once a Raider, always a Raider.”
The Class of 2025 was the first for Dr. Stephanie Santoro as principal. She’s been a teacher and administrator at Walton for 23 years, and said she had a learning curve to master in her new job.
They include many more obligations, including meetings and e-mails, but “I’ve had the time of my life.”
She thanked the seniors for “the memories you have provided and the legacy that you are leaving behind.”
The school year was marked with a 50th anniversary celebration, as well as the first-ever Senior Sunset last Friday at Raider Valley.
“There will be many more things that you will have to do,” Santoro said. “But be sure to appreciate the things you get to do.”
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Lassiter’s Class of 2025 gathers together for the final time. CCSD screengrabs.
Before he and his classmates scatter in their post-high school stage, Obadiah Cao wanted to hold on to them just a little bit longer.
Lassiter High School’s 2025 valedictorian came to Cobb as a sophomore from Boston, and wasn’t sure what to expect when he arrived.
What he found is something he said he’ll cherish forever, as he said during Wednesday’s commencement ceremony at the KSU Convocation Center.
“I found my community in the student body at Lassiter and especially in this graduating class,” he said. “And I implore you to find your community.”
It’s a process he and his fellow seniors will have to undertake once again. For Cao, it means leaving the area. He will be attending Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he’ll study computer science.
But he urged his classmates to “remember the impact the communities here have had on you. Don’t be afraid to seek out more opportunities .”
Lassiter principal Chris Richie echoed that theme, saying that “what stands out the most to me is not where you’re going or what you’re doing after graduation, but who you’ve become as leaders in your four years at Lassiter.”
He noted that this year’s seniors have logged more than 21,000 hours of community service that also adds to their legacy.
“I hope your memories of Lassiter are something you will carry with pride,” Richie said. “The foundation that you built at Lassiter will serve you for a lifetime.”
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Kell seniors assemble at the KSU Convocation Center before getting their diplomas Wednesday. CCSD screengrabs.
Kell High School’s seniors got a stirring message from one of their classmates during Wednesday’s graduation ceremony at the KSU Convocation Center.
Austin Killebrew is one of the most accomplished members of the Longhorns’ Class of 2025, having been named salutatorian, among other honors. He’ll be attending Georgia Tech in the fall, planning on studying chemical engineering.
But in giving his first public speech, Killebrew shared his origin story that served as inspiration to those like him, who are departing to many places for the next stage of their lives.
When Killebrew was a baby in China, he was adopted by American parents who brought him back to Northeast Cobb in 2009.
He asked his classmates “to reflect on when you last gave someone a chance. When you take a moment to invest in someone else, you’re not just giving them your time, you’re giving them a reason to believe in themselves.
“Never forget where you came from,” Killebrew said. “Because in the end, it won’t be trophies or titles that we hold onto. It’ll be the people who believed in us when no one else did—the people who gave us a chance.”
Principal Peter Giles told the Kell seniors that “where you are going is not where you are right now.” He urged them to “take the time to be the very best that you can become, and don’t be afraid of failure.
“Failure is success in disguise, and it’s how we learn. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself along the way.”
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The gourmet toast and juice bar Toastique is opening a location soon in East Cobb, in Pinestraw Place (4250 Roswell Road, Suite 150).
That’s next to Trader Joe’s and in the former Dan’s Fan City space, and it will be second Toastique in metro Atlanta.
The concept that started in Washington, D.C. in 2018 opened in Midtown last year, and has locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
The Toastique website says there will be more expansion in “Atlanta” in 2025 but didn’t specify East Cobb.
The franchise operators are Rex and Leslie Sheridan, an East Cobb-area married couple.
Rex Sheridan told East Cobb News that the target opening is the fall, and that “we are excited to bring healthy, delicious food with a great atmosphere and convenient location to our neighbors in East Cobb.”
In addition to gourmet toasts, the Toastique menu includes bowls, coffees and teas, smoothies and cold-pressed juices, grab and go snacks and wellness shots.
Featured items include an Avocado smash toast and a hummus Greek toast.
The Toastique founder, Brianna Keefe, says on the company website that “Toastique is where beauty and all-day brunch-y goodness come together to break bread, and smoothies, and coffee, and juices . . .
“We are the fast-casual, modern dining your inner health nut has been waiting for.”
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The East Cobb area won’t be growing that much over the next-quarter century. Education Planners presentation.
At last week’s Cobb Board of Education presentation on long-term enrollment projections, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale’s comments on apartments and transience got most of the attention.
But the demographic forecast by Education Planners, a private company that provides the Cobb County School District with detailed metrics, continues a pattern in regards to enrollment at East Cobb schools.
There’s been little to no growth for several years, and what has increased is very slight. According to school-by-school forecasts (see tables below), most public schools in the East Cobb area will be at or under capacity between now and 2033.
And overall projections for the district are expected to remain steady during that period, from 105,738 currently, to 106,013 in 2028 and 105,932 by 2033.
“We are growing, but we are growing in pockets,” James Wilson, Education Planners president, told the Cobb school board.
Most of the overcrowding and enrollment growth continues in the Cumberland-Smyrna area, where a new middle school—Betty Gray Middle School—opened in recent years.
In addition, capacity has increased at Campbell High School, which has the largest enrollment in the district with around 3,000 students.
And while Osborne High School got a new campus in 2020 built for 2,300 students, it’s still well over capacity, to nearly 2,800 students.
The demographics at schools in East Cobb are different, including the two biggest high schools, Walton, which is just under capacity.
However, Wheeler High School and its feeder, East Cobb Middle School, are projected to remain above capacity over the next few years.
That’s the only attendance cluster in the East Cobb area that contains a significant number of apartment complexes.
Brumby Elementary School, also in the Wheeler cluster, is below capacity after being overcrowded in its former location on Powers Ferry Road.
East Side and Sope Creek elementary schools, both in the Walton cluster, are expected to remain close to their four-figure capacities, as are Dickerson and Dodgen middle schools (Walton) and Lassiter High School.
Education Planners takes data from the Atlanta Regional Commission, Cobb building permits, live birth numbers and other sources to project long-term enrollment to help Cobb school district officials plan for school construction needs.
A rebuild of the Sprayberry High School classroom building is underway and will be completed next year, and there are classroom additions at other schools in East Cobb.
Bells Ferry Elementary School also is getting a replacement facility that is slated to open in 2027.
Additional district-wide dem0graphic data from Wilson’s presentation is included the East Cobb enrollment projections. Click the middle button to view the slideshow.
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Students from four schools in East Cobb recently placed in the top three in their respective grade levels at the Georgia Olympia Science Olympiad.
East Side was second and Sedalia Park was third in the elementary category, Dodgen finished second among middle schools and for the first time for a school in the Cobb County School District, Walton won the AA division in the STEM skills competition.
Science Olympiad is for students in grades 3-12, and during the school year they take part in various STEM competitions, and are scored together as teams.
Here’s more about their achievements per a CCSD release (and check out the Sedalia Park video at the bottom):
Sedalia Park Elementary has enjoyed strong Science Olympiad teams for over 30 years. Mrs. Leland has been the club sponsor for 40 years and has provided direction and consistency for the competing teams during that time. Students apply and are chosen based on grades, teamwork, and a commitment to meet every Thursday after school. Administration, staff, parents, and community help and support the team.
“Something felt special this year,” Mrs. Leland said. “Students were super focused and passionate about their subject area or building event. Everyone on our team medaled 1st, 2nd, or 3rd at the Title 1 competition. We won 2nd place at Regionals, which earned us a spot in the State Competition at KSU!”
Dodgen Middle School’s award-winning Science Olympiad Team also had an outstanding year! Coached by 6th-grade teacher Barbara Kappel, the team won the Regional competition, which put them through to the State Tournament held in Athens, Georgia, in late April. In an impressive showing, Dodgen’s team earned 2nd place in the State!
“Dodgen’s Science Olympiad team has a reputation of outstanding achievement, and with the many hours these students and coaches put in outside of the classroom, they deserve to be recognized!” said Dodgen Principal Dr. Patricia Alford. “We are so proud of all the team members and Mrs. Kappel for representing our school so well at the state level!”
The Walton Science Olympiad team claimed 1st place at the State Tournament held at Georgia Institute of Technology, earning an invitation to the 2025 National Science Olympiad Tournament at the University of Nebraska in May.
Walton rose to the top of a competitive field of 24 teams at the State Tournament in the Division C “AA Flight” (highest level of competition), a flight that included many of the state’s most accomplished programs. Walton beat Fulton Science Academy (the 2024 State Champions), Chattahoochee High School (the 2024 runner-up), and perennial powerhouse Brookwood High School for the title. This will be Walton’s first return to Nationals since 2022, when the team was State runner-up.
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Sprayberry seniors celebrate after placing their tassels in the “graduated” position. Screengrabs from CCSD livestream.
The Class of 2025 at Sprayberry High School has graduated.
“We did it!” proclaimed senior class president Abraham Grant III, then he repeated the line with effect, and pointed to the crowd.
“We did it!”
The first of six East Cobb public high schools held its commencement exercises Tuesday afternoon at the KSU Convocation Center.
As one of the featured speakers, Grant told his fellow seniors that “the world beyond these walls is full of possibilities” and that “we only get one shot to live the life that we live.”
He rattled off a number of questions he said he tried to answer during his four years at Sprayberry about putting forth his best efforts, not just academically, but in helping others and finding enthusiasm and satisfaction in whatever he did.
“Success isn’t about how much money you make or your material successes that you achieve,” Grant said. “If you are truly passionate about something, go after it head-first and whole-heartedly.”
Cobb Board of Education member David Chastain thanked the seniors for their patience as the school undergoes a rebuild they won’t get to enjoy.
Tuesday’s graduation was the last at Sprayberry for principal Sara Fetterman, who has been appointed the new principal at Wheeler High School.
On Wednesday, Kell and Lassiter will have graduation ceremonies, also at KSU. Full East Cobb graduation schedule is here.
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An East Cobb resident who wanted to use her home on Paper Mill Road to run an outdoor summer day camp for up to eight children withdrew that request Tuesday before the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
“I just want to invest in our kids,” Emily Jordan told commissioners of her summer camp proposal.
Following a lengthy discussion about concerns over traffic and setting an unwelcome community precedent, Emily Jordan withdrew the request for a 24-month land-use permit without prejudice.
Commissioners approved the withdrawal by a 4-0 vote, with new commissioner Erick Allen absent.
The vote means that Jordan can bring the proposal back at any time, since it wasn’t denied.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb said while she commended Jordan for wanting to work with children, “but to me this is not really appropriate in a residential area. It’s not a home-based business. It’s not allowed.”
Jordan and her family last fall moved into a home on a two-acre property on Paper Mill Road near Woodlawn Drive on land zoned R-80 (low-density residential).
An occupational therapist, she has children aged one and two years old, and wanted to operate the camp on a half-day basis with age-appropriate activities that she said would be “therapeutic based.”
She would run the camp one week a month in June, July and August, and the activities might include meal preparation and nutrition, gardening, as well as carpentry and similar trade-oriented activities for older children to supplement traditional academic subjects.
“These are things that can help them be more independent,” Jordan told commissioners. “This is a passion project. This doesn’t pay our bills.”
Although the Cobb Zoning Staff recommended denial, the request was recommended for approval two weeks ago by the Cobb Planning Commission.
The original proposal would have had between 5 and 12 additional people on the property each day, including volunteers and professionals to help with the teaching and a state requirement for child-to-adult ratios at camps.
Jordan said the driveway is large enough to accommodate parking for the camp and that there would be no deliveries while it is in session.
She also said that she properly informed neighbors of her camp plans and none of them objected.
But the zoning staff said the use was not compatible with the neighborhood and cited the lack of a traffic plan with Jordan’s application.
Richard Grome of the East Cobb Civic Association countered that traffic would be a problem, and commercial activity makes this “a precedent-setting case.”
He said the proposal is confusing and short on specifics, in terms of how many people would be on the property and for how long, and what activities in particular would be offered.
Approval “would set a negative precedent for homeowners in residential neighborhoods to use their property for summer camps,” Grome said. “This is not a home occupation. There are too many clients visiting the home at the same time and is too intense for a business operated from a residence.”
He said there’s additional traffic using the Paper Mill-Woodlawn area as a detour due to the ongoing Lower Roswell Road construction project.
“This isn’t a big operation,” Jordan said, “This isn’t 100 kids at a YMCA camp.”
She said she never heard from anyone at the ECCA or anyone who might be opposed to the camp.
Birrell suggested holding the application but Commissioner Keli Gambrill said she would vote to deny it “because there’s a lot homework that needs to be done,” including traffic plans, getting proper permits for the food activities and meeting code requirements.
A denial would have meant that Jordan couldn’t bring her plans back for 12 months.
Gambrill suggested she resubmit the application after resolving those issues.
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We also broke the news of an Einstein Bros. bagel shop coming here soon—our readers love restaurant news!—and a real-time update about the long-term Lower Roswell Road traffic project that is already becoming a headache.
Judging from our traffic and engagement numbers, we’re giving you exactly what you come to East Cobb News to find out.
It’s local news that matters and we know how much this matters to you!
And as we noted last week, we’re seeking more financial support from readers, and we’re appreciative of those who have donated.
But after a few months of strong support earlier this year, we’re not getting that now. We don’t know if we can keep giving you this news for free.
This isn’t a step we’re taking lightly, and we don’t want to do it. We want local news to be accessible to all, but we’re considering some options to charge for access.
And as the school year ends and the summer begins, we’d like to ask you to take a moment today to consider making a donation if you haven’t already.
We’re suggesting a $6 monthly recurring donation as part of our 1500 Club plan to boost reader support. You can donate more if you like, but we think that’s a reasonable ask.
We know money can be tight and people are busy with their lives, but we remain hard at work no matter the time of year. The summer can be really busy, news-wise, and we’re not going to slow down if it does.
But readers love what we do! They tell us so! When we have good meaty news weeks like the last two, we get more newsletter subscribers and we have plenty of comment threads going on about some of these stories.
But we need readers to do more than just tell us what they like about East Cobb News. Here’s the time to show us that appreciation!
We have just a few dozen supporters, and we want to get to 1,500. That sounds like a high bar, but that 1,500 number is only a fraction of our newsletter subscribers, and an even smaller number of our overall readership.
I’m very proud of what we’ve built up here, from scratch, when so many news outlets have more name recognition and resources.
The truth is many news outlets rely on reader support to fund significant aspects of their news and business operations.
Soon I’ll be detailing how we use the contributions we receive from you, and to offer you incentives to contribute.
I’ve been doing a goodness-of-my-heart ask for a few months now, and it’s clearly not working. I blame myself for not being more proactive sooner about soliciting reader support. I haven’t been good at explaining what it takes to sustain a news site like this.
There is nowhere else to get this kind of news coverage, but we need your help. East Cobb News is community-driven, devoted to the people who live and work here, and who contribute to our daily lives.
For nearly eight years now, we’ve been giving you the local news you love, but we can’t sustain this on love alone. We’re not just a news source, but a small business. We keep our expenses to a minimum, but we do have costs, and some of them are rising.
If you have donated, thanks! If you haven’t and are ready to do so now, please click below. Our Press Patron platform is safe and secure and easy to use.
I wish for you all to have a great Memorial Day holiday weekend and a start to your summer, and we’ll come back with more details in June about how you can support East Cobb News.
Let us know what you think about all of this: e-mail me at wendy@eastcobbnews.com. I’m interested in hearing from you.
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A Cobb government spokesman said the new county website will look and function the same, “except for the last three letters!”
After recent ransomware attacks on the Cobb government website, the county is moving it to a more secure online location.
The county announced Monday that starting June 2, what had been cobbcounty.org. will be housed at cobbcounty.gov, “ensuring that county services remain secure, transparent, and easily accessible to the public.”
But the county said plans have been in the works for nearly a year to migrate to the .gov domain, after being contacted by the federal government.
County Manager Jackie McMorris said in a county release Monday that the .gov domain—which is used by many federal, state and local government agencies—will enable Cobb to take “an important step to strengthen cybersecurity and enhance public confidence in our online services. Residents can trust that when they visit our website, they are accessing official government information and services.”
The .gov domains are reserved for verified government entities, “reducing the risk of fraud and phishing attacks,” the county release said, and also are prioritized in search engine results.
E-mail security also is beefed up at .gov, and official Cobb government addresses will use @cobbcounty.gov, “improving protection against phishing and spoofing.”
In addition to providing information about county agencies, the site allows citizens to view meeting agendas, conduct online library searches, register for recreation and arts classes and pay water and property tax bills.
Cobb government officials acknowledged a ransomware attack earlier this month, but aren’t commenting on reports that the website was hacked by a global cybercrime gang that’s taken down other government sites.
The county said it declined a third-party ransom demand following the March data breach, which it said affected 10 individuals, but didn’t elaborate on what data was stolen or compromised, and that the FBI has been notified, but didn’t indicate how that agency may be involved.
The county said on May 2 only that “Cobb County’s network is secure, and it remains safe to do business with us.”
Cobb said that its current website had more than 8 million visits in 2024 and that the old address will be accessible for a limited time and that citizens should update their bookmarks now.
The county also urged residents to use the @cobbcounty.gov e-mail address when contacting county agencies and employees “as soon as possible.”
Cobb spokesman Ross Cavitt said in response to a question from East Cobb News that “this does not require any significant capital expenses and has been an ongoing project in ITS [Information Technology Services] over the past year to implement the change. There is no budgetary impact requiring [Board of Commissioners] approval.”
He said the new site will look and will be organized just the same, “except for the last three letters!” Cavitt added that there will be a new website design coming later this year.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
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The 2025-26 academic year in the Cobb County School District comes to an end this week, and classes will be on an early release schedule Monday-Wednesday.
If you’re out and about during the lunch hour on those days, keep in mind the grade-level dismissal times as follows each day:
11:30 a.m.—high schools
12:30 p.m.—elementary schools
1:30 p.m.—middle schools
Graduation ceremonies start Monday and conclude on Saturday, with all six high schools in East Cobb holding commencement at the KSU Convocation Center:
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The Cortland Watermark complex off Roswell Road is in the Wheeler High School attendance zone, which has the highest number of apartments in the East Cobb area.
As far as broadsides go, this one was a doozy, even for him.
Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale has made a habit of making pointed commentary in recent months about a number of topics, especially school safety issues and sexually explicit materials in school libraries.
He typically has read from lengthy, prepared remarks, often with his critics in mind, anticipating their latest complaints against him, and responding in kind.
But at a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday, he appeared to be seriously taken aback by numbers presented during a routine presentation of demographic trends as they may affect Cobb schools.
They were flashed on a screen by James Wilson, a former Cobb and Fulton superintendent who heads Education Planners, a private Marietta company that briefs the Cobb school board annually.
The figures that jumped out—that more apartment units have been approved in Cobb County since 2006 than any other jurisdiction in metro Atlanta—brought with it a torrent of sharp, unrehearsed retorts by Ragsdale.
Those numbers? A total of 20,671 multi-family units have been permitted in the last two decades in Cobb, just ahead of DeKalb County, and well above Gwinnett County, which has a population nearing one million, far bigger than Cobb’s roughly 775,000 inhabitants.
“I’ve never seen this kind of data,” Ragsdale interjected during the presentation. “That is more than disturbing . . . that is alarming.”
A slide presented by Education Planners to the Cobb school board showing metro Atlanta apartment permits since 2006.
He tore into the Cobb Board of Commissioners, accusing them of ignoring previous concerns the Cobb school district has had about the impact of high-density zoning, especially apartments.
Even though the school district has a representative attend zoning hearings, Ragsdale claimed that “there is absolutely no attention paid” and “we continue down this path with absolutely zero impact and zero attention and zero concern is being displayed at the approval of development.”
He mentioned the likely impact of such runaway multi-family growth, including split sessions, and referenced Florida, where he said there are high schools with seven thousand students or more.
“I don’t know how much we need to pull the big red switch or alarm, but this is seemingly status-quo now,” Ragsdale said of the commission’s alleged neglect about school impacts on their zoning decisions.
While Cobb school enrollment is expected to level out over the next few years, Ragsdale’s greater concern is rising transience in schools with growing numbers of apartments.
Those include most school attendance zones in South Cobb, in Smyrna-Cumberland-Vinings and the Town Center-KSU area as well around Wheeler High in East Cobb, where apartments abound and many schools are well over capacity.
“I’m afraid people have either poked their heads in the sand or just really don’t care. And, I’m afraid it’s the latter,” Chris Ragsdale said.
He said that an increase in this trend will “continue to have a detrimental impact on schools’ performance, whether they’re perceived or real.”
In addition, more than 300 units were approved last year in the city of Powder Springs, for a new apartment complex that will dramatically affect attendance in the McEachern zone, where single-family housing has been the rule.
On Friday afternoon, Cobb County government issued a brief statement from Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, inviting the Cobb school district and other “stakeholders” to discuss the matter at her meeting venue, next Wednesday.
“Rather than relying on public statements, I believe our residents benefit most from working together to examine the data and its context,” she said in the county statement. “Through open dialogue, we can reach shared understanding and develop solutions that support our schools, citizens, and students across Cobb County.”
Except that next Wednesday is right in the middle of Cobb graduation ceremonies, which run all week.
Surely she had to know that, right?
This is what happens when two entities don’t have any kind of working relationship at all. In fact, to say that there’s any relationship between the school district and the county would be a stretch.
This isn’t the first time Ragsdale has taken aim at the county, and especially the chairwoman. Two years ago, he blasted her for “derogatory comments” she made about the quality of schools in South Cobb, where she lives.
(Cupid previously home-schooled her two sons, who now attend Woodward Academy.)
She also hired Jennifer Susko, a former Cobb school counselor who is one of Ragsdale’s biggest public critics, for a short-term diversity role.
So there’s some friction there.
Ragsdale’s comments this week generated some heat on the usual social media channels, where his remarks were called classist, and even smacked of racism and fear-mongering.
There were parents, school advocates and even a prominent zoning attorney on one thread debating the merits and demerits of apartments, and that’s a valid subject worthy of examination at another time.
Education topics didn’t come up during Lisa Cupid’s State of the County address this week.
Ragsdale’s rhetorical shots this week certainly opened up that subject, and related topics about development, for wider scrutiny.
That’s why he should take up Cupid’s offer—not during graduation week, of course—because these conversations haven’t been happening.
Cobb’s reputation for attracting new residents largely because of the schools can be a double-edged sword. Ragsdale’s worried that too much of the wrong kind of growth will tarnish that track record, and that’s understandable.
But the reality is that Cobb continues to be a magnet, for schools, employment and other reasons, and demand for housing will not slow down because some schools don’t have room, or some have a lot of kids who live in apartments.
The Atlanta Regional Commission is projecting we’ll have a million people by 2050. Ragsdale knows that, and as the district enrollment projections revealed this week, most parts of the county will be fine. East Cobb has been on a flat line for some time now, and our schools are expected to remain that way.
Not only is there little room to build much of anything in this part of the county, what does come in is very limited.
Just a week or so ago, the new Evoq at East Cobb senior apartment complex had a grand opening, on what had been the former Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center. The initial plans were for 125 market-rate apartments for all ages, but those were nixed when Commissioner JoAnn Birrell opposed them, following community opposition (more than 100 townhomes are also being built there now).
Many of the new apartments being built across the county are one- and two-bedrooms, designed more for all-adult households than families. A good number of those are like Evoq, for renters 55 and older.
To say that there’s a blank check everywhere in the county on zoning isn’t accurate.
Neither are Ragsdale’s claims about large high schools in Florida, which following a quick check reveal only a few have more students than our biggest, at around 3,000 or so.
As for his complaints about his representatives being ignored at zoning meetings, well, I haven’t heard them say much of anything for months. School impacts are included in every residential case analyzed by the Cobb zoning staff.
Are Cobb school officials not being invited to speak, or have they just given up? Are they being dispatched to the meetings at all? The superintendent wasn’t clear about that.
Unlike Cupid, Ragsdale doesn’t have affordable housing issues to contend with. The median home price in Cobb is more than $500,000 now, and the median rent is creeping over $1,300. Many families can’t afford even that low-ball, one-bedroom rate.
The county’s well-paid consultant is methodically crafting a Unified Development Code that’s also generated complaints by commissioners who feel left out of the process.
Cupid recently began public meetings about the county’s strategic plan that might be strengthened by a better understanding of what the public schools mean to the community. Schools are mentioned nowhere in that document, in fact.
Nor did Cupid discuss school topics during her first State of the County address this week. But she’ll trot out another similar speech to the Cobb Chamber of Commerce next month.
There may not be time for a schools-county dialogue before then, but it needs to begin, and soon. Before the public, and with the kind of good faith effort that’s been absent for far too long.
You can listen to their most recent remarks below, but imagine that: Cupid and Ragsdale . . . in the same room, speaking to, and not at, or past, one another.
I’ll even bring the popcorn.
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Valedictorians Edward Yao of Walton and Mayson Smith of Kell. See photo gallery below for all of the vals and sals from East Cobb.
As graduation ceremonies take place next week, the Cobb County School District on Friday announced the Class of 2025 valedictorians and salutatorians.
Overall, the valedictorians in the Cobb school district combined for an average grade-point average of 4.712, with salutatorians at 4.668.
Walton valedictorian Edward Yao had the highest GPA of any student in the district, at 4.875.
A total of 22 of the vals and sals from the Cobb school district are headed to Georgia Tech, with others bound for UGA, Penn, Carnegie-Mellon, Emory and Rice.
What follows are the vals and sals from the six East Cobb high schools, their GPAs, college choices and intended majors. For the full list of vals and sals in the Cobb school district, click here.
Kell High School
Valedictorian— Mayson Smith, 4.719, Georgia Tech, aerospace engineering
Salutatorian—Austin Killebrew, 4.672, Georgia Tech, chemical engineering
Lassiter High School
Valedictorian—Obadiah Cao, 4.764, Carnegie-Mellon University, computer science
Salutatorian—Vikram Sharma, 4.762, undecided on school and field of study
Pope High School
Valedictorian—Lexie Gordon, 4.778, Georgia Tech, computer science
Salutatorian—Aanchal Acharya, 4.741, Georgia Tech, neuroscience
Sprayberry High School
Valedictorian—Grace Fuleihan, 4.754, Georgia Tech, neuroscience
Salutatorian—Cristian Lozano, 4.742, Georgia Tech, data science
Walton High School
Valedictorian—Edward Yao, 4.875, University of Pennsylvania, computer science
Salutatorian—Selina Huang, 4.837, Georgia Tech, biochemistry
Wheeler High School
Valedictorian—Declan Anthony Amerault, 4.773, Georgia Tech, mathematics
Salutatorians—Rohan Kalia, 4.742, Cal Tech, undecided; Jackson Thomas Benedict Frangos, 4.742, Rice University, mechanical engineering.
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The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday unanimously approved a $1.8 billion fiscal year 2026 budget that provides modest staff raises and maintains a propery tax rate of 18.7 mills.
The budget (which can be found at this link) includes borrowing $43 million from reserves and is based on projected 2.1 percent growth in the Cobb tax digest.
The raises, which are based on STEP increases, go up to 4.6 percent. The tax digest growth, which is less than recent years, wouldn’t fund those increases, Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said.
Board member Becky Sayler asked him if he’s “confident” the budget includes enough funding and resources to address staffing and equipment issues presented last week by the district’s fleet maintenance staff.
Among their complaints were that many school buses are old and pose safety hazards, and that they can’t fill open positions due to low pay.
“Yes, absolutely,” Ragsdale responded, adding that that those concerns have prompted an investigation that he said is “pretty restricted as to what can be discussed publicly.
“The transportation and our buses are in safe operating condition.”
Another line item in the budget involves funding an additional $950,000 for the district’s marketing and communications staff.
The matter came up during a board work session on Thursday afternoon when board member John Cristadoro of Post 5 in East Cobb, who owns a digital media company, asked how Cobb’s marketing dollars can best be used to promote the district to prospective new families.
“It’s my experience that you have to reach consumers where they’re at,” he said. “There’s so many different ways to consume content. There’s a lot of questions about where’s a million dollars going to go.”
John Floresta, the district’s chief strategy and accountability officer who oversees that unit, said that some of the additional money will allow Cobb to target and customize content down even to the school level.
“More content, about your kid’s school, delivered to parents’ inboxes and social media feeds,” Floresta said.
The communications operation has come under fire by some district critics, especially following a public comment scuffle before a September 2023 meeting that has led to a federal lawsuit.
At a public budget forum before Thursday night’s meeting, East Cobb resident Heather Tolley-Bauer of the Watching the Funds-Cobb watchdog group, asked why the extra money is needed, if “our quality speaks for itself and 98 percent of our teachers renewed their contracts?
“What story are we spending nearly $1 million more to tell? In a tight budget, where can that money be better spent?”
Thursday’s meetings were the last for Brad Johnson, the district’s chief financial officer, who is retiring next month.
He has been with the district since 1988, except for a brief stint with Atlanta schools before returning to Cobb.
As he presented the budget to the board for voting Thursday, the reserved Johnson was asked to make some final remarks by Ragsdale.
“I can honestly say I’ve never dreaded coming to work,” Johnson said. “I’m a little bit apprehensive about the future but I think it’s going to be good.”
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The Cobb County School District announced a number of new principal assignments Thursday for the next school year, including several at East Cobb schools.
They include Wheeler High School, where Paul Gillihan is leaving after six years, having been reassigned to principal at Campbell High School.
The Campbell principal, Vanessa Watkins, was named principal at Betty Gray Middle School.
Gillihan will be replaced at Wheeler by Sara Fetterman, the principal at Sprayberry High School. Her successor at Sprayberry is David Church, the principal at Simpson Middle School.
The new Simpson principal is Cory Stanley, the principal at McClure Middle School.
Mt. Bethel Elementary School also will be getting a new principal in August, following the retirement of Tucker Smith. She is Michelle Gillham, who has been an assistant principal at Addison Elementary School.
The Cobb Board of Education formally approved those and other moves by a 7-0 vote at a voting meeting Thursday night.
The appointments of the principals in their new roles will become effective on July 1, when the fiscal year 2026 begins.
The Cobb school district’s 2025-26 academic year begins Aug. 1.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up and you’re good to go!
Upcoming Walton High School graduates are celebrated by the Princeton Lake subdivision.
The Cobb County School District is holding 2025 commencement exercises all next week, and the six high schools in East Cobb will be holding their ceremonies at the KSU Convocation Center (590 Cobb Ave., Kennesaw).
Here are the commencement details for high schools in East Cobb:
Sprayberry: Tuesday, May 20, 3:30 p.m. at KSU
Kell: Wednesday, May 21, 3:30 p.m. at KSU
Lassiter: Wednesday, May 21, 7:30 p.m. at KSU
Walton: Thursday, May 22, 2:30 p.m. at KSU
Pope: Friday, May 23, 10 a.m. at KSU
Wheeler: Saturday, May 24, 2:30 p.m. at KSU
The district will live-stream each of the ceremonies (link here with full schedule), but they will not be available for playback. Instead, DVD and USB drive recordings can be purchased for $30 or $35 each, respectively (ordering link here).
Currently the multi-direction turn lane on Lower Roswell Road, just east of the Johnson Ferry intersection, is closed as work crews are on the scene.
They’re directing traffic in multiple directions, including vehicles turning eastbound out of the businesses along the north side of Lower Roswell.
That turn lane will be converted to a median between Johnson Ferry and Davidson Road as a major component of the project, as Cobb DOT said it is essential to improving safety in the corridor.
The median was the subject of concern from some of those business owners as well as the public.
Also, if you’re heading southbound on Johnson Ferry and attempting to turn left (eastbound) on Lower Roswell, one of the two turn lanes is closed for the time being.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up and you’re good to go!
The 35th rendering of the Marietta Greek Festival starts Friday afternoon and goes through Sunday afternoon at Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church (3431 Trickum Road). Parking is free, including the satellite lots at Simpson MS and the Church of Latter-Day Saints, with site transportation provided by complimentary shuttle bus.
A wide range of homemade Greek foods, music, dancing, church tours and atmosphere about in this venerable community celebration of Greek culture.
The Taverna offers adults the opportunity to quench their thirst with Greek wine, beer, and liqueur, while the Greek Street Food tent offers delightful portable food options. Be sure to take a guided tour of the Byzantine style sanctuary to see the beautiful iconography and learn more about the Orthodox faith.
Admission is $5 and children under 12 are free. This year the festival is offering special online ticket packages that include free admission, as well as other substantial coupon deals.The festival also donates a portion of its proceeds to local charities.
On Saturday, the Atlanta-based choral ensemble Coro Vocati will be concert starting at 7 p.m. at St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church (571 Holt Road). The theme is “Two Rivers,” and features eight pairs of songs–including both choral classics and new, less discovered work that serve as a study of the contrasts found within the life experience.
Tickets are $12 for students at $20 for adults and can be purchased by clicking here.
Sunday is the final concert in the Music in the Park spring series at East Cobb Park (3322 Roswell Road). The musical guests are the Dark Star Brothers Band (formerly Men in Blues), who perform blues, folk, Americana, country, pop and rock tunes with some jazz infusion.
Presented by Wellstar, East Cobb Rotary and Frameworks gallery, the concert is from 4-6 in the back concert shell and is free to the public. You can bring food, a blanket and chairs to enjoy.
The fall Music in the Park begins after Labor Day.
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