The Cobb County School District has named Wayne Pickett as its new chief of police.
Pickett, who has been the district’s deputy chief, succeeds Ron Storey, who died in April.
Pickett, whose appointment was approved by the Cobb Board of Education, was sworn in on May 16, according to the Cobb school district.
The district’s police department has around 80 staffers and sworn officers, many of them assigned to schools as resource officers.
Pickett is a former officer with the Cobb County Police Department and has 41 years of law enforcement experience.
The Cobb school district is undertaking a variety of safety initiatives in the wake of a deadly shooting last year at Apalachee High School.
In October the district hired a private security firm with former intelligence and military officials to provide what it calls proactive solutions to address not only potential active-shooter situations but also gang activity, cyberviolence and other safety threats.
Canine detection teams also will be employed, with another security firm training CCSD officers to work with the dogs who can identify “person-worn or concealed-carried explosives and firearms.”
But the district has provided few specifics on some of those measures, and in April, when the weapons-sniffing dog purchase came up, district officials would not indicate how many animals and trainers were included.
The AJC reported last week that the Cobb school district has paid Servius, the private security firm, $2.6 million, mostly from a state security grant, but neither party would explain the details of what services are being provided.
That includes the kind of data Servius is collecting on students to anticipate potential trouble, as well as security assessments of the more than 100 campuses in the Cobb school district.
Nor has the district explained how Servius would work with the district’s police department on those safety initiatives.
The AJC report noted that the Cobb school board did not approve the Servius contract, including a $1.1 million check in April for the school security assessment work.
Servius was to have been involved in a school safety town hall meeting at Hillgrove High School in April, but the Cobb school district canceled it for security reasons, days after a contentious town hall in Acworth by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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Wheeler seniors listen to remarks from outgoing principal Paul Gillihan. CCSD screengrabs.
As the awaited getting their diplomas Saturday, some Wheeler High School seniors danced. Or waved to family members.
One insisted on having a selfie taken with Principal Paul Gillihan.
The Wheeler Class of 2025 gathered for the final time at the KSU Convocation Center brimming with smiles, joy and the satisfaction of completing an important part of their lives.
In delivering some words of wisdom, Valedictorian Declan Amerault encouraged his classmates not to take any opportunity they have, nor the time they have, for granted.
He said it took him until his senior year to finally commit to something, and participating in robotics, which he said he absolutely “loved.”
“I was just going through the motions,” said Amerault, who’s heading to Georgia Tech to study mathematics.
“Find something that you love and put everything you have into it. Now is the time to take charge of you life and figure out who you are.
He made several references to Wikipedia, including warnings from teachers as a freshman not to rely too much on the Internet encyclopedia.
“You can find anything on Wikipedia,” Amerault said, “but you’ll never find out what makes you tick, and what makes you smile, and what makes you unique.
“You will not have a Wikipedia page . . . and that is a good thing. At this point in our lives, we are the writers, not the readers, of our own Wikipedia page.”
Gillihan, who is leaving Wheeler after six years to become principal at Campbell High School, told the graduates to “go forward, make good choices and do the right thing and you will have a great life.”
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L to R: John Kone, past president KCMGK; Rosie Teague, KCMGK; Aailyah Reeves, Powers Ferry ES Silver Pen award winner; Jim Perry, past president KCMGK and Philip Gold, VP KCMGK
Submitted information and photo:
Over 30 years ago, Jack Boone of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K launched a Signature Project for the Club called the Silver Pen Award. This program is now a Georgia District of Kiwanis Program available to fourth grades statewide. We invited local schools to have their fourth grade classes compete for a school-wide Silver Pen Award by completing a writing assignment submitted by the Club.
The title of the essay this year was “The Person I Admire Most.” Each classroom submitted their top two entries to the School Administration, who submitted one from each classroom to the Silver Pen Coordinator for Kiwanis. A panel of professionals and former educators then evaluated the remaining submissions and chose the school winner.
This year Acworth Elementary School, Addison Elementary School, Powers Ferry Elementary School, and Rocky Mount Elementary School accepted our invitation to have their students compete.
The winning 4th grade recipients were: ACWORTH ES – Keyden Kanau; ADDISON ES – Evoleht Haddock; POWERS FERRY ES – Aaliyah Reeves and ROCKY MOUNT ES – Rachael Wilson. Jim Perry, Past President and Silver Pen Coordinator, along with a group of leaders from the Club, presented the awards to the winners in each school during the morning broadcast, so all students could witness the presentation in their respective schools.
“Each winner received a Silver Pen in a velvet sleeve, a Kiwanis Club Pen, 25 golden commemorative, uncirculated one-dollar coins from the U.S. Mint, and an engraved plaque. We enjoyed many great essays from the students this year and congratulate each winner for a job well done. Each classroom winner received a Silver Pen and a Kiwanis Club Pen,” explained Jim Perry, the Silver Pen award presenter.
We are very grateful to the schools for their cooperation in continuing to support this writing program. The Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K looks forward to presenting the Silver Pen award again next year and we wholeheartedly extend our congratulations to each award winner.
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Pope seniors listen to speakers before receiving their diplomas. CCSD screengrabs.
The mood was festive and the spirit was buoyant at the KSU Convocation Center Friday morning as Pope High School’s Class of 2025 took their turn to celebrate graduation.
Principal Matt Bradford told them in his remarks to try to take that feeling with them as they head out into the world, no matter what their immediate or future plans may be.
He said that “there is a bond that no one else can take from you” as a Pope graduate, but as individuals they will be tested as they move into adulthood.
“Attitude is one of the most powerful choices you can make in your life,” Bradford said. “Your attitude is contagious.”
He said that successful and happy adults possess positive attitudes that help them through adversity, and he implored the graduates to carry “an attitude that makes a difference.”
Pope salutatorian Aanchal Acharya didn’t join her classmates until the 10th grade, when her family moved to East Cobb from Michigan.
The Georgia Tech-bound aspiring neuroscientist congratulated them “for our hard work, dedication and perseverance in getting through high school.
“Every step of the journey has made us more confident as we’ve become the best version of ourselves. We have laughed, loved, cried and felt about every emotion imaginable.
“Each emotion, each experience has brought us to this moment.”
Her parting words came from a quote from Christopher Robin of Winnie the Pooh fame:
“You are stronger than you seem, braver than you believe, and smarter than you think.”
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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 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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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.
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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).
The Cobb Board of Education will hold a final public hearing Thursday before being asked to adopt the fiscal year 2026 budget.
The Cobb County School District has proposed a budget of $1.8 billion that holds the line on the property tax rate and provides modest pay raises.
The budget public hearing starts at 6:30 p.m., and the board’s monthly voting meeting, which includes tentative budget adoption, starts at 7 p.m.
(The budget proposal can be found at this link that includes general fund and other funding source breakdowns.)
The board also will hold a work session starting at 2 p.m. Thursday.
All meetings take place in the board room of the CCSD Central Office, at 514 Glover St. in Marietta. An executive session will follow the work session.
Last month the school board tentatively adopted the budget proposal that includes raises up to 4.6 percent for eligible employees and maintains a propery tax rate of 18.7 mills.
The budget proposal includes using $43 million in reserve funding to help balance the budget, with the property tax rate holding steady at 18.7 mills for the third year in a row. The district has a fund balance of $198 million.
“It’s not a great budget, but it’s far from gloom and doom,” Cobb Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said.
But he said there are “storm clouds” possible beyond the coming academic year.
The Cobb property tax digest is projected to grow only by two percent in 2025, lower than in recent years.
Among the personnel changes in the proposed budget is shifting 57 school-leaving interventionist positions to fill classroom vacancies.
The interventionists help detect possible learning issues, but Ragsdale said their work will continue, just in different fashion.
Another 68 teachers who had been on special assignment will be also redirected to classroom teaching positions.
The Cobb school district’s fiscal year runs from July 1-June 30.
Also on Thursday, the school board will get and update at the work session on county demographics that affect long-term enrollment planning.
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Mt. Bethel Christian Academy is proud to welcome Jill Hunt as the school’s new Head of Lower School. Ms. Hunt comes to MBCA from Lipscomb Academy, a 2-year-old through 12th grade school in Nashville, Tennessee, where she has been serving as the Head of Lower School. She brings 16 years of experience in education, including 11 years in leadership roles where she has guided schools to the highest distinctions in achievement, growth, and culture.
Ms. Hunt has served as assistant principal and principal in the Williamson and Hickman County public school systems and has taught kindergarten and first grade. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Child and Family Studies & Education and a Master’s in Education Administration.
A passionate and student-centered leader, Ms. Hunt makes all decisions with one priority in mind: what is best for students. “I believe school should be a joyful and safe place where children are challenged to meet their limitless potential,” she shares. “It should be a place where academic excellence and spiritual growth go hand-in-hand.”
She has expressed her desire to serve and inspire, seeking to make school “a child’s happy place” where they grow academically and are “equipped to understand Biblical principles,” where “staff members feel valued…and make a meaningful impact on the world.” Jill has been seeking a “both-and” school—one fully committed to both academic excellence and spiritual development—and she is thrilled to have found that at MBCA.
Jill is a mother of three, two of whom will attend MBCA in the fall, with a future Eagle joining in a year. She lives by the Golden Rule: “Treat people the way you want to be treated,” a principle that deeply shapes her leadership style and relationships within the school community.
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Eight more students from East Cobb have been awarded National Merit Scholarships. The National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners come from six different schools.
According to a release from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the recipients are “judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.”
These scholarships are financed by the Corporation, which announces recipients through the end of the school year.
Vipul Bansal, Walton: Probable career field: Consulting
Podtakorn Detchprohm, Fulton Science Adademy: Probable career field: Industrial Engineering
Elizabeth George, Lassiter: Probable career field: Chemical Engineering
Mara Claire Hanlon, Campbell: Probable career field: Nursing
Elizabeth Anne Jones, Pope: Probable career field: Ecology
Riley E. Rice, Walton: Probable career field: Medicine
Ryan Zee-Jay Tan, Walton: Probable career field: Aerospace Engineering
Julia Wolgast, Holy Innocents Episcopal School: Probable career field: Medicine
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PeachSkinSheets presented a check for $5,040 to the Cobb Schools Foundation at their headquarters (514 Glover St SE, Marietta, GA 30060) on April 23. This donation, raised through a portion of recent PeachSkinSheets sales, will help fund grants, scholarships, and critical resources for Cobb County students and educators.
This event is part of PeachSkinSheets’ ongoing commitment to education. In December 2024, the company donated four pallets of sheets to families in need, and in 2024 alone, contributed more than $100,000 to schools, teachers, and nonprofits. Their upcoming Teacher Appreciation event in May will also spotlight their continued support for educators across the country.
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