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.
Click the middle button below to view the slideshow.
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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.
Click the middle button below to view the photo gallery.
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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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For decades, the Southern Technical Institute bathtub races entertained swarms of students, alumni, and community members as engine-laden bathtubs throttled around what is now Kennesaw State University’s Marietta Campus.
The idea for the game was conceived by Frances Beusse, executive director of alumni and constituent engagement, who frequently heard from SPSU alumni about their desire to bring the bathtub races back. Knowing that a real-life revival was a long shot, Beusse proposed a digital recreation as a way to celebrate SPSU history while showcasing the talent of current students. She partnered with Will McKenna, director of development for CCSE, to explore the possibility of incorporating the concept into a capstone project. From there, they worked with faculty to develop a plan and brought in alumni to serve as advisors and subject matter experts.
The game’s momentum grew after an encounter between McKenna and Lee Miller, an SPSU alumnus and former Bathtub Racing Association president. Miller, who participated in the races in the 1980s and early ’90s, was approached with the idea and quickly signed on to help bring it to life.
“From the moment I heard about it, I knew it would be a cool project,” Miller said. “The bathtub races were such a unique part of the school’s history, and it was exciting to think about how we could bring that spirit into a new form for future generations of students.”
As an advisor for the project, Miller has been instrumental in providing historical context, sharing old photos and videos, and contributing to the creative process. He spoke with students about the tradition, which began in the late 1960s when engineering students repurposed old cast iron bathtubs into finely tuned machines, eventually leading to high-speed races across campus.
Over the years, the event became a celebrated part of student life, drawing large crowds and fostering a sense of camaraderie. The races were sunset in the early 1990s, but a retired bathtub racer still hangs in the Engineering Technology Center as a tribute to this eccentric yet beloved piece of SPSU history.
The game’s development is being spearheaded by a team of student developers, which include computer game design and development major Sasha Melbourne, who serves as the lead programmer for the game.
“The concept has always fascinated me,” she said. “It’s such a quirky, fun event, and I love the idea of combining that with gaming. We’ve tried to replicate the excitement of the races by making it fast-paced, unpredictable, and full of surprises. It’s not just about recreating the past; it’s about making something that people can enjoy in the present day.”
The development team has risen to the challenge of balancing historical accuracy with the need to make the game accessible. They worked hard to recreate the course, the bathtubs, and the atmosphere that made the event so memorable.
“It’s been a process of experimentation, iterating, and making corrections to each detail,” Melbourne said.
While the game aims to be competitive and entertaining, it also intends to create a sense of connection between current students and SPSU alumni. Miller, whose father attended Southern Technical Institute in the early 1960s and whose son is currently attending KSU, is excited to see how the game brings together generations.
“I think the game is a great way to bridge the gap between the past and the present,” Miller said.
As the development team puts the final touches on the game, they have also reflected on how the game could inspire future student-driven initiatives.
“We’ve learned a lot from this process, both technically and creatively,” Melbourne said. ” I think it’s a great example of how students at KSU can come together and use technology to bring something special to life.”
Sasha Melbourne, center, leads a team of student developers creating a video game based on the Southern Technical Institute bathtub races.
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The existing scoreboard at Raider Valley during a Walton varsity football game.
Private funds were raised in the Walton High School community to replace an electronic scoreboard at the sports stadium in Raider Valley.
But the Cobb County Board of Education was asked this week to approve the purchase, which caused some confusion in the community.
An agenda item for Thursday’s board meetings noted that the $439,497 amount would pay for removal of the existing scoreboard and replacing it with “a new multi-sport digital video scoreboard with video control and software systems on a new monopole structure.”
The agenda item includes a line item that states “Budgeted:” and the filed indicates “Yes,” but it wasn’t specific.
Typically such items specify a funding source, such as a SPLOST (special-purpose local-option sales tax) earmark.
At a board work session Thursday, board member John Cristadoro, who’s a football coach in the Walton feeder program and whose daughter plays volleyball for the Raiders, asked Marc Smith, the Cobb County School District’s Chief Technology and Operations Officer, about it.
“Just to be clear—are we writing a check for $439,000?” Cristadoro asked.
Smith told him that “Walton” is paying for that, meaning the individual donors, who were not identified in the agenda item.
“So, not the district?” Cristadoro asked.
“Correct,” Smith replied.
John Cristadoro
That led to some further discussion after board member Becky Sayler asked why the board needed to approve it.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale told her that the district changed a policy regarding such matters years ago after schools were going into debt getting loans for such purchases, and were finding it hard to retire that debt.
“It was damaging to the students and it was damaging to the coaches and to the sports at those schools to keep having that debt,” he said, “and have all the fees that parents pay to participate in extracurricular activities.”
“He said the district also requires construction and equipment items to go through its SPLOST and maintenance department since “regardless of who pays for it, it becomes school district property.”
All items costing more than $200,000 also need board approval, Ragsdale added.
The Cobb school district doesn’t fund a variety of equipment and other items related to extracurricular activities, including sports uniforms and equipment.
Walton’s football, soccer, lacrosse and track and field teams compete at Raider Valley, which was part of the original campus that opened in 1975.
The Walton High School Foundation has been conducting a fundraising drive for what it has called a new “jumbotron,” and solicited donations last weekend at the 50th anniversary celebration for the school.
The objective is to have the new scoreboard installed and in place for the start of the 2025 football season in August.
Cristadoro asked Ragsdale if the district had the latitude to turn down a privately-funded project if it thought it would be too cost prohibitive or posed other concerns.
“On the front side, we’re able to say, okay, you’re going to have to cover said expense and upkeep,” Ragsdale said, referring to a non-district funding source.
The Cobb school district spent $6.78 million to construct a new baseball field and tennis courts on Pine Road as part of Walton’s campus rebuild project, as well as $5.65 million to acquire property there.
In that time, the district also relocated the softball field to the former baseball field on Raider Mountain at the back of the campus, and another $1 million for a pedestrian bridge on Bill Murdock Road to the new sports complex.
Those projects, along with a new campus classroom building that opened in 2017 and a new gymnasium and performing arts theatre that opened in 2020, were funded with SPLOST revenues.
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“It’s concerning, looking ahead,” Chris Ragsdale said about future budget prospects for the Cobb County School District.
After a few years of generous employee pay raises and spending growth, the Cobb County School District is taking a more judicious approach to its fiscal year 2026 operating budget.
Amid an uncertain economic climate and with lower growth in the Cobb tax digest, district financial officials on Thursday proposed a $1.8 billion budget Thursday that provides modest pay raises and includes reclassifying some teaching positions.
The board on Thursday “tentatively” adopted the budget, which means that the district will then publicly advertise a budget process that includes a public hearing and formal adoption in May.
No layoffs are planned, but the cost of Georgia Teacher Retirement System benefits for Cobb educators, as well as other employee health benefits, has risen by $33 million from the current FY 2025 budget of $1.8 billion, Chief Financial Officer Brad Johnson said during a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday afternoon.
For employees eligible for a step pay increase, those raises could go as high as 4.6 percent.
General fund revenues total $1.7 billion with $166 million from other sources.
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.
“We’re not the only district in this position. It’s concerning, looking ahead.”
(The district did not have the budget proposal available online until after the board’s Thursday night meeting; details can be found at this link.)
After near double-digit increases in the Cobb tax digest in recent years, only two percent growth is projected for 2025, which would yield around $17.4 million in school revenue.
Last year, Cobb had tax digest growth of more than 7 percent and 15 percent in 2023.
Johnson detailed the major personnel changes, which would shift 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.
“We’re hoping the economy turns around and that we’ll have a different conversation [about the budget] this time next year,” Ragsdale said.
The school board will hold a second budget public forum on May 15, right before it is scheduled to adopt the budget.
The Cobb school district’s fiscal year runs from July 1-June 30.
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A notorious novel that’s been banned for adults and children in some parts of the world for years has been removed from the Cobb County School District.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday that the district’s continuing review of books deemed inappropriate for minors has culled “American Psycho,” written by Bret Easton Ellis and published in 1991.
At a Cobb Board of Education work session, Ragsdale did not elaborate on the reason, nor did he say which schools carried the book.
The Cobb school district has removed more than three dozen books over the last two school years for what Ragsdale has said contain sexually explicit, lewd, graphic or otherwise inappropriate content for minors (here’s the full list).
Some citizens have objected to what they have called “bans,” and filed a civil rights complaint, saying many of the books have minority and LGBTQ themes.
After last November’s elections Ragsdale, asked his critics “to take a break.”
“American Psycho” has been the subject of bans and removals for much of its history, even before its publication.
Protagonist Patrick Bateman, a successful New York investment banker in the 1980s, also is a serial killer, and the novel is replete with graphic descriptions of murderous violence, sex and sadistic behavior.
Feminist groups organized boycotts due to the book’s depictions of violence against women, and Ellis received death threats.
“American Psycho” was made into a film in 2000 starring Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe and Reese Witherspoon.
At the book’s 25th anniversary, Ellis told Rolling Stone that he wanted his novel to be a scathing, satirical condemnation of the excesses of Wall Street and American finance at the time:
“I created this guy who becomes this emblem for yuppie despair in the Reagan Eighties—a very specific time and place—and yet he’s really infused with my own pain and what I was going through as a guy in his 20s, trying to fit into a society that he doesn’t necessarily want to fit into but doesn’t really know what the other options are.”
He said the book also “was really about the dandification of the American male. It was really about what is going on with men now, in terms of surface narcissism” and that themes revolving around male culture “seemed to me much more interesting than whether he is or is not a serial killer, because that really is a small section of the book.”
The American Library Association placed “American Psycho” on its most banned book list for the 1990s. In some parts of Australia, the book was banned altogether, or sold to adults only with wrapping paper on the cover.
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The Cobb Board of Education and the public will get a first look the Cobb County School District’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget on Thursday.
The presentation will take place at an afternoon work session, to be followed by a public forum on the budget and a second presentation Thursday evening.
According to an agenda item, the proposed budget is $1.86 billion, a slight increase from the current district FY 2025 budget of $1.8 billion.
The agenda item contained no further details and did not indicate whether there would be a change in the property tax millage rate; the district has said that information would be posted after the budget proposal is introduced.
The budget presentation takes place at a work session that starts at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
The budget public forum starts at 6:30 p.m., and the board’s monthly voting meeting, which includes tentative budget adoption, starts at 7 p.m.
All meetings Thursday 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.
The budget proposal anticipates $1.81 million in revenues but does not indicate how the difference would be made up.
The final budget hearing is scheduled for May 15, also at 6:30 p.m., shortly before the board is scheduled to adopt the budget.
In July, the school board adopts a property tax millage rate after the final Cobb tax digest is issued.
The Cobb school district’s fiscal year runs from July 1-June 30 of each year.
Also on Thursday’s agenda, the board will be asked to set a maximum price of $15.9 million for the construction of a second career academy on the campus of Allatoona High School.
The board will be asked to ratify a $439,497 purchase of a new video scoreboard at the Walton High School athletic stadium. The funding was raised privately by parents but it must be confirmed by the board.
The also board will be asked to spend $1.7 million to purchase 10 48-seat school buses, and another $450,000 for the acquisition of two K-9 dogs to assist with school security measures.
At the Thursday evening meeting, recognitions include Wheeler High School’s boys state basketball championship team as well as Susan Sharrow of Pope High School, the Cobb school district’s 2024-25 library media specialist of the year.
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The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) released the names of the first group of winners in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Approximately 830 distinguished high school seniors have won corporate-sponsored National Merit Scholarship awards financed by about 124 corporations, company foundations, and other business organizations. Also included in this category are awards supported by several foundations and individual donors who have established endowments with NMSC.
Scholars were selected from students who advanced to the Finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition and met criteria of their scholarship sponsors. Corporate sponsors provide National Merit Scholarships for Finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage.
Most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from $1,000 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.
Funding for these National Merit Scholarships is provided by corporate organizations that represent nearly all sectors of American industry. Sponsors from the business community have underwritten awards offered in all 70 competitions, expending or committing nearly $882 million to support the intellectual development of the nation’s scholastically talented youth.
Declan Amerault, Wheeler. National Merit Truist Scholarship. Probable career field: Applied Mathematics
AndreaJoya, Lassiter. National Merit Truist Scholarship. Probable career field: Biomedical Engineering
Nathan ThomasKiesel, Wheeler. National Merit ViaSat Scholarship. Probable career field: Science/Research
Ethan A. Konnick, Mt. Paran Christian. National Merit James E. Casey Scholarship. Probable career field: Information Systems Management
Eugene G. Li, Walton. National Merit Truist Scholarship. Probable career field: Computer Programming
Spencer Lieth, Walton. National Merit Vulcan Materials Company Scholarship. Probable career field: Engineering
Eric Mo, Walton. National Merit James E. Casey Scholarship. Probable career field: Electrical Engineering
Dhriti Raguram, Walton. National Merit James E. Casey Scholarship. Probable career field: Neuroscience
Vikram Sharma, Lassiter. National Merit Schneider Electric North America Foundation Scholarship. Probable career field: Medicine
Isha Varughese,Walton. National Merit Truist Scholarship. Probable career field: Finance
Adam Wang, Walton. National Merit Norfolk Southern Scholarship. Probable career field: Computer Science
William Zhao, Walton. National Merit Siemens Scholarship. Probable career field: Classics
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A group of young East Cobb innovators has returned home after proudly representing Georgia—and the world—on one of the biggest stages in youth robotics, the 2025 FIRST championship @ Houston TX (April 16 to 19). A local FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) Challenge team, composed of six boys ages 10 to 14, recently competed at the 2025 FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas, placing an impressive 62nd out of 160 top-tier teams from 55 countries.
The team was one of only two from Georgia selected to attend the World Festival, a rare honor considering nearly 500 teams competed statewide throughout the season, which began last August.
The team members are:
Zeeno Tang, 11, Sope Creek Elementary
Ryan Zhang, 11, Pickett’s Mill Elementary
Ryan Chen, 12, Westminster Schools (Mt. Bethel Elementary graduate)
All six boys participate in the Robotics Club at Hongfan Chinese Academy, a Sunday extracurricular program in East Cobb that played a key role in developing their skills in programming, engineering, and collaboration.
Judges praised the team’s impressive technical understanding as well as their creative and research-driven approach to solving real-world problems. They also highlighted the team’s inclusive and supportive dynamic, and commended how the boys collaborated during the whole process.
The team’s journey is a testament to the strength of East Cobb’s academic and extracurricular community, parent involvement, and the boundless curiosity and creativity of youth. With their success on the global stage, these young East Cobb students have not only represented their community with pride—they’ve inspired it.
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The shiny floor at the main Walton High School gymnasium, which opened in 2019. ECN photos and video.
While orchestral students played music in the cool indoors, games, food, and other activities were being enjoyed on a warm, sunny day outdoors at Walton High School Saturday.
The school community came together to celebrate the school’s 50th academic year, which ends next month, and with many organizations providing information and a cool tent respite at their booths.
It was a low-key festival, but exemplified the ethos and spirit of a high-performing school that has grown with its community.
Students drew and painted artwork that was displayed on the walls of the performing arts center, which opened along with a new gymnasium in 2019.
A painting of George Walton, with the backdrop of the main school entrance.
They sit now where the original classroom building was located when Walton opened for classes in the fall of 1975 on a winding stretch of Bill Murdock Road.
What had been farm country not that many years before would soon become a busy hub for a fast-growing, sprawling East Cobb.
Walton’s opening alleviated heavy overcrowding at Wheeler High School, where I had been a freshman just the year before.
While I missed many of my friends who had begun attending the—ahem—other WHS, I could see how fast things were changing in East Cobb.
There was land along the greater Johnson Ferry Road corridor that was being scarfed up, going from animal-grazing to new subdivisions and retail centers in quick fashion.
It didn’t take long for Walton to be overcrowded, too, and in 1981 Lassiter High School opened, followed by Pope High School (named after a former Walton teacher) in 1987.
When I returned to East Cobb in 1990, after more than a decade being away at college and as a young adult, I almost didn’t recognize the place.
Yes, it had the classic suburban look, just as I remembered, but the feel was different. East Cobb had gotten busy, and Walton had become one of the highest-rated high schools in Georgia, coming under a novel conversion charter governance.
Walton was a magnet for families seeking academic and extracurricular excellence, and there’s hardly a neighborhood in its attendance zone that doesn’t advertise that fact when the “for sale” signs go up.
Many of the booths at the Walton celebration Saturday displayed trophies from past athletic competitions. Others showed off plaques commemorating orchestral trips to Carnegie Hall.
Little about the present campus—the new classroom building opened in 2017—resembles what was there in 1975. But Walton’s evolution reflects so much about what East Cobb has become, and how we think of the community today.
Students’ artwork hanging on the walls in the theatre building also exemplify that spirit. One was a painting of George Walton, one of America’s founding fathers and a Georgia signatory to the Declaration of Independence.
Many featured the schools’s logo and sports themes, while others rendered past and present buildings and campus landmarks.
There are so many ways that thousands of students have experienced Walton for the past 50 years. In a half-century, Walton’s impact on the community is unmistakeable.
As the Dorian Orchestra played “Fields of Gold” (video below) in the theatre, it was easy to close one’s eyes and get swept away with memories from high school days—no matter where one may have gone to high school—when the future of young people seemed so limitless.
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Many of the booths at the Walton celebration Saturday displayed trophies from past athletic competitions. Others showed off plaques commemorating orchestral trips to Carnegie Hall.