East Cobb Schools

Cobb Police offer back-to-school traffic and safety tips

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Cobb Police back-to-school safety tips
Kindergarteners at Tritt ES get off the school bus during a ride-along event Thursday. Photo: Cobb County School District.

This week the Cobb Police Department has been rolling out safety-related information with another school year about to begin on Monday in the Cobb County School District.

The Cobb school district, which serves nearly 107,000 students at 112 schools, is  unveiling a new school crisis alert system with the 2022-23 school year. In the wake of the school shooting in May in Uvalde, Texas, the district announced that each school will be having at least one Code Red drill.

The Cobb Board of Education also has approved the hiring of non-police-certified armed guards and will permit some non-teaching staff to voluntarily carry weapons on campus.

Cobb also announced this week it has created the position of assistant superintendent for school safety initiatives and hired Osborne High School principal Josh Morreale to take on that role.

In addition to traffic reminders related to bus stops and child pedestrians, police also have provided safety tips for students at school.

On the roads, motorists are required to do the following:

  • Stop for school buses with safety lights activated and storm arms extended;
  • Stop and yield to pedestrians crossing at a crosswalk or intersection;
  • Stop for a crossing guard holding up a stop sign;
  • Never pass another vehicle stopped for pedestrians;
  • Obey all traffic signs posted in and around a traffic zone, including speed and parking restrictions.

It’s a violation of state law to disobey the instructions of a traffic control device unless directed by a law enforcement officer.

Students walking to and from school should observe the following:

  • Never walk while texting; step aside to let others pass by on a sidewalk;
  • Do not cross the street while using an electronic device;
  • Look left, then right, then left again before crossing the street and cross only at crosswalks;
  • Do not wear earbuds or headphones while walking across the street, and stay alert.

Inside the school buildings, police encourage students to take the following measures to protect themselves and their belongings:

  • Always keep lockers locked and don’t preset the combination to the last number for easy entry;
  • Secure belongings inside a locker; do not leave them on top, on benches, or in a classroom or bathroom;
  • Never share a locker combination with anyone;
  • If riding a bike, lock it to a rack or another stationary object;
  • If driving, keep the vehicle locked, windows closed and belongings out of sight;
  • Do not bring certain valuables to school, especially large amounts of cash or expensive jewelry;
  • Do not bring weapons to school, and if you see one, immediately report it to school officials and resource officer;
  • Report suspicious activities to the police, school officials, and your parents;
  • Tell a teacher, parent, or another trusted adult if you feel unsafe or if someone is bullying or threatening you;
  • Say no to adults if they ask you to do something you know is wrong, or if it makes you feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

For more information about school safety, visit the Cobb County School District’s Cobb Shield resource page; more information about school buses can be found by clicking here.

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Walton HS assistant principal appointed as new principal

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The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved the appointment of Richard Tischler, an assistant principal at Walton High School the last seven years, as its new principal.Walton assistant principal named principal

He succeeds Dr. Catherine Mallanda, who was named the Cobb County School District’s Chief Academic Officer earlier this month. Tischler begins his new position on Friday, as the 2022-23 academic year begins on Monday.

The school board voted 6-0 to ratify the district’s recommendation to appoint Tischler in a special meeting following an executive session for personnel matters.

The school board also voted 6-0 to appoint Osborne High School principal Josh Morreale to the newly created position of assistant superintendent for school safety operations.

Absent from the meeting was Post 6 board member Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters in East Cobb.

In his role as assistant principal, Tischler was responsible for 12th grade students, ESOL, communications, substitute teachers, graduation and other activities at Walton.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in social science education from the University of Georgia, a master’s degree in educational leadership from Kennesaw State University and a master’s degree in educational supervision from Berry College.

The Cobb school district prepared a principal profile to announce Tischler’s appointment, including a Q and A.

“I am looking forward to continuing the tradition developed by Walton school leaders before me to foster the excellence that Walton has in academics, arts, and athletics,” he said.

Other East Cobb schools with new principals in the coming year are Pope High School, Daniell Middle School, Brumby Elementary School, Eastvalley Elementary School, Powers Ferry Elementary School and Rocky Mount Elementary School.

Morreale will directly oversee a variety of school safety programs. The Cobb school district announced this summer it is changing its vendor for school crisis alert systems and each school will have a Code Red drill during the school year.

The school board voted this month to approve the hiring of non-police-certified armed guards and permit some non-teaching staff to voluntarily carry weapons on campus.

That measure drew protests from some parents and other community members, including the Democratic candidate for state school superintendent.

The Cobb school district has 67 police officers to cover 114 school campuses. The new armed guards would be “badged” employees of the school district, and select personnel on those campuses would be notified of those who are carrying arms in the schools on a “need to know” basis.

Under the policy approved by the school board, teachers and other personnel with classroom supervisory authority will not be allowed to carry weapons.

In a release, Cobb schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the creation of the new assistant superintendent position “will make sure our school buildings are as safe and prepared as they can be, so our principals and teachers can concentrate on teaching and learning.”

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Cobb school board to hold special called meeting Thursday

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Cobb school board COVID-19

The Cobb Board of Education will hold a special called meeting Thursday to discuss personnel matters.

The board will meet at 12 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District Central Office (514 Glover St., Marietta).

According to a notice on the district website, the board “may then reconvene in open session to take action on items from Executive Session, if necessary.”

Public elected bodies in Georgia may meet in executive session for personnel, land and legal reasons, and school boards also may meet behind closed doors for student disciplinary matters.

Thursday’s meeting will place just before the Cobb school district’s 2022-23 academic year begins on Monday, Aug. 1.

The board must approve staff appointments at the principal level or above, including certain central office positions.

Walton High School in East Cobb will be getting a new principal after former principal Catherine Mallanda was named the district’s chief academic officer earlier this month.

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East Cobb schools stand out in 2022 Georgia Milestones scores

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Timber Ridge Elementary School, East Cobb schools, CCRPI
Timber Ridge Elementary School students turned in some of the best reading scores in the 2022 Georgia Milestones tests.

After two uneven years of Georgia Milestones testing results due to COVID-19 disruptions, the 2021-22 scores released Friday by the state Department of Education painted a more complete picture of student achievement.

Elementary, middle and high schools in East Cobb turned out some of the best overall and grade- and subject-specific results in the Cobb County School District and the state.

According to information sent out by the Cobb school district, 73.7 percent of Cobb students taking the Milestones tests read at or above their grade level, slightly ahead of Fulton County and the highest in metro Atlanta.

Cobb students also outpaced their peers in other nearby districts with the highest average of “proficient” learners across multiple grade levels and subjects.

Students in grades 3-12 are categorized in one of four levels: Level 1 is Beginning Learner, Level 2 is a Developing Learner, Level 3 is a Proficient Learner and Level 4 is Distinguished Learner.

The evaluations are based on End of Grade (EOG) tests at the elementary and middle school levels, and End of Course (EOC) tests at the high school level.

An even 80 percent of Cobb students are “proficient” or above in English Language Arts, 80.7 percent in math, 75.4 percent in science, and 81.7 in social students.

That averages out to 79.6 across all subjects and grade levels, higher than Fulton, Marietta, DeKalb and Atlanta.

In grade-level scores, several elementary schools in East Cobb were at or near the top of the list in Georgia with the highest percentage of readers at or above third-grade reading levels.

Tritt third graders posted a third-grade reading score of 98.4 percent, and four of the top 10 elementary schools in the state in overall reading scores were  Mt. Bethel (576), Timber Ridge (574), Mountain View (571), and Sope Creek (568).

“No one should make comparisons to previous year’s results in Cobb or across the state. The impacts of the pandemic over the last couple of years make it impossible to do so in a reliable way,” John Floresta, the Cobb Schools Chief Strategy and Accountability Officer, said in the district release.

“We know our students are doing well compared to their peers, and we are focused on what each student knows and what they need to learn.”

The Cobb figures do compare favorably to 2018-19, the last full school year before the pandemic.

In 2021-22, middle school students in Cobb outpaced students in metro Atlanta school districts, including averaging 16 percentage points higher in eighth-grade physics and more than 15 percent in high school history.

More than half of all Walton High School students tested in biology (57.6 percent) achieved distinguished learner status. At Dickerson Middle School, 97.2 percent of students tested in alegbra earned the same designation.

On the other hand, some East Cobb schools face challenges in some areas. Only 52 percent of Brumby Elementary School third-graders were reading at or above grade level, and fewer than half of the students tested in algebra at Sprayberry, Wheeler and Kell high schools are considered at or above proficiency levels.

Here’s more of a breakdown on the Milestones assessments from the Georgia DOE, including state, school system and school level scores from both last winter semester and the past spring semester.

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Cobb schools retract East Side ES logo resembling Nazi eagle

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The Cobb County School District has pulled a redesigned logo for East Side Elementary School in East Cobb following complaints from parents and others in the community that it looks like the eagle crest from Nazi Germany.East Side ES Nazi eagle logo

In a note sent out on a non-official school-related Facebook page late Monday, the district said that “the school is aware of concerns about these logos, and therefore, we have paused to consider that feedback. We will be immediately reviewing the logos to determine needed changes.”

Also on Monday night, East Side principal Marcia Clark sent a similar message to parents. Both messages concluded by saying that “stakeholder input has been, and continues to be, important to our school, and we appreciate those who took the time to share their thoughts.”

East Side, which is marking its 70th anniversary this year, is one of several schools in the Cobb district with the Eagles nickname. 

East Side is also located at Roswell Road and Indian Hills Parkway, across the latter from Congregation Etz Chaim, the first synagogue in East Cobb.

The new logo was sent out to parents via the district’s Cobb Teaching and Learning Portal.

In rolling out the new logos, a message to the East Side community said that “the new logo and badges were chosen to represent the Eagle soaring into excellence and to honor the history of our great school!”

On her Twitter account Monday night, East Side parent Stacy Efrat said that “our Jewish family has always felt loved and welcome” at the school and that “let’s assume this was an honest mistake and a coincidence.”

After getting Clark’s e-mail, however, Efrat said that “we don’t need to ‘pause to consider’ or ‘review’ the logos. They are symbolic of Nazi images and should be deleted immediately, full stop. The district should apologize to all East Side families for the harm that this has caused.”

Similar comments were made late Monday and Tuesday on other social media channels.

East Side ES logo Nazi eagle

In response to a message from East Cobb News, a district spokeswoman said late Tuesday afternoon that “we understand and strongly agree that similarities to Nazi symbolism are unacceptable. Although this design was based on the U.S. Army colonel’s eagle wings, stakeholder input has been and continues to be important to our schools.”

She didn’t say who designed the logo or explain the process for coming up with a new one, except to state that “the District supports all re-branding requests and decisions by local schools, to ensure our schools are legally compliant.”

The “Reichsadler” or “Imperial Eagle” logo dates back in Germany before the Third Reich. But the Anti-Defamation League considers it a hate symbol, since it has continued to be adopted by neo-Nazi and related groups.

The German government continues to use what it refers to as a “Bundesadler” or “Federal Eagle” logo that’s designed differently from the Nazi-era coat of arms.

It’s been nearly a year since Pope and Lassiter high schools in East Cobb were vandalized with swastika graffiti in bathrooms that prompted a community outcry. Then-Cobb school board chairman Randy Scamihorn was invited to attend a Yom Kippur service at East Cobb’s Temple Kol Emeth.

Nazi Eagle ADL
The “Reichsadler” Nazi Eagle logo that the Anti-Defamation League considers a symbol of hate.

Last October Scamihorn introduced a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and racism that passed by a party-line vote after some members and citizens complained that the matter was added to the agenda late, and saying that the district still needed to do more to address acts of hate in the school system.

In February, photos surfaced of students at East Cobb Middle School wearing swastika armbands and giving the Nazi salute on campus.

The Cobb school district last year dropped the use of teaching materials from the Southeast Regional office of ADL, “No Place for Hate,” that critics continue to insist needs to be reintroduced.

On the East Side ES website, there’s no mention of the now-retracted logo. It did note that July 28, the Friday before the start of the new school year on Aug. 1, is “Eagle Day,” when parents and students can meet teachers and learn about and sign up for other school activities.

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Grand jury recommends procurement changes for Cobb schools

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Cobb school board approves budget

A grand jury report clearing the Cobb County School District of any criminal wrongdoing relating to procurement practices wasn’t mentioned by the Cobb Board of Education this week.

Neither board members nor Superintendent Chris Ragsdale brought up the topic at their monthly work and voting sessions Thursday.

But some public commenters did, urging compliance with grand jury recommendations to increase school board oversight into how the district awards contracts for goods and services.

The grand jury met in late June to hear the results of an investigation by the Cobb District Attorney’s Office after questions were raised about Cobb school district purchases of COVID-related equipment.

The procurement documents presented to the grand jury were from 2015-2021 and for contracts awarded to companies owned by a late Cobb business owner, David Allen.

They included a $12 million contract for UV sanitizing lights by one of Allen’s companies, ProTek Life, that eventually was cancelled after a malfunction at a school.

The grand jury, in its May/June report released earlier this week, said a review of procurement documents “show a clear pattern of rewarding some contracts outside of” district policy, but those were mostly with resellers and not sole source providers.

The report doesn’t specify which contracts fell into that category; the grand jury concluded that since the Cobb school district is exempt from state procurement law outside of construction contracts, “no criminal violations have been found.”

The panel recommended that the district conduct a peer review of contracts exceeding $20,000 and have the school board approve contracts higher than $50,000 before they are awarded.

The grand jury also suggested that the Georgia legislature consider “changing state procurement law to include county boards of education” and that a grand jury conduct an annual review of the Cobb school district, as grand juries do for other public agencies.

The grand jury also concluded that “there is substantial evidence that the Cobb County School Board has not been operating as a well-functioning school board” that has affected procurement policies and procedures and has resulted in “insufficient transparency among board members, employees, and the stakeholders within the district.”

You can read the grand jury report by clicking here.

Stacy Efrat, an East Cobb resident who’s a leader of a school financial watchdog group called Watching the Funds Cobb, read from the report during her public comment period.

“The board and district leadership are trying to fool the public,” Efrat said. “Don’t take my word for it. Read the report. This was not an exoneration. This was a call for change based on the limited jurisdiction that the grand jury has over school district policies.”

Catherine Pozniak, a Democrat who is running against Republican board chairman David Chastain in November for the Post 4 seat in Northeast Cobb, urged the board to make all contracts subject to board approval.

She said the report concluded that “no one’s locking the bank vault at night. [Cobb schools] response is ‘Well, no one’s stolen from us yet.’ ”

“This report is a canary in the coal mine, and this board would be absolutely irresponsible if it did not take immediate action.”

On Friday, East Cobb News contacted Chastain for comment, but he has not responded.

East Cobb News also contacted the district, which issued a statement about the grand jury report that was also provided to other media outlets:

“We appreciate the grand jury explicitly rejecting false allegations of criminal wrongdoing by the District and its staff. We also echo their recognition of the transparency with which the District’s procurement staff operates.”

The district further stated that “some of the grand jury’s misunderstandings appear to come from a retracted report from one of the District’s accreditors.”

That’s a reference to Cognia, the district’s accrediting agency that reversed the findings of a special review that it conducted last year.

Cognia’s initial findings included concerns about how purchasing and resource allocation policies were being followed in the district.

But in addressing the school board in March when he announced the reversal, Cognia CEO Mark Elgar said that “people may disagree” with how the money is spent “but that’s not evidence that the policies weren’t followed.”

In its statement this week, the district said that “it is unusual that the grand jury would directly quote and rely upon an accreditation report that has been publicly rescinded by the issuing organization, because the report was directly contradicted by evidence presented by the District.”

It also thanked the grand jury for noting the availability of procurement information available on the district’s website.

“The District takes seriously its obligation to be a good steward of public funds and is confident that all District purchases follow state and federal law, Board policies, as well as all applicable procurement processes, standards, and best practices,” the district statement said.

The statement further noted that the Cobb school district is one of four in the country to receive the Accreditation for Quality Public Procurement Departments, a distinction it has held since 2003.

The district also employs four of 896 individuals worldwide who are certified procurement specialists by the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, Inc.

Allen, who died last year, also was the owner of AlertPoint, which had been the Cobb school district’s emergency system vendor for the past five years. A former AlertPoint employee has been indicted for bid-rigging in his position as a procurement officer in a Florida school district.

Ragsdale announced last month that the Cobb school district is changing its crisis system vendor for the coming school year.

In February 2021 all high schools in Cobb were put on a brief Code Red lockdown. After initially saying it was due to a false alarm, the district said the incident was a deliberate cyber attack on the AlertPoint system and called in the Cobb Police Department to help investigate.

The Cobb school district’s statement did not make any mention of other grand jury recommendations relating to the school board.

Those include a review of the board’s Code of Ethics “to develop, implement, and monitor a plan of accountability that holds each board member individually and collectively responsible for improving public perception of board leadership, district leadership, and ensures adherence of all board members in effectively and efficiently executing their established roles and responsibilities.”

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Some Cobb school board members question tax millage rate

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David Banks, Cobb school board
Cobb school board vice chairman David Banks

The Cobb Board of Education voted Thursday night to retain the same property tax rate for the Cobb County School District—18.9 mills—that has been in place since 2007.

But it came after some debate that included attempts by two board members to reduce, or consider lowering, that figure.

A motion by board member Jaha Howard to cut the tax rate to 18.8 mills failed 2-3-1.

Voting present was vice chairman David Banks, who earlier had asked Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to provide a review of Cobb school budget options at the current level, and at 18.0 mills and 17.5 mills.

“I have some reservations” about the current millage rate, Banks said, in light of rising property tax assessments in Cobb County, and other economic factors, including inflation, as well as flattening school enrollment.

The original motion to adopt the 18.9 mills rate passed 4-1-1, with Howard voting against and Banks abstaining.

Although he didn’t mention it in his remarks, Banks has long advocated a LEST, or Local Education Sales Tax, to help provide general fund revenues.

Ragsdale emphatically responded that “it will not be my recommendation to lower” the millage rate.

The Cobb tax digest rose by 11.5 percent this year, Cobb schools chief financial officer Brad Johnson told board members at a work session Thursday afternoon.

(That’s less than Cobb County’s overall tax digest growth of 12.3 percent; the Cobb school district does not tax inside the city of Marietta, which has its own school system.)

The digest increase netted the Cobb district an additional $70 million in tax revenues.

Since the board did not “roll back” the millage rate to last year’s revenues, the district is required by state law to advertise a tax increase and hold three public hearings before officially setting the millage rate.

The last of those hearings was Thursday night. A resident spoke in favor of cutting the millage rate, saying her school tax bill was more than $1,000 higher than last year.

But Jeff Hubbard of the Cobb County Association of Educators asked the board to keep the millage rate as is to benefit teachers.

In May, the board adopted a $1.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2023 which began on July 1 at 18.9 mills.

It includes what Ragsdale has said is the largest pay increase in Cobb school district history, ranging from between 8.5 and 13.10 percent for non-temporary employees.

Given that most of the budget is made up of teacher salaries, board member Randy Scamihorn said he could not support reducing the tax rate.

In addition to a required balanced budget already being approved, he said, “I will not vote against our teachers.”

Howard said the slight reduction he proposed “will not affect our teachers or educators at all” but it is important to send “a strong sign to the public, a sign of faith to our community.”

He said he was confident that the district could absorb the lower tax revenue, and board member Tre’ Hutchins agreed, “even if it’s minor.”

Banks asked Ragsdale to provide the budget estimates he requested by October.

But Ragsdale said a clearer picture wouldn’t be possible until March, when the Georgia legislature, which funds nearly half of the district’s budget, is in session.

Georgia law caps public school district millage rates at 20 mills. Ragsdale said some other school districts in metro Atlanta have higher rates than that that were grandfathered in before present limits.

Cobb is one of the few districts in metro Atlanta with a broad senior tax exemption for homeowners 62 and older.

District officials have estimated that the exemption comes to more than $100 million a year. But the board’s four-man Republican majority, including Banks—who receives the exemption—has refused to revisit the exemption, which could be removed only through a state constitutional amendment.

Ragsdale said Cobb is able to do what it does with the budget thanks to a fiscally-conservative finance department that “is all about being a good steward of taxpayer funds.”

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Amid protests, Cobb school board votes to hire armed guards

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Cobb schools to hire armed guards
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale

The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved a new policy that calls for the Cobb County School District to hire armed, non-police professionals to help provide security.

Right before the board’s vote on Thursday night, however, several citizens in the board room chanted “delay the vote!”

Board chairman David Chastain called for a recess.

After the board reconvened few minutes later, the protestors continued.

Board member Jaha Howard, attending the meeting remotely, made a motion over the chanting to postpone the vote to August, and some in the crowd applauded.

His motion was seconded by Tre’ Hutchins, but it failed by a 2-4 vote (board member Charisse Davis was absent from the meeting).

The original motion, to approve the policy, was approved 4-2, with Chastain, David Banks, Randy Scamihorn and Brad Wheeler voting in favor.

“Shame on you!” shouted some of the protestors, and as it was the last item on the agenda, Chastain adjourned the meeting.

Several of the protestors spoke earlier during a public comment period, opposed to more guns in schools and questioning the identities and qualifications of those who would be hired.

Some wore shirts that said “End Gun Violence” and “Moms Demand Action,” the name of a gun-control organization.

Parent Charles Cole said the policy is “rash, dangerous and vastly open-ended.

“Let’s get some more guns in schools and add some specifics later is not the way we should operate. . . . I understand the intent, but I do not understand or support the execution.”

The policy does not include numerous details due to security concerns, but the new personnel—who could be recruited from the ranks of retired military, law enforcement, and other agents—will assist existing resource officers on campuses, buses and various school functions and extracurricular activities.

While they will be trained as officers in the CCSD Police Department, the armed guards will be paid on a different scale and do not have to be certified by the Georgia POST (Police Officer Training Standards) Council, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said.

He announced last month the addition of such personnel, along with a new security alert system and Code Red drills at every school in the 2022-23 school year that begins Aug. 1.

During a school board work session Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale said the district, like public safety agencies in general, is struggling to hire police officers. POST certifies all law enforcement in Georgia, including school districts that have their own police departments.

“If the board gave me a blank check” to hire a resource officer for every school, “I could not do that,” he said.

The Cobb school district has 67 police officers to cover 114 school campuses. The new armed guards would be “badged” employees of the school district, and select personnel on those campuses would be notified of those who are carrying arms in the schools on a “need to know” basis.

The new guards also will undergo background checks and psychological evaluations and will have annual firearms training.

“We are not going to arm personnel who are not fully vetted,” Ragsdale said.

“This policy will allow us to embark upon that path to make sure we are doing everything possible” to beef up security, he added, in the wake of the deadly elementary school shootings in Uvalde, Texas in May.

Ragsdale also said he is adamant that teachers will not be armed, and the new policy bars teachers and other personnel with classroom supervisory roles from bearing weapons.

The initial policy proposal would have allowed teachers to be armed if they met certain qualifications and in extraordinary exceptions, but Ragsdale withdrew that provision.

When asked by Banks if every elementary school in the district currently has a resource officer, Ragsdale said that “we cover every school but we don’t have an officer at every school.”

Hutchins asked if the new guards would be under Ragsdale’s purview. He said they would report chiefly to Ron Storey, the district’s public safety director, “but I won’t say they won’t only report to Storey.”

Howard said he had concerns about the policy, saying that he’s seen “no data or evidence that more armed professionals will make our students and staffers safer.

“It sounds like we are creating a group of gun-carrying professionals who are not police officers.”

Other commenters who spoke against the policy included Alisha Thomas Searcy, a former Cobb legislator and the Democratic Party nominee for Georgia School Superintendent, and Cobb SCLC president Ben Williams.

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Lassiter, Dickerson, Dodgen renovations to be considered

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Lassiter Theatre renovations
The Lassiter Theatre Troupe performed a musical version of “The Addams Family” this spring.

Proposed renovations to the Lassiter High School theatre and classroom additions and renovations at Dickerson Middle School and Dodgen Middle School will be considered by the Cobb Board of Education Thursday.

Contracts to start all three projects are on the board’s agenda, first for discussion at a work session Thursday afternoon and then for approval Thursday night.

The work session begins at 2 p.m. and the voting session starts at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.

An executive session follows the work session, and the board will conduct a final public hearing on the 2022 millage rate and tax digest at the same venue at 6:30 p.m.

The meetings also will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24.

The full agendas for the meetings can be found by clicking here.

The Cobb County District will ask the board to spend $365,334 to hire an architect for the Lassiter project.

That figure is around 5 percent of the full construction cost and the renovations would “expand, upgrade, and renovate the current theater at Lassiter,” according to a district spokeswoman.

The theatre facility is separate from the Lassiter Concert Hall.

The school board also will be asked to hire a construction manager for the Dickerson and Dodgen projects, which include classroom additions and renovations.

Those projects have been scheduled for completion by July 2023.

All three projects will be funded with revenues from the current Cobb Education SPLOST V sales tax collection.

The Cobb school district is proposing to keep the millage rate at its current 18.90 for property taxes.

But because of growth in the Cobb tax digest for 2022, the district must advertise a tax increase, since it is not rolling back the millage rate.

The Cobb school district is taking in $65 million more from local property taxes than in 2021, due mostly to rising assessment. The “roll back” rate would be 16.719 mills.

After the final public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the school board is scheduled to vote on the millage rate at the voting session.

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Sedalia Park ES STEM program gets $50K donation from Amazon

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Sedalia Park STEM program Amazon donation
A Sedalia Park ES student is greeted by staff at a STEM event Tuesday. Photos by Daniel Vehar/Courtesy Cobb County School District

The eve of Amazon’s Prime Day on Tuesday netted a big benefit for the STEM program at Sedalia Park Elementary School in East Cobb.

As students gathered for a summer STEM event, Amazon announced it would be making a $50,000 donation for STEM activities at the school. 

According to a release sent out by the Cobb County School District, the donation will help Sedalia Park upgrade a number of STEM-related facilities, including its technology lab and production studio.

In addition, Principal Tiffany Jackson said, “Amazon has helped open the doors to create a new Science Lab outfitted with state-of-the-art technology for our students and teachers!”

Activities included a STEM challenge including style art to decorate the science lab, and students took home a free STEM kit.

Plenty of Amazon-provided supplies also were on hand, with STEM-related uses in mind.

“It is our hope that through this giving event, local students will have greater access to the tools needed to support their overall educational experience,” Terreta Rodgers, Amazon Head of Community Affairs, Atlanta Region, said in the release.

Sedalia Park STEM program Amazon donation

Sedalia Park STEM program Amazon donation

Sedalia Park STEM program Amazon donation

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Sprayberry graduate receives ‘Fostering Education’ scholarship

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Tianya Hunter
Tianya Hunter, Sprayberry HS Class of 2022

Tianya Hunter, a recent graduate of Sprayberry High School, is a recipient of a college scholarship from the Cobb Community Foundation.

Hunter is one of three inaugural recipients of the CCF’s Fostering Education Scholarship Fund. They are awarded to students who have been in foster care settings and are aging out as they leave high school.

Hunter, who is 19, plans to attend the College of Coastal Georgia, a four-year public university in Brunswick.

The other recipients are Collins Arrey of Campbell High School, who will be going to Albany State University, and Thinh Nguyen of Duluth, who’s headed to Georgia State University.

The three students combined received $7,500 in scholarship money.

“The instability of life in foster care often proves to be a distraction from learning and school performance,” the CCF stated in a release announcing the scholarship recipients.

“Financial resources, mentorship, support, and stability are not commonly available to help these individuals complete degree programs that lead to well-paying, stable employment. This is the reason why caring individuals in our community have joined together to fund these awards.”

Everlean Rutherford and Isaiah Wilcox created Village Connection which is an organization that supports children in foster care by providing duffel bags containing essential care items. Melissa Conti is a business owner and philanthropist who has a heart for children in foster care. The Cobb Community Foundation introduced the 2 Village Connection leaders to Melissa Conti, and the three of them worked to make the scholarship happen.

The program is the result of efforts by Everlean Rutherford and Isaiah Wilcox, who created Village Connection, an organization that supports children in foster care by providing essential care items. They were introduced to Melissa Conti, owner of Innovative Fitness in Kennesaw, who joined forces to create the scholarship fund.

CCF said it’s accepting donations for scholarship recipients for future years, and they can be made by clicking here.

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UPDATE: Assistant principal changes at East Cobb schools

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A number of assistant principal reassignments went into effect on Monday in the Cobb County School District, including several East Cobb schools.Cobb County School District, Cobb schools dual enrollment summit

The Cobb Board of Education noted in the minutes from its June meeting the following reassignments:

  • Christina Mills, Murdock ES teacher, to Murdock ES assistant principal;
  • Jennifer Anthony, Daniell MS assistant principal, to Mabry MS assistant principal;
  • Dr. James Bishop, Sprayberry MS assistant principal, to Tapp MS assistant principal;
  • Valerie Johnson, Simpson MS assistant principal, to Dickerson MS assistant principal;
  • Joan Myler, Dickerson MS assistant principal, to Palmer MS assistant principal;
  • Austin Smith, McEachern HS assistant principal, to Dickerson MS assistant principal;
  • Nathan Autry, Campbell HS assistant principal, to Sprayberry HS assistant principal;
  • Dr. Jeffrey Hutson, Campbell HS assistant principal, to Sprayberry HS assistant principal;
  • Brittny Jones, Pebblebrook HS assistant principal, to Wheeler HS assistant principal;
  • Michael Sawyer, Wheeler HS assistant principal, to McEachern HS assistant principal.

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Cobb Police continue Book Bag Palooza school supply drive

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The Cobb Police Department is continuing to collect school supplies for students who need them through the end of the month during what it calls its Book Bag Palooza.Cobb Police Book Bag Palooza

Donations will be accepted at all five police precincts through July 30 as noted in the flyer, including Precinct 4 (4400 Lower Roswell Road).

Some businesses are also receiving donations, and you can click here to view all locations.

KIDS CARE, a local non-profit for youth and teen community service volunteers, is collecting new back packs and school supplies through July 30 at the Cobb Civic Center, (548 S. Marietta Parkway).

Some other other dropoff options not included in the flyer: You can drive up at the Civic Center from 1-4 p.m. Friday, July 15 and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 30.

Also on July 30, Cobb Police will be holding a back-to-school festival at the Civc Center with bounce houses, games, clowns, train rides and more. This is a free event with free parking and proceeds will benefit KIDS CARE.

KIDS CARE has prepared a list of other needed school supplies and a link for more information.

The first day of the new school year in the Cobb County School District is Monday, Aug. 1.

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Walton principal named Cobb schools chief academic officer

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Catherine Mallanda, the principal at Walton High School in East Cobb, has been named the Chief Academic Officer for the Cobb County School District.

Catharine Mallanda, Walton High School Principal
Catherine Mallanda

Mallanda’s appointment was announced early Thursday afternoon following an executive session of the Cobb Board of Education.

A Walton graduate in the Class of 1991, Mallanda has been the principal at Walton since 2018 and has been on the staff there for the last 20 years.

She will succeed Jennifer Lawson, who has been the district’s chief academic officer for the last three years.

Of Mallanda, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said he is “excited about what she will do.”

She had been an assistant principal at Walton when she was named to succeed longtime principal Judy McNeill.

Mallanda holds degrees from Georgia Tech and the University of West Georgia and a Ph.D. from Southern Mississippi.

She was a classroom teacher at Walton and McEachern High School before becoming an administrator at Walton in 2003.

Matthew Bradford, Cobb assistant principals
Matthew Bradford

Cobb schools human resources officer Keeli Bowen also announced Thursday that Matthew Bradford, an assistant principal at Wheeler High School, has been named the new principal at Pope High School.

He will succeed Dr. Thomas Flugum, who has retired.

Bradford had been at Wheeler since 2019 after coming from South Cobb High School.

In a message sent Friday to the Pope community, Bradford noted that his entire 20-year career in education, including a role as a teacher at Kell High School, has been in the Cobb school district. His wife also has taught in the district for 25 years and they have two high-school-age children.

“I strongly believe that education is a life-long journey that comes with great responsibility for ourselves and others,” Bradford wrote. “I believe that as educators, we must always allow students to be involved in the decision-making process. As leaders, we help and guide them to achieve their goals by providing opportunities to succeed.”

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Cobb school board to hold public hearings on tax millage rate

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Cobb school district

Although the Cobb Board of Education earlier this month adopted a fiscal year 2023 budget of $1.4 billion without a millage rate increase, they haven’t formally adopted the property tax rate.

That’s because the Cobb tax digest was officially approved earlier this week by the Cobb Board of Tax Assessors.

The Cobb school district fiscal year begins on Friday, and next week, the school board will have the first of three required public hearings on the millage rate.

The 2022 Cobb tax digest has grown by 12.3 percent, to a record nearing $50 billion.

Much of that is due to increased property tax assessments in Cobb County, and the school district is taking in $65 million more in local property tax revenues than it did in 2021.

But because the district is proposing to keep the millage rate of 18.9 mills, that constitutes a tax increase according to state law, and public hearings must be held before the school board sets the tax rate.

Two hearings will take place next Wednesday, July 7 at 11:30 a.m. and 6:05 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.

The hearings also will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24.

The final hearing is July 14 at 6:30 p.m. in the same venue, before the Cobb school board’s monthly business meeting where the millage rate will be set.

The Cobb school district has had a property tax millage rate of 18.9 mills since 2007. State law requires local governments and school districts to advertise a tax increase if they take in more revenue from the previous year and do not roll back the millage rate to reflect the previous year’s revenue amount.

The “roll back” rate would be 16.719 mills.

Cobb County government, which unveiled its proposed fiscal year 2023 budget on Tuesday, also is keeping the general fund property tax rate the same as last year, but revenues are going up.

Three public hearings have been scheduled for July before the Cobb Board of Commissioners is scheduled to adopt the budget on July 26.

You can view more budget and financial information at the Cobb County School District by clicking here.

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Wheeler HS graduate receives environmental scholarship

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Wheeler HS graduate receives environmental scholarship

Samyukta Iyer, a recent graduate of Wheeler High School, has received a grand prize scholarship of $2,000 from a non-profit component of an East Cobb realty company for her ideas about preserving the environment.

The scholarship was announced by JO GIVES, INC., part of the Janice Overbeck Real Estate Team.

Iyer will be attending Georgia Tech starting this fall and is intending on majoring in biomedical engineering.

According to a release from JO GIVES, Iyer has been “exploring the removal of methane emissions in the atmosphere and replacing them with methanotrophs—bacteria that metabolize methane as their source of carbon and chemical energy.  These microbial biocatalysts are advantageous over chemical processes as they require mild operating conditions and do not release any toxic by-products. Providing affordable and efficient renewable energy can make a substantial impact in the fight against climate change.”

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10 East Cobb students appointed to military service academies

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Brianna Dempsey, Pope, U.S. Air Force Academy
Brianna Dempsey, Pope

Ten students from East Cobb high schools have received appointments to military service academies for the 2022-2023 academic year.

U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath announced the appointments of the Class of 2026 from the 6th District, which includes East Cobb, North Fulton and some of DeKalb and Gwinnett counties.

Students interested in attending the academies are nominated by their member of Congress.

“These talented and driven young people are the future of the United States of America,” McBath said in a release issued by her office.

“I want each family of these service academy appointees to know that I am exceedingly proud of how their children will represent our community as they prepare to serve our nation.”

Many of the East Cobb students heading to service academies played varsity sports in high school.

They include Wheeler’s Zyan Hall, who won a state wrestling championship as a senior, and Bridgette O’Shaughnessy of Lassiter, who competed in swimming and softball.

Pope’s Brianna Dempsey played volleyball and was the president of the Service Club and Honor Society, and Hannah Ograbisz of Walton was a swimmer and graduated from the International Spanish Academy.

U.S. Air Force Academy
Brianna Dempsey, Pope
Greta Hans, Walton
Joseph Stellmach, Pope
Luke Sudul, Pope

Zyan Hall, Wheeler, U.S. Naval Preparatory Academy
Zyan Hall, Wheeler

U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
Caden Pierce, Lassiter

U.S. Naval Academy Preparatory School
Zyan Hall Wheeler

U.S. Naval Academy
Hannah Ograbisz, Walton
Danilo Viciana, Lassiter

U.S. Military Academy
William Greenway, Johnson Ferry Christian Academy
Bridgette O’Shaughnessy Lassiter

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New Daniell MS principal named; Cobb high schools accredited

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Daniell Middle School in East Cobb will be getting a new principal in the coming school year, and she’s a familiar face to teachers, staff and students.Campbell High School lockdown

The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved personnel changes that including promoting Daniell assistant principal Amy Stump to principal, effective July 1.

She will succeed James Rawls, who is leaving after four years to become principal at Cooper Middle School, where he previously had been an assistant principal.

Stump previously had been an assistant principal at Dickerson Middle School.

That is the sixth change of principals at East Cobb schools this spring. Last month, new principals were appointed at Eastvalley, Powers Ferry and Rocky Mount elementary schools.

Two other principals have retired: Dr. Thomas Flugum at Pope High School and Dr. Amanda Richie at Brumby Elementary School, but their successors have not been named.

The 2022-23 school year starts on Aug. 1.

The school board also affirmed the accreditation of the 16 high schools in the Cobb school district by the Georgia Accrediting Commission.

That’s an agency that accredits only high schools in the state, and whose representatives toured Cobb high schools last year as the district was under a special review by Cognia, its main accreditor and which accredits school systems.

Cognia had instructed Cobb schools to make improvements in four areas in its findings that were released last fall, but reversed those findings in March.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale told school board members Thursday that the GAC accreditation will not affect its accreditation with Cognia and is simply another layer of accreditation.

While Cobb had considered switching to GAC while the Cognia review was underway, Ragsdale assured board members that there were no plans to do so now. The vote to affirm the GAC accreditation was a unanimous 7-0.

GAC announced it was giving the high schools its highest designation, “accredited with quality.”

GAC was paid $3,000 to perform the accrediting process and will be paid $850 annually to continue accreditation monitoring.

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Cobb schools change crisis alert systems, plan Code Red drills

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Cobb schools changing alert system provider
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale responds to a question about safety issues from school board member Tre’ Hutchins.

Two weeks after a deadly school shooting in Texas, Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday that the district has switched to a new crisis alert system provider.

During prepared remarks at a Cobb Board of Education work session, Ragsdale also said each of the district’s 114 school campuses will have at least one unannounced Code Red drill during the 2022-23 school year to test the new system.

He added that the Cobb district is considering recruiting and training retired military, law enforcement, and other agents to serve as armed guards of schools and wants to hire more school psychologists to help students with mental health issues.

AlertPoint, which has been Cobb’s alert system vendor for the last five years, will be replaced by Centigex, which provides alert system technology for the educational sector and other industries.

Installation of the new system began in April and will be in place in all schools by Aug. 1, when the new school year begins in the Cobb district, according to Ragsdale, but he didn’t say why the district was making the change.

In February 2021 all high schools in Cobb were put on a brief Code Red lockdown. After initially saying it was due to a false alarm, the district said the incident was a deliberate cyber attack on the AlertPoint system and called in the Cobb Police Department to help investigate.

Centigex offers something similar to AlertPoint, what is called the CrisisAlert System, which is in place in several other school districts in metro Atlanta for what Ragsdale said is a “first level of security.”

In the Centigex system, teachers and staffers are equipped with wearable badges to report emergencies electronically via the push of a button, and that “instantly” alerts administrators and responders and triggers a lockdown in seconds.

On May 24, an 18-year-old boy in Uvalde, Texas shot his grandmother, then entered Robb Elementary School and fatally shot 19 students and two teachers before he was killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer.

Ragsdale called the tragedy an “evil act,” and said that while “there’s no quick fix” and “you cannot ban evil,” the new alert system is part of the Cobb district’s enhanced objectives “to put in place all measures necessary to ensure the safety of our students and staff. Student safety has been, and continues to be, our number one priority.”

He said he could not publicly explain some of the procedures and protocols for security reasons, but told board members the matter could be discussed in executive session.

The district also has updated other safety information as part of its Cobb Shield safety and security program.

AlertPoint was installed in 2017 in several schools and then district-wide the following year. Cobb spent $5.3 million to purchase AlertPoint, and said all teachers and staff had been trained to use it.

But a survey conducted by Watching the Funds Cobb, a citizens group tracking Cobb school district spending, said more than 80 percent of respondents said they didn’t know how to use AlertPoint and hadn’t been trained on it.

When the subject came up at the work session, Ragsdale said that AlertPoint was “fully functioning” although not every staff member had a badge.

Board member Jaha Howard told Ragsdale he wanted to have trust in the new company, and Ragsdale directed him to the Centigex website.

The Centigex CrisisAlert Syterm also is installed in several hundred districts in Florida, which mandated such systems after the Parkland High School shootings left 17 people dead in 2018.

But Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools, the largest district in North Carolina, dropped Centigex in 2020 when some features of the system weren’t reliable or working at all.

Ragsdale said after each school’s Code Red drill, district officials will brief school administrators to improve crisis preparedness.

“That does not mean that we will show up and issue a code red without announcing it is a drill,” he said.

The idea of arming teachers, however, is something Ragsdale said he isn’t entertaining: “We’re asking teachers to do too much already.”

At the board’s Thursday night business meeting, several speakers demanding more security measures wore orange shirts saying “We Demand Safer Schools Now!”

Some were not satisfied with what Ragsdale had announced, and called for the district to resume the suspended “No Place for Hate” and other bias training programs, and to do more for students with mental health issues.

One of the speakers, parent Jenny Peterson, said “how can you fix what’s broken if you don’t identify it? Be leaders!”

The Cobb school district said it will be seeking to use money Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund, passed by Congress in 2020, to help pay for some of the additional security measures.

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Federal lawsuit filed challenging Cobb school board redistricting

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Cobb school board redistricting town hall
New Cobb school board maps push Post 6 (in turquoise) completely out of East Cobb.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and other organizations and individuals have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the redistricting of Cobb Board of Education seats.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia in Atlanta, claims that legislators used race as “a predominant factor” in redrawing the seven school board posts, diluting black and Hispanic voting power in Cobb County.

The suit alleges that the board’s four white members “forged ahead with a secretive map-drawing process to maintain their tenuous majority over the Board’s three Black members.”

But the only defendants named are the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration and director Janine Eveler.

Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt told East Cobb News that Daniel White, the Cobb Elections attorney, was not aware of the lawsuit.

The suit (you can read it here) is asking the court to declare that the redrawn posts 2, 3, and 6 violate the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution and to order an interim redistricting plan for those three seats.

Late last year, the board’s Republican majority approved maps that were later introduced by Cobb Republican lawmakers and that were passed by a GOP-majority Georgia legislature in February.

Those new lines pushed three seats entirely into the South Cobb area, including Post 6, which currently includes the Walton and Wheeler attendance zones.

The new lines, which go into effect in January, cut out the East Cobb area of that post, which solely includes the Smyrna-Vinings-Cumberland area.

Post 2 and Post 4 also are in the South Cobb area, and along with Post 6 have are represented by three black Democrats.

One of them is Charisse Davis, who was elected in 2018 to serve Post 6. She is not seeking re-election this year.

Nor did Jaha Howard of Post 2, who ran in the Democratic primary for Georgia school superintendent last month.

The new maps split East Cobb into two districts: Post 4, held by two-term Republican chairman David Chastain and that includes the Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry clusters; and Post 5, held by Republican vice chairman David Banks, which comprises the Pope, Walton and Wheeler clusters.

Chastain is up for re-election this year and in November will face Democrat Catherine Pozniak.

“Ultimately, the Board and General Assembly enacted a redistricting plan that whitewashed the northern, eastern, and western districts by packing Black and Latinx voters into the Challenged Districts, as a last-ditch effort to limit the power of their emerging political coalition,” read the lawsuit.

“The Plan is a product of the Board’s pattern and practice over the last several years to impose policies that disproportionately and negatively impact students of color and their families.”

SPLC Cobb BOE maps

The lawsuit also catalogues a number of conflicts on the Cobb school board along racial lines over the last three years, and concerns from black legislators about the redistricting proposals that they may violate the federal Voting Rights Act.

“As shown in the maps [above] which reflect Black and Latinx voting age population figures by voting district utilizing 2020 census data, the majority of Cobb County’s Black and Latinx communities live in the southern half of the County, while most of the County’s white population lives in the north,” according to the lawsuit.

Other plaintiffs include the Galeo Latino Community Development Fund, the New Georgia Project Fund, the League of Women Voters of Marietta-Cobb and some Cobb school parents in those three posts.

Other legal groups involved in filing the suit include the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, the ACLU Foundation of Georgia and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law.

This story will be updated.

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