East Cobb Schools

Cobb school board adopts public conduct policy for meetings

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Cobb school board adopts public conduct policy
“The goal is we will complete the people’s business,” Cobb school board chairman David Chastain said.

The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday adopted rules for the next year governing behavior by members of the public at school board meetings.

An amended resolution passed 6-1 Thursday night, with the vote against cast by board member Charisse Davis of Post 6 that includes some of East Cobb.

(You can read the new rules by clicking here.)

The measure sets forth terms for what constitutes disruptive behavior and how the board may take action in response, including allowing the school board to meet in an alternate location should disruptions get out of hand and calling on law enforcement to intervene “in any potential violation of law.”

A new state law gives local school districts until Oct. 1 to develop rules that must be adopted annually.

Cobb Superintendent Chris Ragsdale told the board at a Thursday afternoon work session that rules he proposed are “not to be confused with the public comment policy.” The rules “need a vote and have to reviewed every year.”

Darryl York, the Cobb school district’s Director of Policy and Planning, told board members that “a lot of the language” in the proposed rules are already on the books.

The new law, SB 588, states that members of the public “shall not be removed from such public meetings except for actual disruption and in accordance with rules adopted and published by the local board of education.”

In July several citizens protested at the Cobb school board meeting after the board voted to hire armed guards for schools.

Some attendees who shouted at the board to delay the vote continued their disruptions after, and chairman David Chastain called for a recess. The protests continued, with some shouting “Shame on you!” as the meeting was adjourned.

The new rules give the board chairman the discretion to enforce them.

During the work session Thursday, board member Tre’ Hutchins of South Cobb said he was concerned about provisions he said would discourage free speech and wondered about how they would be implemented in the case of serious disruptions.

“I would hate to see on TV a citizen escorted out of this room for exercising their Constitutional rights,” he said. “I’d like to know what that discretion looks like.”

But Ragsdale responded that “you don’t have a Constitutional right to disrupt a meeting.”

Board member Jaha Howard of Smyrna questioned a provision that would allow the board to meet elsewhere—with live streaming available for the public—if disruptions were an issue.

Chastain, of Post 4 in Northeast Cobb, said he doesn’t remember a meeting in which the board wasn’t able to finish its business.

Chastain also Howard that “you weren’t here in July,” a reference to Howard attending that meeting virtually.

“The goal is we will complete the people’s business,” Chastain said.

Board member Jaha Howard told him that “you have a lot more confidence in the board chair than I have. You haven’t been on the receiving end of being shut up.”

At the Thursday night voting meeting, the board agreed to a request by Howard to amend the rules to combine prohibitions on “jeers, shouting, or other disruptive noises” and “any other means an attendee may use to disrupt the meeting” into the same bullet point.

Davis did not explain her vote against the rules.

Before the vote, former Cobb schools guidance counselor Jennifer Susko, a regular critic of the district and the board, said during a public comment session that she and others speak out the way they do because they’re being constantly stonewalled.

“To avoid getting flustered by us, consider responding to your constituents at all, in any way,” she said. “The jeers, shouting and other disruptive noises only occur because ya’ll refuse to respond to your constituents.

“Most of us would rather not be here all the time disrupting, but we have no choice, since it’s the only way to be heard. I’ll look forward to the adjustments in all of our behavior.”

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National Merit semifinalists include 44 from East Cobb schools

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The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced its initial batch of semifinalists for the 2022-23 school year, and Walton and Wheeler high schools lead the way for the Cobb County School District.East Cobb National Merit Scholarship Program

Of the 60 students, 44 come from high schools in East Cobb, including 18 from Walton and 16 from Wheeler.

National Merit Scholarships are awarded to high school seniors across the country based on academic performance, test scores and other requirements. This year, a total of $28 million in scholarship funding will be awarded.

Finalists will be chosen in the spring and will be eligible for scholarship aid in a variety of sources. Participants submit detailed applications and they must be endorsed and recommended by a high school official.

Students also write essays and are assessed on factors such as leadership abilities and honors and awards received.

“Merit Scholar designees are selected based on their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference,” the Corporation states.

Lassiter High School

  • Kate Burke
  • Matthew Cargill
  • Erin Cooney
  • Steven Murley
  • Kathryn Rozboril

Pope High School

  • Shaunak R. Karnik
  • Amy E. Kokan
  • Yujin Lim
  • Sara B. Strobeck

Sprayberry High School

  • Thomas A. George

Walton High School

  • Amala Arun
  • Samiha Bala
  • Peter Fink
  • Grace Hoyte
  • Faith Huang
  • Brian Kuang
  • David Liu
  • Ethan Liu
  • Maayah Jameel
  • Abhai Padiyar
  • Owen Pumpian
  • Ashley Rice
  • Caleb Rieck
  • Rohan Singh
  • Tianyu Xu
  • Tianyue Xu
  • Alexander Xue
  • Chaitanya Yetukuri

Wheeler High School

  • Madison P. Bohm
  • Charles M. Brubaker
  • Ethan N. Chen
  • Jack H. Fleishman
  • Grace E. Gentner
  • Maia G. Gillen
  • Misha S. Gupta
  • Rithu A. Hegde
  • Tanvi S. Kamat
  • Pooja J. Kanyadan
  • Kabir A. Maindarkar
  • Adetoun S. Oderinde
  • Simran N. Patel
  • Lakshmi A. Valliyappan
  • Hanif A. Zaman
  • Angie Zhu

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Cobb school board asked to consider public conduct policy

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Cobb school board public conduct policy
Some public commenters at Cobb school board meetings wear shirts emphasizing their concerns.

The Cobb Board of Education will be asked on Thursday to adopt a policy to govern conduct by members of the public at school board meetings.

Proposals include the possibility of allowing the school board to meet in an alternate location should disruptions get out of hand and calling on law enforcement to intervene “in any potential violation of law.”

Those proposals are on the agenda for both a work session and possible action Thursday night by the school board.

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.

The full agendas for the public meetings can be found by clicking here. An executive session follows the work session.

The open meetings will be live-streamed on the Cobb County School District’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24. There will be in-person public comment sessions for both; information can be found by clicking here.

The agenda item (which can be found on pages 28-29) comes as local school districts in Georgia are required under a new state law to develop rules of conduct policies by Oct. 1.

The provisions of SB 588 mandate that public school districts provide public comment sessions. Cobb has been doing so for several years, but the law also calls for boards to adopt policies for those commenters.

The law states that members of the public “shall not be removed from such public meetings except for actual disruption and in accordance with rules adopted and published by the local board of education.”

In July several citizens protested at the Cobb school board meeting after the board voted to hire armed guards for schools.

Some attendees who shouted at the board to delay the vote continued their disruptions after, and chairman David Chastain called for a recess. The protests continued, with some shouting “Shame on you!” as the meeting was adjourned.

In recent months, numerous speakers have addressed the board wearing shirts declaring an advocacy group or cause, and there has been some heckling. On some occasions, disrupting citizens have been removed from the board meeting room.

Public commenters at Cobb school board meetings are notified by the school board attorney when their allotted time has expired, and if they continue, their microphones are cut off.

The issues that have sparked their ire have included those that have been roiling in school districts around the country in recent months—school safety, especially in light of the Texas school shootings; the COVID-19 response; diversity, racial and equity issues—and Cobb school district spending.

Last November, the Georgia School Boards Association broke off from the National School Boards Association after the latter asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate parents who protest at school board meetings.

Entitled “Rules of Attendee Conduct for Public Meetings,” the Cobb agenda item states that “the requirement that all meetings of the Board ‘shall be open to the public’ does not prevent governing bodies from maintaining order at meetings.”

The item states that because “children have access to meetings and meeting broadcasts/recordings, the public is advised that the content of these meetings should be appropriate for all ages.”

The agenda item said that existing board policy doesn’t allow use or display of “abusive, obscene, profane, vulgar, defamatory, or slanderous” language or gestures. Citizens may not block others from entering or leaving the meeting room and are not allowed to make threats and disruptive noises.

“Any attendee(s) disrupting or attempting to disrupt the meeting in any manner will be addressed,” the agenda item states. “No attendee shall endanger others by acts of violence or abusive conduct. No attendee shall cause, provoke, or engage in any physical confrontation, fight, brawl, or riotous conduct so as to endanger the life, limb, health, or property of another. Any attendee(s) with signage that blocks or may block the view of others will be addressed.”

East Cobb News has left a message with Chastain seeking comment.

The seven-step Cobb policy proposal to address public conduct starts with a verbal reminder “of the expectations” and is followed by a verbal warning and removal from the room if someone’s behavior makes “the orderly conduct of the meeting unfeasible.”

The law enforcement intervention and relocation of the board meeting would be the measures of last resort, with the latter requiring that the continuing board meeting would be available via an audio and video stream made available to the public.

“As a general rule, the Board will attempt another method or methods to resolve the issue prior to employing this action,” the agenda item states.

However, the proposed policy would allow the board, depending on the circumstances of a situation, to take actions “in any order and is not bound to follow each step chronologically.”

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Cobb school board approves major pay raises for bus drivers

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Cobb school bus safety

In a move to address significant shortages of bus drivers, the Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved a request for pay raises by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale.

The unanimous 7-0 vote came Thursday night, after the district presented a recruiting video featuring interviews with current drivers.

All drivers will be getting raises of $5.25 an hour, Ragsdale said, boosting the current minimum hourly wage of $19.75 to $25 per hour, and topping out at $33.32 an hour, depending on salary steps.

The $7.6 million cost for the raises is coming from revenues generated from the rising Cobb property tax digest of 11.55 percent for the Cobb school district.

At a board work session Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale said the Cobb school district—which runs nearly 900 bus routes and transports more than 72,000 students—is short 200 drivers.

“We were not as competitive as we should be with our bus driver pay,” he said at the work session, calling the raises “a potential solution to a real problem. It’s a big problem. This is pretty much the last option.”

He said the raises will go into effect Aug. 25 and the salaries will be the highest for school bus drivers in metro Atlanta. The raises will be reflected in their Sept. 16 pay checks.

Tthe recruitment video featured mostly older individuals who talked about how driving a school bus “gets in your blood” and how they enjoy interacting with students.

Ragsdale said that retention has been difficult with some drivers running double routes and being exhausted as a result.

During public comment periods, some parents also urged the board to approve the raises, noting that the double routes often resulted in their children coming home later from school in the afternoons.

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Mabry MS Teacher of the Year empowers students to say ‘I can’

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At Mabry Middle School, Leslie Ann McCoy worked to create a special class just for students to learn how to develop good study habits.Mabry MS Teacher of the Year

McCoy teaches a reading and study skills class designed to help students—especially those coming from elementary school—navigate the middle school landscape, with its multiple classes and teachers and other academic challenges.

She’s the current Mabry Teacher of the Year, and according to a release issued by the Cobb County School District, McCoy, a graduate of Walton High School, draws her inspiration from her own teachers, who wouldn’t let her students say “I can’t.”

“I tell the students when they come in the very first week, ‘I’m your number one cheerleader in this building, and all I want to do is set you up for success,’ ” she said in the release.

She’s truly a local product, having grown up in Marietta. After graduating from the University of Georgia, McCoy earned a master’s degree in special education at Kennesaw State University.

Before teaching at Mabry, she was a teacher at Daniell Middle School in East Cobb.

McCoy’s four children all attend Mabry and her oldest twin sons have taken her class.

Formerly a math and English language arts teacher, McCoy said she tries to see all her students through the lens of her own children.

The curriculum she has developed is very practical, focusing strongly on getting organized.

“It’s a lot to keep up with,” she said of students coming into middle school. “So, building healthy habits like writing in your agenda, having a to-do list, and binder organization is huge. Most of our students will either get assignments, and they’ll lose the assignment before they even complete it.”

Current Mabry 8th graders who took McCoy’s study skills class as sixth graders said it’s made a big difference.

“When I had her in sixth grade, it set up the rest of my years to make me better at keeping track of what I needed to do,” said one student.

Another said she’s taking what she’s learned about getting organized at Mabry into high school and college.

“I see something in each of my students, sometimes things that they don’t see themselves,” McCoy said. “My goal is to spark that fire, even if in just a handful of them, and make the same difference my teachers did for me.”

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Cobb schools propose bus driver pay raises totaling $7.6M

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Cobb school bus safety

The Cobb County School District, which has been experiencing serious shortages of bus drivers over the last two years, is proposing to boost their pay by $5.25 an hour.

That’s on the agenda for both a work session and possible action Thursday night by the Cobb Board of Education.

The work session begins at 3 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.

The full agendas for the meetings can be found by clicking here. An executive session follows the work session.

The open meetings will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24. There will be in-person public comment sessions for both; information can be found by clicking here.

In an agenda item, the Cobb school district said the new hourly rate for bus drivers would be between $25 per hour and $33.32 an hour, depending on the salary step for a given driver.

The current pay rate starts at $19.75 an hour. Drivers are eligible for benefits and are paid year-round.

The district said funding for the pay raises would come to $7.6 million and is available due to revenues generated from the rising Cobb property tax digest.

This year that growth was 11.55 percent for Cobb school district collections, higher than the initial projections of 10.49 percent, “making this request budget neutral,” the agenda item states.

The new fiscal year 2023 Cobb school district budget of $1 billion includes raises of between 8.5 and 13.10 percent for non-temporary employees.

In the last school year, the district offered multiple retention bonuses for bus drivers to address staffing shortages.

The Cobb school district employs 875 drivers and 139 bus monitors who run 870 routes daily, transporting more than 72,000 students, or roughly 70 of the enrolled students.

The work session agenda includes a presentation about the first day of school and a discussion of recent Georgia Milestones testing results.

The evening voting session includes a number of recognitions, including the girls sports program at Lassiter High School and the boys and girls sports programs at Walton High School.

They were named recipients of the Georgia Athletic Directors Association’s Director’s Cup all-sports awards.

Employees to be recognized for 40 years of service include Chester Ransom of Blackwell Elementary School and Lona Wright of Lassiter.

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Cobb school board chairman to hold campaign fundraiser

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Cobb Board of Education chairman David Chastain, who is up for re-election in November, is holding a campaign fundraiser later this month in East Cobb.David Chastain, Cobb Board of Education

The fundraiser is Tuesday, Aug. 30, from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Atlanta Country Club (500 Atlanta Country Club Drive; info and RSVP link here).

Chastain is a Republican who is seeking a third term from Post 4, which includes the Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry clusters.

He is being opposed by Democrat Catherine Pozniak, a Sprayberry High School graduate and a former teacher and state education administrator in Louisiana.

Both were unopposed in the May primary election; Chastain received 13,921 votes to 6,105 for Pozniak.

Their contest could determine party control of the seven-member Cobb school board.

Republicans hold a 4-3 edge on a board that has been rife with partisan conflict over the last three-plus years.

On his campaign website and in recent social media postings, Chastain stressed the need “to keep STABILITY and STEADY LEADERSHIP” on the school board.

His priorities include focusing on “age appropriate” education and to “keep politics out of the classroom.” He also vowed that he “will never support removing campus police officers from schools” and supports the senior tax exemption and fiscal budgeting.

But he is trailing in campaign fundraising to first-time candidate Pozniak, according to financial disclosure reports filed for the first half of 2022.

She has $18,357 in cash on hand and has raised $7,505 since January, according to her reports. In all, Pozniak is reporting she has raised nearly $23,000.

Chastain, a Wheeler High School graduate and a proposal analyst at Lockheed-Martin, has collected $5,625 in the first six months of 2022 and has $4,850 on hand.

Chastain’s contributors include Melissa Bottoms, a former Cobb Leadership member and owner of The Retreat, a senior-living residence in Marietta ($1,000); the campaign of fellow Republican board member Randy Scamihorn ($500); Georgia Public Service Commissioner and former Cobb commissioner Stan Wise ($300); and former Cobb Commission Chairman and Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens ($125).

The biggest donors for Pozniak, an educational consultant, include Democrats for Educational Equity, a Washington, D.C. political action committee that contributed $3,000.

She also has a $1,000 donation from Christine Ortiz, a Florida-based “equity-centered” design entrepreneur who attended the Harvard graduate education school—where Pozniak earned her doctorate—and who has created K-12 “microschools.”

Her other $1,000 donors include James Garvey, an attorney and former state board of education member in Louisiana, and Anne Mellen, an Atlanta employment and labor attorney.

Outgoing Democratic board member Charisse Davis chipped in a contribution of $105 to Pozniak’s campaign.

Last week, Pozniak announced she had been called up for six weeks of duty in the U.S. Army Reserve, where she is a captain and adviser on educational issues.

She said she will return to active campaigning by mid-September.

The school board clashes have included the Cobb school senior property tax exemption; racial, diversity and equity issues; the Cobb County School District’s response to COVID-19; and a special review conducted last year by Cognia, the district’s accrediting agency.

Democrats Jaha Howard and Charisse Davis, at the center of many of those controversies and whose 2018 elections reduced what had been a 6-1 GOP majority, are not seeking re-election this year.

Chastain is the only Republican incumbent on the November ballot. Davis, whose Post 6 currently includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters, will be succeeded by Democrat Nichelle Davis, a former classroom teacher, who is unopposed.

That redistricted post’s East Cobb footprint has been reduced to include only areas along Powers Ferry Road.

There is a general election battle for Howard’s Post 2, which takes up the Campbell and Osborne clusters.

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Kell HS students create art for Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame inductees

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Kell art students Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame
Retired Atlanta Falcons kicker Morten Andersen with Laura LaQuaglia, the former art director at Kell High School, and artwork created by former Kell student Kennedy Leggett. Photo: CCSD

It’s taken a couple of years, but some artwork created by former Kell High School students in conjunction with the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame finally got a public viewing this week.

A belated 2020 induction ceremony took place on Monday, Aug. 1, the first day of the new school year in the Cobb County School District, and artwork prepared for each inductee was presented in person.

The Kell art department began a partnership with the Hall of Fame in 2014 when Corky Kell, the late Wheeler High School football coach and Kell school namesake, was inducted posthumously.

Laura LaQuaglia, the former Kell art director who’s now the Supervisor of Learning Design and Visual Arts for the Cobb school district, was on hand for the presentations.

The inductees included former Atlanta Falcons placekicker Morten Andersen, former Atlanta Hawks center Dikembe Mutombo, and ex-Georgia Tech football All-American Calvin Johnson.

Mutombo’s artwork was created by a basketball player—Kya Williams, a star point guard on Kell’s 2020 Georgia High School Association Class 5A state runner-up team.

“The induction ceremony events are always an exciting time where student artwork is celebrated,” LaQuaglia said in a release issued by the Cobb school district.

“Normally, the students would get to meet the esteemed athletes they have researched, but because of the quick notice of the rescheduled event, we were not able to have the former students present at the event.”

Since 2017, the partnership has continued under her successor, Julie Denison.

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Cobb DOT to start Bill Murdock Road-Pine Road realignment

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Proposed Bill Murdock Road-Pine Road realignment
Cobb DOT will remove the “S” curve intersection and place it nearer to the new Walton sports complex.

Design work for a planned realignment of the intersection of Bill Murdock Road and Pine Road at Walton High School will be the subject of a public hearing Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

It’s one of several Cobb 2022 SPLOST projects by Cobb DOT that requires public hearings because the engineering and design costs exceed $100,000.

Design and engineering work for other road projects in the East Cobb area on Tuesday’s agenda include the following:

  • Holly Springs corridor improvements
  • Shallowford at Gordy Parkway West
  • Canton Road corridor improvements
  • Barnes Mill Road sidewalk

Those are specified as line items in the Cobb 2022 SPLOST notebook. The Bill Murdock-Pine Road project is not, as it’s lumped into a category for improvements in a school zone.

The realignment is part of ongoing construction at Walton of a new sports complex, which will house a varsity baseball field and tennis courts.

We asked the county for more details about the realignment, and Cobb DOT said that “S” curve will be removed, and pedestrian movements between the school and Pine Road will be improved in coordination with the Cobb County School District.

There’s not a cost estimate for the design or construction work included in Tuesday’s agenda item. A total of $4.1 million has been designated for SPLOST collections for school-zone DOT projects countywide through the end of 2027.

Construction on the Walton athletic complex is just getting underway with groundclearing of the nearly 25-acre tract. That project, which costs $6.7 million and is funded through the Cobb Education IV SPLOST, is expected to be completed by December.

Access points will be on Pine Road for the baseball field and Providence Road for the tennis courts. There will be parking for 80 vehicles.

The Holly Springs Road project is estimated to cost $3.9 million and includes improving the intersection at Post Oak Tritt Road.

The Canton Road corridor improvements have a project cost of $2.4 million and will stretch along much of that route.

Improvements at Shallowford Road and Gordy Parkway West are estimated to cost $700,000.

Those are all “Tier 1” projects in the Cobb 2022 SPLOST, which began collecting sales-tax revenues in January after being approved by voters in 2020. It is expected to generate $750 million in revenues both for county projects and those in Cobb’s six cities.

The Cobb DOT public hearings Tuesday will take place at the start of the meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).

The full agenda can be found by clicking here; also on the agenda is a final draft of the 2040 Cobb County Comprehensive Plan 5-Year Update to be submitted tothe Atlanta Regional Commission. Agenda item here; final draft here.

The hearing also will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.

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Eastside Christian School to begin high school in fall 2023

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Eastside Christian School is announcing it will begin offering high school classes starting in the fall of 2023, starting with the ninth grade.Eastside Christian School to start high school

Dr. Tiffany Stark, the head of school, made the announcement in a video that was posted recently on the school’s Facebook page.

She said the school’s board and Eastside Baptist Church elders “unanimously” approved the addition of high school, with grades 10, 11 and 12 to be added in each of the following three years.

“We have been praying and dreaming about this for nearly two years,” Stark said in the video. “After much discussion and prayer, we believe the Lord is telling us to move forward with a high school here at ECS.”

Eastside Christian, which opened in 1983, for a time offered ninth grade classes. It currently enrolls more than 200 students in grades K-8.

Stark said “many families” of Eastside students have been asking about the possibility of having a high school during the last two years, “and the interest of a high school was clearly present.

“Given the current nature of education in our nation, we know that many families are seeking a place where their children can learn and remain rooted in the truth of God’s word,” she said.

“We believe that God is calling us to start a high school at Eastside to serve that very purpose.”

Eastside will be the third Christian school in the East Cobb area to offer high school, along with Johnson Ferry Christian Academy and Mt. Bethel Christian Academy.

Those also are ministries of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and Mt. Bethel Church, respectively, and they added high school grades one year at a time.

Mt. Bethel’s high school is located on its “North” campus on Post Oak Tritt Road, and began offering classes in 2014. It currently has around 160 students in grades 9-12. 

Johnson Ferry Christian Academy has nearly 500 students in K-12.

Eastside has prepared some additional information about its high school offerings on its website. A proposed schedule includes a block format.

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Cobb school board candidate called up for Army reserve duty

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Catherine Pozniak, who is challenging Post 4 incumbent David Chastain for a seat on the Cobb Board of Education, will be away on U.S. Army Reserve duty the next six weeks.Catherine Pozniak, Cobb school board candidate

She announced in a video on her campaign website that she is reporting for duty next week, and will return in mid-September.

She is a military government specialist for the reserve’s Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command and advises on educational issues.

Pozniak, a Democrat who graduated from Sprayberry High School, has been holding “office hours” sessions with voters at various coffee shops in the area, including Mzizi Coffee on Johnson Ferry Road.

Those and other in-person campaign events will be discontinued while she is on reserve duty.

Post 4 includes the Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry clusters; Chastain, a Republican who is completing his second term, is the current school board chairman.

“As a member of the Army Reserve, I proudly join tens of thousands of men and women who stand ready to serve when our country calls,” said Pozniak, who is a captain and is a third-generation member of her family to serve in the military.

“While I am serving, I ask that you continue to engage with our campaign team through our website and social media,” she added.

Pozniak said she’ll still respond to e-mail, though it will be “a little bit slower” and “I will continue to provide virtual updates.”

Pozniak, whose father is a retired Army officer, graduated from Sprayberry in 1997 and attended Daniell Middle School and Kincaid Elementary School.

After teaching on a Lakota reservation in South Dakota, Pozniak was an assistant state superintendent of education for fiscal operations in Louisiana and the head of an educational non-profit in Baton Rouge, La.

She currently is principal at Watershed Advisors, an educational and workforce consultancy. This is her first campaign for public office.

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Tommy Nobis Center provides COVID-19 kits to Cobb students

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Tommy Nobis Center Covid Kits

The Northeast Cobb-based Tommy Nobis Center has produced and distributed more than 2,100 COVID-19 preventtion kits for Cobb school students with disabilities and their families.

The kits contain masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and COVID education materials and were assembled by the center’s EYES (Early Youth Employment Services) summer program participants during the summer.

More from the Nobis Center, which also provided the photo above:

The initiative was made possible by support from the Cobb County Community Development Block Grant and provided hands-on training and work experience for students with disabilities while allowing them to give back to their community and support their peers in a unique and valuable way.

“The recent surge in COVID-19 cases within Cobb County continues to cause concern across our community,” says Dave Ward, President and CEO of Tommy Nobis Center. “This project gave students the opportunity to work and contribute to the wellbeing of their fellow students.”

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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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