“Rob” speaking to the Cobb Board of Education on Oct 18, is the founder of an intelligence firm working with the Cobb County School District.
The Cobb County School District’s new partner on safety issues is an intelligence firm that wasn’t identified last week when making a presentation about the new plans before the Cobb Board of Education.
The AJC on Friday revealed the company is the Servius Group, and its CEO and founder is Rob Sarver, and also reported that the district has confirmed that information.
At the meeting last week, the district wouldn’t say how much money it’s spending, but Friday told the newspaper it has has spent less than $200,000 on a non-contractual basis.
At the Oct. 18 school board meeting, four intelligence officials, including a man who identified himself only as “Rob” (above) , who said he was a former Navy SEAL, broadly outlined services they’ll be provide in what Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said would be a long-term association.
They include scraping social media accounts and using a bevy of behavioral indicators to detect possible threats and risks before they happen.
Other efforts involve counterintelligence techniques as well as employing data science and machine-learning components.
While the new partnership came about in the wake of the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School, the new measures are also designed to address gang activity, cyberviolence and other safety threats.
The AJC reported Friday that “the district said Servius would only get basic school directory information such as what schools share with the companies that produce yearbooks, textbooks and diplomas.”
The company has conducted risk assessments at three unidentified schools in the Cobb district and will be conducting others on all campuses, according to Ragsdale’s remarks last week.
The report said Sarver confirmed that information and said that Servius has worked with schools “elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad.”
Servius Group is based in Florida but there’s little other public information available. A domain name tied to the company is parked with no additional content.
Ragsdale said last week that most of the funding for the intelligence firm will come from previously budgeted sources and a state school safety grant.
The Georgia legislature this year approved an amount of $47,124 per school in state funding to be used for security initiatives.
On Thursday, State Rep. Devan Seabaugh, a Republican from Marietta, issued a release saying that after brainstorming with Ragsdale about the issue, “I was able to connect the superintendent with highly trained intelligence officials I’ve collaborated with on other projects to explore how cutting-edge technology might be utilized to proactively identify potential threats to school safety.”
“It is certainly a step in the right direction in helping keep our kids, teachers and staff safe, and along with the safety measures already in place I think this approach could serve as a model program for other school districts across the state.”
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Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale with teacher of the year recipients Jamiliah Weathersby (L) of East Cobb Middle School and Evan Howard of Mabry Middle School.
The Cobb County School District gathered school-level teacher of the year honorees this week at Wheeler High School for a celebration.
The event took place in Wildcat Arena, as students from some of the schools cheered on the teachers in a pep-rally format.
They included Karen Wright, the Cobb school district’s teacher of the year, from Big Shanty Elementary School.
Here are the individual teachers of the year from schools in East Cobb:
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“An off-the-shelf solution won’t work” when it comes to school safety, Cobb school board members were told Thursday.
A group of private high-tech professionals with experience in military and national security operations has conducted safety assessments at three schools in the Cobb County School District and will eventually do the same for other schools.
That’s according to Superintendent Chris Ragsdale, who on Thursday announced a new “partnership” with a company that signals “a new era” in an effort to become more proactive about school safety.
He did not identify the schools, nor did he name those doing the assessments.
“Although they were impressed with our schools’ preparedness, they identified safety solutions that could be employed and tailored specifically for each Cobb school,” the district said in a statement issued later Thursday.
Nor did Ragsdale say how much that partnership will cost, but that “local funds are available” that have previously been secured and that there is state funding for school security and safety efforts that he could explain in executive session.
In the wake of a fatal mass-shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Cobb and other school districts have been responding to increased concerns about safety and in particular the presence of guns on school campuses.
Ragsdale said the intelligence operations will supplement, and not replace, existing safety measures headlined by the Cobb Shield program and that feature regular Code Red drills.
The Cobb school district spends around $35 million a year for safety and security measures, mostly with its police department of 85 officers.
“No price is too high to protect students and staff,” he said.
Since the Apalachee shootings, threats have been made at a number of Cobb schools, including Walton High School and Dickerson Middle School, but the district said there have been no active threats on campuses.
The safety presentation Ragsdale promised in September took place at a Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday night and featured four individuals with intelligence expertise.
A private intelligence company will be conducting security assessments across the Cobb school district.
Citing security concerns, they also used only their first names when explaining an overview of the services that will be provided in an ongoing relationship.
“It’s a process, not a product,” Ragsdale said of the district’s work with the intelligence company.
It’s a multi-level process that involves collecting intelligence information on potentially threatening individuals, including using counterintelligence techniques, making a “socio-cognitive” analysis of behavioral risks as well as employing data science and machine-learning components.
The intelligence company was co-founded by a former Navy SEAL, who led the presentation, along with a former federal counterintelligence officer, a cognitive scientist and a data scientist.
To view following slides that were presented to the school board Thursday, click the middle button.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
The intelligence officials focused on proactive strategies that are designed to help students, teachers, staff and parents detect trouble before it arises.
A woman who told school board members she has been a counterintelligence agent supporting the Federal Bureau of Investigation explained 16 safety indicators that will be employed “to help equip school officials to stop these threats themselves.”
Another woman summarized data science and machine-learning elements that provide real-time risk monitoring indicators.
And “Robert,” a cognitive scientist, laid out strategies to identify psychological, cultural and social drivers behind potentially threatening behavior.
Counterintelligence strategies are designed “to help equip school officials to stop these threats themselves.”
When asked by school board member Becky Sayler how these measures would involve community, he responded that they were designed to identify “early on where support is needed and then work with stakeholders to get those kids the support they need.”
When school board member Brad Wheeler asked “What can parents do?” Ragsdale responded that “parents need to know the warning signs . . . . but we’re educators. We don’t know how to spot the warning signs.”
The monitoring would include, but not be limited to, scraping social media data “to customize a solution for the community,” he said.
“One school will be different from the others.”
“Rob,” the intelligence company CEO, explained that the crux of his company’s work is to customize down to the school level, since every campus has different layouts, entry points and logistics, as well as socio-cultural dynamics.
“If you have seen one school, you have seen only one school,” he said. “An off-the-shelf solution will not work.”
He also said that “over the past months, our work has put Cobb County on the forefront of school safety in the state of Georgia and on a national level.”
Ragsdale said the next steps are to identify “the next set of schools” to undergo security assessments, but a timetable wasn’t mentioned.
“Our parents have to know that when they bring their kids to school, they’re safe,” Ragsdale said.
Taking additional steps to enhance safety by working with those whose expertise is beyond what Cobb currently provides is the only option, he said.
“It’s not needed, it’s required, if we want to maintain student and staff safety. This is not a proof of concept. This is our partnership, and we’re looking forward to a long relationship.”
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Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday that six more books have been removed from library shelves and curriculum lists because of sexually explicit content.
It’s the second month in a row that many titles have been removed as the district continues and ongoing process of flagging materials that are explicit, lewd, obscene, vulgar, or otherwise inappropriate for minors.
The count is up to 32 books that have been removed, out more than a million titles circulating within the Cobb school district.
The latest books that have been removed altogether are:
“The Summer of Owen Todd,” by Tony Abbott
“More Happy Than Not,” by Adam Silvera
“This Book is Gay,” by Juno Dawson
“We Know It Was You,” by Maggie Thrash
“The Sun and Her Flowers,” by Rupi Kaur
“City of Saints and Thieves,” by Natalie Anderson
“This is not a book ban,” Ragsdale said, referencing critics who have been making that claim since the removals began last year (his full remarks here).
He repeated concerns about parental rights and said that educators “do not want to be on the front lines of the culture wars and do not want to use their classrooms and instructional time to promote a social activists’ agenda that has not nothing to do with instruction.”
Ragsdale said that position is consistent with the Cobb school district’s deference to parents on COVID-19 matters, including masks and vaccines.
“Not only is protecting students from sexually explicit content the best—the only—decision, it also protects decisions which should be made at home by parents.”
Most of his broadsides were leveled at parents he said were claiming book bans for political reasons. Ragsdale urged those opposing the removals to read the books.
“No matter your decision, our board has and continues to hold me accountable to the teaching of your children while you raise your family.
“We will continue to focus on that education. A focus that ensures that the education we provide is the best in metro Atlanta, but is consistently recognized as one of the best in the nation.”
An independent group of parents has compiled a list of the removed books in Cobb and placed in the Books In Schools website.
“Our mission is to provide clear and comprehensive reviews of book content, focusing on areas of concern such as profanity, nudity, and sexual content,” the group claimed on its site, but didn’t identify any individuals.
“We aim to make these reviews accessible to all parents, empowering them to make informed decisions about the books their children read.”
At Thursday’s Cobb school board meetings, none of those critics spoke during public comment, but a local representative of Gays Against Groomers spoke in support of the book removals.
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As he’s campaigned for public office for the first time, John Cristadoro said he’s heard from parents and others who’ve suggested that the Cobb County School District needs to consider making considerable change to improve.
He couldn’t disagree more.
The parent of a Walton varsity volleyball player and a Dickerson Middle School student, Cristadoro said he’s running for a seat on the Cobb Board of Education to preserve what he says is a successful formula for all students to succeed.
“Cobb County schools are amazing,” Cristadoro said in a recent interview with East Cobb News, adding that his primary objective, if elected to the open Post 5 seat, “is to help keep Cobb schools excellent.”
He’s a Republican facing Democrat Laura Judge (our profile of her is here) in the Nov. 5 general election, with the winner succeeding retiring four-term GOP member David Banks.
Post 5 includes most of the Pope, Walton and Wheeler attendance zones and some of the Sprayberry zone (see map below), and was redrawn by the Georgia legislature this year after being under a federal court order due to the Voting Rights Act.
Cristadoro, a digital media entrepreneur who coaches his son’s 8th grade football team, is aware of the partisan dynamic at stake in this election.
Republicans hold a 4-3 majority, and GOP incumbents Randy Scamihorn and Brad Wheeler are also up for re-election.
Wheeler and Banks both narrowly won re-election in 2020, and since then partisan division has increased.
Cristadoro was recruited to run by former Cobb Chamber of Commerce president John Loud, a business client, who also is backing Republican Cobb Commission Chair candidate Kay Morgan.
But Cristadoro said he listens to Democratic voters and believes his priorities shouldn’t have a partisan edge.
The board’s GOP majority and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale have come in for criticism on a number of topics, but Cristadoro defends the records of both.
“I could care less about partisan affiliation,” he said, adding that what he calls a “hyperpartisan” atmosphere “is what happens when some people are upset.”
He said the board has done well in its key roles—approving the superintendent’s contract, backing state academic standards, being a voice for constituents, ensuring academic excellence and continuing accreditation and passing a balanced budget—all of which have the Cobb school district positioned for continued success.
Safety
The recent fatal mass shootings at Apalachee High School have prompted calls in Cobb for stronger security measures.
Cristadoro was coaching the Walton 8th grade football team recently in a game at the South Cobb High School stadium when shots rang out. One person was injured, and a 14-year-old was detained.
“We heard something go pop, and realized it was a shooting,” he said.
Within a minute, “there were like 40 cops and we took cover in an auditorium.
“At that moment, there was no safer place in Cobb County” because of the quick response from law enforcement, which included the presence of officers from a nearby Cobb Police precinct.
“There are always threats to our kids,” Cristadoro said, but he’s confident the Cobb school district is adequately addressing the issue (Ragsdale has said he’s making a safety presentation this month).
Book removals
Cristadoro also supports Ragsdale’s efforts to remove books from school libraries that have sexually explicit content.
He said he opened up one of the removed books, “Flamer,” and wondered, “why would a parent want to expose their kid to this? It’s the job of the schools to evaluate inappropriate content.”
He said he doesn’t understand those parents and others who complain of “book bans.”
“Why do they want to die on that hill? If you talk to a sensible parent, they want to have their parental rights protected.”
Academics
Cristadoro’s daughter is an honor student at Walton, but he said he understands speculation surrounding the school that “achievers get more attention.”
He doesn’t think there needs to be dramatic change to boost students at all levels of the academic performance level. Improved test scores across the board reflect efforts to focus on areas of need, rather than through major changes.
“Can we improve?” he said. “Yes, but in general things are pretty great here. We have a solid reputation for academic excellence, and I want to continue that.”
Cristadoro also supports efforts to introduce high school students to entrepreneurial initiatives.
Finances
Cristadoro thinks the district has been a good steward of taxpayer money, despite complaints from critics about a $50 million proposed special events center that eventually was scuttled.
Cristadoro said he doesn’t know “all that went into that decision,” but said some district critics “pick and choose” their topics.
He said he “couldn’t say yes or no” to whether he would have supported the special events center—with opponents revealing site plans the district never released, showing it to be on a larger scale than initially proposed.
But with a district annual budget of more than $1 billion, Cristadoro said he’s puzzled that the focus is on only a number of items.
“They seem to beat the same issues,” he said. “Sure these things deserve a conversation, but it’s over and over and over again.”
Common ground
Despite some of the sharp differences on key issues, Cristadoro said his discussions with parents and potential constituents have been positive and constructive.
He senses that most of them are more concerned with their children’s progress in school and not focused on a party affiliation next to a candidate’s name, or some of the topics that command attention at school board meetings.
“There are a lot of people who are issue-focused and not candidate-focused, and I think that’s great,” he said.
Some Republicans have said a Democratic board majority would usher in the wrong kind of change, and most likely lead to a new superintendent.
Cristadoro hasn’t gone that far, but said that “people really do appreciate our district” and aren’t pining for a a comprehensive overhaul as a means to making progress.
“We could always be working together to focus on what’s right,” he said, “and not just on what’s wrong.”
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Two high schools in East Cobb led the Cobb County School District in overall ACT scores in 2024.
Wheeler and Walton, in fact, were tied at the top, with average composite scores of 26 (out of a possible 36), according to the Cobb school district.
The ACT (American College Testing) tests students in four subject areas—English, math, reading and science, and combines those to determine a composite score as well.
Pope’s composite score of 25.2 and Lassiter’s 24.0 were third, and fourth, respectively, among the 16 traditional high schools in Cobb, whose district-wide composite score was 22.8.
“Cobb students are well-prepared for college, careers, and beyond – ACT scores are another way their parents can be confident in the education they are receiving,” said Cobb school board chairman Randy Scamihorn in a district release.
The district-wide scores and most individual school scores were up from 2023, and are still rebounding from the start of the COVID period (see 2021 scores, for example).
The Wheeler and Walton scores for 2024 are in the Top 10 among public high schools in Georgia.
The table below details the ACT scores at East Cobb high schools; the number in parenthesis next to the school name indicates the number of students at that school who took the test.
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Laura Judge has said that her son inspired her run for the Cobb Board of Education more than a year ago.
As early voting gets underway in the 2024 general election, Judge reiterated that kids—her own and well as others—remain the focal point of her campaign.
“The [school board] representative didn’t match what was in our home,” Judge said, a reference to retiring school board member David Banks.
Running to succeed him, she added, is “being that role model for them.”
A Democrat and first-time candidate for public office, Judge is seeking the Post 5 post, which comprises most of the Walton and Wheeler and some of the Pope attendance zones.
Her daughter is in 5th grade at Mt. Bethel Elementary School and her son is a freshman at the School for International Studies at North Cobb High School, a magnet program.
Judge, who runs a content marketing company with her husband, will be facing Republican John Cristadoro, also a political newcomer and Walton-zone parent. Neither candidate had a primary opponent.
The Post 5 seat is one of three on the seven-member Cobb school board currently occupied by Republicans, who hold a 4-3 majority.
While the East Cobb-based seat is in one of the remaining Republican strongholds in Cobb County, Democrat Charisse Davis represented the area when Post 6 still included the Walton and Wheeler zones.
In recent years, partisan differences have become more pronounced on the board. In announcing her candidacy last year, Judge said she doesn’t want “radical change,” and reiterated that point in a recent East Cobb News interview.
“This should be about our kids,” she said. “My platform—I don’t think these are partisan things.”
You can visit Judge’s campaign website by clicking here; East Cobb News has interviewed Cristadoro and will be posting his profile shortly.
“I want our district to stay the beacon it is but make improvements along the way so everyone can feel included,” Judge said.
Her three priorities would address fiscal, literacy and communications issues she said can be better in the Cobb County School District.
The Post 5 lines redrawn in 2023 include most of the Walton and Wheeler and some of the Pope attendance zones.
Finances
A former member of Watching the Funds-Cobb—a citizens group that scrutinizes Cobb school district finances—Judge said a decision by the board in July to cancel plans for a $50 million events center exemplifies spending and communications concerns.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale strongly pushed the center as a venue for graduation ceremonies, but the district didn’t release a detailed site plan.
Watching the Funds was opposed from the beginning, and released those plans shortly before Ragsdale recommended the project be scuttled. The plans included an arena-style facility and expanded meeting space.
“It should have come to someone leaking the plans to see what they were doing,” Judge said.
She said she heard from parents who wondered what the value was and how it boosted students’ education.
“We don’t do things sight unseen,” she said. The special events center “was sight unseen.”
Literacy
Judge got involved with literacy issues after her daughter’s struggles with reading.
She said the Cobb school district has made strides with post-COVID literacy initiatives, but she still has “not seen measurable goals.”
Judge supports new programs along those lines that include more dyslexia screening, among other things.
Right now, she said those issues are largely undertaken at the school level, but “I would like to see this addressed as a district.”
She said 75 percent of Cobb students are reading on grade level, and that number hovers around 85 percent at schools in the East Cobb area, but she would like to see those numbers go up.
Communications
Cobb school district and school board critics have complained for several years that there’s not enough transparency on key issues, including meeting agendas and the budget.
Cobb posts meeting agendas roughly 48 hours in advance of meetings, the minimum for doing so for in Georgia school districts.
Judge would like to see those agendas posted even earlier, to give the public more time to digest what’s coming up.
The same goes for public budget hearings that are required by law. But she said the schedules for those hearings need to be made “more responsive,” and not right before the budget is adopted in the spring.
Judge also would like to see the Cobb school district revive the parent advisory councils that were at schools.
She said that the Cobb school district’s success may have prompted some defensiveness in response to some of those critics.
“My impression is they don’t like criticism,” she said. “When you’ve done well for so long, I can understand that.
“People come here for the schools, and when [the distict is] questioned, it’s a defense mechanism.”
She added that “we can work with constructive criticism. It gives us an idea of how we can improve.”
Safety
Keeping students in a safe environment is “not just about shootings,” Judge said.
The recent deadly shooting at Apalachee High School prompted a number of threats in Cobb, including Dickerson Middle School, and Walton High School, that the Cobb school district has said are not actual threats to those campuses.
“I know our district takes every threat as a serious threat, and I believe we have really good security,” she said, referring to the district’s police department.
“But what I miss is a conversation with the parents. The community just needs the reassurance.”
At the September board meeting, Ragsdale said he would be making a security presentation when the board meets again later this week.
Judge said other safety issues concern those students who don’t feel secure due to such matters as anti-Semitic threats. The Cobb school district has done away with a “No Place for Hate” program prepared by the Atlanta office of the Anti-Defamation League.
Book removals
Judge has been among those parents questioning Ragsdale’s removals of books in school libraries he said contain sexually explicit content.
“I believe that our superintendent thinks he is keeping our kids safe,” Judge said. “What I can’t entirely agree with is the superintendent’s unilateral decision to remove books he has deemed
inappropriate. True parental involvement and choice means having a transparent process allowing parents or caregivers to review and challenge book removals.”
Judge said the Cobb school district should use the expertise of media specialists “to make sure that our students are reflected and educated properly. Their voices in this process are also important. This ensures a balanced approach respecting all viewpoints.”
“What happens if a book removed reflects our community’s values? Some of these books that have been removed have been on our shelves for years, why did the district just find out about them? How do we need to address our operational or procurement policies as a team focused on our students? Both our board and district policies must reflect a wide range of perspectives, ensuring educational content meets the needs of our community and follows state standards, while fostering a respectful dialogue among all stakeholders.”
Leadership challenge
In summing up her campaign pitch, Judge said that “I want our leadership to match the stellar schools that we have.”
She said that she’s “not going to be someone that’s going to pick fights. Our kids should be able to see us working together. We agree on a lot more than we disagree, because it’s not just about my kids, but all of our kids.”
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For the third year in a row, Lassiter High School led the Cobb County School District in its graduation rate in 2024.
According to data released by the Georgia Department of Education, 98 percent of Lassiter’s Class of 2024 (435 of 444 seniors) received their diplomas in May.
That’s just above 97.6 percent for Walton and Harrison and 97.3 percent for Pope.
Cobb’s overall graduation rate was 87.9 percent, up from 87.7 percent in 2023 and above the Georgia average of 85.4 percent, according to a Cobb school district release.
In addition, the graduation rates at Sprayberry High School was 90.8 percent, a 3.3-percent increase from last year, the highest jump in the district.
The figures are compiled as part of what the state calls the “4-Year Cohort Graduation Rate.”
That is defined as follows:
“The number of students who graduate in four years with a regular high school diploma, divided by the number of students who form the adjusted cohort for the graduation class.”
The federal rate is calculated in the ninth grade, and includes even students who are enrolled only for a day.
Cobb also produces what it calls “a more complete” graduation rate, comparing the actual class sizes as they go through the 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
Those numbers have Kell and Pope at 100 percent, and with every other Cobb high school at least atd 97,3 percent.
“For students enrolled in Cobb Schools for at least 2 years, the District’s graduation rate jumps by 5.9 percentage points to 93.8% and steadily increases the longer a student is enrolled,” the Cobb release said.
“For students enrolled all four years of high school, Cobb’s ‘real’ graduation rate skyrockets to 99.1%.”
The Georgia Department of Education said its 85.4 percent graduation rate, which rose from 84,4 percent last year, is an all-time high.
“A total of 115 Georgia school districts recorded graduation rates at or above 90%, and 44 districts recorded rates at or above 95%. Georgia’s statewide graduation rate has increased by 18 percentage points since 2011,” Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods said in a release.
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Pope High School students Ansley Bruder and Felipe Zimelewicz Pires are among the 74 students selected from across the state to serve on the Georgia Superintendent of Schools 2024-2025 Student Advisory Council.
According to the Georgia Department of Education, ” these students will meet with Superintendent [Richard] Woods to provide feedback on the impact of state policies in the classroom.
“Members of the Student Advisory Council will also discuss other education-related issues, serve as the Superintendent’s ambassadors to their respective schools, and participate in service projects to benefit schools and students.”
Bruder, a junior, and Pires, a senior, are the only students serving on the council who are from the Cobb County School District. They were chosen from among more than 1,500 applicants.
Council members are from grades 10-12 in Georgia public high schools. Their application process includes writing an essay relating to education issues, “including curriculum and graduation requirements; the impact of federal- and state-mandated assessments in the classroom; the importance of teacher recruitment and retention efforts to students’ classroom experience; and access to opportunities and resources for students in rural areas,” the Georgia DoE said in a release.
“”These young leaders represent the future of Georgia, and their voices are crucial as we continue to shape the direction of education in our state. I look forward to hearing their ideas, insights, and perspectives as we work together to ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed,” Woods said in the release.
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High school marching bands from the Cobb County School District and Marietta City Schools will be featured on the first two Mondays in October in the Cobb-Marietta Marching Band Exhibition.
The event—which dates back to 1972—takes place Oct. 7 and Oct. 14 at Walter Cantrell Stadium at McEachern High School (2400 New Macland Road, Powder Springs) starting at 7 p.m. each evening.
Admission is $7 for adults and $5 for students, and the Cobb school district will be live-streaming the festivities.
The bands from Kell and Wheeler high schools will be performing on Oct. 7, while the Lassiter, Pope, Sprayberry and Walton bands are scheduled for Oct. 14.
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Pope’s overall 2024 SAT score was a 15-point improvement from the year before.
Four high schools in East Cobb are among the Top 25 in Georgia in overall Scholastic Aptitude Test results for the Class of 2024, according to data released Wednesday by the Georgia Department of Education.
Walton (1249), Pope (1194), Lassiter (1182) and Wheeler (1167) led the Cobb County School District, whose overall mean score of 1105 was the best for a large school district in metro Atlanta.
The SAT is administered every spring for seniors, who are tested on evidence-based reading and writing and math, and the maximum score is 1,600.
Walton’s “mean score” was fifth in the state, Pope’s was 11th, Lassiter’s was 13th and Wheeler’s was tied for 21st, according to state education figures.
For the most part, those results are only slightly different from the Class of 2023. Pope’s overall mean of 1194 was a 15-point improvement from 2023.
The Cobb school district said in a release that its “average for the evidence-based reading and writing section was 565 out of a maximum of 800, 2 points higher than in 2023. The district average for the math section was 540 out of a maximum of 800, 1 point lower than in 2023.”
The charts below detail the SAT results for East Cobb schools and the Cobb school district, and rank the Top 25 schools in the state for overall mean score.
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Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday he will make a detailed school safety presentation to the public in October.
During a Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday, he said that while “I will not identify systems and structures designed to keep our students, teachers, and staff safe,” additional safety measures will be announced next month.
His comments (full video here) come in the wake of the deadly shootings at Apalachee High School in Winder earlier this month, and following calls from local citizens for more open discussion of safety measures in the Cobb County School District.
Ragsdale was responding in particular to demands that board member Tre’ Hiutchins’ previous attempts to put such a discussion on the agenda be reconsidered.
But he said that “I fully appreciate the desire to know and the frustration that you cannot. However, law enforcement and school safety experts repeatedly caution that school safety plans should not be discussed in public—ever.”
He said the Cobb school district spends $35 million a year on student and staff safety, including the efforts of an 81-officer district police department.
“Our Board receives briefings in executive session, Ragsdale said, adding that he told the board on Thursday “of expanded threat assessment and abatement measures that we are investigating in a more detailed discussion. Following the Board’s input, I anticipate bringing a PUBLIC presentation on those aspects we can share without endangering students and staff of those measures during next month’s Board meeting.”
In addition to the Apalachee reaction, the district said it has received more than 60 reports of threats, none of which posed an actual threat to a Cobb school campus.
They included Dickerson Middle School last week and at Walton High School on Tuesday, which was on a brief lockdown after a report of a bomb that the district said “was not an active threat.”
In reference to those incidents, Ragsdale said that “we do not consider any threat ‘false’ until we are confident it is false. And also, please know we do not consider these false threats as pranks and every threat is reported to law enforcement and will likely result in both serious school discipline and criminal prosecution.”
Hutchins’ proposal would add non-certified school support officers and install weapons detection devices at schools and for large events.
For parent Melissa Marten, a frequent critic of Cobb school district, Ragsdale’s pledges weren’t satisfactory.
“All we’ve been asking for is an open discussion for you to consider any and all things that could keep our kids safe,” she said during a public comment Thursday night, “and an acknowledgement of the fear we live with every day. But you refuse.”
Marten asked how would a parent know about how the district’s emergency tip line was being monitored and responded to, and she claimed Ragsdale is “incapable” of extending empathy.
“Whose tips would you take seriously, and whose would you blow off?” Whether the reported threats are real or not, she continued, “it’s taking a toll.”
During his prepared remarks, Ragsdale said that “in general terms, our school safety measures are among the most comprehensive and layered in the State of Georgia.”
He added that “in times less troubled than these, this Board has endured loud and organized opposition to police presence on campus, armed police, safety drills, and even crisis response systems. Despite these critics and criticism, this Board has put the safety of students first.”
Before the meeting Thursday, the district said that students taking part in school walkouts to protest gun violence would be facing suspensions. A special assembly was held Friday morning without incident at the Wheeler High School football stadium to honor the Apalachee victims.
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Amid possible protests on Friday in response to a school shooting in Barrow County, the Cobb County School District said that students who disrupt the school day “will, at a minimum, be suspended.”
Walkouts have been called around the country following the fatal shooting of two students and two teachers earlier this month at Apalachee High School.
The district said in response to further information from East Cobb News that “through national and local social media campaigns, we are aware some students could be planning to participate in a protest on Friday, September 20th, 2024.”
The response wasn’t more specific except to say that “as a reminder to families, we shared information about the District policy related to school attendance and behavior that causes a disruption to the school day.”
Published reports said some students were planning a protest at the Georgia Capitol Thursday to demand gun safety measures in schools, as legislators were meeting to discuss the subject.
The Cobb school district message to parents said that “as we continue to reflect and process the tragedy in Barrow,” students and staff are “actively invited to participate in school-sponsored memorials and the condolences” for the victims.
But “participating in disruptions to school could impact a student’s ability to participate in sports and other extracurriculars.”
One school that has organized a remembrance is Wheeler High School in East Cobb.
Principal Paul Gillihan said in a message to the school community that the homeroom period on Friday will provide an opportunity to “allow students a chance to have their voices heard and not miss any academic class time.”
He said that “this will also allow them to have a designated place (the football stadium) as a safe place to walk out to. The students who participate in this organized and safe event will not receive consequences as this has been cleared by the administration and will not disrupt any instructional time.”
Gillihan’s message said discussions to coordinate such an event began with student council members last week.
Tensions have been heightened in school districts following the Apalachee shooting, in which a 14-year-old student and his father have been charged.
Cobb school district officials said more than 60 reports of “threats” have been investigated since then, but none of them have been deemed a threat to a school campus.
They include Dickerson Middle School and Walton High School, which was subject to a brief lockdown on Tuesday after a bomb threat was reported.
The Cobb school district said that after multiple law enforcement agencies investigated, it was considered “not an actual threat.”
At a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday afternoon, some critics urged the district to discuss school safety plans and in particular, a request by school board member Tre’ Hutchins to increase use of technology to detect weapons.
But his concerns have not made it to the school board agenda.
“Apalachee High School has the same systems in place that we have,” said East Cobb resident Heather Tolley-Bauer of Watching the Funds-Cobb, a watchdog group. “And yet, here we are, another tragedy, all because a gun was brought into a school by a student.
“We are not asking you to share everything, we are asking you to consider everything. It is not a lot to ask. Will you be able to say you did enough? Because right now the answer is no.”
In 2018, following a mass school shooting in Florida, students at several high schools in Cobb, including Walton, Wheeler, Lassiter and Pope, took part in a walkout.
Some campuses locked their front gates, and at Walton school officials led an observance before classes began.
The district handed out in-school suspensions then, but in its message Thursday wasn’t more specific than the threats of class and activity suspensions.
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The Cobb County School District announced Thursday that six more sexually explicit books have been removed from library shelves, bringing to 26 the number of titles that have been withdrawn over the last year.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said during a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday that the most recent removals, like the others, were deemed inappropriate for school children.
They include five books by fantasy author Sarah J. Maas:
“A Court of Wings and Ruin”
“A Court of Thorns and Roses”
“A Court of Mist and Fury”
“A Court of Frost and Starlight
“A Court of Silver Flames”
The other book is “Iron Fire” by David Ball, who writes historical fiction.
The work of both authors is aimed at young adult readers, although Maas’ books are also read by teenagers.
A Maas book was temporarily banned in Charlotte-Mecklenberg (N.C.) schools in late 2023 after a parental complaint.
“A Court of Mist and Fury” was among the 10 “most challenged books” for 2022 according to the American Library Association, covering library, school, and university materials and services.
A recent review of Maas’ work at Entertainment Weekly acknowledged the amount of sexual content in her books, but argues that “the reality of life is that passion, desire, lust, and love all occur alongside sadness, death, and war. Why are so many hell-bent on framing books that acknowledge that reality as lesser titles just because they’re popular with teenage girls (who, frankly, deserve more credit for driving pop culture and taste)?”
“I encourage you, especially those who defend this content, to read the excerpts before doing so,” he said in prepared remarks at the work session.
“Google them. Use community web sites. Go to the book store. Go to the public library. I trust you will conclude that like rated R movies children should not be provided unrestricted access to all media.”
He said the Cobb school district has more than a million total media assets and “will remain broadly inclusive of the diverse individuals, groups, stories, and experiences of our nation.
If parents wish to introduce their children to such subjects outside of schooltime, Ragsdale said, they are free to do so.
But as “a public school serving over 100,000 students, we are not going to impose that choice on other people’s children.”
At a board meeting Thursday night, several parents objected to the continuing book removals, and some wore purple shirts saying “Ban Bias Not Books.”
One of them is Mary Davis, mother of a middle-school student, who read from an author, Emma Kress, who said that “when we ban books, we teach them that some people, possibly even them, can and should be made invisible.”
Quoting Kress again, Davis said that that “in my experience, people, young ones included, a quite good about making choices about what to read.
“It’s a powerful thing that a child can sit down with a book they’re not yet ready for or do not need. It’s a powerful thing for a child to know that the adults surrounding them enough to trust that they can choose books for themselves.
“You can put the books back. You can open the doors to the library and invite children into the joy of reading.”
The Kress book that Davis held up, “Dangerous Play,” is not among those removed from Cobb school libraries.
On Friday, takingAstandcobb said that “our county saw over 40 parents, students, men, women, gay, straight, of faith and not, defend Cobb’s children. We’re supporting a Board that is removing porn from schools and calling out those who support the sexual exploitation of children.”
The group’s leaders are Francisco Vega, a pastor at A.R.C. City Church in West Cobb and parent Arielle Kurtz.
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A group of citizens who say they’re “taking a stand against pornography in Cobb schools” will hold a press conference Thursday before a Cobb Board of Education meeting.
An e-mail from an account called “takingAstandcobb” said the press conference will start at 5 p.m. at the Cobb County School District Central Office, 514 Glover Street, in Marietta and that two school board members will be present.
A follow-up message in response to a question from East Cobb News identified those school board members as Randy Scamihorn and Brad Wheeler, the current and most recent chairmen. Both are Republicans who are up for re-election in November.
When East Cobb News asked for information about “takingAstandcobb,” the response indicated that “we are a group of Cobb Citizens that have fully researched the book contents, and believe the public has a right to be fully informed.”
No names were disclosed.
The message also said that a representative from Gays Against Groomers will be on hand for the press conference.
It’s a national organization that is “fighting back from inside the community against the sexualization, indoctrination and medicalization of children happening under the guise of “LGBTQIA+,” according to its website.
That also includes opposition to “queer theory and gender ideology being taught in the classroom.”
Those issues have been the subject of controversy in the Cobb school district for the last year.
The district has removed 20 books because of what Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said include sexually explicit, lewd, obscene and vulgar content that aren’t appropriate for children.
Cobb schools also fired a Due West Elementary School teacher last year for reading a book to her fifth-grade students about a boy who questions his gender identity. The district said that was a violation of a new “divisive concepts” law in education in Georgia.
The teacher, Katie Rinderle, is suing the district.
At the same time, those protesting the book removals have said the objections from the district are largely due to LGBTQ content.
But at a school board meeting in August, East Cobb resident JoEllen Smith read from books that complained explicit content.
Her remarks were not aired on the district’s livestream due to “federal regulations” because of their explicit nature.
Later, Smith said that “there are hundreds of pro-LBGT books that don’t include kiddie porn. And it’s unfairly conflating homosexuality to pedophilia which is stigmatizing our gay youth.”
The Cobb school board will hold a work session at 3 p.m. Thursday and a voting meeting at 7 p.m., with an executive session in between.
You can view the agendas for the public meetings by clicking here.
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A bomb threat was reported at Walton High School on Tuesday, according to a message that went out to the school community.
But the Cobb County School District said late Tuesday afternoon in response for information from East Cobb News that “there is not an active threat to Walton High School.”
A message from Principal Stephanie Santoro that was sent out around 3 p.m. said that the threat was called into 911, and “our team immediately reported the threat to multiple law enforcement agencies.”
She said in the message those agencies are now conducting an investigation.
“Currently, while there is an increased law enforcement presence, there has been no interruption to the school day, and dismissal is on schedule,” according to the message, which was not more specific.
There were social media reports of a lockdown at Walton that the district did not confirm nor deny when asked by East Cobb News.
It’s the second time an East Cobb school has been what appears to be the subject of false threats in as many weeks, two weeks after a deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder.
Last week, the Cobb County School District said a student at Dickerson Middle School was charged with making threats, but said the student is “not a threat to the school.”
It was among the more than 50 such incidents the district said it has received since the Apalachee shootings that have “not been proven to be actual threats to a Cobb school.”
WSB-TV reported Tuesday afternoon that in addition to the Walton incident, Northview High School in North Fulton went on lockdown, and that a sweep of that campus by police “determined that there was no threat.”
The Cobb school district said that there was no evacuation at Walton.
“We take each reported threat very seriously, including increased law enforcement so the school day can continue without disruption,” a district spokesperson told East Cobb News in a statement.
On Tuesday, the message that went out to the Walton school community said the number of reported threats in the Cobb school district has now grown to more than 60, and that “almost all these incidents were the result of bad behavior on the part of people who are seeking to disrupt the school day.
“Our administration, the District, and law enforcement take every rumored threat seriously and are thoroughly investigating. Once we have an update, we will update you.”
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The chairman of the Cobb Board of Education responded to concerns from parents and students following a deadly school shooting in Georgia last week by saying the board and Cobb County School District “have doubled and tripled down on keeping your children and grandchildren safe” over the long term.
Republican Randy Scamihorn, who is up for re-election in November, said in a “Just the Facts” newsletter issued by the district that he’s heard from parents and students since four people were killed at Apalachee High School in Winder.
He reiterated that parents should visit the district’s Cobb Shield vertical devoted to safety issues, and that includes information about a tip line and the district’s public safety staff.
Scamihorn said the mother of high school twins wrote to ask “can we do something about treating schools so they do not seem like prisons?”
A retired Cobb educator, Scamihorn replied that “we know some of our safety decisions are inconvenient. Some of my family members are teachers, and yes, I am required to check in just like everyone else. If we have to choose between convenience and keeping your children safer, we choose safety every time.”
In his newsletter, Scamihorn didn’t reference an incident this week that led to criminal charges against a Dickerson Middle School student for making threatening statements toward another student.
The district said the student is not considered a threat to the school, and that’s one of more than 50 reported incidents that have “not been proven to be actual threats to a Cobb school.”
Nor did Scamihorn indicate if the school board, which meets next week, would take up a proposal by colleague Tre’ Hutchins to implement further safety measures.
They include implementing a School Support Officers program of non-post certified personnel to assist the district’s 81-member police force, and asking for technological assistance for detecting weapons at schools and at events, games and other functions in the district.
Hutchins also is asking for a financial analysis of those three items.
He proposed those measures following the shootings of former students at the McEachern High School parking lot in February (and a stabbing incident at Sprayberry in March), but couldn’t get a discussion placed on the board meeting agenda.
That’s because board policy requires either the superintendent, chairman or a four-member board majority to add agenda items.
Earlier this week, Heather Tolley-Bauer of Watching the Funds-Cobb, a school watchdog group, said the policy “is the worst example of representative democracy that you will ever see. . . . We are talking about enhancing the safety and security of our schools and they want to call us the activists?”
At the end of his newsletter Friday, Scamihorn countered critics who “have argued for ‘defunding the police,’ taking guns out of school police officers’ hands, moving money from safety to other areas of interest, blaming community crime on the schools, criticized safety drills, and fought against money spent on the crisis response system in our schools.
“Instead, the School Board and Superintendent have doubled and tripled down on keeping your children and grandchildren safe. Because of these and other safety investments we have made, the ‘feeling’ our students and parents have is one of security, not fear.”
The board will hold a work session next Thursday afternoon and a voting meeting Thursday night but agendas have not been published.
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The Cobb County School District said Wednesday that a Dickerson Middle School student is facing criminal charges for “making threatening statements.”
A “Dickerson safety message” that was sent to the school community didn’t specify what those statements were, but said that the student is “not a threat to the school.”
The message said that the Cobb school district’s police department and administrators investigated the statements of the Dickerson student in the wake of last week’s fatal school shooting in Winder.
The Cobb school district said in response to a request for comment and further information from East Cobb News that the Dickerson administration learned of the threat “from one student to another.”
But “the details of those charges and the serious, disciplinary consequences are not publicly available,” according to a district spokeswoman, due to state and federal student privacy laws.
She said in a statement to East Cobb News that the district has received more than 50 reported threats in the last six days—since the deaths of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder.
But all of them have “not been proven to be actual threats to a Cobb school,” the district said.
“All applicable policy, and the law, have been strongly enforced and we can confirm there is no active threat to Dickerson’s students or staff,” the spokeswoman said.
The message sent to Dickerson families urged them to help “by talking to your children” about the district’s Cobb Shield safety resource page and the district’s tipline to report incidents.
School districts around metro Atlanta and north Georgia have been pressing charges in similar incidents since the Apalachee incident. A 14-year-old student, Colt Gray, has been charged with four counts of murder, accused to taking an assault rifle to the Winder campus.
His father has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and child cruelty after Barrow County authorities said he bought an AR-15 rifle.
According to a family member, the boy’s mother called the school to warn a counselor less than an hour before the shooting about her son’s mental health issues, according to published reports.
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Students from five high schools in East Cobb are among the more than 16,000 semifinalists for the 2025 National Merit Scholarships.
It’s the first phase of a multi-step process to award college scholarships to 6,870 high school seniors totalling more than $26 million.
According to a release, “semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
“To become a Finalist, the Semifinalist and a high school official must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the Semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received.
“A Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT or ACT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.”
JOHNSON FERRY CHRISTIAN ACADEMY
Abigail Fisher
LASSITER H. S.
Ella Arnett, Elizabeth Ballenger, Obadia Cao, Wilson Coombs, Samuel Garrow, Elizabeth George, Jack Hansen, Isaac Hoshide, Andrea Joya; Annika Le, Vikram Sharma, Nanea Trask, Caroline Young
POPE H. S.
Aanchal Acharya, Elizabeth Jones, Ariel Sadan, Duncan Wilson, Anna Wright
WALTON H. S.
Vipul Bansal, Adam Bethea, Jack Brawner, Christopher Chen, Michelle Gu, Madeline Halloran, Nathan Hsu, Sean Jiao, Medha Krishna, Navya Kumar, Hung Le, Eugene Li, Spencer Lieth, Eric Mo, Owen Murphy, Madeline Painter, Chloe Park, Connor Park, Dhriti Raguram, Carter Ray, Riley Rice, Sanjeev Shankar, Yaocen Shen, Siddhant Singh, Grayson Snow, Tyler Sprague, Nikhil Srinivasan, Christina Strakes, Rashidul Sultan, Ryan Tan, Simon Teh, Rishab Thiyagarajan, Theodore Thomas; Ella Tse, Isha Varughese, Adam Wang, Owen Wu, Grace Xie, Edward Yao, Tiffany Yao, William Zhao
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Tritt Elementary School in East Cobb was evacuated early Wednesday after a fire broke out in an HVAC unit, according to the Cobb County School District.
The district said that students weren’t in the school building (4355 Post Oak Tritt Road) and everyone is safe after Cobb Fire units responded.
Cobb Fire said the fire is considered minor but an adult inside the building was hospitalized for smoke inhalation and no firefighters were injured.
Chris Smith, the Cobb Fire public information officer, said a call reporting smoke at the school was received shortly after 7 a.m. and units arrived at 7:12 a.m. to find smoke coming from a wall HVAC unit at the front of the school building and in a hallway.
He said the fire was contained by 7:16 a.m. and crews then used pressurized ventilation fans to remove smoke from hallways.
Fire units left the scene by 8:15 a.m., Smith said.
“We are currently assessing the building and any necessary changes to the schedule,” the Cobb school district said in a statement.
School buses were diverted to Hightower Trail Middle School, where Tritt classes are being conducted Wednesday, according to a district spokeswoman.
She said classes are expected to resume at Tritt on Thursday.
The person taken to a hospital was identified as a staff member, not a teacher or a student, “and is recovering well without significant injuries,” the spokeswoman said.
Joe Ovbey, who has two children who attend Tritt, told East Cobb News he tried to drop them off at 7:15 a.m. but was turned away.
He said he brought his children home as buses were taking students to Hightower Trail.
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