Stephanie Smith, of the publicity committee for the Lassiter High School Class of 1996, sends along word of a 25th reunion that’s being planned for Aug. 28 at Scofflaw Brewing (1738 MacArthur Blvd NW, Atlanta):
Join us to celebrate, reconnect, and catch up with your classmates from the LHS class of 1996.
The event will be held at Scofflaw Brewery and will be catered by DAS BBQ (www.dasbbq.com). Please note that vegetarian options will be included.
Food and two drink vouchers will be included per ticket. Please note that Scofflaw will be offering several drink options that are both nonalcoholic and not beer.
More information (including menu items) and ticket purchases—the cost is $35 per person—can be found by clicking here.
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Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday voted to call for a November special election to extend the Cobb Ed-SPLOST sales tax and approved spending $307,000 to bring the Walton Robotics Lab back to campus.
On a 6-1 vote, the school board adopted a resolution calling for the SPLOST referendum, which if approved by voters would collect a one-percent sales tax from 2024-29, an estimated $894 million.
The funds would be used for facility construction and maintenance, similar to the Cobb government SPLOST.
Among the major projects of SPLOST VI would be a rebuild of the main Sprayberry High School classroom building and new annexes at Kincaid, Mt. Bethel, Murdock, Sope Creek and Tritt elementary schools in East Cobb.
The board did vote to remove another major project on that list, a special events center for the school district designed for graduations and proms.
For the last two years the Cobb school district has held graduations at McEachern High School due to COVID-19 restrictions. Most graduations in recent years have taken place at the Kennesaw State University Convocation Center, but that facility was not available for the last two years.
During a work session Thursday afternoon, board members Charisse Davis of Post 6 (Walton, Wheeler clusters) and Jaha Howard of Post 2 (Campbell, Osborne), pointed out that district officials have said there are at least $2 billion in facilities and maintenance needs, and a new SPLOST would fund less than half of that amount.
Marc Smith, the district’s chief technology and operations officer, said in response to a question from Howard that the estimated cost for a special events center would be $40 million.
Howard said of the special events center that “I love it, but not now” and urged his colleagues “to do the fiscally conservative thing.”
He said the district has numerous schools that are in disrepair, and that there are more important facilities priorities.
Board chairman Randy Scamihorn countered by asking “if not now, when?” regarding the issue of whether the Cobb school district would “ever control our own destiny.”
He voted for the resolution (David Banks of East Cobb’s Post 4 was the only vote against). The board voted 7-0 for a contract to have the referendum included in the November elections, which in Cobb this year are in municipalities.
The cost for the SPLOST special election is to be determined and will be acted upon later.
The board was unanimous in a 7-0 vote to spend $307,000 to create space at Walton High School for a robotics lab. That lab has been located in recent years at East Cobb Middle School after the Walton campus underwent a rebuild.
Several robotics parents spoke to the board at the start of Thursday night’s board meeting to request approval of the project, which will take place during the renovation of practice gymnasium space at Walton.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday the Cobb County School District will unveil updated protocols related to COVID-19, including revised quarantine guidelines, next week.
He wasn’t specific about those measures except to reiterate that the district will have a masks-optional policy for students, teachers and staff.
“Our intent is going to be to back normal as much as possible,” he said during a Cobb Board of Education work session.
“But it’s not going to be back to normal.”
He cited continuing virtual learning options for students whose parents do not wish for them to attend in person “as we look forward to a more traditional school year.”
Ragsdale said the updated protocols will go out via e-mail, social media and other regular district communications channels by the middle of next week at the latest.
The Cobb 2021-22 school year begins Aug. 2, one of the earliest returns for a school district in metro Atlanta.
Ragsdale said Cobb wants to work in tandem with other school districts about the measures.
Some nearby districts are continuing mask mandates that they used all of the last school year, including Atlanta, Clayton Decatur and DeKalb, regardless of vaccination status. Fulton and Gwinnett have announced masks-optional policies.
Cobb had a mask mandate for most of the 2020-21 school year, dropping the requirement for “fully vaccinated” individuals in the final weeks.
Students and staff who wish to wear masks on campuses will be allowed to do so.
The Cobb school district was briefly sued by parents opposed to the mask mandate but they dropped that suit when the masks-optional policy was announced.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education will consider a resolution to establish a November referendum for another Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax extension when it meets on Thursday.
The board also will be asked to fund more than $300,000 toward the completion of a robotics lab at Walton High School in East Cobb.
The board has two public meetings Thursday, a work session starting at 12:30 p.m., and a voting meeting at 7 p.m.
Public comment periods will take place at the start of both meetings.
There also will be a closed executive session and public tax digest hearing starting at 6:30 p.m.
All the meetings will take place in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office (514 Glover St., Marietta). They also will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24.
Earlier this year Cobb schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced he wanted the board to call for a SPLOST extension, Cobb Ed-SPLOST VI.
If a resolution is adopted and voters approve a referendum in November, the current one-percent sales tax that would begin anew in 2024 and collect nearly $900 million over five years.
Among the major projects would be a rebuild of the main Sprayberry High School classroom building, the construction of a special events center for the Cobb school district and new annexes at Kincaid, Mt. Bethel, Murdock, Sope Creek and Tritt elementary schools in East Cobb.
An addition and modifications are being proposed for Bells Ferry Elementary School on the draft project list released in May.
Ragsdale also is recommending an expenditure of $307,007 in current SPLOST V funds for the construction of a robotics lab at Walton High School to Prime Contractors Inc. of Powder Springs. The completion date is slated for November.
The board also will hear more details about the American Recovery Plan.
Thursday’s meetings will be the first for the Cobb school board in which the public will be fully invited to attend in-person.
The board has been meeting in person since last fall, with only superintendent’s cabinet staffers allowed to attend, and only one person speaking during public comment at a time.
Thursday’s meetings also will be the first in which members of the public wishing to speak during public comment will be required to sign-up online in advance.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
East Cobb residents (L-r) Stacy Efrat Butler, Heather Tolley-Bauer and Kris Hale before a Cobb Board of Education meeting in June.
Several emotionally wrenching issues facing the Cobb County School District sparked parents, teachers and others into action, or at least to speak out, during an unconventional 2021-22 school year.
Many of those issues revolved around the district’s COVID-19 response—including the deaths of three educators—as well as continuing battles over racial and cultural matters.
However, for five women who didn’t know each other previously, the red flag that caught their attention was an emergency request last December to spend $12 million for UV disinfecting lights and handwashing stations.
That money was part of the district’s COVID response as cases were on the rise, and just before the tragic deaths of three of its educators.
It wasn’t just spending the money on such short notice that bothered them, said Heather Tolley-Bauer, whose son is a rising 7th grader at Hightower Trail Middle School.
“We were outraged at how the school board works,” Tolley-Bauer said.
On social media, she found another East Cobb parent, Stacy Efrat Butler, who expressed similar concerns, and wanted to organize around monitoring school board activities.
Three other women signed on at the start, including East Cobb resident Kris Hale, who had recently retired as a teacher in Fulton County Schools.
They decided to focus on following the money—the Cobb school district budget is roughly $1.5 billion—and created a group they call “Watching the Funds—Cobb.”
Their main means of communication is a Facebook group with nearly 1,500 followers, and group members have spoken frequently during public comment sessions at school board meetings.
“We’re a rag-tag group of amazing women,” Tolley-Bauer said.
Butler stressed the broader appeal the group is trying to make, regardless of political views or where people live in Cobb County.
“Our issues should matter to everybody,” she said.
Tolley-Bauer said that while “the money is not always that exciting, it is something that unifies people who might not agree on other things.”
More importantly, Hale said, “by having somebody looking at the money, they can’t ignore the community.”
The UV lights malfunctioned at Argyle Elementary School in March. The district quickly canceled that portion of the contract that represented roughly $6 million of the purchase.
A month before, Watching the Funds—Cobb questioned the district’s purchase of AlertPoint, an emergency alert system, that was set off at all schools and prompted a brief lockdown.
Like the UV lights and handwashing stations, AlertPoint was purchased by the school board with little discussion from a sole vendor that had not sold that product previously.
“We did a deep dive and asked, ‘Why did we approve this?’ ” Tolley-Bauer said. “What was the vetting process. We got zero answers.”
The information they had assembled and their vocal comments at public meetings garnered media attention, especially when a former AlertPoint employee was indicted for alleged bid-rigging for a technology contract at a school district in Florida.
The $12 million COVID-related purchases are among the 50 complaints against the Cobb school district directed at Cognia, its accrediting agency, which is conducting a special review next month.
Tolley-Bauer and Butler said that no one from Watching the Funds—Cobb filed any of those complaints.
‘It’s not a functioning board’
They describe the group as non-partisan, although Tolley-Bauer was part of a fundraiser last fall for Democrat Julia Hurtado, who unsuccessfully challenged Republican incumbent board member David Banks of Post 5 in East Cobb.
“It’s all about sharing facts and not opinions,” said Butler, who also lives in Post 5 and who has children attending East Side Elementary School, Dodgen Middle School and Walton High School.
A risk manager in the financial industry, Butler expressed the same frustration as Tolley-Bauer, saying that “it doesn’t seem like anybody was doing anything to hold the school board accountable.”
She said in starting such a group, the original intent wasn’t financial, “but it seemed like everything kept coming back to the money.”
AlertPoint was installed in all Cobb schools starting in 2017, but Watching the Funds—Cobb began asking about the system’s effectiveness.
“It might not be a waste of money if it worked,” Butler said. “We are pushing for transparency and communication, but board members don’t respond much. It’s not a functioning board.”
Cobb school board chairman Randy Scamihorn acknowledged Watching the Funds—Cobb’s public comments, “and I don’t have a problem with what they’re saying. I’m a fiscal conservative, so I’m willing to work with them.”
But he defended the board’s $12 million emergency purchase, saying the district needed to act fast to address a strong surge of COVID-19 cases as the Cobb school district returned to in-person learning last fall.
“How do we keep our students, faculty and staff safe?” he said. “Hindsight is always 20/20, but there was nothing nefarious going on.”
Scamihorn said the UV lights “had to be failsafe,” and when they malfunctioned at just one school, “they violated the contract. I told the superintendent that there’s no way I can continue to support this.”
He also said the board majority’s decision to limit the placing of meeting agenda items was a good one, because “we have some board members who want to have endless conversation. We would be there forever.”
(Scamihorn has clashed openly several times at school board meetings with Jaha Howard, who along with Charisse Davis of Post 6 in East Cobb voted against the $12 million UV lights/handwashing contract.)
Heather Tolley-Bauer and other members of Watching the Funds—Cobb have been addressing the Cobb Board of Education in recent months.
Continuing to ‘provide a watchful eye’
After retiring as a Fulton County teacher last fall, Hale wanted to get involved in her community, especially as COVID-related actions gained more scrutiny than usual.
“Not many people were paying attention to the school board until COVID,” she said. “COVID brought it all out.”
Watching the Funds—Cobb did a teacher survey, and got 213 responses from educators on such subjects as safety, resources, CARES ACT funding, technology, equity issues and support from the district (you can read the details here).
“One of the things that I know is that teachers have no voice,” said Hale, who taught in Fulton for nearly 30 years. “I wanted to be that voice.”
Hale said the differing backgrounds and perspectives within the group have been beneficial.
“We can use our strengths,” she said. “I know what’s going on in the classroom.”
Tolley-Bauer said Watching the Funds—Cobb is continuing to look over the finances in other areas of the school district’s finances, and most recently posted about its “Fueling Student Success” food program providing meal kits to families in need.
How the district might address American Rescue Plan funds also figures to be part of the group’s focus in the coming months.
At last month’s school board meeting, Tolley-Bauer said her group “will continue to provide a watchful eye” not only on the budget, but federal funding sources, SPLOST spending “and every single expense.
“Because no matter what, funds used to make purchases all come from the taxpayers, many of whom support our work.”
Scamihorn pointed out that the district’s entire budget is posted on its website, and that he’s willing to listen to anyone in the public.
“We are so transparent that some people can’t believe it,” he said. “All they have to do is call us. I’ll listen to anybody.”
He said he approached Tolley-Bauer after the June school board meeting to have a formal discussion, and she’s accepted.
The experience has been an illuminating one for Tolley-Bauer, who among her other activities is a stand-up comedian.
“I don’t make many jokes about what’s going on in our schools,” she said. “We love our schools at the local level. With leadership [at the district level], there’s room for improvement.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Dodgen Middle School math teacher Fred Veeder embraced by his mother Wende, after being named Cobb’s teacher of the year in 2018. ECN file.
We posted back in April about the multiple hospitalizations of Fred Veeder, a longtime math teacher at Dodgen Middle School who was named the Cobb County School District Teacher of the Year in 2018.
Veeder had been suffering from congestive heart failure and he died on June 23 at the age of 65, according to his obituary, which said he had been in hospice care.
Dodgen teacher Kari Viland, who organized an online fundraiser to help pay for Veeder’s medical expenses, said that “he was with his beloved family and was not in pain. We take comfort in knowing that his legacy will live on in the minds and hearts of so many. Please know that he so enjoyed receiving and reading all of your messages.”
She said there will be a memorial service for Veeder July 28 at Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church (4385 Lower Roswell Road) at 2 p.m.
In honor of his memory donations may be made to the Atlanta Humane Society or any other charity.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education will conduct required public hearings on July 8 regarding the Cobb County Tax Digest for 2021.
The hearings will take place at 11:30 a.m. and 6:05 p.m. in the board room of the CCSD Central Office, 514 Glover St., in Marietta.
Earlier this month the Cobb school board adopted a fiscal year 2022 budget of nearly $1.5 billion that takes effect on Thursday (details here), keeping the property tax millage rate at 18.9 mills.
The board also is obligated to conduct public hearings on the tax digest, which is finalized in July.
The preliminary projection of the 2021 Cobb tax digest, and that was worked into the adopted budget, is for growth of 5.5 percent.
Here’s more about how public commenters can address the board:
The Board requests that speakers maintain appropriate decorum and that comments remain focused and respectful. See Board Policy BCBI. Any person who willfully violates the guidelines found in Board Policy BCBI may forfeit the remainder of their speaking time and may face additional sanctions. Public commentary may be filmed, photographed, recorded and/or edited by the District or other non-District media sources.
Individuals desiring to appear before the Board MUST sign-in and present a valid ID proving residency or property ownership in Cobb County. The sign-in session begins 40 minutes prior to the posted board meeting start times and closes exactly 10 minutes before the meeting starts with NO exceptions.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Cobb County School District was recently awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). The school district was recognized for its year-end financial report submitted for fiscal year 2020.
The Certificate of Achievement (COA) was established in 1945 and is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting. Its attainment represents a significant accomplishment for Cobb Schools and its leadership.
GFOA advances excellence in government finance by providing best practices, professional development, resources, and practical research for more than 21,000 members and the communities they serve.
The COA recognizes local and state governments that go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare comprehensive annual financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure. GFOA’s review process is extensive and generally takes about six months to complete.
Cobb School’s Chief Financial Officer Brad Johnson was happy for his team’s recognition by GFOA. “I couldn’t be prouder of our Finance team as they manage the budget wisely and transparently at the direction of our Board and Superintendent,” Mr. Johnson said. “The Finance Department pays close attention to every detail and makes sure that we are financially sound and completely forthright and transparent about how we spend our money.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The budget proposal holds the line on the school district’s property tax rate of 18.9 mills and using $51 million in reserve funding to reach a balance (budget summary here).
It was the second vote in as many weeks by the board on the budget, which held a special-called meeting Thursday after concerns that its action last week was improperly done.
The school board held a public budget forum before the vote on Thursday, following complaints that it had not abided by the state open meetings law last week.
Last Thursday’s budget forum was not live-streamed or recorded, due to what the district said were technical issues.
Because of COVID-19 safety protocols, members of the public were allowed into the board meeting room only one at a time if they were speaking during the public comment period, and were escorted out once they finished.
But the state opens meetings law states that when public meetings aren’t available for viewing, they must be fully open to the public.
Among those calling for a do-over were East Cobb parent Heather Tolley-Bauer, who’s a founder of a citizens group called “Watching the Funds—Cobb,” which scrutinizes Cobb school district finances.
Tolley-Bauer, who lives in Post 5 (represented by board member David Banks) was one of two people who spoke at Thursday’s public budget forum. While she didn’t specifically address the FY 2022 budget, she told board members that her group “will continue to provide a watchful eye” not only on the budget, but federal funding sources, SPLOST spending “and every single expense.
“Because no matter what, funds used to make purchases all come from the taxpayers, many of whom support our work.”
The group has more than 1,000 followers for its Facebook page, which is regularly updated with Cobb school district finances and school board activities.
It sprung to action last spring and was critical of the Cobb school district spending $12 million for handwashers and special UV disinfecting lights as COVID-19 safety measures. The district cancelled its contract for the lights in March after lights at Argyle Elementary School malfunctioned, and as the Cobb District Attorney’s Office began looking into the matter.
“As we move into the 2021-22 budget year, we continue to seek real and responsible fiscal stewardship that can only come from transparency and meaningful two-way communication with the stakeholders,” Tolley-Bauer told the school board Thursday.
Board members had little discussion about the budget during their special-called meeting before voting 5-0 to adopt it (board members Jaha Howard and Tre Hutchins were absent).
You can watch replays of both Thursday meetings by clicking here.
Unlike FY 2021, there’s no federal CARES Act funding in the new budget, which takes effect July 1. Also projected for FY 2022, which begins on July 1, is a 5.54 percent growth in the Cobb tax digest.
More Cobb school district budget and financial data can be found by clicking here.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education will conduct a public hearing Thursday morning on the fiscal year 2022 operating budget and hold a special-called meeting to vote on budget adoption.
The budget hearing begins at 10:30 a.m., followed by a special-called meeting at 11 a.m. for budget adoption. Both meetings will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24.
Those wishing to speak in person during the hearing can do so at the board meeting room at the Cobb County School District’s main office, 514 Glover St., in Marietta.
The Cobb school board had voted without discussion last Thursday to adopt the budget during its monthly business meeting, but the final budget hearing that’s required by law wasn’t open to the public.
The district routinely live-streams its public meetings, but this one wasn’t, so what’s taking place on Thursday is basically a do-over.
According to state open meetings or “sunshine” laws, when a meeting isn’t live-streamed (which isn’t required) the meeting must be open for the public to attend in person.
However, since the Cobb school board returned to in-person meetings last fall, the public has not been allowed to do that, except for those making public comments, in accordance with district COVID-19 safety protocols.
Persons who have addressed the board have been allowed in the meeting room one at a time, and then have been escorted out.
In addition to the school board, the only other people who’ve been allowed inside the board room during meetings have been the superintendent and members of his cabinet, as well as the board’s legal counsel.
The MDJ reported last Thursday that its reporter was not allowed inside the board room for the budget hearing when the live-stream was not available.
The district’s explanation was that it wanted to verify public speakers according to its commenting policies as being Cobb County taxpayers or individuals with a stake in the school district (parents, teachers, students, etc.)
The Cobb school district will be allowing more members of the public to attend in-person meetings with relaxed restrictions starting in July.
Under state law school boards must hold three public budget hearings. The Cobb school board held the first two in April and May.
The budget proposal proposes holding the line on the school district’s property tax rate of 18.9 mills and using $51 million in reserve funding to reach a balance (budget summary here).
Unlike FY 2021, there’s no federal CARES Act funding. Also projected for FY 2022, which begins on July 1, is a 5.54 percent growth in the Cobb tax digest.
More Cobb school district budget and financial data can be found by clicking here.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb County School District said Tuesday a special review by its accrediting agency is scheduled for August.
In a release, the district said the review by Alpharetta-based Cognia will take place Aug. 15-18, and will focus on three specific standards set by the accreditor:
Governing authority
Equitable opportunities
Student peformance
The fourth area of examination during the review, the district said, “will also involve interviews between Cognia and individual board members, the Superintendent, District staff, principals, teachers, and community members.”
Cognia announced the special review in April after three Democratic Cobb school board members and several dozen citizens approached it, complaining the board’s Republican majority and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale were ignoring their concerns on several academic and governance issues.
The three Democratic board members said their request to Ragsdale to discuss early literacy, educator and employee support, and board governance training never got a reply.
“The continued silencing of board members who would like to not only talk about positives, but also publicly address challenges, continues. The three of us remain concerned that our governing body is not adhering to the leadership standards set forth by Cognia,” read a Jan. 21 letter to Cognia by the three Democratic members.
Those members include Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters in East Cobb.
The district’s initial response claimed that a special review “can negatively impact college acceptance rates, college scholarships, enrollment, funding, and educator recruitment and retention,” and cited similar situations in recent years in the DeKalb and Clayton school systems.
In its release Tuesday, the Cobb school district acknowledged that more than 50 citizens have complained to Cognia.
The district said it has spent more than 600 hours preparing for the review and “believes that transparency in this process is important and will update our community again as new information becomes available in August.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The vote was passed without discussion as part of the board’s consent agenda on Thursday night. The raises range from 4 percent to 8.6 percent for full-time and other non-temporary employees.
The budget proposal proposes holding the line on the school district’s property tax rate of 18.9 mills and using $51 million in reserve funding to reach a balance (budget summary here).
Unlike FY 2021, there’s no federal CARES Act funding. Also projected for FY 2022, which begins on July 1, is a 5.54 percent growth in the Cobb tax digest.
More Cobb school district budget and financial data can be found by clicking here.
During a work session Thursday afternoon, the school board adopted a new social media policy that governs public comments by district employees (you can read it here).
The policy states that “District employees must use Social Media respectfully and ethically to avoid harming the reputations and careers of themselves and colleagues, as well as the reputation of the District and the education profession as a whole.”
One provision would prohibit employees “from making statements on crisis situations or emergencies on behalf of the District without appropriate permission from the District’s Communications department or District leadership.”
Teachers and other employees also will not be allowed to make or accept online connection requests with students, message with them or post photos or videos of students on their personal social media accounts.
Employees will be allowed and encouraged to post “good news/what’s happening at your school” news, event reminders, congratulating students and colleagues and making notifications, including for emergencies.
Also Thursday, the school board voted 4-3 to require members of the public who wish to speak during public comment periods at board meetings to sign up online.
The public will be invited back to attend board meetings for the first time since February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cobb property owners and parents, students and other stakeholders in the Cobb school district are allowed to speak during public comment.
The new registration policy will continue a 30-minute public comment policy before each board meeting, with up to 15 speakers addressing the board for two minutes each.
Public speakers will still have to show a photo ID once they arrive for the public comment period, and those who didn’t make the cut will be placed on a standby list.
“If you’re not who you signed up as, you won’t be allowed to speak,” said said Cobb superintendent Chris Ragsdale, who said the move was done as a courtesy to the public.
The board’s three Democrats voted against the new measure, expressing concern that the policy also includes a provision for the board chairman to prioritize speakers, especially if an item is on the meeting agenda.
Tre Hutchins, one of the three Democrats, wondered what would happen to those who wanted to speak about changing the name of Wheeler High School, an issue that the board’s four-member GOP majority has declined to place on the agenda.
Ragsdale said the first 15 people allowed to speak, first-come, first-serve, regardless of topic.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved a number of new principal appointments for the 2021-22 school year, including for Simpson Middle School in East Cobb.
Current principal Dr. Ansley Daniel has been reassigned as principal at Lost Mountain Middle School effective July 1.
The new Simpson principal is Dr. Mari LaEla Mitchell, who has been an assistant principal at Hillgrove High School for the past four years.
Here are some other appointments approved Thursday:
Jones, Jeffrey, Appointment to Principal, Baker Elementary School from Assistant Principal, Chalker Elementary School effective June 11th, 2021.
Mitchell, Dr. Mari LaEla, Appointment to Principal, Simpson Middle School from Assistant Principal, Hillgrove High School effective July 1st, 2021.
Nyeste, Dr. Lenora, Principal, Lost Mountain Middle School, retirement effective July 1st, 2021.
Williams, Dr. Lisa, Appointment to Director (.49), Leadership Management, Human Resources Division from Performance Management Coordinator (.49), Human Resources Division effective June 11th, 2021.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The four Republican members of the Cobb Board of Education voted Thursday to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in the Cobb County School District.
The three Democrats on the board—all of them African-American—abstained from the vote, accusing the all-white GOP majority of placing political interests ahead of educational concerns.
“I abstain from this nonsense,” said board member Jaha Howard, one of the Democrats.
The vote followed an explosive 45-minute discussion that included heated interruptions between Republican chairman Randy Scamihorn and Democrat Tre Hutchins.
Scamihorn presented a resolution during a board work session Thursday afternoon that prohibited the teaching of Critical Race Theory “by that name and any other name” as well as instruction in Cobb schools of the 1619 Project, which The New York Times published in 2019 as a historical critique of slavery in America.
Hutchins, the newest board member who represents Post 3 in South Cobb, protested that expansive language, saying that Critical Race Theory has never been taught in Cobb schools and “is not a real thing” in district schools.
He also worried that some current aspects of the Cobb curriculum, including “No Place for Hate” and Social Emotional Learning, could fall under the CRT umbrella.
Scamihorn countered that Critical Race Theory—which developed in academia and legal circles in the 1970s to argue that racism is America is systemic and structural—has been all over the news in recent weeks, and that bodies like the Georgia Board of Education and the Cherokee school board have voted to restrict it.
“Now we can throw anything at it because we saw it on TV,” Hutchins said. “That’s dangerous. This feels like we’re furthering an indictment against the great teachers we have.”
That set off an extended, testy exchange, with the two board members raising their voices to interrupt one another for several minutes.
Scamihorn said that CRT is being taught in Cobb schools because he’s seen district teachers mention that they have on social media. At one point, he told Hutchins that “you have besmirched our teachers.”
Hutchins responded that “this is the worst thing that we could ever do,” and their harsh words escalated from there, as he and Scamihorn argued over the details of their discussions about the resolution over the last week.
Other school boards and mostly Republican governors and GOP-led legislatures in a number of states have taken aim at CRT and The 1619 Project, which The New York Times adapted into school curriculum that has been introduced in some school districts.
The lead essay by Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones—who won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary—argues that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery.
Prominent historians took issue with that claim, and when Hutchins asked Scamihorn to explain the newspaper’s project further, the latter said it’s “a revisionist history and history should be thorough.”
As for being asked to define CRT, Scamihorn referred to comments from parents heard at the May Cobb school board meeting about having “Marxist” roots and that “it pits one group against another.”
Hutchins said those were interpretations only, and that CRT “can be interpreted in a number of ways. It has nothing to do with education in the first place.”
The CRT resolution is the latest wedge issue along racial and cultural lines that has deeply divided the Cobb school board over the last two years.
The board could not agree to a consensus on an anti-racism resolution last year, and the four school board Republicans also voted to abolish a newly-approved committee in November to examine naming policies for Cobb school district schools and buildings.
Charisse Davis, a Democratic board member who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, said that “it’s become that politics are okay apparent in our district as long as they align with some people’s politics.”
She said CRT “has become a conservative talking point for some people who have no idea what it is, and they certainly haven’t been worried about for the last 40-plus years it’s been around.”
She told of minority parents who’ve complained about receiving threats, racist assignments, bigoted comments and “feeling as if the district does not care that they are part of the One Team.”
Davis noted that Cobb schools became fully integrated in 1970 and that previous school boards actively fought it.
“Anyone that cannot understand the impact that that would have should not be in the business of educating,” she said.
Referring to language in the resolution (which has not been made publicly available), Davis said that “to say that this board encourages a diversity of viewpoints is laughable.”
Republican board member David Chastain, who represents the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, said CRT is a cultural concept that has been debated “at the highest levels of academia.”
He said that he supports a resolution banning CRT because of the confusion over it.
“I try to think about what’s best for our children,” and said he’s concern about the effect of how something like CRT might be taught on students in the younger grades.
“Our kids typically aren’t developing abstract thinking skills until middle or high school anyway,” he said. “This is an adult issue, I don’t think it’s a kids’ issue.”
Some parents spoke on the subject during a public comment period at the start of the work session.
Anja Siedzierski, who was born in Poland and is a mother of two daughters in Cobb schools, said during her childhood in a Marxist country she was taught to “hate America” in government schools, and said CRT “is a dangerous ideology.
She asked “can we go back to teaching kids love and respect?” regardless of background. “Critical Theory is not the way to do that.”
Jennifer Susko, a counselor at Mableton Elementary School who thinks the district hasn’t done enough to address racism, said the resolution is a “maddening choice” and “a lie about history.”
“We’ll watch all white people tell black people that racism is not that big deal,” she said, referring to the board Republicans.
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The Cobb Board of Education will tackle the controversial topic of Critical Race Theory during a work session on Thursday.
Board chairman Randy Scamihorn placed the item on the agenda with the wording “for potential action” but declined to elaborate, telling East Cobb News he’s doing this “for the board to have a discussion.”
The work session begins at 1 p.m. Thursday, the first of the board’s monthly meetings for June.
The board also will hold a public budget forum at 6:30 p.m., preceding a 7 p.m. business meeting at which it is expected to adopt a fiscal year 2022 operating budget.
At the same time, the Cherokee County Board of Education voted to ban the teaching of CRT during a packed meeting.
The Georgia Board of Education, at the behest of Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr, voted last week to do the same.
Some Cobb parents have been using the public comment period at board meetings to denounce CRT, with one telling the school board last month that “we need an honest conversation about race, this isn’t it. This is indoctrination.”
Critical Race Theory has come up recently in Georgia and other states, but the concept was developed in the 1970s by academics and legal scholars who argued that racism in America is systemic and structural.
Several books have been published on the topic advancing CRT, but the current wave of political action is being taken up by Republican elected officials.
The Cobb school board has a 4-3 Republican majority and has clashed on a number of topics over the last two years, including an anti-racism resolution last summer.
The four school board Republicans also voted to abolish a newly-approved committee in November to examine naming policies for Cobb school district schools and buildings.
Among those facilities targeted for a name change is Wheeler High School, named after a Confederate Civil War general.
After the Cobb CRT comments last month, Charisse Davis, one of the three black Democratic board members, noted that “the Critical Race Theory (CRT) debate has been bizarre…mainly how it became a scripted conservative talking point 40+ years after its inception.”
A group calling itself Concerned in Cobb County School District is gathering outside the district office before the Thursday school board meetings “to to challenge the Superintendent’s harmful position on Critical Race Theory and talking about race/racism at all. We also aim to demonstrate support for the three board members who are attempting to ensure an equitable education for ALL students.”
The budget proposal proposes holding the line on the school district’s property tax rate of 18.9 mills and using $51 million in reserve funding to reach a balance (budget summary here).
Also projected for FY 2022, which begins on July 1, is a 5.54 percent growth in the Cobb tax digest.
More Cobb school district budget and financial data can be found by clicking here.
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The group is called STARS (for Structural Nucleic Acid Anticancer Research Society), which formed in 2019 in conjunction with students at Timber Ridge Elementary School.
STARS parent Susanna Huang got in touch to announce the winners of the 2021 Timber Ridge Crystal Growing Competition that the groups hosted together.
The group created introductory videos to share various effective crystal growing methods with students as well as to teach the principles of crystallography. Toward the end of the crystal growing competition season, the STARS Team created another series of videos that explained the crystal submission steps, further facilitating the submission process for students.
The winners are:
Brooke Bloxom for the title of Most Exciting Experiment
Most Elaborate Experiment
Elliott Neveln for the title of Clearest Crystal
Jahnavi Bhargava for the titles of Most Natural-Looking crystal and the Best Quality Crystal
Johnny Dickerson for the title of Best Crystal Shape
Ms. Judy Osborne for the title of Most Inspiring Crystal
Michael Duke for the title of the Most Innovative Crystal
Steven Huang for the title of Most Impressive Notebook Entries
Ryoma Takagi for the titles of Most Detailed Lab Notebook and Largest Creative Crystals
Medals of Scientific Excellence:
Elliott Neveln for winning the Best Salt Crystal Award for the K-2nd grade division because his salt crystal alone had the highest clarity and his salt crystal alone had an almost perfect cubical shape.
Steven Huang for winning the Best Salt Crystal Award for the K-2nd grade division because his hand-written lab notebook was the most detailed and reflected much thoughtfulness and intuition.
Some other award winners:
Best Creative Crystal Award for the K-2nd division because his creative crystal looked like a real, natural crystal, with colors of blues and glints of shiny specks.
Michael Duke for winning the Best Creative Crystal Award for the 3rd-5th grade division because his creative crystal was the largest in his grade division and because his lab report was very thorough with detailed observations and conclusions.Ms. Judy Osborne for winning the Best Creative Crystal Award for the teacher division because her crystal was beautifully cultivated, and the quality of this crystal was very evident.
Ryoma Takagi for winning the Championship of the entire 2021 Timber Ridge Crystal Growing Competition for his solid mastery of growing aluminum potassium sulfate, exceptional observation and note-taking skills, and immense diligence, creating a 15 paged lab notebook with 176 data points, tracking the growth of 10 massive alum crystals before putting the data points into Excel graphs and charts to make the crystal growth trends even the more so evident.
The STARS team wrote in to say that over the summer they’re having a free, virtual summer camp to provide students with hands-on experiments and to teach students important note-taking and observational skills to further prepare them for the fall crystal growing competition.
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School may be out for the summer, but Cobb Schools will continue to dish out food for students through July 21. Just as they did during the school year, Cobb’s Food & Nutrition Services (FNS) team will provide meal kits for students at no charge, thanks to waivers from the USDA.
Families will be able to pick up the meal kits for children ages 0-18 on Wednesdays from 9-11 a.m. at one of six school locations. Check here on pick-up day to verify the location and time and make sure your location is still available.
Cobb Schools Summer Meal Kit Pick Up Locations, which are subject to change:
Clarkdale Elementary School
Clay Harmony Leland Elementary School
Daniell Middle School
King Springs Elementary School
North Cobb High School
Smitha Middle School
Meal kits will include food for breakfast and lunch to help fuel student success on the go. When families arrive at one of the six designated school locations, they will tell the Cobb Schools FNS team member how many meal kits are needed, and the team member will place the meal kits in the trunk or backseat of the car. The FNS team is proud to offer meal kits with items that can be reheated at home. Reheating instructions and a menu will be provided in meal kits for appropriate consumption of meals.
Summer Meal Kit Reminders:
Meal Kits are available at no charge to all children ages 0-18.
Children do not need to be enrolled in the Cobb County School District, Summer School, or Summer Learning Quest to receive Meal Kits at no charge.
Check back here on pickup day to ensure your location is still available as a pickup location.
The last day of the Cobb Schools Summer Meal Kits pickups will be July 21st.
Families may pick up meal kits for children at one location.
Children do not need to be present in the car.
For students that are enrolled in Summer School:
Meals will be provided on-site at no charge.
Additional drink and snack items will be available for purchase in school cafés.
Families with additional questions can email Meals@cobbk12.org or call the Cobb Schools FNS team at 770-426-3380.
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From L to R: Gene Schumacher, Kiwanis Club Silver Pen Co-chair; Margy Rogers, President Marietta Kiwanis Club Golden K; Dr. Sage Doolittle, Assistant Principal, Rocky Mount ES; Jim Perry, Past President Marietta Kiwanis Club Golden K; Aimee Mendel, President-elect of the Kiwanis club Golden K; Anna’s 4th grade teacher Diana Simmons, and Rocky Mount Elementary School Principal Peggy Fleming.
Submitted information and photo:
May of 2021 was the month to honor fourth graders from three elementary schools in Cobb County. Talented fourth grade students from Rocky Mount, Acworth, and Tritt Elementary Schools received the now prestigious Silver Pen Award.
The Silver Pen Awards, now statewide programs, were presented by Jim Perry, past president of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K and Co-Chair of the Silver Pen program as the officers of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K were in attendance for the presentations.
As explained by Jim Perry, “Over 25 years ago, Jack Boone started what was called ‘The Silver Pen Award for fourth graders and all the elementary schools could participate. We gave the kids either a story or an essay question to write about. Each classroom had a winner, and the winning entries were sent to the administration. The administration would then forward them to the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K, where a panel of judges, including educators, made the final selection for the school-wide winner.” Each Silver Pen Award winner received a bag containing: a Silver Pen, a roll of 25 one dollar golden coins, and a special engraved plaque that reads: Silver Pen Writing Award presented by The Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K.
This year’s Silver Pen writing winners are: Aubrey Smothers from Acworth Elementary School, Anna Raciborski from Rocky Mount Elementary School, and Adriana Fernandez from Tritt Elementary School.
Each school as well as parents are very proud of this year’s Silver Pen Award winners, since many exceptional entries were submitted and competition was tough!
Congratulations to all the winners and everyone sincerely hopes that the winning students will continue on with their writing skills.
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The following students from East Cobb high schools have been named recipients of National Merit Scholarships that are financed by the colleges and universities of their choice.
Criteria for the scholarships is explained by the NMSC:
To compete for Merit Scholarship awards, Semifinalists first had to advance to the Finalist level of the competition by fulfilling additional requirements. Each Semifinalist was asked to submit a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, and be endorsed and recommended by a high school official. From the Semifinalist group, some 16,000 met requirements for Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will be Merit Scholarship winners in 2021.
The recipients listed below include their high schools, college destinations and likely career fields indicated on their scholarship applications:
Sai Anoop Avunuri, Walton, University of Georgia, computer science;
Eric Brewster, Walton, University of Florida, finance;
Caroline G. Brooks, Walton, University of Georgia, criminology;
Matthew L. House, Wheeler, University of Georgia, computer programming;
Caroline K. Hugh, Wheeler, University of Chicago, urban/city planning;
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That’s the start of the district’s summer schedule, and a release issued Monday afternoon said the masks-optional policy will continue for students and employees for the 2021-22 academic year, which begins Aug. 2.
“Any individual wishing to continue wearing a mask while attending school and/or school events should feel free to do so,” the district said.
The district’s decision came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Monday announced new guidelines saying that fully vaccinated people could go without masks both indoors and outdoors.
On May 13 Cobb schools dropped the mask mandate for vaccinated staff and students for the last two weeks of the 2020-21 school year, and also did not specify any proof of vaccination procedures.
“Fully vaccinated” status applies to individuals two weeks after they receive the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after the sole dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The Cobb school district opened the 2020-21 school year online-only until October, then imposed a mask mandate for all students and staff on campuses, as well as for extracurricular activities, including outdoor sporting events.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March 2020, the Cobb school district has reported a total of 5,224 cases of the virus among students and staff.
The weekly figures have been dropping sharply since the first of the year. For the week of Jan. 15, that total was 470, the highest for any week in the district.
During that time, three Cobb school teachers and classroom staffers died, including a paraprofessional at Sedalia Park Elementary School on the day of a Cobb Board of Education meeting.
Public commenters urged the district to go back to online-only classes and some admonished Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and board members David Chastain and David Banks of East Cobb for not wearing masks at meetings.
But the district did not change its hybrid learning options.
By the first of March, the weekly case count figures had dropped roughly in half. By late April, they were under 100 a week, and in the final week of the school year in late May a low of 44 new cases was reported.
In Cobb County, 35 percent are fully vaccinated (264K with second doses) and 42 percent haved received one dose (317K).
Some Cobb parents filed a lawsuit against the district for its mask mandate, saying it was negatively affecting the breathing of their children and was creating “separate but unequal” learning environments.
A federal judge in Atlanta rejected their request for a temporary restraining order for the rest of the 2020-21 school year, and last week the parents dropped the lawsuit after Ragsdale said he expected the coming school year to be masks-optional.
The district will offer virtual learning for students for the coming school year but has not indicated how many of them have chosen that option.
For the spring semester, nearly two-thirds of the district’s 107,000 students attended classes in person.
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