East Cobb Schools

Back to school countdown: Meet the new East Cobb principals

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Four schools in East Cobb will have new principals in the 2019-20 school year. One of them—Peter Giles of Kell—is staying within the community, having moved over from Wheeler.

Over the summer the Cobb County School District compiled profile information that is highlighted below, with links to full excerpts.Patricia Alford, Dodgen MS principal

Dr. Patricia Alford, Dodgen Middle School

“I have worked exclusively with middle school students for my entire career. I love this age! Dodgen is an outstanding school, and I’m excited to serve the students and staff in the community where I live! My goal as a leader is to continue and extend that academic success by providing the very best education and academic environment for our students.”

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Dr. Shannon McGill, Timber Ridge Elementary SchoolShannon McGill, Timber Ridge ES principal

“It is such a privilege to return to a school community that played a large part in shaping me into the leader I am today. Timber Ridge holds a special place in my heart and serving the students and staff is an opportunity to say thank you and give back to such an amazing school community. As principal, I want the community to view Timber Ridge as a welcoming and friendly school where visitors can’t help but feel the excitement and know that great things are happening!”

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Paul Gillihan, Wheeler High SchoolPeter Gillihan, Wheeler HS principal

“Having been in CCSD for 13 years, I have seen first-hand the amazing things that Wheeler has accomplished in regards to their STEM and STEAM initiatives. This would not have been possible without the support of the Wheeler community. What I have witnessed reminds me of where I grew up in Northern Arkansas where the entire community surrounded and supported the school. I see this at Wheeler and can’t wait to jump in as the newest community member.”

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Peter Giles, Kell High SchoolPeter Giles, Kell HS principal

“Coming to Kell High School is an opportunity for me to come back home to the Longhorn Nation. I previously served as an Assistant Principal from 2010-2013 and loved the sense of family our school and community displayed for all of our students and schools. I am also excited about knowing so many students and families due to my years of serving as the Principal at Palmer and Assistant Principal here at Kell.  Having such a warm welcome from the students and families has really made my homecoming exciting!”

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More back to school stories

 

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Back to school countdown: 2019-20 Cobb school calendar and transportation information

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East Cobb Middle School, 2019-20 Cobb school calendar

The 2019-20 Cobb school year gets underway on Thursday, and leading up to that point we’ll be posting some preview information, starting with the calendar and transportation details.

As has been in recent years, Cobb schools begin on Aug. 1, one of the earliest starting dates in metro Atlanta.

That’s because the district employs numerous breaks during the academic year, especially around holidays.

There are a total of 180 instructional days, as required by state law, and in five of the 10 months are full-week breaks or longer. Graduations and the last day of school take place during the week of May 18-22, 2020.

2019-20 Cobb school calendar

Calendar legend:

  • BLACK BOXES: first and last days of school
  • GRAY BOXES: Holiday, school closed
  • YELLOW BOXES: student holiday/staff day
  • WHITE BOXES: ES/MS conference week; early release
  • PENTAGON: Early release day all levels

Getting around

The Cobb County School District has around 1,000 buses that run daily on a similar number of routes and travel around 13 million miles during the school year. About 70 percent of the district’s nearly 112,000 students ride the bus.

Last year the district rolled out an app called Here Comes the Bus that allows parents to track their child’s bus in real-time on a map.

The district also has a link on its websites with bus route information that you can find here.

During the months of August and September, students will be allowed to bring water in containers with a screw-on lid on school buses.

 

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East Cobb schools lead the way in 2019 Milestones results

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Mountain View Elementary School

The Top 10 highest-performing schools in the Cobb County School District on the 2019 Georgia Milestones tests all come from East Cobb.

That’s the word from the district, which on Friday released Milestones figures for the previous 2018-19 academic year.

The assessment scores, which measure learning proficiency in grades 3-12, are collected by the Georgia Department of Education and distributed by public school districts in late July.

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

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

In Cobb, 84 percent of the 82,600 students who took a total of 195,655 Milestone tests achieved Level 2 or higher. That reflected a range of between 7.4 and 9.4 percentage points higher than other Georgia students in all subject areas.

For the second year in a row, Timber Ridge Elementary School in East Cobb led the district, with 98.8 percent of students taking the Milestones achieving Level 2 proficiency or higher.

The others in the Top 10 are also from East Cobb:

  • Murdock ES (98.3 percent);
  • Dodgen MS (98.0 percent);
  • Mountain View ES (97.6 percent);
  • Dickerson MS (97.4 percent);
  • Walton HS (97.2 percent);
  • Mt. Bethel ES (97.0 percent);
  • Tritt ES (97.0 percent);
  • Hightower Trail (96.8 percent);
  • Lassiter HS (96.8 percent).

Students in grades 3-8 are given an End of Grade test in English Language Arts and math. Student in grades 5-8 are also tested for science and social students. The high school End of Course tests cover eight subjects in English Language arts, math, science, and social studies.

(Here’s more of a breakdown on the Milestones assessment from the Georgia DOE.)

Across Georgia, 76 percent of students were rated at Level 2 or higher on the Milestones. The state said that scores were steady or increased in 25 of the 26 assessments.

The scores of Cobb students rose in all four subject areas from 2018, and the district said 90 percent of students improved their Milestones scores from three years ago.

CCSD 2019 Milestone Bar Chart

The district also tracks school-wide improvement, and East Cobb’s Daniell Middle School had one of the biggest boosts from 2018. A total of 84.7 percent of its students scored at Level 2 or higher, an increase of 7.3 percent.

In 3-year trend improvements, schools in the South Cobb area enjoyed double-digit improvements in Level 2 or higher percentage points since 2016.

In a statement issued by the Cobb district, Murdock principal Lynn Hamblett credited three reasons for student results at her school: engaged parents, students prepared to learn and a dedicated staff.

“It is this winning combination and partnership that allows our students to perform at their highest levels,” she said.

For more information visit the Cobb school district’s Georgia Milestones resource page.

For detailed spreadsheets of grade- and school-level results and more, visit the Georgia DOE’s 2019 Milestone’s page.

 

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For Lassiter’s teacher of the year, classroom success is about relationships

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Hilary Minich, Lassiter teacher of the year
Lassiter teachers Hilary and Chris Minich with their children Harrison and Emily as she was named the 2019 Cobb County School District high school teacher of the year. (CCSD photo)

Hilary Minich is an English teacher like her mother, and teaches at Lassiter High School with her husband Chris. What the reigning Lassiter teacher of the year couldn’t have imagined on Wednesday was being singled out for what she’s done in the classroom in such grand fashion.

During a back-to-school meeting with her fellow teachers, Minich got a surprise when Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale arrived to tell her that she was the district’s high school teacher of the year.

Minich, who has taught 11th and 12 graders at Lassiter for the last five years, figures her mother Hilda Wilkins—who taught at Walton High School—probably knew about the announcement. “But they kept my husband in the dark,” which, if school officials truly wanted to keep a secret, she figured, “is a good thing.”

Minich’s work at Lassiter, and for 11 years at Kell High School before that, has been obvious to those who’ve been observing her rapport and success with students, both in composition and literature courses.

“It doesn’t matter the level [of a students’ ability in English], she’s highly successful,” Lassiter principal Chris Richie said. “She constantly challenges and engages kids. She’s able to get out of them what they may not have thought what they had in them.”

Minich said student success begins “on the front end” before classes begin, and is strengthened as the school year goes along.

“It’s a matter of making personal connections with kids,” she said.

Building strong relationships with students from the outset—including understanding what subject matter interests them and how they learn the best—is vital.

That includes introducing them to good things to read, so they’ll be interested in writing.

“I consider myself a writing teacher first and foremost,” she said.

English isn’t every student’s favorite subject, but Minich said she likes to tell them when they enter her classroom that “I’m going to give you the gift of unplugging.”

By that she means disconnecting, from electronic gadgets that today’s students have grown up with. That’s one of the biggest differences in education Minich said she’s seen since she first started. Getting students who are eager to switch off their phones and open up a book to read the words of acclaimed novelists and writers is becoming a bigger challenge.

“I see kids who feel that they’re not allowed to disengage,” Minich said. “We teachers really have our work cut out for us.”

Minich’s academic activities at Lassiter also coordinating the school’s Advanced Placement Capstone program. It goes beyond the teaching of AP courses to include research, writing, public speaking and teamwork for college-bound students.

Minich teaches an AP class in literature and research, and her husband teaches an AP world history course.

“We’re trying to teach the value of academic research,” she said. “When reading comes easy, it empowers learning.”

Minich is one of three finalists for the Cobb overall teacher of the year, along with Cindy Wadsworth of Kemp Elementary School and Casey Taylor of Pine Mountain Middle School.

All three will drive a car free for a year donated by the Ed Voyles Automotive Group.

The winner will be announced in October.

Hilary Minich, Lassiter teacher of the year
Hilary Minich with Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale (at left) and Lassiter principal Chris Richie (CCSD photo).

 

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New Walton gym and performing arts building nearing completion

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new Walton gym performing arts building
Via Cobb Board of Education member David Banks

With a new school year a little more than a week away, Walton High School is improvising its orientation sessions next Monday.

Instead of taking place on campus, those sessions will happen instead at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (955 Johnson Ferry Road); see schedule below.

Construction work is nearing completion on a $31.7 million gym and performing arts building (where the original classroom building once stood). While it’s expected to be done by first day of school, next Thursday, Aug. 1, the delays prompted the orientation change.

“Walton is planning a theater opening event in September,” a Cobb County School District spokesperson told East Cobb News. “Although they may still be completing some final details, they are planning to use the building on the first day of school.”

School officials didn’t give a reason for the delay. Last December a fire broke out in the new building but according to Cobb Fire, it was quickly contained and didn’t cause major damage.

The new facility is the second component of the Walton rebuild and will be completed two years after a $48 million classroom building was opened.

Here’s what Walton officials are sharing with the community about next week’s orientation, where students will get their schedules and pick up prepaid PTSA and Walton items.

All sessions will take place in the Magnolia Room at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.

Monday, July 29
9th grade:
8:30-9:15 am: Last names A-K
9:15-10:00 am: Last names L-Z

12th grade:
10:00 am-10:45 am: Last names A-K
10:45-11:30 am: Last names L-Z

11th grade:
11:30-12:15 pm: Last names A-K
12:15-1:00 pm: Last names L-Z

10th grade:
1:00-1:45 pm: Last names A-K
1:45-2:30 pm: Last names L-Z

If you’ve got a freshman, the walkthrough takes place on next Wednesday, July 31, from 2-3 p.m. at the school (1590 Bill Murdock Road). Here are the details about that:

“There will also be an opportunity for parents to become familiar with Walton and to learn what they can do to help their students in the transition.

“For students: Students will meet Walton Ambassadors in the Rotunda and be escorted to homeroom. Ambassadors will take the students on a school tour with their schedules so they can locate all their classrooms.

“For parents: While your child is meeting with the Ambassadors, the school principal and support staff will conduct a meeting in the dining hall to orient you to Walton.”

 

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Cobb school board holds millage rate at 18.9 after suggestion of rollback

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The Cobb Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to keep the property tax millage rate at 18.9 mills after a new board member had asked earlier in the day about possibly rolling back that number.

Chris Ragsdale, Cobb schools superintendent, Cobb school employee pay raise
Chris Ragsdale, Cobb school superintendent

The 7-0 vote at the board’s regulation meeting Thursday night came with little discussion. But at a work session earlier Thursday, Jaha Howard, who represents the Osborne and Campbell clusters, suggested the possibility of reducing the rate.

Howard asked Brad Johnson, the Cobb County School District’s chief financial officer, about dollar figures for one mill ($26 million) and a tenth of a mill ($2.6 million).

“With the county doing better, I think it would be good at least to explore what it would like to have a very small adjustment—over time,” Howard said.

But superintendent Chris Ragsdale quickly interjected that it was important to keep the same 18.9 bills the Cobb County School District has levied since 2007.

Even though the district is collecting $23 million more in revenues for its fiscal year 2020 budget of $1.7 billion, he said the additional funding is vital to hold in reserve and use judiciously.

“Yes, we are getting more tax revenue with the same millage rate,” Ragsdale said, adding that factors like inflation, additional utility costs and similar expenses have to be taken into consideration.

He said the idea of rolling back the millage rate “feels good, sounds good for about 10 seconds, and then you quickly realize how painful that would be that next year, if [the district financial situation] turns, and we would need to say we need to raise the millage rate.”

The district had to advertise a tax increase because of the additional revenue, although the millage rate is staying the same. The rollback rate would have been slightly more than 18 mills.

Ragsdale said unspent revenues are rolled into the district’s fund balance to be used for on a “rainy day” basis.

He applauded Cobb school boards for sticking with the 18.9 mills, even during the recession with 10 percent drops in the tax digest, which Ragsdale said was “simply amazing. It would have been a blink of an eye if it had been raised to 20 mills [the legal millage rate maximum Cobb schools can levy].”

The real pain of that situation, he said, was cutting more than 800 teaching positions (with more than 600 of them eventually re-filled).

“That was a total nightmare,” Ragsdale said. “I understand where you’re coming from, but there are so many things in the budget . . . but I would always caution against the idea of a reduction of the millage rate.”

The school board voted on Thursday night to spend $4.5 million for the construction of a new secondary data facility. It’s to serve as a backup to the district’s main data facility, and is expected to be completed by next March.

Here’s what the secondary data center is all about, according to CCSD:

“The secondary data center will house critical hardware and software components that provide the district fault tolerance and daily business continuity. It will also serve as a ‘back-up’ to guard against the possibility of a catastrophic event at our primary data center.”

An East Cobb-related item to note from Thursday’s meeting: Tommy Perry, an assistant at Dickerson Middle School, is leaving to become the principal at South Cobb High School, effective Friday.

 

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Cobb school board slated to establish FY 2020 millage rate Thursday

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The Cobb Board of Education is scheduled to adopt a millage rate for the new fiscal year 2020 budget on Thursday. Cobb schools parent portal

The board will take action at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.

At noon Thursday is the second of three public hearings the board is required to hold about the millage rate. It’s scheduled to take place at the same place, to be followed by a work session at 1 p.m.

The third and final public hearing precedes the regular meeting at 6:30 p.m.

(Agenda PDF for both meetings here)

The new $1.7 billion Cobb schools budget year began on July 1, holding the line on a rate of 18.9 mills that has been levied for many years.

That is not formalized before the Cobb Tax Assessor establishes the county tax digest in late June. This year, it’s projected to be $39 billion, surpassing last year’s record of $36.2 billion.

That means that the Cobb County School District will be collecting more in tax revenues than in 2018. When an elected body doesn’t roll back the millage rate accordingly, that’s considered a tax increase, and it must advertise and hold three public hearings.

This year the tax revenue increase for Cobb schools is 4.88 percent. A recent history of the schools millage rate levy can be found here.

 

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Longtime Sprayberry football coach Jim Frazier has died

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Word is coming from Sprayberry High School that Jim Frazier, for many years a member of Yellow Jackets football coaching staff and a legendary figure in the school community’s history, died on Thursday.Sprayberry coach Jim Frazier

“Our school and community will forever be grateful for the contributions made by this wonderful man,” was the message posted on the school’s Facebook page Friday afternoon.

We’ll have more later, but here’s a summary of Frazier’s tenure at Sprayberry, which went far beyond what his teams did in sports:

Frazier came to Sprayberry in 1959, a few years after it opened as East Cobb’s first high school.

While he was an assistant football coach, the Yellow Jackets won two county and two region titles in and three times finished the season in the state’s top 10.

He also coached baseball at Sprayberry before retiring from teaching in 1986, and served on the school’s football and baseball committees for nearly 50 years.

The Sprayberry football stadium is named after Frazier, a native of Tennessee who played football at Carson-Newman College and earned a master’s degree from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University.

Frazier was in attendance and recognized last summer at the 65th anniversary celebration of Sprayberry’s opening.

Last August, his wife, Wilma Quarles Frazier, died at the age of 85. She taught at Sedalia Park Elementary School for 27 years.

The Fraziers were married for 61 years.

In 2015, State Rep. Don Parsons of East Cobb sponsored a resolution that was passed by the Georgia General Assembly to honor Frazier for his service to Sprayberry and the community.

 

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Cobb Police soliciting bookbag donations for students in need

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Cobb Police Bookbag Palooza

Submitted information:

Even though we are enjoying summer, the Cobb Police Department Community Affairs Unit is already hard at work to support our students when they head back to school. Book Bag-Palooza is an effort to gather as many book bags and school supplies as possible. Donations will be distributed to county students in need at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, which is only one month away.
 
Donations can include new book bags, paper, folders, pencils, crayons, glue sticks and markers. Any items that a student, from elementary to high school, would need to start the school year out prepared and ready to learn. Donations can be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday-Friday (excluding holidays) at any of the Cobb precincts:

  • Precinct 1: 2380 Cobb Parkway NW, Kennesaw
  • Precinct 2: 4700 Austell Road, Austell
  • Precinct 3: 1901 Cumberland Parkway, Atlanta
  • Precinct 4: 4400 Lower Roswell Road, Marietta
  • Precinct 5: 4640 Dallas Highway, Powder Springs
  • Headquarters: 140 North Marietta Parkway, Marietta

If a business or club collects a large amount of school items, one of the Community Affairs’ officers will be happy to arrange pick up. For more information, call Sgt. Jeff Tatroe at 770-499-3981.

 

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Cobb school enrollment projections show scattered growth in East Cobb

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Cobb schools enrollment projections
A new home under construction in Indian Hills in the Walton High School attendance zone, whose middle and elementary schools will be over capacity over the next decade. (ECN photo)

Growth in student enrollment in public schools in East Cobb is expected to continue over the next few years, but the rate of that increase isn’t projected to be as much as it is in other parts of the county.

A planning consultant hired by the Cobb County School District told school board members in May in his annual enrollment study that population growth in the county has been and will be holding steady, and that will reflect in school enrollment.

(Read and download the full study here)

James Wilson of Marietta-based Education Planners and a former Cobb and Fulton superintendent, issued school-by-school projections over the next decade (see pages 16-19 at the link above, or see charts below. Click each chart for a larger view).

Some schools in East Cobb, and in particular in the Walton cluster, will be well above capacity. But other schools, especially in northeast Cobb close to the Cherokee County line, will have plenty of room at most grade levels.

Wilson said Cobb’s population is expected to grow only by 22 percent between 2015 and 2040, the lowest rate in all of metro Atlanta. Southern parts of Cobb will be experiencing much greater population growth that will impact school capacity.

“We are not going to grow like other districts and other counties,” Wilson said. “We’re getting older.”

Cobb’s 2018 population estimated at around 763,000, and by 2025, it’s expected to grow to 823,000, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission.

But last year, the county’s population grew by only 1,000 people overall. Between 2016-17, the population rose by around 5,000, less than one percent.

In 2018, Cobb schools enrollment was a little over 111,000, down from 113,000 two years before.

That overall number, and grade-level enrollments, are expected to remain relatively steady over the next decade.

 Housing affordability also figures to be a major factor in enrollment patterns.

“Families are choosing to come to Cobb,” Wilson said, “because of the school district, once they can afford to get here.”

Public schools are a major attraction to East Cobb, but the new enrollment projections reflect differing levels of growth in the community.

Many more housing permits are being issued parts of south, west and north Cobb compared to East Cobb. Those new housing starts are solid in the Walton, Sprayberry, Pope and Lassiter clusters.

Not included in this map are housing starts in the Wheeler cluster, which numbered 16 in the same time period, the lowest of any high school zone in the Cobb school district.

Attendance at Lassiter, Pope, Walton and Wheeler  is expected to be tight to over capacity in the coming years.

Kell was 386 students under capacity after the 2018-19 school year that just ended, and Sprayberry was 292 spots under capacity.

While Kell’s projections have the school with 557 available spots a decade from now, Sprayberry’s capacity is expected to tighten to only 76 open spots, about the same as Pope.

Wheeler is at capacity for now, but the projections indicate it could be nearly 250 students over capacity by 2028-29, while Walton may be slightly under capacity.

Lassiter is just under capacity now but may be 100 students over in another decade.

Dodgen, Dickerson and Hightower Trail middle schools are over capacity, while there’s plenty of room at Mabry and McCleskey.

At the elementary school level, East Side and Mt. Bethel, in the Walton cluster, are well over capacity.

In the Wheeler cluster, so is the new Brumby Elementary campus, with 59 more students over capacity. Eastvalley Elementary, slated for a new school building, was 160 students over its capacity of 562.

Projections show a rising enrollment to nearly 800 students a decade from now, by the time the school is expected to occupy a new campus at the former site of East Cobb Middle School.

Blackwell, Davis, Keheley, Kincaid, Mountain View and Nicholson and Shallowford Falls elementary are well below capacity and are projected to remain that way.

 

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Simpson Middle School earns STEAM designation from Cobb schools

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Simpson Middle School has become the first middle school in the Cobb County School District to be designated a STEAM school.Simpson Middle School STEAM

STEAM is STEM-based learning (science, technology, engineering and math) with an arts and language-based component.

“Students at Simpson are using the arts to demonstrate what they’ve learned in math, English and even science classes. Their teachers have worked hard to help students see how the concepts that they are learning are integrated from one class to the next. This approach to learning mirrors the real world,” Dr. Sally Creel, Cobb Schools Supervisor of STEM and Innovation, said in a statement.

Simpson is one of 25 Cobb schools to have STEM or STEAM designation. Last year, Kerri Waller, an art teacher at Simpson, was the recipient of a Cobb STEM Distinguished Educator Award.

In 2017 Wheeler became the first Georgia high school to earn STEAM certification, and earlier this year it was named the No. 2 STEM program in the country.

The other East Cobb schools certified for STEM by the district include Brumby, East Side, Shallowford Falls, Sope Creek and Tritt elementary schools; Hightower Trail, Mabry and McCleskey middle schools and Lassiter, Pope, Walton and Wheeler high schools.

Lassiter, Tritt and Wheeler are also STEM-certified by the state.

 

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More East Cobb students receive National Merit Scholarships

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Another 14 students from East Cobb have been awarded National Merit Scholarships, out of 18 for the Cobb County School District (previous recipients were named in April and May).

These scholarships, announced on Wednesday, are financed by U.S. colleges and universities and range between $500 and $2,000. EAst Cobb National Merit Scholars

The following students are among more than 7,600 who will receive receive scholarship money totalling $31 million by the end of the summer:

  • Lassiter: Joshua R. Vollbracht and Carter Brent Johnson;
  • Pope: Griffin W. Haarbauer and Maya Nambiar;
  • Walton: Thomas DeBoer, Ava Sophia Edmunds, Emma Allison Hunt, Anika Park, David Phillips, Varsha Ramachandra and Illahi S. Virani;
  • Wheeler: Andrew J. Mayne, Rebecca G. Simonson and Hanna E. Waltz.

This year, 173 higher education institutions are underwriting Merit Scholarship awards through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Sponsor colleges and universities include 95 private and 78 public institutions in 43 states.

 

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East Cobb school retirees include teachers, aides, custodians, nurses and more

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East Cobb school retirees

We posted earlier this month about Cobb County School District retirees who were honored at a luncheon, especially those with 30-plus years of longevity. Here are all the retirees from East Cobb schools, including teachers, administrators, cafeteria workers, custodians, nurses and more, plus the number of years they were employed by the district:

Bells Ferry Elementary School
Robin Pullen, teacher, 21

Daniell Middle School
Carole Benavides, teacher, 23
Jacqueline Davies, food service assistant, 12
Mary Gates, teacher, 13
Sara Harris, media specialist, 19

Davis Elementary School
Lucia Brown, assistant principal, 30
Mary Ward, media specialist, 7

Dickerson Middle School
Lisa Larkin, paraprofessional, 22
Mary Scarbrough, teacher, 11
Nadiyah Shakoor-AbdurRahim, RN, nurse, 10

Dodgen Middle School
Phyllis Ellison, clerk, 23
Sheryl Mastley, teacher, 17

East Cobb Middle School
Kathleen Gonglach, school counselor, 22
Rebecca Braswell, LPN, school nurse, 15

East Side Elementary School
Debra Denise Clackum, teacher, 35

Hightower Trail Middle School
Caroline Sangster, teacher, 27
Linda Postell, teacher, 26
Suzanne Logue, teacher, 13

Keheley Elementary School
Cindy Stine, bookkeeper, 26
Eileen Gattone, paraprofessional, 20

Kell High School
Charles Goddard, teacher, 16
Lauren Hines, teacher, 30
Steven Lattizori, teacher, 30
Willie Patton, paraprofessional, 14

Lassiter High School
Angela Carder, clerk, 31
Beverly Conley, clerk, 20
Cathy Zingler, teacher, 24
Deborah Poss, teacher, 36
Donald Slater, teacher, 38
Jeannie Ledbetter, food service assistant, 39
Micheline Fournier, clerk, 21

Mabry Middle School
Lisa Bowman, teacher, 31

McCleskey Middle School
Beth Decker, secretary, 25

Mt. Bethel Elementary School
Tracy Sikes, teacher, 20

Mountain View Elementary School
Christine Nielsen, paraprofessional, 17

Murdock Elementary School
Elizabeth Sheeley, speech/language pathologist, 9

Nicholson Elementary School
Mary Ann Kessler, paraprofessional, 25
Pamela Otto, teacher, 17

Sedalia Park Elementary School
Marsha Williams, food service assistant, 22
Mary Kienker, teacher, 13
Sharon Drake, teacher, 11

Shallowford Falls Elementary School
Amy Koenning, teacher, 32
Diane Marco, teacher, 16
Jean Allen, secretary, 20
Pamela Heath, RN, school nurse, 17

Simpson Middle School
Blanca Carmichael, secretary, 13

Sope Creek Elementary School
Cindy Dingess, teacher, 28
Susan Jenkins, teacher, 30

Sprayberry High School
Catherine Barry, teacher, 30
Edwige Brun, teacher, 18
Mary Barber, paraprofessional, 19
Maureen Gamble, teacher, 23
Teresa Fuller, teacher, 24

Tritt Elementary School
Amy Benson, teacher, 21

Walton High School
Lawrence Moon, head custodian, 36 years

 

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Cobb schools 2019 valedictorians and salutatorians announced

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William Ellsworth, Walton, Cobb schools 2019 valedictorians and salutatorians
William Ellsworth, Walton High School

The Cobb County School District on Tuesday announced the Class of 2019 valedictorians and salutatorians, and students from East Cobb schools had some of the highest grade-point averages in the county.

Walton’s William Ellsworth topped all seniors with a GPA of 4.875, and he’s headed to Stanford University. Walton’s salutatorian, Daniel Shu, has a GPA of 4.833, and he’s off to Vanderbilt.

All of the East Cobb vals and sals had GPAs in excess of 4.6, and many of those are going to Georgia Tech. The countywide average is 4.66 for the Class of 2019, which numbers more than 8,000 in 16 Cobb high schools.

CCSD said 94 percent of those graduates will be getting their diplomas on time, which is a record, and 75 percent are college-bound.

Annabelle Alejandra Colmenares Mayz, Kell High School
Annabelle Alejandra Colmenares Mayz, Kell High School

Cobb graduates have earned more than $118 million in scholarships, outside of the HOPE and Zell Mill scholarship programs. A total of $12 million in scholarships is going to Pope graduates.

Graduation started Tuesday afternoon for Kell. The other East Cobb schools’ graduation schedules are listed below, along with their valedictorians, salutatorians, GPAs, college choices and intended majors.

Kell (Tuesday, 3:30 p.m., KSU)
Valedictorian —Annabelle Alejandra Colmenares Mayz, 4.6.14, Stanford, material science and engineering
Salutatorian—Thomas Papageorge, 4.6, Georgia Tech, mathematics

Lassiter (Thursday, 2:30 pm., KSU)
Valedictorian—Kevin Barnard Goshay, 4.793, Harvard, applied mathematics
Salutatorian—Dennis Gregory Goldenberg, 4.759, Georgia Tech, mathematics

Kevin Barnard Goshay, Lassiter High School
Kevin Barnard Goshay, Lassiter High School

Pope (Friday, 7 p.m., KSU)
Valedictorians—Nicole Yoojin Kang, 4.783, Georgia Tech, biology; and Edward Charles Kokan, 4.783, Georgia Tech, aerospace engineering
Salutatorian—Karen Sizhe Li, 4.75, Georgia Tech, biomedical engineering

Sprayberry (Saturday, 7 p.m., KSU)
Valedictorians—Yllona Maria Coronado, 4.656, Georgia Tech, biomedical engineering; and Anusha Kayastha, 4.656, Georgia Tech, neuroscience
Salutatorians—Samuel August Knobbe, 4.563, Georgia Tech, chemical engineering; and Matthew Robert Starker, 4.563, University of Georgia, finance

Walton (Friday, 10 a.m., KSU)
Valedictorian—William Ellsworth, 4.839, Stanford
Salutatorian—Daniel Shu, 4.803, Vanderbilt

Wheeler (Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., Wildcat Arena)
Valedictorian—Rucha Gharpure, 4.742, Cornell, computer science
Salutatorian—Keshav Shenoy, 4.727, Georgia Tech

The entire group of East Cobb valedictorians and salutatorians is shown in the slideshow below.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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Georgia Scholars include 13 students from East Cobb schools

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More academic honors for some seniors at East Cobb high schools, 13 of whom are part of the 19-strong Cobb contingent as Georgia Scholars, given by the Georgia Department of Education.Georgia Department of Education, Georgia Scholars East Cobb

The Georgia Scholar program identifies students who:

“. . . Have achieved excellence in school and community life. Students eligible for Georgia Scholar recognition are high school seniors who exhibit excellence in all phases of school life, in community activities, and in the home. 

“Georgia Scholars are students who have carried exemplary course loads during their four years of high school; who performed excellently in all courses; who successfully participated in interscholastic events at their schools and in their communities; and who have assumed active roles in extracurricular activities sponsored by their schools. Each Georgia Scholar receives a seal for his or her diploma.”

The East Cobb students come from four schools:

  • Kell: Anabelle Colmenares;
  • Lassiter: Kevin Goshay;
  • Pope: Megan Anderson, William Kim;
  • Walton: Jacob Alayof, Anjali Padiyar, Anika Park, Elizabeth Sims, Varun Krishnaswamy;
  • Wheeler: Sabrina Hampton, Stephanie Yao, Michelle Nader, Arya Mevada.

The other Cobb recipients hail from Allatoona, Harrison and Kennesaw Mountain.

State School Superintendent Richard Woods:

“The 2019 Georgia Scholars exemplify our mission of educating the whole child. They are well-rounded students who have engaged with a wide array of educational opportunities – from traditional classroom learning to community service. I congratulate each of these students and wish them well as they embark on their next steps after high school.”  

If you’re thinking about next year’s awards, qualifying students can contact their counselor to get an application. Counselors, home school instructors and district coordinators can get on the distribution list by contacting Georgia DOE at askdoe@georgiadoe.org.

 

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Cobb schools 2020 budget adopted with major pay increases

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With little discussion, the Cobb school board adopted a $1.17 billion fiscal year 2020 budget Thursday night.Cobb County School District, Cobb schools 2020 budget

The budget, which takes effect July 1, will include pay raises for most non-temporary employees ranging between 8 and 12.6 percent. They include teachers, administrators, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, counselors and nurses.

(Read the budget details here.)

The only change to the budget, presented at a board work session Thursday afternoon, is spending an additional $340,000 in “academic supplements” for elementary school teachers. The stipends will go to those teachers who will serve in grade-level leadership positions at their respective schools.

The budget adopted by the board maintains the current millage rate of 18.9 mills. The pay raises will total around $74 million, and more than $18 million is being transferred from reserves.

Teacher allotments will increase by 90 across the district, and members of the CCDS’ police department also will get a “competitive salary adjustment.”

A total of $81 million in increased revenues, including $43 million in state Quality Basic Education funding as well as $30 million in additional property taxes due to an estimated 5.5 percent growth in the Cobb tax digest, has been worked into the budget proposal.

Brad Johnson, the district’s chief financial officer, said the final tax digest number will be determined in June.

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Cobb schools fiscal year 2020 budget expected to be adopted Thursday

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Due to graduation ceremonies next week, the Cobb school board has moved up its May meeting by a week, and is scheduled to act on the fiscal year 2020 budget on Thursday.

Charisse Davis, Cobb Board of Edcucation, Cobb schools fiscal year 2020 budget
Charisse Davis

There will be a work session starting at 2:30 p.m., a public hearing on the budget at 6:30 p.m. and a regular meeting starting at 7 p.m., in which the board is expected to vote on the budget.

The meetings will take place in the board room at the Cobb County School District Central office, 514 Glover St., in Marietta.

(You can view the agenda for the meetings here.)

Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale has proposed a $1.17 billion budget with raises for all CCSD, ranging between 8 and 12.6 percent.

He said the proposed raises were made possible by $3,000 raises for teachers that were included in the state education budget. The fiscal year 2020 budget begins on July 1.

Details of the budget proposal can be found in several ways:

Senior tax exemption panel rejected

Earlier this month the school board held a retreat and spurned a proposal by board member Charisse Davis to create a special committee to examine possible changes to the Cobb schools property tax exemption for seniors.

Cobb is only one of two school districts in the metro Atlanta area to offer the exemption to homeowners 62 and older without any qualifications (such as income levels). School district officials estimate the exemption will amount to nearly $112 million this year.

Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, pointed to a recent vote in Forsyth County to eliminate a senior tax exemption for homeowners who have students living with them but who are not legal guardians. Forsyth schools will gain an additional $500,000 in annual revenue.

But Davis’ proposal just to form a committee was voted down 4-2 (with the board’s four Republicans all voting against), and came just a few days after board chairman David Chastain, who represents the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, adamantly said the senior exemption isn’t being taken away.

Davis, one of three Democrats on the Cobb school board, reiterated after the retreat that in Forsyth, “a Republican school board asked a Republican delegation to put a senior tax change up for a vote, the state legislature overwhelmingly approved it, and then the county’s voters approved it. Imagine that.”

She also drew up a map (bigger version on her website) showing the various school senior tax exemptions in metro Atlanta school systems.

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Reminder: East Cobb 2019 graduation schedule

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East Cobb high school graduation dates

The last week of the 2018-19 year for the Cobb County School District is coming up, with graduations a little more than a week away.

Here are the dates, times and venues for commencement exercises for the six high schools in East Cobb:

Tuesday, May 21
Kell, 3:30 p.m., KSU Convocation Center

Wednesday, May 22
Wheeler, 6:30 p.m., Wheeler Gymnasium

Thursday, May 23
Lassiter, 2:30 p.m., KSU Convocation Center

Friday, May 24
Walton, 10 a.m., KSU Convocation Center
Pope, 7 p.m., KSU Convocation Center

Saturday, May 25
Sprayberry, 7 p.m., KSU Convocation Center

There are more details here about each school’s event, including directions and parking, as well as a link to watch via the web and order DVDs of the ceremonies.

They’ll be among 8,000 high school seniors in the Cobb district getting their diplomas.

 

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Cobb school retirees include long-serving East Cobb teachers, staff

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Cobb school retirees

Of the 229 Cobb school retirees honored by the Cobb County School District on Thursday, some of the longest-serving teachers and staff have been at East Cobb schools. They include the following, with their total years of service to the district:

  • Lassiter High School food services manager Jeannie Ledbetter, 39 years;

    Deborah Poss, Cobb school retirees
    Deborah Poss
  • Lassiter High School teacher Donald Slater, 38 years;
  • Walton High School custodian Lawrence Moon, 36 years;
  • Lassiter High School teacher Deborah Poss, 35 years;
  • East Side Elementary School teacher Debra Denise Clackum, 35 years.

“It is the greatest part-time job with benefits that you could ever have. You get summers off. You get to enjoy life,” Ledbetter said.

The luncheon took place at Roswell Street Baptist Church, and Lassiter student Will Cole took part in the festivities by singing the national anthem; he’s pictured below.

The total service logged by the retiring 229 employees comes to 5,009 years.

(Information and photos submitted by Cobb County School District)

 

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East Cobb National Merit Scholarship recipients announced

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The National Merit Scholarship Corporation on Wednesday announced that around 2,500 high school seniors around the country were recipients of $2,500 National Merit Scholarships for 2019. Eleven of those recipients are from East Cobb schools.

Students are chosen for having “the combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.”

EAst Cobb National Merit ScholarsThe recipients were chosen by college admissions officers and high school counselors. The winners also indicated their probable career field (in parenthesis) on their applications:

  • Campbell: Alexander Eaton, who’s from East Cobb (business administration);
  • Lassiter: Dennis G. Goldenberg, with a probable career field in mathematics.
  • Walton: William Ellsworth (computer science), Vineet Gangireddy (business administration), Nicholas Hong (neurobiology), Ryan Li (computer science) and Grace Xu (undecided);
  • Wheeler: Fianko Buckle (computer science), Caden M. Felton (physics), Arya N. Mevada (intellectual property law) and Keshav K. Shenoy (computer science).

The field began with 15,000 applicants, and more than 7,600 students will receive scholarship money totalling $31 million by the end of the school year.

The NMSC also recently awarded corporate scholarships, which are renewable for up to four years and range from $500 to $10,000, that go to the children of company employees, live in the communities those companies serve or who plan to go into career fields the sponsor wishes to encourage.

The following East Cobb students were awarded those scholarships on April 17:

  • Mariah K. Butts, Wheeler (Marsh & McLennan Companies Scholarship), probable career field medicine;
  • Eashan Gandotra, Walton (ADP Henry Taub Memorial Scholarship), mathematics;
  • Tarunnum Lakdawala, Campbell (PWC Charitable Foundation Scholarship), computer science;
  • Zachary Yahn, Wheeler (Georgia-Pacific Foundation Scholarship), electrical engineering.

 

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