Distance learning will continue for students in the Cobb County School District and elsewhere in the state.
Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday extended his K-12 public school closure in Georgia through April 24.
He said in a release issued shortly before noon that while schools may be able to open on April 27, “we ask for continued patience and flexibility since circumstances may change, but we encourage families to stay strong and follow the guidance of federal, state, and local leaders in the weeks ahead.”
On March 12, Cobb schools announced they would be closing, the day after a positive Coronavirus test was reported at Kincaid Elementary School.
Kemp initially urged schools to closed without a mandate, but then declared a statewide shutdown through March 31.
Public colleges and universities in Georgia have closed for the rest of the spring semester.
The Georgia Department of Public Health totals of Coronavirus cases in Georgia was at 1,525 as of noon Thursday, with 48 deaths and 473 hospitalizations.
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Cobb school board members and top district officials met via teleconference Thursday.
Cobb County School District temporary employees who are out of work during the Coronavirus-prompted school closure will be getting paid through the end of May.
Those are what the district calls “non-permanent” workers—in the nutrition department and after-school program as well as substitute teachers.
The Cobb Board of Education voted Thursday to spend $3.4 million to cover payroll costs for around 2,500 of those workers, who are paid through a different part of the district’s $1.1 billion budget than other employees.
All of the district’s 18,000 salaried and hourly employees—teachers, administrators, bus drivers, nurses, counselors, cafeteria workers, paraprofessionals and others—also are being paid during the school closure, as their pay has already been budgeted in fiscal year 2020, which ends June 30.
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the substitute teachers eligible for the pay have been on board for the last three months.
“We have the ability to take care of our team members and our families and our communities,” he said.
He said district officials are not “taking knee-jerk action” in response to addressing the needs of those who work for the public schools, regardless of their employment status.
Having any sizable number of them without income would have a greater economic impact, since the district is Cobb County’s largest employer.
“I had zero hesitation about this,” Ragsdale said.
He was applauded by school board members who voted later in a 7-0 vote to approve the funding, which will come from the district’s general fund reserves.
The district has a $117 million reserve fund, and it’s not recommended to go below a month’s reserve, which is around $100 milllion.
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Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced Thursday that the Cobb County School District is working with MUST Ministries to provide breakfasts and lunches to any students who need them for the rest of the school year.
During a teleconferenced school board work session, Ragsdale said that students may pick up a week’s worth of those meals each Monday, starting this coming Monday, March 23, at one of eight schools in the district, including East Cobb Middle School.
Only the student will be provided the food, and each student must be present to receive the meals. Ragsdale said students will not have to show their IDs.
The meals will be prepared by the school district’s food services staff, and MUST Ministries volunteers will deliver the food boxes on a drive-through basis in front of the school buildings.
The pickup times are from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday at the following locations:
Acworth Elementary School (4220 Cantrell Road, Acworth)
Bryant Elementary School (6800 Factory Shoals Road, Mableton)
Campbell HS (5265 Ward Street, Smyrna)
Compton Elementary School (3450 New Macland Road, Powder Springs)
East Cobb Middle School (825 Terrell Mill Road, Marietta)
Garrett Middle School (5235 Austell-Powder Springs Road, Austell)
Osborne High (2451 Favor Road, Marietta)
Riverside Intermediate School (285 South Gordon Road, Mableton)
Those schools have more than 50 percent of their students receiving reduced or free lunches.
Future pickups will continue to take place each Monday at those same locations and during those same hours.
Cobb and other public school districts and universities in Georgia are closed until March 31 at the order of Gov. Brian Kemp.
During Thursday’s work session, there was no discussion about how long the closures may last beyond that.
But Cobb school officials are clearly preparing for it to be much longer.
Later Thursday the school board was being asked to spend $3.4 million from the general fund to pay after-school program and nutritional workers and substitute teachers through the end of May, when the Cobb academic year ends.
As for the upcoming student meal provisions, Ragsdale said Cobb schools food service workers will be in kitchens with 10 or fewer people, per CDC guidelines on social distancing. MUST volunteers will pick up the food at the cafeteria doors, then provide them to students curbside.
Volunteers for the school meal program are needed, and you can sign up here on the MUST Ministries website.
The food service program is a continuation of a partnership between Cobb schools and MUST Ministries, which have set up times for special family food boxes to be picked this week at several locations.
That food comes from 29 school pantries, which were open starting Wednesday.
On Friday, those needing food may come by the following locations in East Cobb between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.:
Brumby ES (815 Terrell Mill Road);
Lassiter HS (2601 Shallowford Road);
McCleskey MS (4080 Maybreeze Road);
Sprayberry HS (2525 Sandy Plains Road);
Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church (4385 Lower Roswell Road).
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While the Cobb Board of Commissioners and other county elected and appointed bodies are postponing or rescheduling public meetings in the wake of the Coronavirus response, the Cobb Board of Education is carrying on with its scheduled monthly meetings on Thursday.
But they will be held remotely, via teleconference, for board members, Cobb County School District officials and the public.
The district has posted a message on its website that a virtual work session, followed by an executive session and a virtual voting meeting, will begin Thursday starting at 10 a.m.
You can follow the meetings on the CCSD livestream by clicking here.
Late Wednesday afternoon the district posted an agenda that includes a proposal to pay non-permanent employees (school bus drivers, cafeteria workers and the like) through the end of May due to the Coronavirus crisis.
Cobb schools closed on Monday and per Gov. Brian Kemp all public schools in Georgia are closed at least until March 31.
The agenda item, which will be discussed at the work session and voted on in the regular meeting, would use $3.4 million in general funding reserves.
The payroll supplements would include $1.675 million for defined active temporary employees, $1.5 million for the district’s after-school program workers and $225,000 for the school nutrition program.
During typical in-person school board meetings members of the public also have a chance to make public comments to board members, but that will not be the case Thursday.
A district spokeswoman told East Cobb News that “given federal and state guidance about avoiding groups larger than ten and the meeting happening virtually, public comment will not be available.”
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A total of 29 pantries will open as early as Wednesday at Cobb County School District and other locations, as part of the MUST Ministries Food Rapid Response Program.
That program was put together when the schools closed over the Coronavirus outbreak; CCSD also made food donations to MUST to help get it started.
(MUST and CCSD have been teaming up to open food pantries at a number of schools, including at Brumby Elementary School, which opened in late 2018.)
Since schools will be closed at least through March 31 (per an order issued Monday by Gov. Brian Kemp), this is going to be a long-haul effort, and here’s how the pantry schedule will start out.
In East Cobb, pantries will open on Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the following locations:
Brumby ES (815 Terrell Mill Road);
Lassiter HS (2601 Shallowford Road);
McCleskey MS (4080 Maybreeze Road);
Sprayberry HS (2525 Sandy Plains Road);
Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church (4385 Lower Roswell Road).
Rev. Ike Reighard of Piedmont Church, also the CEO of MUST Minstries, said that “we are grateful to have access to the food in our 29 Cobb County Schools pantries and be able to establish a base for distribution. Hungry families from throughout the county – even if their students attend a school without a pantry – will be welcomed to pick up a food box to last about two weeks.”
He said the food boxes will feed a family for two weeks, and that boxes also can be picked up Friday 10-2 at MUST locations at 1407 Cobb Parkway North in Marietta and 460 Pat Mell Road in Smyrna.
The Piedmont Church (570 Piedmont Road) also is accepting food donations on Tuesdays, between 3-7 p.m.
The needs are snacks, pasta, cereal, bread, peanut butter, jelly, rice, canned vegetables, oatmeal, spaghetti sauce, water and other non-perishable foods.
The public can bring food boxes from 9-5 Tuesday-Saturday at the MUST Donation Center (1280 Cobb Parkway North), and below is a list of what’s needed the most:
A couple other things passed along by Cobb schools as part of this effort. Its non-profit partner, the Cobb Schools Foundation, is also setting up to help families in need during this period of “social distancing.” Details can be found here.
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As the COVID-19 outbreak continues and many public schools are closed to ensure the safety of students and staff, State School Superintendent Richard Woods is suspending the following until further notice:
State assessment window/administration (including Georgia Milestones EOGs and EOCs, the Georgia Alternate Assessment/GAA 2.0, and all other required testing
Teacher and leader evaluation (TKES/LKES) requirements and reporting
State-level attendance-related consequences (including CCRPI, TKES/LKES, School Climate Star Rating, and make-up day requirements)
“Right now, schools’ focus needs to be on the safety of their students and staff,” Superintendent Woods said. “The focus should be first and foremost on health and safety, then on flexible and creative ways to keep learning and growing. It’s common sense: testing and accountability requirements should not place an additional burden on students, parents, and educators during this time, and they will not in Georgia.”
At the State Board of Education meeting on March 27 (which will be conducted via teleconference), Superintendent Woods will recommend the approval of a package of waivers, including suspension of the 20% course grade requirement for the Georgia Milestones EOC.
GaDOE previously announced that Georgia received waivers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to extend meal service flexibility, allowing schools to serve students’ meals through USDA-approved meal service options at state-approved sites within the community – similar to the way schools and districts offer student meals during the summer months. As of Monday morning, 102 school district applications had been approved by GaDOE’s school nutrition staff. Please check local school district websites and social media sources for information on how to access local sites.
We continue to post updated information, including student learning resources and a tracking tool for school closures, to gadoe.org/coronavirus.
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The Cobb County School District sent out this statement Friday afternoon:
To continue to support Cobb students while schools are closed, the Cobb County School District is pleased to announce that the District is partnering with MUST Ministries to provide food to our students in need.
By partnering with MUST Ministries, Cobb Schools will be able to extend the support to the entire family, not just those students who attend Cobb Schools.
“We are thankful for this additional opportunity to partner with MUST Ministries. Partnering to help our Cobb families in need is truly an example of the community coming together,” said Superintendent Chris Ragsdale. “During this unprecedented time, there may be more families in need than just those who receive free and reduced lunches. By partnering with MUST, we will also be able to help those families.”
The Cobb Schools Food and Nutrition Services kitchens are making large food donations to MUST Ministries, which MUST will use to feed Cobb families.
“We are always honored to partner with Cobb County Schools year-round when it comes to taking care of at-risk children and their families. Currently, we serve 70 schools through 32 Cobb County school locations called MUST Neighborhood Pantries,” said Dr. Ike Reighard, President, and CEO of MUST Ministries. “With the schools closing and no access to the pantries, we have created the MUST Food Rapid Response effort to continue to meet the needs and expand to other families in need. We anticipate partnering with satellite locations to distribute family food boxes. While this is a work in progress, we hope to have locations and times settled by early next week.”
Currently, MUST serves 1,500 families a month through Neighborhood Pantries and three main pantry locations. The MUST Food Rapid Response program will expand that reach.
For more information about the MUST Food Rapid Response program including pick-up locations, times, and other details will be available on the MUST Ministries website next week.
MUST has put together a list of what it’s going to need in particular while school’s out:
Beef stew
canned green beans
dry milk (carton)
pinto or baked beans
canned pasta
pasta bags
canned carrots
canned tuna
Chunky soup
canned corn
other beans;
canned potatoes
canned tomatoes
mac & cheese boxes
canned mixed vegetables
canned peaches and fruit
oatmeal bag/rice bag
These non-perishable food donations at 1280 Field Parkway in Marietta; you can also give financially by going to mustministries.com/give-help.
You can also buy food on the MUST list from Amazon by clicking here.
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The Cobb County School District announced late Thursday that all classes and activities will be cancelled starting on Monday as the second-largest school district in Georgia will be closing due to the Coronavirus outbreak “until further notice.”
The decision was announced at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, not long after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp urged public school districts and the state’s public universities to close for two weeks.
He said at a press conference that it wouldn’t be a mandate.
Marietta City Schools and Atlanta Public Schools announced Thursday that those systems would be closing for two weeks, also starting on Monday.
The Walker School announced earlier Thursday it would be closing, and East Cobb private schools Mt. Bethel Christian Academy and Eastside Christian School also are closing, in accordance with CCSD.
The Georgia General Assembly was also suspending the current legislative session.
Those closures comes on the same day that the state announced the first Georgia Coronavirus-related death, a 67-year-old man at WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta.
The Cobb schools announcement reads as follows, and this story will be updated:
The school closures include all school building activities, athletics/sports, extracurricular school activities, and trips.
While our school buildings will be closed, the education process will not stop. All staff will work remotely to best support students, including delivering digital and physical instructional resources to students while they’re at home.
We know that you may have questions regarding how the school closure will impact you, and we will work to provide you the answers.
We will continue to keep our community updated on the next steps during the school closure process as we turn to our digital learning resources.
More information will be communicated on Friday, March 13 to all our families and staff. Please continue to stay updated on www.cobbk12.org/covid/.
If you have any Coronavirus-related cancellations, changes or news to share with the East Cobb community, let us know. E-mail us: editor@eastcobbnews.com and we’ll include it in future posts.
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All programs and events at Cobb library branches are cancelled until the end of March.
A wide variety of cancellations and other measures relating to the Coronavirus response have been announced on Thursday in Cobb County.
The Walker School, a private school on Cobb Parkway and Allgood Road, announced Thursday it would be closing Friday “until further notice.”
A message released by the school said there were no Coronavirus cases there, but said the decision was made “based on our top priority to protect the health and safety of our students, families and employees and by our communal responsibility to slow the spread of COVID-19.”
Friday and Monday are professional development days for faculty and staff at Walker, which has nearly 900 K-12 students.
The Walker message further stressed, in all bold lettering, that “school closures will not be effective unless they are accompanied by social distancing strategies.”
Georgia’s first death due to Coronavirus was a 67-year-old man who had been treated at WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta.
State health officials said the man had other medical issues, and people like that, along with the elderly, are high-risk for contracting Coronavirus.
At The Solana East Cobb, a new senior living facility on Johnson Ferry Road, no visitors are permitted until further notice, with only limited exceptions or in the case of an emergency.
Health care providers coming there will be screened before being allowed on the premises, and residents must remain on the grounds except to receive medical care.
United Military Care, a veterans’ assistance organization on Old Canton Road, said Thursday that they aren’t taking walk-in clients for the time being since some of them are older and have “fragile medical conditions.”
A veteran with an emergency can contact the agency at 770-973-0014 and leave a voicemail with a return telephone number. UMC’s e-mail address is info@unitedmilitarycare.org.
“Our Veterans are precious to us; We do not want to facilitate the transmission of any potentially harmful viruses to those with underlying medical conditions or weakened immune systems,” said a UMC message.
“Please listen to medical experts on how to manage this virus and do not fall prey to rumors and unfounded nonsense.”
Faith communities respond
Several places of worship in East Cobb are communicating with their members about precautions they’re taking.
Starting Sunday at the East Cobb Church of Christ, “we will not be passing anything during communion.” Instead, worshippers can pick up a container when they enter that has a wafer and plastic cup of juice. “These will be used during communion until the fear of virus is over.” the church’s message stated. “Members will deposit the used cups in the holders on the back of the pews.”
Collection plates also will not be passed around, but will be available for deposits in the front foyer. The church is also making available sanitized wipes at various entries.
In his press conference Thursday, Gov. Kemp asked that elderly people not attend worship services for the time being.
Library events cancelled
The Cobb County Public Library System announced that starting Friday and continuing through the end of March, all programs and events at its branches will be cancelled.
This weekend’s Cobb Library Foundation book sale at the Cobb Civic Center and Census events at libraries also have been called off.
School events on hold
Some East Cobb schools have cancelled extracurricular events.
Thursday’s Magnet Accepted Student Showcase at Wheeler High School was cancelled. There are no known Coronavirus cases at Wheeler, but the decision was cautionary.
So was the cancellation of the March Madness Parents Night Out March 26 at Lassiter High School. The event was for parents to see a showing of the Lassiter Drama Club’s production of “Sweeney Todd,” while students entertained their kids.
A forum for candidates running for Post 5 on the Cobb Board of Education is still on, and will take place Sunday afternoon at Pope High School.
For those who can’t go due to self-isolation or other issues, a recording will be available later at this link.
Questions may be submitted as late as 10 p.m. Saturday by e-mailing popehscouncil@gmail.com.
Absentee ballot applications
Cobb Elections is encouraging voters concerned about Coronavirus to apply for an absentee ballot, which will be mailed to your home.
Complete an absentee ballot application at CobbElections.org, print it out and send an attached image of the application and e-mail it to: absentee@cobbcounty.org.
Send us your news!
If you have any Coronavirus-related cancellations, changes or news to share with the East Cobb community, let us know. E-mail us: editor@eastcobbnews.com and we’ll include it in future posts.
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The Cobb County School District said Wednesday it is closing Kincaid Elementary School in Northeast Cobb for 14 days, starting Thursday, due to a positive case of Coronavirus at the school.
The district statement did not indicate if the individual is a student, teacher or staff member at the school, and said it would not discuss specifics due to federal privacy laws and at the request of the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Nan Kiel, a district spokeswoman, said that within 48 hours of the closure at Kincaid, ”Cobb staff will thoroughly clean and sanitize the entire campus, including buses.”
She said that no other Cobb schools will be closed at this time. The Kincaid closure is the first in the Cobb district, which has 112 schools and is the second largest school districg in Georgia with nearly 112,000 students.
Kincaid is in the Sprayberry High School cluster, and other feeder schools include Daniell Middle School, Simpson Middle School, Dodgen Middle School and Walton High School.
In its statement Cobb schools didn’t mention whether other schools in the cluster or feeder schools that use the same buses as those serving Kincaid may be affected.
Kiel said that Kincaid students will be getting online instruction from their teachers “using a variety of digital platforms and tools.”
Piedmont Church in Northeast Cobb, whose members include families in the nearby Kincaid attendance zone, cancelled its Wednesday night activities.
Fulton County schools, with 94,000 students, have been closed since Tuesday due to a positive case of Coronavirus of a teacher at one of its schools. All but two schools in that district—two middle schools in south Fulton—will be open on Thursday.
More than 125,000 cases have been confirmed around the world, and more than 4,600 deaths, around half of those in China.
In the U.S., more than 1,100 cases have been confirmed, with 37 deaths, 24 alone in Washington state. Georgia has six confirmed cases, including one in Cobb. The number of “presumptive positive” tests has grown to 16, with six in Cobb.
Those test results still must be confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
More than 100 passengers of a cruise liner off the coast of San Francisco have been flown to Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Cobb for quarantine, and more are expected. Cobb officials have said none of those individuals have tested positive for Coronavirus.
Also on Wednesday, changes were made involving many sporting events around North America. Among them are the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, which will be played, but fans other than family members will be banned.
The men’s Final Four scheduled for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta April 3-5 may be relocated to a smaller arena in the metro area.
The popular St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Savannah also has been cancelled.
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The Cobb Schools Foundation, which provides financial and other support to the Cobb County School District, honored the volunteers of the year from each of the district’s schools at a luncheon Thursday.
The volunteers were individually greeted by Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale. Walton High School graduate Kit Cummings, founder of the Power of Peace Project, which fosters the creation of community role models, also spoke at the function at the Hilton Marietta Hotel and Conference Center.
The following volunteers from East Cobb schools were honored:
Elementary Schools
Addison: Kim Campbell
Bells Ferry: Stacy Zellner
Blackwell: Jackie Southern
Brumby: Al Zwettler and Bill Campbell
Davis: Kathryn Marek
East Side: Kelly Wilkinson
Eastvalley: Ellen Sauve
Garrison Mill: Lori Morrisey
Keheley: Laura Kubica
Kincaid: Amanda Musson
Mountain View: Stacey Albracht
Mt. Bethel: Dara Onori
Murdock: Kathy Dalen
Nicholson: Samer Dilbeck
Powers Ferry: Donye Demitri
Rocky Mount: Jerry Shepler
Sedalia Park: Susan Monk
Shallowford Falls: Anna Baker
Sope Creek: Darrell Young
Tritt: Lynn Gilbert
Middle Schools
Daniell: Linda Dafoe
Dickerson: Kelly Gunter
Dodgen: Stacy Gillen
East Cobb: Lisa Spessard
Hightower Trail: Sarah Chaloupek
Mabry: Barbara Adamson
McCleskey: Dawn Cooper
Simpson: Leslie Graham
High Schools
Kell: Kara Huey
Lassiter: Lori Bartik
Pope: Laura Borel
Sprayberry: Sharona Sandberg
Walton: Sallie Winokur
Wheeler: Linda Yu
For more on the Cobb Schools Foundation, click here.
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The Georgia Science Teachers Association has named Annette Simpson of McCleskey Middle School in East Cobb as its middle school teacher of the year for 2020.
It’s not the first time she’s been honored by that organization for her work in the classroom.
In 2015, she was the GSTA’s elementary school teacher of the year when she was at Keheley Elementary School. Per a Cobb County School District release, Simpson also has earned the Cobb STEM Distinguished Educator Award and the Shell Teacher Award, which honors classroom K-12 science teachers.
Here’s what McCleskey principal Dr. Andrea Jenkins-Mann had to say about Simpson:
“Mrs. Simpson is a consummate, caring professional who works tirelessly with all our school’s populations of students.
“Annette works tirelessly outside of the classroom to extend learning for our students,” her principal praised. “She is a winning Science Olympiad Coach and is an assistant Math Team Coach. She revived our Environmental Club; and leads the 7th Grade campus cleanup with Rivers Alive! I fully support her efforts to implement new curriculum and bring new professional ideas to our staff. Annette leads our staff with assisting students in taking ownership of their learning, thinking more deeply, delving into the curriculum to relate it to real-world experiences, and engaging in meaningful tasks.”
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A candidate for the Cobb Board of Education says he’s withdrawing after he announced that he may file a lawsuit against the Cobb County School District.
Rob Madayag, an attorney, said late Monday that he wouldn’t be qualifying for the Post 5 seat currently held by two-term incumbent David Banks.
Madayag had been one of four GOP hopefuls to announce for the seat, including Banks, as qualifying began Monday.
Post 5 includes the Pope and Lassiter clusters.
In a post to a Cobb schools-related Facebook page, Madayag said that “based on several factors, I do not think I am the best candidate at this time.”
Madayag filed notice last week that he may take the CCSD to court, saying it doesn’t properly report bullying incidents under the state’s school anti-bullying law.
“I intend to win the lawsuit and will not be able to dedicate the amount of time to campaign and win that i think necessary,” Madayag said in his statement on Monday. “I do not plan on losing, and with the number of depositions and document requests in the litigation I have mapped out, I expect to have most of my free time taken up.”
In a letter sent to school board members and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale on Feb. 25 (you can read it here), Madayag said he was skeptical of huge reductions in reported instances of bullying in Cobb schools under Ragsdale—to be specific, 86 percent between 2014 and 2018.
Madayag, who said his daughter has been bullied in Cobb schools, wrote that it’s “a rate that defies all logic and reason and is a significant outlier with respect to all the other school districts in the metro-Atlanta area, and quite possibly the entire United States.”
In addition to Banks, the other Republican candidates for the Post 5 season are Shelley O’Malley, a Delta Air Lines pilot, and IT consultant Matt Harper.
Two Democrats also have announced, current Lassiter PTSA co-president Tammy Andress, and physical therapist Julia Hurtado.
Qualifying for the May 19 general primary ends at noon Friday.
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Five high schools from East Cobb have students who have been named finalists for National Merit Scholarships.
They include 35 from Walton High School and 13 from Wheeler High School.
National Merit Scholarships are awarded to high school seniors in the spring and summer of their graduating year for a academic achievements, based on test scores and other factors.
The Cobb County School District has 74 finalists this year—up from 41 in 2019—out of 15,000 nationwide. Other Cobb high schools with finalists are Campell, Harrison, Hillgrove and Kennesaw Mountain.
Recipients are awarded scholarships funded by a variety of organizations, colleges and corporations.
Lassiter High School
Eleanor B. Froula; Claire M. Halloran; Perry Kramer; Gabrielle P. Levitt; Anna K. Mitchell; Catherine L. Pereira; Paul H. Tegethoff
Pope High School
Ada R. Burris; Sanjeet C. Harry; Andrew M. Myers; Yelizaveta I. Pivnik
Sprayberry High School
Reilly S. Misra
Walton High School
Chanwoo Bae; Jordan Bass; Alec Berger; Andrew Cameron; Daniel Catanese; Anjali Chareddy; Taylor Chiles; Sinead de Cleir; Judith Denning; Julia Dierker; Russell Emerine; Reagan Jacobson; Guy Kemelmakher; Aleem Lakdawala; Andrew Li; Viviana Lu; Nidhi Manikkoth; Kara McKinley; Russell Newton; Erik Pitts; Neeraj Raja; Anant Rajan; Pranav Rajbhandari; Aaron Rieck; Arvind Saligrama; Tara Shabazaz; Eric Simon; Bill Sun; Shiloh Thomas-Wilkinson; Qilin Tong; Ria Uppalapati; Akshin Vemana; Tharun Venkatesan; Madeline Zhang; Zaim Zibran
Wheeler High School
Ann-Marie A. Abunyewa; Kruthik S. Alapati; Ava R. Autera; Charlie E. Bishop; Patrick G. Chen; Alessa L. Cullinan; Rose Jewel; Brian Kent; Emma G. Mason; Pranav J. Nedumpurath; Jeremy L. Payne; Morris I. Wan; Eric W. Yao.
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The Cobb County School District doesn’t have classes this week due to the winter break, but extracurricular activities have been cancelled Friday until noon due to the possibility of icy weather overnight.
CCSD employees who are not on winter break do not have to report to work until noon Friday.
Activities taking place this week involve athletics, winter camps and clubs at some schools. Events scheduled after noon on Friday will be held.
Johnson Ferry Christian Academy announced late Thursday afternoon that all Friday classes and after-school activities are cancelled.
The Thursday night forecast called for continuing rain and low temperatures around or below freezing.
Cobb is included in a special advisory issued by the National Weather Service in Atlanta that warns about the possibility of black ice on the roads overnight.
Cobb County government issued the following message about 3:45 p.m. Thursday:
With wet roads, soaked soil, and diving temperatures, the National Weather Service is warning of a “higher than normal” chance of black ice overnight and during the Friday AM rush hour. Cobb DOT has crews on standby and trucks loaded to handle any calls that come in. Report dangerous situations to 911, and use extreme caution especially when driving in the dark.
The county also announced that MUST Ministries in Marietta will open its Loaves & Fishes kitchen (55 Elizabeth Church Road, Marietta) at 8 p.m. Thursday for women and children seeking shelter. Men will be referred to the nearby Extension.
Icy and snowy advisories were issued earlier for the mountains of North Georgia.
Heavy rains have poured all day on Thursday in Cobb and metro Atlanta. By mid-afternoon, the temperature reached 40, and the rain is forecast to end by Thursday night.
But there’s a 50 percent chance of rain by early evening Thursday, and overnight lows Thursday and into Friday could dip down to 30 or lower.
The sun is forecast to arrive by mid-morning Friday, but it will be cold all day, with highs only in the mid-40s.
Friday night lows will be even colder, in the mid-20s, before a sunny Saturday, with highs expected in the mid 50s.
Sunday also will be in the mid-50s and partly cloudy, before the rain returns Monday and Tuesday to greet students and teachers as they return to school.
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The Cobb Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to approve a $1.6 million contract for an architect for the new Eastvalley Elementary School.
The design work will be done by the Atlanta firm of Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates, Inc., and construction for the $31.6 million replacement school could get under way by the fall.
Eastvalley will be moving to the site of the former East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road, across from Wheeler High School.
Separate contracts for demolition of the old facility and the replacement work will need school board approval.
The funding for all of those elements comes from collections from the current Cobb Ed-SPLOST V sales tax.
Eastvalley, located on Lower Roswell Road at the Holt Road intersection, has been overcrowded for years.
The school currently has nearly 800 students in 36 regular classrooms and 13 trailers, many of them aging. The condition of those units has prompted complaints from Eastvalley parents.
The Cobb County School District said the new Eastvalley will take up 136,110 square feet, including 61 classrooms, and could hold around 962 K-5 students when it is completed, possibly by 2022.
The school board also voted Thursday night to spend $303,000 for new a HVAC system for the kitchen at Shallowford Falls Elementary School in East Cobb, and to rename the restructured Riverside Intermediate School in Smyrna to City View Elementary School when it opens in August.
Also on Thursday, the school board voted to extend Superintendent Chris Ragsdale’s contract by a year to 2023. No financial terms were disclosed. Last year, the board gave Ragsdale a seven-percent pay raise to boost his annual salary to $350,000.
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Dr. Betty Siegel, who guided Kennesaw State University for 25 years as it became one of the biggest institutions of higher learning in Georgia, died Wednesday at the age of 89.
Siegel arrived at KSU in 1981, when it had 3,500 students and was transitioning from a junior college to a four-year, undergraduate degree-granting institution.
When she retired in 2006, KSU had 18,000 students and graduate programs. It’s currently the third-largest university in Georgia, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 students, after merging with Southern Poly in Marietta in 2015.
She had been cared for by her husband, Dr. Joel Siegel, who died in February 2019.
Dawn Reed, the Aloha to Aging Founder, said this when contacted by East Cobb News for comment about Siegel:
“Her energy and enthusiasm for not only life, but life-long learning was something to be revered. I had the great pleasure of working with Betty while serving on the KSU Caring Advisory Board 15 years ago.
“I remember I was struck vividly how the room immediately filled with high energy, big smiles and contagious laughter. I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to guide her and her family, years later, through her dementia journey.
“Betty brought that same energetic and fun-loving spirit to Aloha to Aging, Inc. programs, especially our ‘Aloha Day Club’ day respite. We felt so honored to pay tribute to the very deserving Betty Siegel at our 2018 Aloha Gala held at KSU.
“My heart goes out to her devoted and loving sons, David and Michael. I take comfort in knowing she will be reunited with the love of her life, her husband, Joel.”
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Eastvalley ES parents have complained recently to the Cobb school board about aging trailers at the current campus.
The first step toward building a new Eastvalley Elementary School is on the horizon.
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday will be asked to approve a contract for architectural design for a replacement school on the former campus of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road.
The Cobb County School District is recommending the board approve a $1.58 million contract to the architectural firm of Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates, Inc. of Atlanta.
The contract will be discussed at a board work session at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, and during the board’s voting session at 7 p.m.
Both meetings will take place at the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover 9St., in Marietta. An executive session will take place in between.
Funding for the design work, reconstruction (estimated at around $31 million) and demolition of the former East Cobb MS buildings are earmarked in SPLOST V, which is being collected through 2023.
The Eastvalley rebuild is one of three for elementary schools in the current SPLOST. Construction for a new Harmony Leland ES in Mableton got underway last year, and plans also call for a new King Springs ES in Smyrna.
After the architectural design work for Eastvalley is complete, the board would then be asked to approve a separate construction contract.
Eastvalley currently enrolls around 700 students, around twice its stated capacity. The school has 13 trailers, many of them aging, which house about one-third of the student body.
In September, parents of Eastvalley students complained to the board about the condition of the trailers and demanded to know a timetable for the rebuild.
Also on Tuesday’s agenda is a contract for $303,000 for kitchen HVAC improvements at Shallowford Falls Elementary School.
Board recognitions at the Thursday evening meeting will honor Cayce Pope of J.J. Daniell Middle School, the district’s 2020 Middle School Counselor of the Year, and Patty DaSilva of Pope High School, the district’s High School Counselor of the Year.
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A longtime PTA leader in the Lassiter High School community is the latest candidate for the Post 5 seat on the Cobb Board of Education.
Tammy Andress, currently a Lassiter PTSA co-president, said last week she is running as a Democrat for the seat held by three-term Republican David Banks.
Andress is a marketing specialist at the Sandy Plains Road Zaxby’s, and is the mother of three daughters—one is a 2018 Lassiter graduate, and the other two currently are Lassiter students.
She has held PTA leadership roles at Davis Elementary School and Mabry Middle School—her daughters’ previous schools—as well as Lassiter. Andress also is a current vice president of the East Cobb County Council of PTAs.
She said she’s running for the school board to improve transparency with the public, boost teacher planning time and to ensure fiscal responsibility.
Andress also supports the building of a college and career academy in the East Cobb area, similar to what’s under construction now at Osborne High School (read her platform).
Other initiatives include creating “student stakeholders” to address issues like bullying. She also wants the Cobb County School District to create the position of Chief Resource Officer to better scrutinize budget allotments and contracts to root out waste and discover inequities.
Andress wants to restore public comments by school board members at meetings, a practice that was banned last fall in a contentious dispute that fell along party lines.
The primary is May 19, and the Post 5 seat thus far has drawn the most interest of the four Cobb school board races up for election this year.
Banks is seeking a fourth term representing Post 5—which includes the Lassiter and Pope clusters—and has drawn three GOP primary challengers. They include Delta pilot Shelley O’Malley, attorney Rob Madayag and IT consultant Matt Harper.
A forum for the Post 5 candidates is being held March 15 and sponsored by the Pope PTSA. It will start at 3 p.m. at the Pope performing arts theater.
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State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick of East Cobb is a co-sponsor of a bill backed by Gov. Brian Kemp that would eliminate some mandated state standardized school tests.
Kirkpatrick is one of six Republicans, including two of the governor’s floor leaders, who submitted SB 367 (you can read it here).
Kemp announced the legislation at a news conference Tuesday with legislative leaders and Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods.
The bill would cut five current tests: High school end-of-year tests in American literature, geometry, physical science and economics and fifth grade social studies.
The number of required standardized tests in Georgia would go down from 24 to 19 (the federal government mandates a minimum of 17 tests) and the state could decide whether to factor in end-of-course test results as part of a students’ grade.
Those tests are included in the state’s Milestones tests, which include a wide range of test scores and other academic performance metrics for students in grades three through 12.
End-of-course test results currently amount to 20 percent of a high school student’s Milestones score.
More background here about SB 267 from the Georgia Recorder.
The bill has received the support of Woods as well as the Georgia Association of Educators and several public school districts in Georgia.
A Cobb County School District spokeswoman told East Cobb News that “we broadly support the reduction in testing and Gov. Kemp’s bill. We look forward to the next steps in a redesign of how Georgia assesses students and empowers teachers to better understand what students know.”
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