East Cobb Schools

Retiring Dickerson Middle School principal honored by Georgia PTA

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At last week’s Georgia PTA convention in Augusta, Dr. Carole Brink, the retiring Dickerson Middle School principal, was named the organization’s middle school principal of the year.Georgia PTA logo, retiring Dickerson Middle School principal

Brink’s retirement was announced last month by the Cobb Board of Education and is effective Aug. 1. Her successor has not been named.

Here are some other East Cobb PTA organizations and schools that were recognized by Georgia PTA, as compiled by the East Cobb County Council of PTAs:

Outstanding Local Unit, Elementary School 750 students or below
1st Place – Shallowford Falls Elementary PTA
2nd Place – Timber Ridge Elementary PTA
3rd Place – Mountain View Elementary PTA

Outstanding Local Unit, Elementary School 751 students or above
2nd Place – East Side Elementary PTA
3rd Place – Mt. Bethel Elementary PTA

Outstanding Local Unit, Middle School
2nd Place – Dickerson Middle School PTSA
3rd Place – Dodgen Middle School PTSA

Outstanding Local Unit, High School
1st Place – Walton High School PTSA
2nd Place – Lassiter High School PTSA

2017-2019 National PTA School of Excellence Award
Rocky Mount Elementary School
Hightower Trail Middle School
Wheeler High School

Georgia PTA Outstanding Middle School Principal
Dr. Carole Brink – Dickerson Middle School

 

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East Cobb school safety meeting to discuss shootings and other issues

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East Cobb school safety meeting
Parents and family members supporting Walton High School students who staged a March walkout to demand gun-control measures. (East Cobb News file photo)

Thanks to East Cobb News reader and parent Rene’ Brinks Dodd for letting us know about an East Cobb school safety meeting she and other parents are putting together next week at the Whole Foods Merchants Walk location.

It’s next Tuesday, June 19, and starts at 7 p.m. in the meeting room next to the cafe in the front of the store (1289 Johnson Ferry Road) and the public is invited.

Much of this is focused around school shootings, but as you’ll see from Rene’s information below other topics will be on the agenda:

As parents, we have a say in protecting our kids, especially in school. Let’s be proactive and help make the changes the schools need so that one of our Cobb schools doesn’t end up on the news as yet another school tragedy.

I personally think our country’s culture needs to change. Other countries have guns but they don’t have a mass school shooting problem. Why does the US?

If you would like to be a part in making a change and creating a better culture for our kids to be raised in, please attend a parents local meeting next week.

Some of the topics will be recent bomb threat (Dodgen MS), sexual predators (Pope HS and recent arrest at Kell HS) and what else we need to do to make our schools safe to prevent tragedies such as mass shootings.

At Tuesday’s East Cobb meeting will be a speaker from the Sandy Hook Promise program, which trains parents and students about how to reduce and prevent gun violence.

Rene’ attended a recent meeting of the Georgia State Senate School Safety Study Committee, which was formed not long after the Parkland, Fla., school shootings that galvanized students across the country, including East Cobb high schools, to stage a March walkout (previous East Cobb News coverage here).

Members of the committee include Republican Kay Kirkpatrick of East Cobb. Additional meetings will take place through the fall, with the aim to present legislation for the 2019 session of the General Assembly.

Here’s the video of that senate committee meeting earlier this month in Roswell. It’s a little more than two hours. She says the audio quality isn’t good but there are helpful PowerPoint slides and useful information starting at the 18:12 mark.

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Catherine Mallanda named Walton High School principal; other East Cobb school appointments made

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Catharine Mallanda, Walton High School Principal
Catherine Mallanda, new Walton principal

Walton High School has a new principal who will be very familiar to students when she takes over at the start of the new school year.

She’s assistant principal Catherine Mallanda, who’s been at Walton for 17 years.

Mallanda was one of several principal and administrative appointments made Tuesday morning by the Cobb Board of Education.

She succeeds Judy McNeill, who is retiring after 30 years at Walton, including the last 10 as principal. The change is effective Aug. 1, the first day of the 2018-19 school year in the Cobb County School District.

Mallanda, who had earned $97,721 annually in her previous role, will have a yearly salary of $131,303 as Walton principal. She hold degrees from Georgia Tech and the University of West Georgia and a Ph.D. from Southern Mississippi.

She also was a classroom teacher at Walton and McEachern High School before becoming an administrator in 2003.

Some other East Cobb schools also will be getting new principals.

Sprayberry High School is one of them. Joseph Sharp has resigned, effective June 15, to move to Alabama. He will be succeeded by Sara Griffin, a current Sprayberry assistant principal, who starts June 18.

Griffin will be paid $112,965 annually as principal. She had earned $81,848 as an assistant principal last year at Sprayberry. She also was an assistant principal and teacher at Kell High School.

Griffin earned degrees from Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Kennesaw State.

Longtime Dickerson Middle School principal Carole Brink is retiring as of Aug. 1, but her replacement has not been named.

Felicia Angelle
Felicia Angelle is leaving Shallowford Falls ES for the CCSD central office.

James Rawls, who has been assistant principal at Cooper Middle School, becomes the new principal at Daniell Middle School on July 1. Former principal David Nelson was recently reassigned to become principal at Pine Mountain Middle School.

Rawls earned $79,839 as an assistant principal at Cooper since 2004. His salary at Daniell will be $103,083. He has degrees from Armstrong Atlantic State University and Argosy University and previously was a teacher and administrator in Atlanta and Savannah public schools.

Shallowford Falls Elementary School also will be getting a new principal to be named later. Felicia Angelle is leaving to become the CCSD’s academic division director of instruction, innovation, teaching and learning. She starts her new position Aug. 1.

Dr. Tricia Patterson has resigned as Tritt Elementary School principal to become director of the Marietta City School’s STEM Academy. Her successor comes from elsewhere in East Cobb. Karen Carstens, who had been an assistant principal at Powers Ferry Elementary School, begins her new duties tomorrow.

Carstens, who also has been an assistant principal at Sope Creek Elementary School, had been earning $82,017. A previous teacher at Shallowford Falls, her salary there as principal will be $102,182.

Assistant principals on the move

The school board also made the following appointments involving East Cobb schools below the level of principal:

  • Mount Bethel Elementary School teacher and administrator Jaime Davis to assistant principal there;
  • Vaughn Elementary School principal Kevin Carpenter is now assistant principal at Powers Ferry;
  • Sedalia Park Elementary School assistant principal Zachary Mathis to the same position at Vaughn;
  • Former North Cobb principal Joe Horton is now an assistant principal at Sprayberry.

 

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East Cobb students appointed to U.S. military academies

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East Cobb students, military academy appointments
From left to right: Robert Chappell, Maya Wade, David Woodward, William Roberts, Paris Williams, Congresswoman Karen Handel, Joseph McDermond, Aditya Mhaskar, Blaine McDonough of East Cobb, Connor McGurk, Hannah Percher of East Cobb, and Gabriela Boatright.

Three East Cobb students are among the 13 high school graduates appointed to attend U.S. military service academies by Congresswoman Karen Handel.

They include Connor Hasely of Walton High School (pictured below), who attended New York University. He was appointed to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Connor Haseley
Connor Haseley

Another Walton graduate, Blaine McDonough, will attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.

Lassiter High School’s Hannah Percher has been appointed to attend the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

“The Sixth District produced an extraordinary group of candidates for our nation’s military academies this year,” Handel said in a statement. “This is one of the responsibilities I have relished the most during my time in Washington, and I’m so proud of these young men and women for their willingness to serve their country.”

A Pope High School graduate also has received an appointment by Congressman Barry Loudermilk. Sarah Sorensen will attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

 

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Kell High School teacher arrested, charged with sexual assault

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A Kell High School teacher arrested on Friday for sexual assault remains in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center today. Cobb Police, Kell High School teacher arrested

Spencer Wayne Herron, 48, was taken into custody at his Acworth home Friday afternoon. He has been charged with three felony counts of sexual assault by a teacher or school administrator.

His bail has been set at $50,000, according to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office.

Herron, who has been a video teacher at Kell for 16 years, was named the school’s teacher of the year two years ago.

Arrest warrants indicate Herron has been accused of having sex multiple times with a student on campus from early 2016 through the school year that just ended last month.

This past school year, Herron was a member of the Cobb County School District’s Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Council.

East Cobb News does not publish photographs of crime suspects before their cases have gone through the legal system, and then only if they are convicted or plead guilty and are sentenced.

 

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Murdock Elementary School earns asthma-friendly designation

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Murdock Elementary School
The American Lung Association and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presents staff at Murdock Elementary School with the Platinum Award for asthma-friendly schools. (Pictured from Left to Right): Heidi LeSane, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representative; Virginia Armour, student support administrator; David Banks, Cobb County School District (CCSD) Board Member for Post 5; Robin Lattizori, CCSD Assistant Superintendent; Susan Murphy, Murdock registered nurse (RN); Principal Lynn Hamblett; and Ateya Harbin Wilson, a representative of the American Lung Association of Georgia.

Press release:

The American Lung Association and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently presented the Platinum Award to Murdock Elementary School for making asthma-friendly school strides during the 2017-2018 school year.

Murdock is the only school in Georgia to earn the highest recognition given to schools that implement a comprehensive approach to asthma management. The award also included $1,500 for Murdock to continue efforts to plan and execute other asthma-friendly efforts.

“I would like to thank the American Lung Association in Georgia (ALAG) for selecting Murdock Elementary School to receive the Platinum Recognition award. The proposal submitted was very close to my heart as it impacts so many asthmatic children in our school community and their families,” said Susan Murphy, Murdock’s registered nurse (RN). “This award will help facilitate our future endeavor to establish asthma education and awareness as a number one priority.”

More information about the American Lung Association’s Asthma-Friendly Schools Initiative is available here.

The Georgia Department of Public Health designated the Cobb County School District as Georgia’s first Asthma-Friendly School District in 2016.

 

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Rallyhounds! Pope baseball team repeats as state champion in comeback fashion

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Pope athletics, Pope baseball team

The Pope baseball team has won a second consecutive Georgia High School Association Class 6A championship, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen after a doubleheader in Rome on Tuesday.

The Greyhounds lost the first game to Allatoona 11-9 and trailed 4-2 with two outs their final at-bat in the nightcap.

Pope tied up the series 1-1 with an 8-4 win in 11 innings to force a decisive third game on Wednesday.

In the top of the seventh inning, Pope was holding on to a tight 3-2 lead when the Greyhounds erupted again, scoring seven runs and claiming the title with a 10-2 win.

Pope, which finished the season with a 34-8 record, also has won state championships in 2009 and 2013 under coach Jeff Rowland, and was state runner-up in 2016.

The team members are:

Andrew Bowman, Jackson Brown, Jordan Butler, Grayson Caldwell, Sammy Cohen, Harris East, Noah Estroff, Andrew Feld, Buddy Floyd, Connor Frost, Ian Hancock, Andrew Herlitz, Tommy Hutchins, Antonio Jareno, Will Lantis, Scotty LeSieur, Max Pralgo, Ethan Rezendes, Reid Robertson, Luke Schnurr, Nate Shipley, Caden Smith and James Tibbs.

A celebratory video was shot by Pope softball coach Chris Turco:

 

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Cobb schools valedictorians and salutatorians announced for 2018; 76 percent of graduates are college-bound

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East Cobb high school graduation dates, Cobb schools valedictorians

As graduations continue this week, Cobb schools valedictorians and salutatorians have been named. The district also has released some college-bound information for the class of 2018.

About 76 percent of the graduates across the Cobb County School District are headed for college, according to information made public Tuesday. A total of 6,078 of the more than 8,000 graduates are heading for college.

Related story

Topping the list are Walton and Lassiter in East Cobb, with each school having more than 500 college-bound seniors.

In addition, more than $115 million in scholarship aid has been awarded to Cobb graduates, with students from Walton leading the way with $18.9 million.

Here are the East Cobb high school valedictorians and salutatorians, including their grade-point averages, where they’re headed to college and what they’ll be studying:

Kell High School

  • Valedictorian: Brian Tyler Buckley (4.5, Georgia Tech, industrial engineering)
  • Salutatorian: Veronica May Achinger (4.403, UGA, middle grades education)

Lassiter High School

  • Valedictorian: Anastasia Achieng Onyango (4.707, Harvard, biomedical engineering)
  • Salutatorian: Neal Michael Ostrowski (4.680, UNC-Chapel Hill, biomedical engineering)

Pope High School

  • Valedictorian: Caleigh Ann Cullinan (4.768, UGA, biology and psychology)
  • Salutatorian: Hisham Kashif (4.741, Augusta University, cell and molecular biology)

Sprayberry High School

  • Valedictorian: Mark Andrew Giles, Jr. (4.726, Mercer University, neuroscience and pre-medicine)
  • Salutatorian: Payton Grace Wade (4.636, College of Charleston, biology)

Walton High School

  • Valedictorian: Andrew Hoon Chyong (4.8, Georgia Tech, biomedical engineering)
  • Salutatorian: Melody Mei Wang (4.759, Harvard University, economics)

Wheeler High School

  • Valedictorian: Shawn Michael Doss (4.735, Johns Hopkins University, neuroscience)
  • Salutatorian: Grace Kathryn Whittington (4.727, Yale University, global affairs).

More fun facts about some East Cobb students from the Class of 2018, via the CCSD:

Lassiter High School:

  • A student is attending Cambridge University in United Kingdom, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world.
  • About 28 students will be NCAA athletes.

Pope High School:

  • Pope graduates will attend MIT, Emory, Georgetown, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Williams College, Northeastern, Loyola Chicago, and American.
  • Pope students were accepted to Furman, Howard, George Washington, UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, Washington & Lee, Cleveland Institute of Music, Rose-Holman Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Duke, Davidson, Johns Hopkins, The Peabody Institute, Carlton, and Rice.

Walton High School:

  • Melody Wang was a U.S. Presidential Scholar semifinalist.
  • Walton graduates include three STAR Students, Robert Morgan, Grace Zhou and Daniel Hudadoff
  • Five Georgia Scholars attended Walton: Ekta Deshmukh, Daniel Hudadoff, Madelyn Johnson, Laura Key, Adarshini Raja
  • Two of the Military Academy appointments come from Walton: Wesley Nourachi to U.S. Naval Academy and Blaine McDonough to U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

Wheeler High School:

  • Foundation Fellow at University of Georgia, Tate Hunda
  • Offered the STAMPS Scholarship at Georgia Tech, Grace Whittington
  • Accepted ROTC Scholarship to Auburn, Mitchell Landrum
  • Georgia Scholar, MJ Locke.

 

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East Cobb Sports Roundup: Pope baseball seeks repeat state title; Walton girls close in on all-sports crown

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The end of the school year means the end of prep sports in Georgia, and several East Cobb high school teams are still in action with quite a bit at stake

The Walton girls and boys golf teams are competing Monday and Tuesday in the Georgia High School Association Class 7A state championships in Tifton, and Moultrie, respectively. The Lassiter boys also are in the hunt.

On Tuesday, the Pope baseball team will try to defend its Class 6A GHSA state title in Rome in a finals series against fellow Cobb County school Allatoona.

For the Greyhounds and Buccaneers, there’s also something else that could be riding on the outcome of their best-of-three series: the overall championship in all-sports standings for Class 6A, compiled by the Georgia Athletic Directors Association.

The competition is called the Directors’ Cup, and the awards go to schools receiving the most points in overall, boys and girls competitions.

In the current Class 6A standings, Allatoona is third with 955 points, and Pope is fourth with 940 points. The winner of the baseball title will get 100 points, and the runner-up will receive 90.

Pope’s Region 7 rival Alpharetta (1007 points) and Harrison (992) hold down first and second places, respectively. The Harrison girls and the Allatoona boys both have teams competing in the golf championships.

Pope earned the 2017 Directors’ Cup for Class 6A.

The Walton girls, led by their dominating volleyball and tennis teams that repeated as state champions, currently lead the Directors’ Cup standings in Class 7A with 669 points. But Lambert High School of Forsyth County, which downed Lassiter Saturday to win the girls Class 7A state lacrosse championship, is right behind with 601 points, and is vying for its sixth straight state title in girls golf.

Walton is 5th overall in Directors’ Cup standings in Class 7A, and Lassiter is 9th. On the boys’ side, Lassiter is 9th and Walton is 12th. The Lassiter girls are 13th.

In the 6A boys standings, Pope is 8th, and the Greyhounds’ girls are 5th.

In Class 5A, Kell finished its sports season in 11th place overall, while the boys were 15th and the girls were 9th.

 

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East Cobb high school graduation dates and Cobb schools early-release schedule for next week

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East Cobb high school graduation

The six East Cobb high school graduation events will take place Tuesday through Saturday as the Cobb County School District’s 2018-19 school year comes to an end.

There will be early release times at all levels Tuesday and Wednesday, as follows:

  • High school, 11:30 a.m.;
  • Elementary  school, 12:30 p.m.;
  • Middle school, 1:30 pm.

Five of the six East Cobb high schools will have graduation ceremonies at the Kennesaw State University Convocation Center (590 Cobb Ave., Kennesaw).

Wheeler High School will have commencement exercises on its campus (375 Holt Road), in the arena.

Here’s the schedule for the East Cobb schools:

  • Walton: Tuesday, May 22, 7 p.m. (KSU);
  • Sprayberry: Wednesday, May 23, 3:30 p.m. (KSU);
  • Wheeler: Wednesday, May 23, 6:30 p.m. (Wheeler Gym);
  • Kell: Thursday, May 24, 2:30 p.m. (KSU);
  • Lassiter: Saturday, May 26, 2:30 p.m. (KSU);
  • Pope: Saturday, May 26, 7 p.m. (KSU).

If you want to purchase a graduation DVD, you can order here from the CCSD. The cost is $30 each.

 

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Walton student Laura Key named recipient of $5,000 LGE Community Service Scholarship

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Walton student Laura Key, LGE Community Service Scholarship
Pictured left to right: Judy McNeill (Walton High School Principal), Laura Key (Walton student and LGE scholarship recipient), Linda Coyle (Business Development Officer), Vicki Aghajanian (LGE Director of Business Development and Community Relations), Scott Brooks (LGE VP of Marketing and Business Development)

Thanks to Becca Duvall at LGE Community Credit Union for the submitted photo above and the information below about Walton student Laura Key:

On Monday, May 7, 2018, LGE Community Credit Union team members, along with principal Judy McNeill, were able to surprise Walton High School senior Laura Key with the $5,000 LGE Community Service Scholarship in a classroom full of her peers. . She was also later recognized at the May 17 Cobb County School District Board Meeting.

Key, like many Cobb students, boasts a long list of academic achievements, but her genuine commitment to serving others is what stood out to LGE. Throughout her high school career, Key spent hundreds of hours identifying needs in the community and filling in the gaps, even using what she learned during her time in Walton’s International Spanish Academy to help others. To name just one example, Key assisted with the development and facilitation of a weekly Spanish class for residents of a local senior living community.

High school seniors in Cobb County submitted applications for the LGE Community Service Scholarship to their respective principals. Each of the 16 high school principals in Cobb County then hand-selected one nominee from their school. The quality of high school seniors in Cobb County made the selection process for the award competitive.

When asked about picking just one winner from Cobb County’s best students, LGE’s Vice President of Business Development and Marketing said, “Every single nomination was impressive and made our job very challenging. However, it is clear each of these students have made a deep impact on their community through dedication, hard work and servant leadership.”

The LGE Community Service Scholarship was established in 2018 specifically for CCSD. In 2017, LGE expanded its partnership with CCSD from school-level partnerships to a county-wide relationship which included contributing more than $50,000 in scholarships and programs specific to Cobb, offering financial services to all CCSD employees/families, and meeting individually with staff members on-site at all 112 Cobb County schools.

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Walton High School Principal Judy McNeill retiring; Cobb school board adopts $1.2B budget

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Longtime Walton High School principal Judy McNeill is retiring.

Walton Principal Judy McNeill
Walton Principal Judy McNeill

In making several principal-level appointments Thursday evening, the Cobb Board of Education accepted her retirement, effective Aug. 1, the first day of the 2018-19 school year.

Her successor was not immediately named. McNeill’s name was not included on a list of more than 200 retiring Cobb County School District employees who were honored at a luncheon last week.

McNeill has been at Walton nearly 30 years, and has overseen a school that’s generally been regarded as one of the best in the state of Georgia.

In what turned out to be her last year at Walton, McNeill oversaw the move to a new campus building and had to handle gun-control protests that included a walkout in February.

The Cobb district did not endorse the walkouts, and permitted principals to determine how their schools might honor victims of a Florida school shooting that sparked the planned demonstration.

In an interview with East Cobb News, McNeill said students had organized a memorial observation before classes that day, and discouraged students from following through with a walkout.

After some student protest leaders announced they had more than 2,000 signatures to walk out, only around 200 or so Walton students participated.

School board member Scott Sweeney, who represents the Walton attendance zone, said at the end of Thursday’s meeting that McNeill was “an absolute joy to work with. . . . We wish her the very best in her retirement.”

The school board also appointed David Nelson, principal at Daniell Middle School, as the new principal at Pine Mountain Middle School, and Faith Harmeyer, an assistant principal at Mt. Bethel Elementary School, as the new principal of Nicholson Elementary School.

Those appointments are effective June 1.

The school board formally adopted a fiscal year 2019 budget of $1.2 billion Thursday that includes a 1.1-percent raise for all district employees, a 1.1-percent bonus for many employees and STEP increases for eligible employees.

The budget, which goes into effect July 1, does not include a millage rate increase. Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators had asked the school board to raise the millage rate from 18.9 mills to the limit of 20 mills for higher increases.

But Sweeney and David Chastain, who represents Post 4 in Northeast Cobb, opposed raising the millage rate any higher.

The vote was 6-1, with school board member David Morgan of South Cobb opposing. During a work session on Thursday afternoon, he pleaded for a raise in the millage rate, showing charts illustrating how Cobb’s starting teacher salary average of $42,364 is 9th out of 12 districts in metro Atlanta.

 

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Cobb school board members briefed about new Kroger Terrell Mill tax abatement

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Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill development, MarketPlace Terrell Mill, Kroger Terrell Mill tax abatement

The day after the Cobb Development Authority approved issuing $35 million in bonds for a tax abatement for a portion of a new East Cobb commercial project, developers’ representatives explained the situation to the Cobb Board of Education.

The school board is typically briefed on tax breaks heard by the authority, due to their impact on school tax revenue.

The developers of the MarketPlace Terrell Mill, a mixed-use retail and residential development on the site of the present Brumby Elementary School, were seeking a break for the portion of the project that is to include a Kroger superstore.

Brian Fratesi, a vice president for Connolly Investments and Development, which is building the project, said during a school board work session Thursday that MarketPlace Terrell Mill is “a gateway to East Cobb.”

The abatement would cover only the Kroger portion of the $120 million project, which was approved in February in a zoning case by the Cobb Board of Commissioners. The 23.9 acres at the northwest corner of Terrell Mill Road and Powers Ferry Road includes aging commercial, shops, restaurants and office space.

Brumby is relocating to a new campus on Terrell Mill Road in August, and its sale prompted the MarketPlace project, seen as a linchpin of redevelopment in the Powers Ferry corridor.

Fratesi said the Cobb County School District currently gets around $34,000 in annual tax revenues from existing commercial activities on that site.

By the time the tax abatement period ends, 11 years after it begins, he estimated the school district would receive more than $500,000 a year in tax revenues from MarketPlace complex.

The Kroger store would be exempt from taxes its first year of operation, then would gradually pay an assessed tax value phased in over a 10-year period, in rising increments of 10 percent each year.

Fatesi said the Kroger is slated to be in the second phase of the project, with the first phase calling for the construction of restaurant and retail space, a self-storage unit and a nearly 400-unit luxury apartment complex.

When asked about the rental units’ impact on school enrollment, Fatesi said it would be minimal, since they’re expensive, one- and two-bedroom apartments being marketed primarily to Millennials and downsizers.

The MDJ reported that two members of the Development Authority voted against the bonds, including Karen Hallacy of East Cobb, concerned about a precedent being set by retailers for getting tax abatements.

But two East Cobb board members were ecstatic. Scott Sweeney, whose Post 6 includes the Powers Ferry area, said the MarketPlace proejct “will help our tax digest in the long run.”

He said that the per-student share coming from commercial tax revenue in Marietta City Schools is higher than Cobb’s, at around $1,400 a year, because of what that city derives from its commercial digest.

“I do like the project,” said board member David Banks of Post 5 in Northeast Cobb. “It’s good and I think the whole county will benefit.”

Fatesi said the first phase of MarketPlace could break ground by August or September, with completion expected 18-24 months after that. The Kroger would be completed in another 18 to 24 months, he said.

The board also heard outlines of another proposed tax abatement for a manufacturing company that is looking to expand its operations to near SunTrust Park and The Battery.

A research and development facility would bring more than 800 high-paying jobs in what’s being dubbed “Project Dashboard.” The company, which is seeking more than $260 million in development bonds for a tax abatement, is not being identified for the moment.

Jack DiNardo, a commercial real estate relocation expert who represents the company, told board members discussions on its potential Cobb move are in “progress,” and that a decision could come “sometime this summer.”

He said a requested tax abatement would be for $21 million.

 

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Cobb schools budget for FY 2019 slated to be adopted on Thursday

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A Cobb schools budget proposal of nearly $1.2 billion for fiscal year 2019 is expected to be approved on Thursday night, after the Cobb Board of Education holds its final public hearing on the budget earlier that afternoon.Cobb schools budget

That hearing begins at 1:30 p.m., followed by a board work session at 2 p.m. The board will reconvene for the business meeting at 7 p.m. All will take place at the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover St., in Marietta.

The proposed FY 2019 budget (details here) includes a 1.1 percent pay raise for all employees and a 1.1 percent bonus for many others, but does not include a millage rate increase.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale included the pay raise after $10.2 million in state funding was added in May following the elimination of education austerity cuts.

The school district’s fiscal year begins on July 1.

Connie Jackson, the head of the Cobb County Association of Educators, has asked for a 3.6 percent raise be given for employees, and has pressed for the additional funding to come from a property tax increase.

That millage rate of 18.9 has not changed in a decade, and Jackson has suggested raising that to the maximum 20 mills.

Also on Thursday night’s agenda is the appointment of a new principal at Nicholson Elementary School, as well as a number of recognitions. Among the East Cobb students and schools to be recognized are the Shallowford Falls Elementary School’s Reading Bowl champions, Pope High School state wrestling champion Max Druhot, East Side Elementary School robotics student Abhijeet Ghosh and the Kell High School FIRST World Championship team.

The full agenda can be found here.

 

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Wheeler Academic Bowl team finishes as state runner-up in ‘High Q’ competition

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The Wheeler Academic Bowl team of Aaron Moss, Rex Martin, Andrew McEntaggart and Andrew Benecchi finished as state runner-up Saturday in WSB-TV’s “High Q” competition.

North Atlanta High School won the championship and $5,000 in scholarship money, while Wheeler takes home $3,000 in scholarship money. Wheeler Academic Bowl

It’s been a good spring for the Wheeler team, which finished second in March in the GATA state championships. The JV team won its first state championship in March.

The Academic Bowl competition is in game-show quiz format, and contestants are asked questions about a broad range of topics, including art, history, politics, science and literature.

Wheeler geography teacher and coach Sean Kurkjian has been the team’s sponsor for several years.

 

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High Meadows student from East Cobb among ‘Letters About Literature’ winners

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High Meadows School, Ella Schultz

Thanks to Jean Hunter, English teacher at High Meadows School, for the above photo and information about three students, including one from East Cobb, who recently participated in the national “Letters About Literature” program.

They are, from left, Aviv Newman, Ella Schultz of East Cobb, and Kate Hurd:

Every year tens of thousands of students across the nation send their letters to the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. Writing a letter to your favorite author might not sound like something you’d get an award for, but for several students at High Meadows School in Roswell GA, that’s exactly what happened.

This year High Meadows 6th and 7th graders participated in Letters About Literature, an annual Library of Congress national competition where young writers can express themselves to an author who’s had an impact on their lives. Several High Meadows’ students received letters back from authors, including Sharon Creech, Kate DiCamillo, and Ann Martin, who all took the time to respond to these budding writers. Three of these students were honored along with other state winners on Saturday May 5th and were able to read their letters as part of the ceremony. The following High Meadows’ students won awards at the state level, and the two first place winners will now advance to judging at the national level:

  • Ella Schultz received a first-place award and wrote her letter to Phoebe Gilman, author of Jillian Jiggs. Ella moved to the United States in second grade and could not speak, read or write English. In her letter, Ella described how the book, read and re-read over and over by her soon-to-be-best-friend, aided her growing understanding of English.

Those judging the letters include authors, publishers, librarians and educators. This competition challenges students through the process of crafting letters that reflect their personal responses as readers, directly back to the authors they admire most. By encouraging personal reader response and reflective writing, the contest facilitates a program which helps to enhance purposeful reading that promotes successful writing. The day’s ceremony is a testament to the abilities achieved by these young writers.

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Walton, East Cobb high schools fare well in latest U.S. News rankings

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Walton High School has been named one of the Top 10 public high schools in Georgia by U.S. News, but other East Cobb high schools also fared well in the annual rankings that were released on Wednesday.

Walton comes in at No. 9 on the Georgia list, the highest-ranked Cobb County high school. Nationally, Walton is listed at No. 314, as well as No. 96 among charter schools and No. 144 among STEM schools across the country.

The next-ranked Cobb high school in Georgia is Lassiter at No. 21, followed by Pope at No. 26 and Wheeler at No. 49.

Kell and Sprayberry were not ranked statewide or nationally by U.S. News, which included 450 Georgia high schools in its rankings.

In the magnet school rankings, Wheeler ranks No. 230 nationally.

U.S. News basis its rankings on a variety of academic measurements, and explains its methodology here.

However, U.S. News has come in for criticism for its high school rankings (as well as college rankings it also releases annually).

Last year, the American Enterprise Institute wrote that too much emphasis is placed on Advanced Placement results, concluding that the “rankings promote the notion that the best high schools are the ones with the highest outcomes.”

The Atlantic has written previously that the U.S. News high school rankings, which began in 1998, are harmful and have a formula that’s too simplistic.

The Cobb County School District eagerly shared the news on its social media channels on Thursday, noting that eight of the 16 high schools in the system were included in the national rankings.

 

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East Cobb students honored as Georgia Scholars, and at Cobb Career Tech Awards night

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Several East Cobb students have been honored this week by the Georgia Department of Education as well as the Cobb County School District’s Career, Technical and Agricultural Education program.

Ten students from East Cobb High Schools are among those named Georgia Scholars by the state education department, which recognizes graduating seniors “who have achieved excellence in school and community life;”

  • Walton: Ekta Deshmukh; Daniel Hudadoff; Madelyn Johnson; Laura Key; Adarshini Raja;
  • Pope: Belanie Jones; Loren Tsang;
  • Wheeler: MJ Lock; Hisham Kashif;
  • Lassiter: Taylor Van Horn.

On Wednesday, Cobb schools held its first inaugural awards gala for Career, Tech Technical and Agricultural Education students at Kennesaw Mountain High School. Most Cobb high schools had a CTAE student of the year, and for East Cobb schools they were the following:

  • Austin Kline, Kell;
  • Hunter Peterson, Lassiter;
  • Shivani Patel, Sprayberry;
  • Laney Jones, Walton;
  • Hannah Obenhoff, Wheeler.

In addition, Kell’s Madelyn Handy and Sprayberry’s Hoang (Olivia) Nguyen were named Youth Apprenticeship Students of the Year.

The following students from East Cobb were named students of the year at their respective middle schools:

  • Theodore Parker, Daniell;
  • Scott Dobo, Dodgen;
  • Latasia Neal, East Cobb;
  • Anna Sorokoff, Mabry;
  • Nathaniel Gant, McCleskey.

 

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PHOTOS: Students of all ages have a blast at Wheeler STEAM Symposium

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Wheeler STEAM Symposium
Students at the ‘Winglets of Aviation’ project get a release of pressurized air in their faces. (East Cobb News photos and slideshow by Wendy Parker)

For the first time in its six-year history, the Wheeler STEAM Symposium invited elementary school students to take part in its wide-ranging collection of class and laboratory projects.

Students from many Wheeler feeder schools toured the Wildcat Arena Wednesday morning to learn from their high school counterparts, who were more than happy to explain how they’ve blending high-level science and engineering knowledge with concepts from the creative arts.

For the last three years, the STEAM concept has been on display at the symposium, and earlier this school year Wheeler became the first high school in the state to receive official STEAM certification from the Georgia Department of Education.

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Wheeler junior Ryan Davis was literally wearing his project, a lit multi-colored strap he calls Reactive LED Hoodie. He can change the colors and “make it a rainbow,” said Davis, who also has set the project to music streaming through a nearby laptop.

“I enjoy doing electronics for fun and am interested in wearable technology,” he said, as the device changed from yellow to green to blue to red and other colors.

Ryan Davis, Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Another Wheeler junior, Abigail Ochal, said her engineering class semester project, 3D Printing Plastic Filament Extruder, is designed to extract recyclable plastics from 3D printing materials. She couldn’t turn on the device with a big crowd around, however, since temperatures flare up in excess of 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, Ochal demonstrated on her laptop how the plastic pellets stream out.

Abigail Ochal, Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Abigail Ochal, Wheeler STEAM Symposium

More familiar robotics contraptions were also tooling around on the gym floor, and Wheeler’s F1 in Schools students drew a big crowd with their speed demonstrations down a 16-meter aluminum track.

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Wheeler junior Poojan Mehta, who’s part of the AeroFlow Racing team, said recent test runs have averaged around 1.1 seconds. But while we watched, we saw what he said was the best time they’ve seen thus far, 0.996 seconds. He said the cars are designed with computer technology, and the runs are examined there as well for insights as to how to make them run even faster.

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

In previous years, the Wheeler STEAM Symposium was held at night, and initially it featured the work of students within the Wheeler Magnet School.

Now, says assistant principal Cheryl Crooks, head of the magnet school and Wheeler STEAM Symposium, the event has expanded to the entire school body, with outreach to students and lower school levels.

“Let’s make it inclusive, and let’s invite everybody from the school,” she said. STEAM, Crooks added, can be for “every student, every teacher and at every level.”

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Elementary students also were recognized for their projects, another first for the symposium.

“Our students looked like they enjoyed it more” seeing their visitors react to their projects, Crooks said. “It really validates what they’re doing.”

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

Wheeler STEAM Symposium

 

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Cobb school board approves final phase of Walton HS rebuild, appointment of new Mabry MS principal

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Construction will begin soon on the final phase of the Walton HS rebuild, after the Cobb Board of Eduction approved a $31.7 million contract Thursday.

The school board went with the recommended low bidder, Evergreen Construction of Cobb, which will build more than 151,000 square feet of gymnasium and performing arts space on the site of the original classroom building.

Included in the final phase are main and auxiliary gymnasiums, a wrestling room, a weight room, locker rooms, a main theater, a black box theater and band, orchestra and choral suites.

Completion is expected late next year.

The school board also approved phasing out the auxiliary gym at Lassiter High School, which is getting a replacement competition gym.Jonathan Tanner, Mabry Middle School

The first new principal appointment for an East Cobb school for the next academic year also was approved by the school board Thursday.

Jonathan Tanner, who has been the principal at Campbell High School for the last three years, will be the new principal at Mabry Middle School. He succeeds Merrilee Heflin, who is retiring, and will start on June 1.

Tanner is returning to the East Cobb area. He is a former teacher at Lassiter and assistant principal at Simpson Middle School, and also served in an administrative role at J.J. Daniell Middle School.

Related story

 

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