East Cobb Schools Archives

Democratic candidate announces for Cobb school board Post 5

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020 by Wendy Parker

The first Democrat to seek the Post 5 seat on the Cobb Board of Education has announced her candidacy. Julia Hurtado, Cobb school board candidate

On Monday, Julia Hurtado launched her campaign website and posted a brief introductory video (see below).

She is a physical therapist with the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation facility in Atlanta for people with spinal cord and brain injuries.

Hurtado said on her campaign website that she is running “to build a coalition between teachers, parents, and students, and to help our community keep up with our changing world.”

Hurtado and her husband, David Hurtado, an attorney, moved to the Atlanta area 12 years ago to attend Emory graduate school. They have been in Cobb County for the last eight years and live in the Sedalia Park Elementary School attendance zone.

Post 5 includes the Lassiter and Pope attendance zones; Hightower Trail, Simpson and Mabry middle schools; and Davis, East Side, Eastvalley, Garrison Mill, Mountain View, Murdock, Powers Ferry, Sedalia Park, Shallowford Falls and Tritt elementary schools.

Republican David Banks is completing his third term representing Post 5 on the school board, and announced recently he is seeking re-election.

Three other Republican candidates have declared: Delta pilot Shelley O’Malley, attorney Rob Madayag and IT consultant Matt Harper (previous ECN post here).

Banks has said his goals for a fourth term include expanding STEM programs in East Cobb schools, including the addition of an arts component; continued support for the Cobb Teaching and Learning System that provides real-time assessments of academic progress; and to push for more teachers and better compensation when funding is available.

Hurtado said that in a county that’s becoming more diverse, “I want to amplify all of these voices in our community to ensure that every student’s needs are met,” and that her specific objectives will be to “focus on equal access, opportunity, and success for all students.”

Four of the seven posts on the Cobb school board are up for grabs this year; Post 5 is the only one in East Cobb. Republicans hold a 4-3 majority.

The general primary in Cobb and Georgia is May 19.

Post 5 map

Cobb BOE Post 5

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East Cobb’s Scott Sweeney named chairman of Ga. Board of Education

January 26, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Former Cobb Board of Education member Scott Sweeney will serve this year as the chairman of the Georgia Board of Education. Scott Sweeney, Georgia Board of Education

Sweeney is an East Cobb resident who represented the Walton and Wheeler clusters from 2011-2018.

“I look forward to working with Scott and Jason to pursue continued improvements in Georgia’s K-12 public schools and expanded opportunities for our students,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said in a statement. “They are both upstanding individuals with strong experience in education governance, and Georgia’s students will benefit from their leadership.”

Sweeney is a Senior Business Advisor for InPrime Legal of East Cobb, a business law firm recognized as one of four 2019 Small Business ROCK STARS by the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Georgia Economic Developers Association.

“It’s an honor to serve as Chairman of the State Board of Education,” Sweeney said. “I look forward to working with Governor Brian Kemp, Superintendent Richard Woods, and my board colleagues as we all strive to do our best serving Georgia’s K-12 students, their families, teachers and administrators.”

During his time on the Cobb school board, he served as chairman and vice chairman and currently serves as a member of Georgia’s Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) Business & Advisory Committee and as a member of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee.

Georgia Board of Education members are chosen by the governor via Congressional district. Sweeney represents the 6th Congressional District, and vice chairman Jason Downey of Macon is from the 8th District.

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Cobb schools to open Pre-K centers: $100M in loans approved

January 18, 2020January 18, 2020 by Wendy Parker

At the end of the Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday, superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the Cobb County School District will be opening two Pre-K centers over the next two years.

The first will open in August on the grounds of the current Harmony Leland Elementary School, which is moving to a new campus in Mableton.

The second Pre-K center will be located at the now-closed Brown Elementary School in Smyrna in August 2021.

“I am so excited that we will be able to support early learning for even more Cobb students,” Ragsdale said. “Research shows that students who enroll in high-quality early education programs are more likely to read on grade level by third grade and are better equipped for future success.”

The first Pre-K center will serve 250-300 students with four general education classrooms and 10 special education classrooms that are currently at neighborhood schools.

The Pre-K center is being built in partnership with DECAL (the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning), the Atlanta Speech School, WellStar, and Learn4Life.

The Cobb Pre-K centers must be approved by DECAL.

Cobb school board member Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters and is an advocate for Pre-K expansion, said after the announcement that “I appreciate district leadership for entertaining my thoughts on the issue and bringing more early learning options to the Cobb County community.”

Also on Thursday, the school board approved a bid from Morgan Stanley to borrow $100 million in short-term loans to continue construction projects in the Cobb Ed-V SPLOST program.

The loans will be repaid at the end of the year with an interest rate of 0.9 percent, according to Cobb finance director Brad Johnson.

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East Cobb Middle School named Georgia ‘Reward School’

January 17, 2020 by Wendy Parker

New East Cobb Middle School

The Georgia Department of Education has named East Cobb Middle School a “Reward School” for its progress in academic achievement results.

Title I schools that are in the top 10 percent of performance improvements are given Reward School status.

East Cobb Middle School posted a 14.6-percent increase in the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) for the 2018-2019 school year, from 67.1 percent to 82.7 percent.

ECMS got a 100 score in a measurement related to closing performance gaps.

According to the Cobb County School District, “the recognized schools also maintain the performance of their economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and English learners.”

ECMS is one of 11 schools in the Cobb district to be granted Reward School status and the only one in the East Cobb area. The others are in the South Cobb area.

The CCRPI results were issued last October, and East Cobb schools are listed here.

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Wheeler to hold resource fair for students with disabilities

January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Information submitted by the Cobb County School District:

Did you know that the Center for Puppetry Arts has Sensory-Friendly Sundays or the Children’s Museum of Atlanta opens early on designated Sensory-Friendly Saturdays?

Did you know the Georgia Ballet offers a class for special needs students?

Did you know McKenna Farms has a special needs equestrian team or the Studio Movie Grill offers special needs screenings where children are free to move around, talk, or even dance in the aisles during the movie?

Those are just a few of the examples of what Cobb parents will learn about if they attend the fourth annual Community Connections Resource Fair for students with disabilities on Monday, January 27. To accommodate more community organizations and parents, this year the fair will welcome parents inside the Wheeler High School’s gymnasium from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

More than 50 representatives from Atlanta and Cobb county attractions, organizations, and businesses will be on hand to share information about their accessibility and sensory-friendly offerings for families of students with disabilities.

Parents, like Beth Foy, praised what they learned at the annual fair.

“I knew that there were sports organizations out there but didn’t know that a variety of sports were offered throughout the year. [My daughter] participated in a bowling program and had a great time with the buddies provided by the organization which gave her opportunities for interaction with typically developing peers,” Foy explained.  

Other parents were just as quick to highlight how the event opened the door to new activities for their children.

“I learned about opportunities for [my son] to participate in, like a summer camp he could attend with his significant level of disability. He had the opportunity to go to sleepover camp and spend time with other people and do traditional camp activities,” shared parent Emily Riggs.

She is already planning for her son Jackson to attend the camp again this summer.

Most of the parents, who have attended in the past, were completely unaware of all the resources in the community available to students with disabilities.

“I signed my son up for a weeklong horse camp, where he was paired up with a teen buddy,” said parent Susan Hand. “[My son Ben] just loved it. He was really proud of what he learned and had the opportunity to share it with others during the show on the last day.”

Hand will be one of the parents at this year’s fair shopping for new opportunities for her son.

Make plans to join Hand and the other parents by signing up to attend the free event today: www.signup.com/go/kBNgGbH.

Browse the list of some of the groups planning to attend:

Aerie Experiences	Cobb County Therapeutic Recreation	McKenna Farms
Alliance Theatre	Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame	NCG Cinemas
Alternative Baseball	Elm Street Cultural Arts Village	Parent-to-Parent
Aqua-Tots	Engineering For Kids of Metro Atlanta	Pinnacle Climbing Team
ARC of Georgia (Wings 4 All)	Erin’s Hope for Friends/E’s Club	ReClif
Art Station – Big Shanty	Fernbank Museum	Safe Kids Cobb County
Atlanta Braves Exceptional Fans	Focus + Fragile Kids	Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse
Autism Improvised	Georgia Aquarium	SHINE Sports @Johnson Ferry
Beyond Limits	Georgia Ballet	Six Flags Over Georgia
Bounce U	Georgia Symphony Orchestra	Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History
BSD Tae Kwon Do	Girl Scouts	State Farm Arena
Camp Dream	GOALSoccer	Special Olympics
Camp Twin Lakes	Hand, Hoof & Heart	Special Pops Tennis
Center for Puppetry Arts	House of Artists Foundation	Studio Movie Grill
Children’s Museum of Atlanta	Inneractions Therapy Services	Tellus Science Museum
CK Danceworks	Kennesaw Parks & Recreation	Therabeat Inc.
Cobb Aquatics	Children & Family Programs at KSU	Zoo Atlanta
Cobb County Library	Lekotek of Georgia
Cobb Energy Centre	Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta

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Wheeler Fresh Collaborative to hold Marketplace event

January 11, 2020January 11, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Submitted information from the Cobb County School District: Wheeler Fresh Collaborative Marketplace

Something exciting and fresh is happening at Wheeler High School! The Wildcat Nation is expanding Wheeler Fresh Collaborative, a cross-curricular collaboration by teachers and students whose goals are to increase community involvement and provide food essentials when and where needed. This STEAM initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) was originally conceived as a farm-to-table program but has since evolved to include a food pantry started by Wheeler students and eventually supplemented with contributions from the surrounding community.

The Wheeler Fresh Collaborative utilizes expertise from Wheeler’s culinary, horticulture, environmental science, drafting, graphic design, and marketing classes along with many Wheeler clubs to help ensure fellow Wildcats have a reliable source of food when needed.

From concept to realization, many classes have helped develop the Wheeler Fresh Collaborative. Drafting students designed the layout of the grow beds for horticulture students. Environmental science students studied the soil and the growing environment. Now, horticulture students grow herbs and vegetables, and culinary students prepare, cook, and serve meals. Graphic design students create logos and visuals. Credit for branding and promotion of the Wheeler Fresh Collaborative goes to the school’s marketing students. Wheeler’s Girls Who Code Club members manage the online ordering system for the food pantry, which they created.

For its kick-off event, Wheeler Fresh Collaborative hosted a dinner theatre ahead of Wheeler Theatre’s production of the musical “Annie” in the Spring of 2019. This event, along with Marketing students attending monthly business luncheons in the East Cobb and North Cobb areas and articles published in local media outlets such as East Cobber Magazine, brought attention to the initiative. Collaboration has since involved linking Wheeler’s feeder schools and their food pantries to further extend the program’s reach.

Currently, Wheeler Fresh Collaborative is preparing for its inaugural Wheeler Fresh Marketplace scheduled for January 17. The Marketplace will be set up outside the Performing Arts Center [from 5-7 p.m.], in conjunction with Wheeler Theatre’s musical production of “Freaky Friday!”

There will be an interactive gallery where a variety of Wheeler clubs, organizations, and classes will promote concepts of students helping students, collaboration and community involvement within the Wheeler family.

The Horticulture Club will sell plant starters, AP Statistics students will display their original games for people to play, and other Wheeler clubs will have snacks for purchase or a community experience to present. Thanks to donation boxes placed around the Marketplace for the Wheeler Fresh Collaborative and Feed Our Friends initiatives, visitors will be able to help pay off student lunch debt across the Wheeler cluster of schools.

Program organizers and volunteers plan for the Wheeler Fresh Collaborative to sustain a food pantry with both Wheeler grown food and other non-perishable items, which will aid the 41% of Wheeler students who benefit from free and reduced lunch. The goal is for the Wheeler Fresh Collaborative to reduce the challenges faced by those in need in the community, all the while demonstrating what can be accomplished when students work together to build a true sense of community.

Those interested in donating funds, nonperishable food items, or help in other ways, please email Kelly Feddersen at [email protected] or Will Dezern at [email protected].

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PHOTOS: New Lassiter gym opens for basketball doubleheader

January 8, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Before the first-ever event tipped off at the new Lassiter High School gym on Tuesday, the school’s athletic director stood at midcourt, looked around around them, and took in some history.

Scott Kelly is 1993 Lassiter graduate who recalled his time the school’s first gym, built in 1980.

“We played on a rubber floor,” he said.

The new $15.66 million building features maroon-colored seating for 3,000, as well as locker rooms for basketball and volleyball, and a wrestling practice facility.

For the last year or so, the construction area has been a mess, in addition to taking out parking space.

“I think you’ve got the best gym in the state,” Kelly told the Lassiter student body at a grand opening ceremony that included CCSD officials.

He also thanked the students for their patience: “You finally made it.”

As the Lassiter girls basketball team played Walton in the first game, Kelly paused momentarily near the Lady Trojans’ bench and took in the atmosphere.

He’s been a teacher and administrator at his alma mater for 20 years, including the last five as athletics director, as plans were being made for a new gym.

“It’s something people in this community have been looking forward to for a lot of years,” he said.

It’s state of the art, and part of a continuing wave of new gyms in the Cobb County School District to feature such a large capacity, and with specific space for multiple sports.

New Lassiter Gym

That’s also the case at a new gym that opened in August at Walton and two years ago at Pope. They have combined gym-theatre facilities, unlike Lassiter, whose concert hall opened in 2013 on another part of campus.

Kelly said the Lassiter freshman and JV teams will be playing at the new gym as well, starting with home games on Friday against Roswell.

The wrestling team will have competitions there, and the volleyball team will make its debut at the new gym in the fall of 2020.

On Tuesday, however, Walton played the role of spoiler, winning the girls game 65-37 and the boys game by a 55-50 score.

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Cobb school board Democrats decry vote for electing officers

January 9, 2020January 7, 2020 by Wendy Parker

The Cobb Board of Education met for only 20 minutes Tuesday to elect officers for the 2020 calendar year, but most of it was taken up with the explosive charge by one member that the process for doing so isn’t above board.

Jaha Howard, Cobb school board member — *Jaha Howard*

“Something stinks,” second-year board member Jaha Howard said after the board’s Republican majority voted 4-2 for fellow party member Brad Wheeler to serve as chairman.

Another Republican, David Banks of East Cobb, was voted vice chairman in a similar fashion and by a similar vote.

Both votes were conducted without any board discussion at its annual organizational meeting.

Howard, who represents the Campbell and Osborne clusters in South Cobb, nominated his fellow Democrat, Charisse Davis, of the Walton and Wheeler clusters. But they were the only two votes for her in a series of votes strictly along party lines.

The board’s other Democrat, David Morgan, was not in attendance.

The four Republicans are all white males and the three Democrats are black. Davis is the only woman on the seven-member board.

Walton, Wheeler rep on Cobb school board seeks chair role

January 4, 2020January 4, 2020 by Wendy Parker

The Cobb Board of Education meets Tuesday in its 2020 organizational meeting, at which it will select its chair and vice chair for the year.

Charisse Davis, Cobb Board of Edcucation — *Charisse Davis*

Charisse Davis of Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters, said she’s interested in becoming chair.

It’s a duty that includes running meetings and representing the board in an official capacity.

“I’ve expressed my interest to serve as chair, a role that many other board members have held, even in their first term,” Davis noted in her January newsletter.

The first-term Democrat, who lives in the Campbell cluster, was nominated for vice chair last year, shortly after taking office. But the board’s four-member Republican majority voted for two of its own members for the leadership roles after multiple votes.

The 2019 chairman was David Chastain, of the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, and the vice chair was Brad Wheeler of West Cobb. Per board rules, officers cannot serve in the same roles in consecutive years.

New Lassiter gym grand opening before Walton basketball games

January 3, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Lassiter gym grand opening

When Lassiter meets Walton in a varsity basketball doubleheader Tuesday, the games will have more than East Cobb and regional rivalry implications.

The occasion will be the first for the homestanding Trojans in their new gym.

The $15.66 million building, located next to the football stadium, is finally ready to be unveiled.

The girls’ game tips off at 6 p.m., but a grand opening celebration will take place at 5:20 p.m. The varsity boys will play starting at 7:30 p.m.

The 3,000-seat Lassiter facility, which was built with Cobb Ed-SPLOST IV revenues, was originally estimated to cost $10.8 million.

But that was for specifications for seating for 2,500, and was revised to include more capacity and factor in annual construction inflation of six percent.

The building includes varsity locker rooms for the Lassiter girls and boys basketball teams and the Trojans volleyball team, as well as locker rooms for visiting teams and a practice facility for the Lassiter wrestling team.

The Lassiter gym is the second new gym to open for an East Cobb school in recent months.

The new Walton gym was broken in by the Raiders’ state championship volleyball team in the fall.

That’s part of a new $31.7 million project at Walton that includes 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.

On Jan. 24, Walton will play host to Lassiter in basketball in its new gym.

In January 2018, Pope christened a new $24 million gym-fine arts complex with a basketball doubleheader.

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East Cobb school board post draws another GOP candidate

February 5, 2020January 2, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Another Republican challenger has emerged as a candidate for the Post 5 seat on the Cobb Board of Education. Shelley O'Malley, Cobb school board candidate

Shelley O’Malley, a Delta Air Lines pilot and U.S. Navy veteran, filed paperwork on Dec. 26 with the Georgia Government and Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission declaring her intent to accept campaign contributions.

She is seeking the seat currently held by third-term GOP incumbent David Banks. Post 5 includes the Pope and Lassiter attendance zones.

O’Malley has been involved as a parent in the Rocky Mount Elementary School, Simpson Middle School and Lassiter High School communities.

Banks has not formally declared whether he’s seeking re-election.

Matt Harper, an IT manager and former Murdock Elementary School teacher, has announced his candidacy as a Republican, as has attorney Rob Madayag, who’s been critical of how the Cobb County School District handles bullying issues.

O’Malley’s community service work includes serving as a vice president of the Cobb Veterans Memorial Foundation, which formed in 2015 to build a memorial to honor veterans in the county.

Her husband Brian is also a Navy veteran and they have three children: Shannon, a former swim captain at the University of Georgia, Lauren, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and Luke, a freshman at Lassiter.

O’Malley is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where she was the captain of the varsity basketball team and was president of the tennis club while earning a mechanical engineering degree.

She also has volunteered with the Stringrays Swim Team and is a church school co-teacher at Transfiguration Catholic Church.

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A trespasser was quickly apprehended after walking onto the Sprayberry campus with a gun and a Wheeler student was arrested after other students alerted teachers and staff that he had carried a gun on a school bus.

At Walton High School, a student was arrested for making terroristic threats, saying he would shoot up the school when he was taken from a class for having alcohol in a water bottle. He also was charged with battery for kicking a teacher.

An East Cobb parent who helped form a Cobb schools safety group last year acknowledged that the district is taking more concerted steps to ensure safety and communicate better, but still thinks its approach is largely reactive.

She’d like to see the district invest more in mental health counseling and a “social emotional learning” program other school systems have begun.

The Walton incident wasn’t made public for a week, and then only because of news reports, while the Sprayberry and Wheeler cases were made public the day they occurred.

The district has continued to stress its safety resource effort called Cobb Shield, which contains information about its police force, emergency management procedures and code red drills, which are required each semester at all 16 high schools.

District spokesman John Floresta said Cobb schools was “batting 100 percent in the way each incident [at the East Cobb schools] was handled,” from quick actions by school officials to apprehend those posing a threat, to relaying information to the school community.

“We’re being as proactive as any school district I know,” he said.

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That split was evident earlier in the year, when Davis and Howard voiced a desire for the board to consider making some changes, including closing loopholes, in the Cobb school senior tax exemption.

As the board began the budget process, Chastain told an East Cobb audience he was adamant nothing would happen regarding the exemption, eligible for homeowners 62 and older.

School district officials estimate that costs more than $100 million a year. Davis said she doesn’t want to eliminate the exemption, but noted that Cobb is one of only two school districts in metro Atlanta that doesn’t have any conditions to its senior tax exemption.

At a school board retreat in the fall, she and Howard raised the subject again, but it was rejected.

Davis and Howard also have publicly suggested the Cobb school district create a cabinet-level position for equity and diversity in the wake of calls by some parents and school staff in the county for Cobb schools to address what they claim are unaddressed and systemic racial biases.

In May, the board did come to a consensus on another major matter by voting 7-0 to approve the district’s fiscal year 2020 budget of $1.17 billion, which included teacher and staff pay raises between 8 and 12.6 percent, including bus drivers, cafeteria workers, school nurses, paraprofessionals and counselors.

In 2020, four board members will be up for re-election, including David Banks of Post 4. He’s finishing his third term representing the Pope and Lassiter districts, and has drawn two Republican opponents.

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GRACEPOINT School earns accreditation for dyslexic programs

December 23, 2019December 23, 2019 by Wendy Parker

GRACEPOINT School accreditation

Submitted information and photo:

GRACEPOINT School for dyslexic learners announced today their accreditation received for the school’s Orton-Gillingham program by the AOGPE (Academy of Orton Gillingham Practitioners and Educators). The Orton–Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia. All academic teachers at GRACEPOINT are trained as Orton-Gillingham Classroom Educators. Training involves methods to teach and Enremediate all areas of literacy, not just reading and spelling and to provide this instruction one-on-one, in a classroom, or with any size group.

Students at GRACEPOINT receive 90 minutes of explicit Orton-Gillingham reading instruction each day.

GRACEPOINT’s instructional program is now 1 of only 16 programs in the nation to receive this accreditation.

“To have your OG instruction endorsed by the Academy is such a high honor,” shared Joy Wood, GRACEPOINT Head of School. “I am very proud of the teachers and staff at GRACEPOINT that are so dedicated to restoring hope to the brilliant dyslexic minds we serve each day. There is incredible reward in seeing realize they are not ”

This news comes in the wake of many recent initiatives and accomplishments of the company, including:

Enrollment growth from 4 to 124 students since the school’s beginning in 2012

Accreditation by the SAIS (Southern Association of Independent Schools)

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REMINDER: Early release for Cobb schools on Thursday and Friday

December 18, 2019 by Wendy Parker

Cobb school bus safety

The last two school days before the holiday break in the Cobb County School District will be shortened days.

On Thursday and Friday, schools will be releasing early for local school professional learning sessions, so the buses will be out and about around the lunchtime hours.

Students will be served lunch at school before they’re released.

Here’s the early release chedule, and it’s the same for both days, two hours earlier than usual.

11:30 a.m. – High School
12:30 p.m. – Elementary School
1:30 p.m. – Middle School

The first day of the second semester is Monday, Jan. 6.

More Cobb school news

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Cobb school board members pay raise request rejected

December 14, 2019 by Wendy Parker

*David Banks suggested board pay raises at the same time staff and teachers get them.*

Cobb Board of Education members haven’t had a pay raise since 2003, and they won’t be getting another one anytime soon.

The board voted 4-3 Thursday against a proposal by school board member David Morgan of South Cobb to ask the legislature for a $3,800 annual boost in their salaries.

Voting with Morgan was Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, and David Banks, who represents the Pope and Lassiter clusters.

School board members receive $19,000 a year in compensation; the board chairman, who has additional duties on behalf of the board, is paid $22,800.

Morgan was seeking requests to push pay to $22,800 for board members and $26,600 for the chairman.

“We deserve a pay raise,” Morgan said, rattling off increased responsibilities, duties and appearances for board members. “I believe this in the bottom of my heart.”

Morgan’s comments came at a school board work session Thursday afternoon, where Banks suggested that board pay raises occur as they are given to Cobb County School District staff and teachers.

No other board member engaged him on that subject, and Banks didn’t bring it up again at the Thursday night business meeting before the vote.

The Georgia General Assembly must approve salary increases for school board members, and Morgan’s proposal was a “one-time” matter he wanted the board to take to State Sen. David Wilkerson, chairman of the Cobb legislative delegation.

Information presented at the work session indicated that in the metro Atlanta area, only DeKalb County school board members are paid more than Cobb, whose scale is on par with Fulton County.

Voting against the pay raise resolution was David Chastain, the outgoing board chairman who represents the Kell and Sprayberry clusters.

Morgan and Banks, who are nearing the end of their third terms, have the most seniority on the board. Both will be up for re-election in 2020 and they have drawn primary opposition.

South Cobb community activist Tre Hutchins has declared his Democratic candidacy for the Post 3 seat held by Morgan.

In Banks’ Post 5, Republican candidates Robert Madayag and Matt Harper have said they’re running.

Also on Thursday, the school board voted 7-0 to approve a resolution asking district officials to prepare a $100 million short-term loan against SPLOST collections for 2020 construction, maintenance and technology projects.

The board is expected to finalize the loan request at its January meeting.

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Critic of Cobb schools on bullying issues running for school board

December 12, 2019December 12, 2019 by Wendy Parker

An East Cobb attorney who has been critical of the Cobb County School District on bullying issues is running for Post 5 on the Cobb Board of Education in 2020. Robert Madayag, Cobb school board candidate

Robert Madayag is seeking the seat currently held by David Banks, whose third term ends next year. Post 5 includes most of the Pope and Lassiter high school attendance zones, as well as part of the Sprayberry cluster (see map at the bottom).

Madayag is the father of students at Sprayberry, Simpson Middle School and Kincaid Elementary School.

(For his campaign website, click here.)

Earlier this year, Madayag assisted parents, including some at Walton High School, who complained about how the district responded to their claims about their children being bullied. He thinks the district underreports data on the number of students who report bullying.

Madayag said in his announcement that “there is no doubt that the CCSD has done a great job of helping those students at the top,” but said he’s heard from “countless parents about how their kids were bullied, suffered racially charged language, and were forced to fight the school district to have their kids provided basic needs.”

His priorities include doing a countywide assessment about how bullying cases are handled, providing transparency to the public on how much the district spends on legal fees and creating the position of Chief Equity Officer.

Madayag also wants to address what he says are “stories upon stories of parents with special needs kids that have had to fight and fight with the CCSD, at their own great expense, just to get treatment that other school districts provide without fighting.”

East Cobb News has left a message with Madayag seeking more information about his candidacy.

Madayag, who is running as a Republican, is a former chairman of the Modern Whig Party of Georgia, which formed in 2009 with a centrist platform aimed at those disaffected with both Democrats and Republicans.

Currently the seven-member school board has four Republicans and three Democrats. Four seats are up next year, including Post 1 (North Cobb), Post 3 (South Cobb) and Post 7 (West Cobb).

Madayag is a U.S. Navy veteran who earned an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, then earned a law degree from Villanova University. He practices patent and corporate law in the Atlanta office of Lee & Hayes, a national firm.

He and his family have been involved in school and youth sports and music activities in their community. His wife Rebecca has been a member of the PTSA board at Simpson, and he has coached and served as an emcee for his sons’ football teams and at Sprayberry freshman and JV football games.

Banks, a Republican, has not indicated whether he’s running again. Matt Harper, an IT project manager, has announced his candidacy in the GOP primary (campaign website).

Harper taught science for three years at Murdock Elementary School and he and his wife Sharon have two daughters who attend Cobb schools. He also has served on the Murdock School Council.

Post 5 includes all or part of the following school zones:

High Schools: Pope, Lassiter, Sprayberry
Middle Schools: Hightower Trail, Mabry, Simpson
Elementary Schools: Davis, East Side, Eastvalley, Garrison Mill, Mountain View, Murdock, Powers Ferry, Sedalia Park, Shallowford Falls, Tritt

Cobb BOE Post 5 — *For larger map, **click here**.*

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Cobb school board may borrow $100M for 2020 SPLOST projects

December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 by Wendy Parker

The Cobb County School District is nearing the end of the first year of a new SPLOST collection period, and the school board on Thursday will be asked to consider taking out $100 million in short-term construction notes for the calendar year 2020.

The request is scheduled to be discussed at the board’s work session that begins at 4 p.m., and to formalize a resolution at its 7 p.m. business meeting. Both meetings will be held in board meeting room at the CCSD’s Central Office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.

(You can view the agendas for both meetings by clicking here.)

The loans are taken out as advances against SPLOST collections during the year, and have become an annual action by the Cobb school board.

The district borrowed $90 million for 2019 and a similar amount in 2018. The loans are repaid by the end of each year, as sales-tax revenues are collected.

This year, the loans were being paid back at an interest rate of 1.72 percent. District officials say the borrowing helps them issue bids and start projects earlier in the calendar year and to get savings against interest rates that are around 4-5 percent a year.

If the resolution is adopted Thursday night, a formal proposal with a details about the sale of the loans would be presented to the board for final approval in January.

The Cobb Ed-SPLOST V is expected to collect around $797 million in sales tax revenues through the end of 2023.

Among the primary projects on the SPLOST V list (here’s the full notebook) is rebuilding and relocating Eastvalley Elementary School to the former site of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road.

A timetable for that project has not been indicated by the district. Earlier this fall, Eastvalley parents demanded that the school board provide newer trailers to replace aging portable classrooms while a new school is built, but no action has been taken.

Among the other major projects at East Cobb schools in SPLOST V are planned for Lassiter HS (theater renovation), Sprayberry HS (CTAE building renovation), Walton HS (new tennis courts and softball field) and Wheeler HS (Magnet School renovation).

Dickerson and Dodgen middle schools also are slated for major classroom additions.

SPLOST funds also are used for technology upgrades at every school, including for security measures, and for general maintenance of facilities and equipment.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Ga. Crossing Guard of the Year is Rocky Mount’s Alice Medlin

December 9, 2019 by Wendy Parker

Alice Medlin, Georgia crossing guard of the year

Story and photo submitted by Cobb County School District:

Those who drive by Rocky Mount Elementary see Alice Medlin every day, sometimes twice a day. They may even spot her out front of Simpson Middle School or near Lassiter High School. Parents wave. Students smile at the friendly crossing guard that greets them as they walk to school. Some parents stop to chat and laugh with her after walking their students to school.

What they do not always see are the times when “Ms. Alice” steps in front of a whizzing car to pull a student to safety. They may not see her step off the curb into the path of a speeding car, all to protect a Cobb County student in harm’s way.

They may not know that some drivers are quite disrespectful as they pass the almost-84 years-young crossing guard. They just see her smile because that’s what she does. She waves to the ill-mannered drivers and returns her attention to the children.

“I love these children. They are like mine,” gushed the beloved crossing guard.

For her dedication to student safety, commitment to serving the Cobb Schools community, and consistently doing it all with a positive attitude and a warm smile, “Ms. Alice” was recently named the North Georgia Outstanding Crossing Guard of the Year by the Georgia Safe Routes to School.

She is one of only four in the entire state of Georgia to receive the title of Crossing Guard of the Year and is the only one in the 39-county area of North Georgia.

“Ms. Alice” was standing in the crosswalk in front of Rocky Mount Elementary when she learned that she had been named Crossing Guard of the Year, a moment that brought tears to her eyes. Rocky Mount Principal Peggy Fleming, Assistant Principal Dr. Sage Doolittle, and Georgia Safe Routes representative Patti Pittman surprised her during Crossing Guard Appreciation Week.

Rocky Mount, Simpson, and Lassiter parents pushed for her to win the recognition.

Here’s what some of them said:

“Miss Alice makes sure you always a walk away with a smile. She adores all of her students and their families, and their safety is her top priority always.”

“She is out there in the rain, wind, snow, and heat at all times to help the walkers cross safely during the busiest times of the day.”

“We trust her with our kids’ lives.”

“Ms. Alice is amazing! She knows the kids by name. She loves and treats them like they are her grandkids.”

After giving birth to 9 children and loving 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren of her own, “Ms. Alice” has a lifetime of experience with children, and it shows.

“Ms. Alice loves giving out special treats for the kids before long weekends and vacations,” one parent wrote in their nomination. “She greets every walker with love and even shares personal stories with us! She has such a big heart for all of the children and sees them as her own grandchildren!”

Her oldest child, who attended Cobb Schools, is 65. One of her great-grandchildren has already graduated high school.

I don’t look it and don’t act it, she said as she did a little dance outside Rocky Mount.

“Ms. Alice” first pulled on the yellow vest of a Cobb Schools crossing guard about 5 years ago when she was a mere 79. She doesn’t plan to retire until she reaches 90.

Some of the adored crossing guard’s friends ask her why she chooses to wake up early every morning and stand in the bitter cold and show up each afternoon to watch over students in the intense Georgia heat.

“It makes it worth living to get up and come here every day,” she tells them.

She stands in the rain, cold, and heat because her job gives her the potential to positively impact someone else’s future. That’s an opportunity she cannot turn down.

When she’s not on the job at a crosswalk near you, she’s kicking up her heels on a dance floor. She goes dancing every Saturday.

Because so many parents, students and members of the community see her every day, she is a bit famous. People stop her at the grocery store because they recognize her. She has so many fans—parents and students alike—that they often want to continue their crosswalk talks.

“Ms. Alice is a joy!!! She greets us every day, no matter what the weather, with a smile,” another parent said. “She loves our kids and always makes sure they are safe. My kids love seeing her every morning and afternoon.”

This parent’s comment may best represent why so many parents nominated her and why she ultimately won Crossing Guard of the Year.

“She would literally give her life for any of these kids,” one parent declared.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Walton graduates reunited as Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech

December 6, 2019December 6, 2019 by Wendy Parker

Thanks to reader Julie Alvoid for alerting us to this story about Walton graduates Rachel Luckuck and Francis Yang. They knew each other a little in high school, then had an unexpected reunion recently when they were named Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech.

The photo, video and text come from Tech’s communications office:

“We sort of knew of each other, just not very well,” explains Rachel Luckcuck, newly named Ms. Georgia Tech 2019.

“I think we had Calc together, right?” Mr. Georgia Tech Francis Yang asks Luckcuck.

“I used to think that Francis was just so cool. I can’t believe looking back that now we’re Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech,” Luckcuck says.

“I remember when you got into Georgia Tech and how excited you were!” Yang recalls happily.

Luckcuck had taken extra online classes to boost her high school resume in hopes of being accepted to Georgia Tech. She also played the Georgia Tech fight song for inspiration — while studying. Both tactics paid off.

“That was a great day. January 8,” she remembers.

“That’s my birthday!” Yang exclaims.

Both Luckcuck and Yang attended Walton High School in Marietta, Georgia, and both are now business administration majors at Tech. Their election as Mr. and Ms. Georgia Tech was purely coincidental; they ran separately on their own merits and service. The winners were selected from a pool of 20 semifinalists who were required to write essays about their personal experiences and interviewed about their service to campus. Luckuck and Yang won the 2019 title from among a narrowed pool of ten finalists after a popular vote by their peers.

The photographs from Bobby Dodd Stadium were the talk of their hometown. “I was getting tons of messages on Facebook and Instagram from my former high school teachers,’ Luckcuck says. “They were just so proud to see us there together.”

Yang has found this whole experience surreal. “I couldn’t have asked for a better experience at Georgia Tech. Previous Mr. and Ms. Georgia Techs are the people I looked up to when I first got here. Now that’s me.”

He has helped incoming students make the transition to college through his work as a FASET Orientation leader. “One of the best parts of all of this is having some of those students come congratulate me,” he says.

Luckuck says she has found joy working with the Excel Program, a Georgia Tech initiative that provides a post-secondary education for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“There are thousands of colleges but only about 200 options nationwide for these students. Georgia Tech being one of them is incredible, and being part of the program has been life-changing,” she says.

One of Yang’s favorite moments of the entire process was seeing his mom on the field. “It was her first game day,” he says. “She was so excited. To share that moment with her was so special.” And he was so excited that he almost forgot it was his first time on the field too.

For Luckcuck, self-admittedly a bit shy and reserved, her Tech experience has taught her more about herself and how she can best serve others. “It’s living our motto of progress and service. Now as Ms. Georgia Tech I can find a way to give back because Georgia Tech gave so much to me.”

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

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