Thanks to Christi Trombetti for sending us the following information about the very first Pope Greyhound Gallop, Saturday, Aug. 18. The 5K starts at 7:30 a.m. and will take place at multi-sports complex at Pope High School (3001 Hembree Road). The cost is $25 per person, and here’s what it’s all about:
The inaugural 2018 Greyhound Gallop is brought to you by the Pope Touchdown Club. Some proceeds will go to the Touchdown Club to help pay for the Pope Football program and for the Pope Field House which is enjoyed by the entire Pope community.
A portion of the funds can also be directed to any of the Pope teams or groups listed on the Pope clubs website.
The Greyhound Gallop is a great way to start the new school year with a feeling of community, togetherness and Greyhound spirit in preparation for our Fall sports seasons.
Please join us for this inaugural event and get ready to embrace the incredible spirit of the Greyhound Nation.
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!
By a unanimous 7-0 vote Thursday, the Cobb Board of Education approved a measure to increase a Cobb school employee pay raise over what was adopted in May.
The extra 1.5-percent raise comes on top of 1.1-percent raises that were previously approved for all 15,000 Cobb County School District employees, as well as 1.1-percent bonuses.
The school board also voted Thursday to establish the 2018 millage rate at 18.9 mills, a figure that has been in place for 11 years.
The Cobb schools fiscal year 2019 budget that began July 1 is $1.2 billion.
The raises will cost just under $22 million. The additional raises were proposed by Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale after the Cobb tax digest grew more than school officials anticipated.
They had forecast 6 percent growth, but the net tax digest increase for Cobb schools for 2018 ended up being 8.2 percent. The Cobb tax digest for this year is a record $36.7 billion.
Ragsdale said not all of the extra money is being used for the raises, although “a vast majority” of the $38 million more coming into school district coffers is. He said the school system wasn’t able to afford a pay raise last year and he wanted to reward staff when it was fiscally possible to do so.
At a public hearing Thursday afternoon, Donna Rowe of the Cobb Association of Realtors expressed concern about basing pay raises on revenue from property values.
“That is a fluctuating thing and it is dictated by the market,” said Rowe, who is based at the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in East Cobb.
She said she was speaking as a citizen, mindful of the real estate market during the recession.
Ragsdale addressed that concern, saying that “we not spending every single dollar” of the tax digest windfall on raises.
“Yes, it’s recurring revenue, but it’s prudent for us to make sure that we are financially stable” in case of unexpected expenses, he said.
The board approved the pay raises without discussion.
The additional pay boost, which also will apply to substitute teachers, is “a great step forward,” said Cobb County Association of Educators head Connie Jackson, who had been pressing for a 2.6 percent raise.
That’s what has come to pass, thanks to the additional tax digest growth and another $10 million in state funding due to the termination of state education austerity cuts.
The bonuses will be paid in December. Eligible teachers also will be receiving STEP increases based on their years of service.
Cobb teachers returned this week to begin preparing for the 2018-19 school year. The first day of classes is Aug. 1.
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From L-R, Wheeler F1 racing team members Shivam Patel, Michael Jin and Arul Gupta. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
Members of the Wheeler F1 racing team had barely gotten off the plane after winning a national competition in June when they knew what they had to do next.
“We were on cloud nine for about three hours,” said Arul Gupta, the executive manager and marketing director of the AeroFlow Racing team, which includes five students who attend the Wheeler STEM Magnet School.
They’re spending what’s left of their summer redesigning their foam and light plastic miniature vehicle for the F1 in Schools world competition in Singapore in September.
They know they have to step up their game in marketing, project management, promotions, community outreach and fundraising—the other components of the entrepreneurially-constructed F1 in Schools concept—in facing the global elites of the circuit for the first time.
There’s little time to waste.
“We’re doing prototypes now” for the cars they want to take to Singapore, said Michael Jin, the manufacturing engineer for Aeroflow Racing.
At the F1 in Schools National Finals in Austin, Texas, their car posted a time of 1.3 seconds along a track of 24 meters, or 78 feet (as they demonstrated in April at the Wheeler STEAM Symposium), the best time of all the cars there.
In Singapore, Gupta said, “1.3 isn’t going to cut it.” He figures Aeroflow needs to cut it down to 1.1 seconds to have a shot against the elite teams, especially those coming from Australia and Britain, the hotbeds for F1 in Schools.
The AeroFlow team scored around 920 points out of a possible 1000 in all phases of the national competition, which included teams with ages ranging from 9 to 19.
While team members are proud of that, they know that most of the 40 teams heading to Asia are more experienced than AeroFlow, which was formed in the fall of 2016. The global competition, Gupta said, is also “much more rigorous” in judging.
“They don’t grade just how fast your car goes,” he said. “They judge design, marketing, social media strategy, all of that.”
The AeroFlow team even had to design and update its own website as part of the competition.
The victorious Wheeler F1 racing team car at the U.S. Nationals. (AeroFlow Racing photo)
Last year, the Wheeler students finished fifth in their maiden national competition. “We wanted to the best we could,” said Gupta, who lives in the Pope High School district and who like his fellow AeroFlow team members commutes to classes at Wheeler. “It gave us a better idea what we had to improve upon.”
The speed of the car had to get better, and they decided making it as light as possible was the key.
Getting that weight to 50 grams, the minimum allowed in F1 in Schools, is an exacting and time-consuming task.
That task fell largely to Jin, who lives in the Walton High School district. “When you’re making a car, getting the design right is so important,” he said. “Adding a couple of coats of paint can make a big difference.”
The construction includes forming the car body out of a foam block, then adding plastic components that include the wheels and other elements that enhance speed.
As they were evolving their model over the last school year, the AeroFlow team members consulted with Georgia Tech aerospace engineering professors who advised them on lift and downforce.
“The car’s acting almost like a rocket,” Gupta said.
“The real difficulty is getting the right finishing on it,” Jin said, with the ideal being “a perfectly smooth surface.”
Added Gupta: “It should be smooth as glass,” with a glossy look.
The AeroFlow car turned in a time of 1.13 seconds at the Wheeler STEAM Symposium in April. (East Cobb News file photo)
The intricate attention to detail in F1 in Schools is paramount, but the rising Wheeler seniors on the AeroFlow team say they embrace the challenge that’s largely outside the classroom.
While they submit college applications (among the schools are MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Cal Tech, Stanford, Georgia Tech and Emory), they enjoy learning the well-rounded skills they have to develop.
“You get to be extremely hands-on,” said Gupta, who in his role works with Novelis, an aluminum products manufacturer that is AeroFlow’s main corporate sponsor.
Even the AeroFlow name came after a lot of thought among team members. “How can we be known for something that’s related to what we’re doing,” he said. “That sounds about right.”
Jin said he especially likes the chance to “simulate the real world” and “this shows what drives innovation.
“We feel like we’re in a pretty good place. We know what our competition is and what we are doing well.”
The other immediate challenge the AeroFlow team has is raising money to make the trip to Singapore.
They estimated that all their costs, from entry fees to air fare, food and lodging, will cost around $37,000.
Thus far, they’ve raised around $24,000, with less than two months before their trip.
The AeroFlow team has created a GoFundMe page to accept donations from anyone wishing to help out.
The Wheeler-based AeroFlow team members after winning the U.S. Nationals in Austin, Texas, in June. (AeroFlow Racing photo)
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The Cobb tax digest has grown by more than originally anticipated in 2018. As a result, superintendent Chris Ragsdale is proposing Cobb school employee pay raises that are larger than what was adopted for the fiscal year 2019 period that began July 1
Instead of a 1.1-percent across-the-board increase that was approved last month, the Cobb Board of Education is being asked to amend that pay raise upward, to 2.6 percent, at its July meeting on Thursday.
The proposal for the extra raise came after the county tax digest grew by 9.1 percent for this year. Cobb schools budget staffers projected a six percent increase.
The school board in May approved only a 1.1 percent one-time bonus, to go into effect in December. But the end of state education austerity cuts in May prompted Ragsdale to propose a 1.1 percent raise for some employees, mostly at the school level, on top of the bonus.
School board member David Morgan of South Cobb said that wasn’t enough. So did Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators, who pleaded for a 2.6-percent raise to help Cobb move up from near the bottom in starting teacher salary levels for school districts in metro Atlanta.
She suggested raising the millage rate from 18.9 to the maximum 20 mills to do that, but the rest of the board wasn’t in a tax-raising mood.
“I am sure the over 15,000 school employees will be happy to hear this good news and teachers will receive a much needed raise,” school board member David Banks, who represents the Lassiter and Pope districts, said in his weekly newsletter over the weekend. “It is critical that Cobb be in a position to retain our teachers and valued support employees.”
He said he also wished the raise could be higher.
Also on Thursday, the school board will hold the final of its required public hearings on the school tax millage rate, followed by the adoption of the millage rate. The hearings are at 12 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., in the board room at the CCSD Central Office, 514 Glover St., in Marietta.
Nobody spoke at the first millage rate hearing last week.
The board will have a work session at 1:30 p.m., followed by an executive session, and will reconvene at 7 p.m. for the business meeting.
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A partial summary of the proposed fiscal year Cobb government budget presented on Tuesday (continues below).
Just hours after a feisty town hall meeting in East Cobb, citizens continued to sound off Tuesday as Cobb tax millage rate public hearings got underway this week.
On Tuesday morning, several East Cobb citizens were among those urging the Cobb Board of Commissioners to raise the general fund property tax rate to preserve and enhance libraries in particular, as well as parks and other public services.
One of them was Abby Shiffman, chairwoman of the Cobb Library Board of Trustees. She was at the Monday town hall at the Sewell Mill Library, and in reference to opponents of a tax increase, said “do not believe what you’re reading by misinformed people on social media” about commission chairman Mike Boyce’s proposed 1.7-mills increase.
On Wednesday morning, the Cobb Board of Education also held a public hearing as it officially sets its millage rate this month.
No citizens showed up for that, and the hearing ended after only 20 minutes, following a brief presentation by Cobb County School District finance chief Brad Johnson.
While the school board isn’t proposing a millage rate increase—it’s holding the line at 18.9 mills—additional property tax revenue for the school system means it’s required to hold three public hearings (FY 2019 Cobb schools budget info here).
Two more will take place next Thursday at noon and at 6:30 p.m., followed by millage rate adoption at the board’s business meeting the same day at 7 p.m.
Cobb commissioners also will have two more scheduled public hearings, July 17 at 6:30 p.m., and on July 25 at 7 p.m. Commissioners are set to adopt the budget on July 25.
To be precise, commissioners are holding two separate hearings—one for the millage rate, and one for the budget, since both have yet to be adopted.
The Cobb government budget would grow by 9.7 percent from the current fiscal year 2018 (continued from the top).
Georgia law requires the public hearings if either the millage rate or property tax revenue (or both) increases from the previous year. Millage rates also have to be formally adopted for local governments and school districts to receive tax revenues.
Here’s a detailed PDF of the proposed Cobb FY 2019 budgetthat includes departmental and other breakdowns and forecasts into fiscal year 2020.
While most of the speakers at Tuesday’s commission public hearings were in favor of the millage rate increase (which would add $50 million to the general fund), some were opposed, or expressed concern about the size of the proposed tax increase.
Ron Sifen of the Cumberland/Vinings area said “that’s a big increase. You’re really hitting the reset button on spending” by boosting general fund expenditures from $403 million to $454 million.
Alicia Adams of Americans for Prosperity also asked commissioners to reject a tax hike. “Cobb homeowners have been taxed enough,” she said.
The supporters included those supporting the UGA Cobb Extension and Cobb parks as well as Save Cobb Libraries.
Mike Smith, an East Cobb citizen, said the proposed increase is “a fair price to pay” for public services. He lives in District 2, where commissioner Bob Ott has been skeptical of a tax increase. Ott was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, as he represented the county at a technology conference.
“Somebody needs on the commission needs to get to Mr. Ott,” Smith said. “I wish he were here today.”
Shiffman, who was appointed a library trustee by Ott, told the other four commissioners to “do what your constituents want, not what you feel you may want.”
She feared that “if this increase does not pass, there will be cuts.”
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The first of three Cobb schools tax digest public hearings takes place this Wednesday.
The hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Cobb County School District Central Office (514 Glover St., Marietta) in the Board of Education meeting room.
The other hearings take place next Thursday, July 19, at 12 p.m. and at 6:30 p.m., in the same location.
Here’s how the CCSD explains what it’s obligated to do, under the Property Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights law which has been in effect since 2000:
The Cobb County Board of Tax Assessors assesses all county property in compliance with state law. If property is reassessed upward, then the Cobb County School District will see an increase in tax revenue. The additional revenue will be applied toward the higher cost of student instruction due to enrollment growth, and to ease budget constraints caused by reductions in state revenue.
To collect the same revenue as last year and avoid an increase in taxes of 7.48%, the millage rate would have to be decreased to 17.584 mills, defined as the “roll-back” rate described in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Here are links to Cobb schools budget documents. Most school district employees are receiving a 1.1 percent raise, due to a $10.2 million contribution from the state of Georgia following the end of education austerity cuts.
School board member David Morgan wanted a higher millage rate, as did the Cobb County Association of Educators, to provide a bigger raise.
East Cobb board members David Chastain, David Banks and Scott Sweeney opposed a millage rate increase.
Formal adoption of the millage rate is scheduled at the board’s July 19 business meeting which starts at 7 p.m. and follows the final public hearing.
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In less than a month the rebuilt campuses of Brumby Elementary School and East Cobb Middle School will be open for classes at their new adjacent locations on Terrell Mill Road.
We swung by there over the weekend and saw that the parking lot at East Cobb Middle is just about complete, and that some work remains to finish the Brumby lot.
Ground was broken nearly two years ago, in September 2016, for the twin campuses, which cost a total of $51 million (Brumby $22.7 million, ECMS $28.6 million).
They replace two of the older school buildings in East Cobb, and the Cobb County School District. Brumby opened in a round building on Powers Ferry Road in 1966, and has added a two-story classroom building and trailers to accommodate a student enrollment that has exceeded 1,000.
East Cobb Middle School opened on Holt Road in 1963 (followed by Wheeler High School across the street in 1965) and also has outgrown its campus.
The schools will also share a singular entrance, at Greenwood Trail, and a new traffic signal recently became operational.
Carpool and bus queues will be fully contained on the school property, which was a particular problem for Brumby, as parents lined up for drop off and pick up on busy Powers Ferry Road.
The former ECMS site will be the new home for Eastvalley Elementary School, which will be relocating from its longtime campus on Lower Roswell Road at Holt Road.
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From L-R: Marietta schools superintendent Grant Rivera; Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce; and Cobb schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale.
Thanks to Nan Kiel of the Cobb County School District for the submitted photo and information about the extension of the Cobb Library PASS system, which took place earlier this week.
It’s a partnership between the CCSD, Marietta City Schools, and the Cobb County Public Library System that enables public school students to use county library system resources with their school IDs. After a pilot period that began in January, the agreement will continue into 2020.
Cobb students no longer need an extra card to access the digital and print resources in the county’s libraries. The new Library PASS initiative, or Public Library Access for Student Success, links K-12 student identification numbers to the new Cobb County PASS accounts.
The Library PASS program, which launched in January 2018, allows students to access library resources from home, the classroom, or in person at a Cobb library. Currently, there are more than 116,000 CCSD students registered with PASS accounts.
During a ceremony at the Switzer Library in Marietta on June 20, CCSD Superintendent Chris Ragsdale; Chairman Mike Boyce, Cobb County Board of Commissioners; and Superintendent Grant Rivera, Marietta City Schools, signed a memorandum of agreement to extend the Library PASS partnership for two years.
Chairman Boyce applauded the commitment and dedication of the three organizations in coming together to change lives by making more educational resources available to students in Cobb County.
“When we have partnerships like this, it shows that the focus in Cobb County is very high onprioritizing education,” said Superintendent Ragsdale. “It is very important to us to make sure thatresources are available to not only students but also parents. To have partnerships like this with the library system is very important. All the resources that we can tap into, that our students and staff cantap into, benefit the goal of student success.”
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Three more East Cobb principals were appointed by the Cobb Board of Education Thursday night.
Adam Hill is returning to East Cobb after two years as principal at Nickajack Elementary School. The former principal of Timber Ridge Elementary School has been named the new principal at Dickerson Middle School, succeeding retiring principal Dr. Carole Brink.
In remarks near the end of the board’s short meeting, Post 6 school board member Scott Sweeney, who represents the Dickerson area, said Hill “has big shoes to fill.”
East Side Elementary School will be getting a new principal after longtime principal Elizabeth Mavity was appointed an assistant superintendent for the Cobb County School District.
Elizabeth Mavity
Her replacement is Maria Clark, who had been an assistant principal at Mt. Bethel Elementary School.
The new principal at Shallowford Falls Elementary School is Donna Long, currently an assistant principal at Murdock Elementary School. She succeeds Felicia Angelle, now the CCSD’s academic division director of instruction, innovation, teaching and learning.
Their appointments are effective July 1. Walton, Sprayberry, Daniell and Tritt also will have new principals.
The school board also made several other assistant principal appointments at East Cobb schools:
Shannon Hooker, who has been an assistant principal at Bells Ferry Elementary School, was named to the same position at Sedalia Park Elementary School;
A new assistant principal at Mt. Bethel Elementary is Kevin Johnson, who had been an academic coach at Brumby Elementary School;
Elizabeth Marsili, an instructional specialist at Kennesaw Elementary, is a new assistant principal at Bells Ferry;
Maria Clark
Leander Brooks, an assistant principal at Hillgrove High School, is a new assistant principal at Sprayberry High School;
Another new assistant principal at Sprayberry is Philip Henderson, a CCSD school leadership intern;
Former North Cobb High School principal Joseph Horton was appointed assistant principal at Lassiter High School;
Jeff Milton, as assistant principal at Kell High School, was appointed to the same position at Walton High School;
A new assistant principal at Kell is Richard Norman, who had been a teacher at Kell.
Those appointments are effective July 11.
Announcing his resignation, effective June 12, was David Chiprany, an assistant superintendent who oversaw a middle school cluster. A former principal at East Cobb Middle School and Wheeler High School, Chiprany is now the chief academic officer for the Bartow County School System.
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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.
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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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.
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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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 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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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
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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A Kell High School teacher arrested on Friday for sexual assault remains in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center today.
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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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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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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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.
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)
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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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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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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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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Pope earned the 2017 Directors’ Cup for Class 6A.