East Cobb Schools

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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Revised Cobb schools budget proposal includes raises, but no tax hike

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After the end of state education austerity cuts, a new Cobb schools budget proposal for fiscal year 2019 includes across-the-board employee pay raises that were not part of the initial plan.

The Cobb County School District will get $10.2 million in state revenue under the Quality Basic Education Act after Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced in March that he was ending years-long austerity cuts for public schools.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said at a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday afternoon that he is proposing spending the “lion’s share” of that money on 1.1 percent raises for all county employees. The rest would be used to increase the instructional reserve allotment from six to 19 positions, teaching slots that are added when schools surpass enrollment projections.

He’s still recommending a 1.1 percent bonus for “238-day” employees, who include teachers, police officers and high school secretaries. So-called “non-238-day” employees, who work year-round, would get additional days off in the summer.

Those bonuses would be paid with $7.8 million in reserve funding. The raises for nearly 15,000 district employees would cost around $9 million. Step increases for teachers based on experience would come to another $12 million.

The new budget proposal of nearly $1.2 billion, like the original, does not include a tax millage rate increase.

“This is no small change,” Cobb schools chief financial officer Brad Johnson said about the extra $10.2 million. He estimated that the district, which is the second-largest in Georgia with more than 112,000 students, has lost more than $600 million in state education austerity cuts since 2003.

Still, the revised budget, which the school board tentatively approved Thursday night, is a tight one. Formal approval comes next month.

Johnson called it a “middle ground” budget with moderate risk, with around a month’s worth of fund balance.

He is factoring in a net Cobb tax digest growth of 6 percent, following a recent estimate by the Cobb Tax Assessors office of 7.5 percent gross growth.

Another major budget challenge that keeps growing is the exemption from school taxes for homeowners 62 and over. Johnson estimates that this year, the cost of that exemption will come to $90 million. Last year, the figure was $78 million, and he thinks the number will exceed $100 million next year.

Before the budget presentation, Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators pleaded for a 2.5 percent raise for employees, and suggested raising the millage rate from the current 18.9 that has not changed in 10 years to the maximum 20 mills.

The $10.2 million in new revenue, she said, “is not enough. . . We need a raise. It’s time, the money is there and frankly many people out there support it.”

School board member David Morgan of South Cobb agreed, saying even with the recommended raises Cobb is 9th out of 12 public school districts in metro Atlanta in terms of starting pay scale.

 

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PHOTOS: Sprayberry High School 65th anniversary celebration

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Sprayberry High School 65th anniversary
Old yearbooks were on display at Saturday’s 65th anniversary celebration for Sprayberry High School (East Cobb News photos and slideshow by Wendy Parker).

Several dozen graduates, local dignitaries and present students turned out for the Sprayberry High School 65th anniversary celebration on Saturday, and not just for old time’s sake.

Artifacts from the school’s rich history were certainly on display, including a video compilation and yearbooks that told the story of the first high school in East Cobb, long before it became the busy suburb it is today.

Sprayberry High School 65th anniversary celebration

Sprayberry High School 65th anniversary celebration

The festivities also allowed current school leaders to tout Sprayberry’s evolution into a diverse, high-achieving school in an East Cobb community noted for public education.

Sprayberry High School 65th anniversary celebration
Frank Wigington, Sprayberry Class of 1970.

When it opened on what is now Cobb Parkway in 1952, in a facility now occupied by The Walker School, Sprayberry had only 20 teachers. When it moved to its present campus on Sandy Plains Road at Piedmont Road in 1973, the building was the largest for a school in the Southeast and the second-largest structure of any kind in Cobb County.

“Boy, have things changed,” said Principal Joe Sharp, who recounted all 13 of his predecessors and their accomplishments.

The connections between tradition and innovation were noted frequently at Saturday’s event, held in the gym and that included a performance by the Sprayberry orchestra.

“Sprayberry and I are the same age,” said Frank Wigington, a landscaping company owner, Northeast Cobb civic leader and a 1970 Sprayberry graduate who’s also the public address voice of Yellow Jackets sports teams.

“It has aged a lot better than I have.”

The Sprayberry graduates who have enjoyed nationwide success include Mike Greene, who had his own band in high school and later became president of the Grammy Awards, and John Bridges, is now the chief marketing officer for Chick-fil-A.

Perhaps Sprayberry’s most famous graduate is another entertainment industry figure, country music star Travis Tritt.

Regardless of their school popularity or claim to fame as adults, Wigington said, they came “from this little school, this little community. . . . Their foundation was Sprayberry.”

Maddie Wonders, the 2018 senior class president, said she chose Sprayberry for its mix of academic programs and social atmosphere. Like many of Saturday’s speakers, she was proud of the school’s diverse student body and academic programs that reflect it.

“It has unlocked opportunities I never knew existed,” she said. “It’s my home away from home.”

Maddie Wonders, Sprayberry 2018 senior class president.

Among them are the Sprayberry International Spanish Language Academy, a dual-language immersion program for native and non-native speakers, and other Scholars Academies for STEM and leadership, law and public service.

On another video presentation, current Sprayberry students and teachers emphasized how their school is “a microcosm of America.”

Sprayberry’s enrollment of around 1,700 students is the second-lowest for a high school in the Cobb County School District. Its sense of family and community is something that “you can’t script,” superintendent Chris Ragsdale said. “You can tell what people feel about Sprayberry. It’s awesome.”

Cobb Board of Education member David Chastain represents the Sprayberry district, and as a graduate of Wheeler High School, appreciates his old rival’s sense of tradition, and how its student body today “really represents America.”

That sense of community spreads to civic and cultural institutions that support from organizations the Piedmont Church and the Northeast Cobb Business Association.

The Sprayberry community, Chastain said, “is built around that school. It’s unlike any other in the county.”

After the speakers, guests were treated to refreshments and visited classrooms devoted to specific decades to revive old memories, and renew longstanding friendships. The Sprayberry Foundation was holding a gala fundraiser Saturday night at Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

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Low bid for Walton gym and performing arts rebuild is $31.7 million

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The original Walton High School building has been torn down, and new gymnasium and performing arts space will go in its place. According to an early look at next week’s Cobb Board of Education meeting, a low-bid contract for $31.7 million is being recommended for approval.

The school board will hold a work session at 1 p.m. Thursday and a business meeting at 7 p.m., also on Thursday. Both meetings take place in the board chambers at the CCSD Central Office (514 Glover St., Marietta). Here’s the full agenda packet for the meetings.

Before the evening session, a public budget forum will take place in the same place starting at 6:30 p.m. Citizens can comment on a proposed $1.2 billion fiscal year 2019 budget. That figure has grown from an initial figure of $1.059 billion in March.

Board members also are scheduled to tentatively approve that budget, and future public hearings will be held before formal adoption in May.

Walton students moved into a new $48 million classroom building in August, and demolition of the original 42-year-old building has taken place over the winter.

The new 151,000-square-foot project will include 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.

Cobb-based Evergreen Construction is the low bidder, and its proposal comes in at nearly $3 million less than the estimated cost of $34.69 million. The funding is earmarked in the current Cobb Education Cobb SPLOST IV, and the projected completion date is November 2019.

(In January, Pope High School christened its new $24 million gym and theater with a basketball doubleheader sweep.)

The new Walton project isn’t the only major rebuilding contract on the school board’s agenda Thursday. A rebuilding contract totaling $47.4 million will be considered for Osborne High School, as will a new gym and theater project at Harrison High School for $22.3 million.

 

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Sprayberry to celebrate 65th anniversary, hold gala fundraiser Saturday

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PHOTOS: Sprayberry High School 65th anniversary celebration

On Saturday, East Cobb’s oldest high school will mark its 65th anniversary.

Sprayberry High School (2525 Sandy Plains Road) will hold a special assembly in the gym at 2 p.m. Saturday, and tours of the school from 3-5, followed by a fundraising gala.

Attendance to the assembly, which includes comments from Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale and leading figures from Sprayberry’s past, is free, and the dress is casual.

The event also includes special displays from each decade of the school’s history, including its early years on what is now Cobb Parkway and the current location of The Walker School.

The Sprayberry Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Gala, a fundraising event for the school’s foundation, starts at 6:30 p.m. at Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Catholic Church (3431 Trickum Road).

The cost is $100 and there will be raffle prizes, food, music and other entertainment.

Sprayberry opened its doors in the fall of 1952 and moved to its present location in 1973. It’s named after Paul Sprayberry, a Cobb school superintendent in the 1950s.

Sprayberry was the only public high school in East Cobb for more than a decade, until the area began transforming from rural to suburban. Wheeler opened in 1965, followed by Walton (1974), Lassiter (1981), Pope (1987) and Kell (2002).

 

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East Cobb Robotics invited to FIRST World Championships for third consecutive year

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East Cobb Robotics, FRC 4910

Thanks to Lisa Hatch, executive director of East Cobb Robotics, for sending along the photo and great news about the latest accomplishments for the FRC 4910 team. She said the students on the team attend Pope, Sprayberry, Walton and Wheeler high schools, and some are home-schooled:

East Cobb Robotics, FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC) team 4910 is excited to announce that for the 3rd year in a row, its students have again earned a spot at the FIRST Robotics World Championship in Houston, Texas. East Cobb Robotics (ECR) is a community-based, not for profit organization providing STEM education to high-school aged students through its participation in the FIRSTRobotics Competition. Each year, over 3600 teams from around the world are provided a ‘game,’ challenging them to design, build, and program a robot in order to compete. ey have just six weeks to accomplish this goal, followed by tournaments where their team strives to outperform the robots of other teams. At the end of these tournaments, the top 400 teams earn an invitation to the championship event.

This year, the students of ECR won their two qualification tournaments in the Peachtree District as first place winners, and nished third overall in Georgia after a challenging District Championship event in Athens. We are very proud of their accomplishments and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for them. Over the years of our existence, ECR has won numerous awards including Engineering Inspiration, Safety, Quality, Team Spirit, Excellence in Engineering, and Gracious Professionalism as well as nishing as part of the third highest ranked alliance at the 2017 World Competition.

East Cobb Robotics is a 501(c)3 not-for-pro t organization based in Marietta, GA. Tax deductible contributions can be made via PayPal to [email protected].

The Wheeler Circuit Runners also have qualified for the world championships, and they’re looking for financial assistance for the trip to Houston.

 

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Shallowford Falls ES students win state Reading Bowl competition

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Students from Shallowford Falls Elementary School took first place in the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl in Athens on March 24.

Students read 18 Georgia Children’s Book Award nominees (this year’s booklist can be found here) and memorized details of the books, then answered questions in a bowl-type format. It’s the first time Shallowford Falls has won the Reading Bowl. 

The competition is named after Helen Ruffin, school librarian in DeKalb County, and was begun in 1986. 

 

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Cobb schools teacher job fairs today at Wheeler, Thursday at Kennesaw Mountain HS

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From the Cobb County School District: Cobb schools open on Friday

The Cobb County School District expects more than 2,000 educators to attend two upcoming job fairs open to anyone interested in certified teaching positions. The job fairs put teachers face-to-face with school administrators in a relaxed and personal setting and gives them the opportunity to talk directly about teaching and learning in a diverse and dynamic school district.

Elementary Schools Job Fair

March 27, 2018
6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Wheeler High School

375 Holt Rd NE

Marietta, GA 30068

Middle and High Schools Job Fair

March 29, 2018
6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Kennesaw Mountain High School

1898 Kennesaw Due West Rd NW

Kennesaw, GA 30152

Cobb County is the second largest school district in Georgia and is recognized as a premier system in which to teach, lead and learn.

“The Cobb County School District was, once again, the first district in Georgia to issue contracts for the upcoming school year,” says Kevin Kiger, Executive Director of Human Resources, “Doing so enables us to recruit and hire the best educators before anyone else. We are always seeking the finest educators who are ready to join the Cobb Family and support our vision: One Team, One Goal: Student Success.”

For more information and to start an application, interested persons can visit www.teachcobb.org.

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As walkout suspensions are issued, East Cobb students learn their fate

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East Cobb students, walkout
Parents, friends and family members of Walton students offered support during the March 14 walkout. (East Cobb News photo)

Cobb County School District high schools are beginning to issue suspensions for students who participated in National Walkout Day last week. Some East Cobb students say they’re still waitng to hear what there punishment will be.

Kara Litwin, organizer of the walkout at Pope High School, told East Cobb News Wednesday that she and others who walked out are receiving a day of in-school suspension on Monday.

Walton walkout leaders said the estimated 260 students at their school who walked out will receive a day of ISS on Tuesday.

Cobb schools did not support the walkout and said students who left their classes in a gun-control protest would be subject to disciplinary action under the district’s student code of conduct. Those actions would be left up to individual school principals.

Related coverage

Hannah Andress, the Lassiter leader, told us Wednesday night her administration hasn’t announced any punishment. She thinks it’s also going to be a day of what’s referred to as ISS. Instead of attending classes, students will gather in what’s essentially a day-long study hall. She also told us this:

“I want something like assigned community service for the younger participants so, when the apply to college, they don’t have to explain ISS on their record. But I’m willing to take any punishment if it means getting my message across.”

We also heard from Josh Spear, a student at Harrison High School in West Cobb, who said his school also has issued one day of ISS that he will be serving on Friday. “However,” he added, “I will fight to ensure that the school district pays for the violation of students’ first amendment rights.”

We’ll update this story as we get more information about forthcoming punishments.

 

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Lassiter parents organize ‘For the Love of Music 5K’ to help band members attended Roses parade

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We’ve posted here earlier about fundraisers conducted by Lassiter parents for the band’s 2019 trip to the Tournament of Roses Parade. One of those parents, Tim Pattison, has been in touch with us to say they’re holding a 5K race next month to help three band members who need financial assistance for the trip. The cost estimate is about $3,000 a student.

He says they’re holding the For the Love of Music 5K, a virtual race being held anytime between April 29 and May 12. There are full details posted on a website and Facebook page, but here’s what Tim told us about what they need to make this work for each of the three students.

“We need 500 runners to meet our goal, anything past that we are donating to help any of the other band kids whose parents might need financial help. Feel free to share this with anyone else or with other running groups, we can use all the help we can get!”

There’s also an event page on Facebook that further explains this fundraising drive.

 

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Defiant East Cobb walkout leaders blister Cobb schools for attempts to ‘silence us’

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East Cobb walkout leaders, Cobb students
Walton parents held up signs in support of their children who walked out Wednesday (East Cobb News file photo).

The day after they ignored threatened punishments by Cobb schools and walked out of classes, students at Walton, Pope and Lassiter high schools denounced the district’s position on opposing the nationwide event and asked for leniency.

In a public comment session at the Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday, several students decried what they described as efforts to “silence us,” and vowed that their demands for greater school safety, including “commonsense” gun control laws, would continue.

“This will not deter us,” said Kara Litwin, who led the walkout at Pope High School.

She was among the 1,000 students estimated by the Cobb County School District who left their classes for 17 minutes Wednesday as part of the National School Walkout.

The walkout took place exactly a month after 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., were shot to death on campus. A former student was charged with their killings.

Related coverage

The Cobb district said it did not support the walkouts because it was concerned about school safety and not disrupting the school day, and said that students who walked out would face consequences for their actions.

The punishments were not specified, and the district said disciplinary action is up to individual schools. Those actions have not been announced, but judging by students’ comments, some could be facing a three-day out-of-school suspension.

“I walked out for 17 minutes,” Litwin said. “Seventeen minutes, compared to the lives of 17 people.”

She said Cobb schools “taught us to stand up for what we believe in. Why are you going back on your word?”

Natalie Carlomagno, a Walton High School sophomore who organized her school’s walkout, echoed similar thoughts.

“Why do you want to punish us for using the excellent education you’ve given us? We just want to be safe.”

She said three days of an out-of-school suspension “is much more disruptive than 17 minutes.”

Only 260 Walton students walked out, a much smaller number than the more than 2,000 organizers said had signed up. Walton freshman Divya Vismani, another walkout leader, said that was “because of the threats” students received from school officials not to join the protest.

Lassiter High School senior Hannah Andress, who led her school’s walkout, was the most critical, saying she felt like she had to march because “I am tired of fearing for my life.”

She also referenced a possible three-day suspension, and asked the board members “shouldn’t you be supporting me? Listen to me. I am begging you.

“I am advocating for myself, because you didn’t.”

East Cobb resident Pamela Riordan, who lives near Walton, commended Cobb schools for opposing the walkout, and said that “students are being used by factions in society,” especially on gun issues.

“The problem is not guns,” she said, but that the suspect in the Florida shootings had not been previously detained, despite numerous calls to law enforcement about his behavior.

“That is the breakdown, that is what we should be talking about,” she said.

At the end of the meeting, most board members did not respond to the walkout students’ comments, and they have said little publicly about the issue in general.

Susan Thayer of Smyrna thanked the students for their remarks and said she respected their opinions but said only that “it’s been a frustrating week.”

Scott Sweeney, who represents the Walton district, wished everyone a happy spring break. David Banks, who represents Pope and Lassiter, said he enjoyed a recent visit reading to students at Eastvalley Elementary School. David Chastain commended Kell High School culinary students for the Mexican meal prepared for the board before the meeting.

Randy Scamihorn of north and west Cobb mentioned four police officers nationwide who have recently been killed in the line of duty, something he does regularly. He urged everyone associated with Cobb schools to support the work of the district’s public safety officials to keep students, teachers and staff safe.

Cobb schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale also did not comment on the students’ remarks.

 

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Proposed FY 2019 Cobb schools budget includes bonuses, no pay raises

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A summary of a proposed $1.059 billion fiscal year 2019 Cobb schools budget was presented to the Cobb Board of Education on Thursday, and it reflects a slight increase from the present fiscal year 2018 budget of $1.023 billion.

David Banks, Cobb Board of Education
David Banks

The FY 2019 proposal includes a 1.1-percent bonus for annual employees, district police officers and high school secretaries, also known as “238-day” employees. There are no pay raises included for any Cobb County School District employees.

At a board work session Thursday, district officials laid out a budget plan that doesn’t raise property taxes, but uses $7.8 million in reserve funding to pay for the bonuses.

On a more long-term level, the budget forecast for the 112,000-student district, the second-largest in Georgia, is a bit grim.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said that “revenue has not changed,” and that “while we always try to guard against crying wolf,” the district’s tight fiscal situation does not appear to be changing any time soon.

“We have cut until we are at the bone,” Ragsdale said. “We have nothing left to cut.”

The one-page budget presentation (below, or click for PDF version here) also includes $12 million in salary step increases for eligible employees and an increase in the employer contribution to the state teacher retirement system from 16.81 percent to 20.9 percent, or a total of $25 million more.

Of that amount, the state is contributing $16 million, according to Cobb schools chief financial officer Brad Johnson.

He added that state austerity cuts for FY 2019 will take another $10 million in funding away from Cobb. The district also will have to contribute $155 million in state “fair share” funding that is spread around other school districts in Georgia, up from the present $145 million.

Johnson also said that flat student enrollment growth figures in Cobb also figure to reduce the funding the district receives from the state.

This is all in spite of Cobb coming off a record tax digest in 2017, and a net estimated digest growth of six percent for this year that would yield an additional $24 million in school revenues.

The current Cobb school millage rate is 18.9 mills, and is capped at 20 mills. Residential property owners in Cobb age 62 and over are eligible to apply for an exemption from paying school taxes, which the district estimates costs around $100 million annually.

“We have very little additional state revenue coming in next year,” Johnson told the board members. “We have a revenue problem. We have a problem with state revenue.”

The current FY 2018 budget includes the use of $18 million in reserve funds to purchase property adjoining the school district’s Marietta headquarters ($4.2 million) and $5.6 million for school building additions and modifications in the south Cobb area.

Ragsdale said the district is still down around 900 teaching positions. Estimating that the average teacher cost is $90,000 a year, he said there’s “no way we can even attempt to think about” how to close that gap.

The proposed budget includes a total of six new instructional positions across the district, at a cost of $542,000.

Saying that revenue sources aren’t just “tapped out,” but that “we are taking on water,” Ragsdale said that “it’s really a shame that we cannot do anything more with our budget as it is now. It is what it is.”

Board member David Banks of East Cobb, who represents the Pope and Lassiter districts, admitted during the presentation that “we’re in a danger zone.”

Later on Thursday, Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators said the budget “isn’t pretty, it’s not what we were hoping for” and urged board members to include pay raises.

“We need a raise, and we need it this year,” she said, referring to information provided by school officials that Cobb is ninth out of 12 metro Atlanta school districts in recruiting new teachers.

She said “we are slipping” and fears Cobb will slide in other indicators for paying and retaining teachers and school administrators.

There hasn’t been a millage rate increase for Cobb schools in 10 years, Jackson said, and while no one wants a tax increase, boosting the millage rate to the full 20 mills would cost homeowners an additional $80 a year on a home valued at $200,000 and would yield a 2.5 pay raise.

“That’s not much to ask for . . . for a living wage,” she said.

Johnson said more detailed budget information will be available soon, and will be posted on the district’s website as well.

The school board will hold a public hearing on the budget on April 19 at 6:30 p.m., shortly before tentative approval.

Formal adoption is scheduled for May 17, following a second public hearing at 12:30 p.m. The Cobb schools budget goes into effect on July 1, and the final tax digest figures are determined later in July.

 

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