A rendering of the new Bells Ferry Elementary School campus.
After approving nearly $10 million in preliminary costs in March for the reconstruction of Bells Ferry Elementary School, the Cobb Board of Education last week signed off on the rest of the project.
The school board voted on its consent agenda last Thursday for a guaranteed maximum price of $29.9 million for Winter Construction Co. of Atlanta, which has been doing first-phase work that includes sitework and utility relocation.
The funding comes from the current Cobb Education SPLOST VI sales tax, and the project is expected to be completed by July 2027.
The current Bells Ferry facility at Bells Ferry Road and Piedmont Road was built in 1973, and currently enrolls 750 students.
The oldest portion of the main building will be rebuilt, and the school will get upgraded technology and communications equipment, including new computing and interactive devices for classrooms, telephone systems and replacing two playground areas.
The project will also prompt portable classrooms on the campus, and second- and third-grade classes will be relocated to nearby Chalker Elementary School when the 2025-26 academic year begins on Monday.
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!
In a powerful display of unity and service, five Cobb County judges—Kellie S. Hill, Angela Z. Brown, Sonja N. Brown, Ashley Palmer, and Mellori Lumpkin-Dawson came together to support Channel 2 Action News’ annual Stuff the Bus campaign, now in its 22nd year. The campaign, in partnership with the Children’s Restoration Network, collects backpacks and school supplies for children living in foster care, group homes, or facing homelessness throughout metro Atlanta.
Channel 2 Action News received its first 1,000 backpacks this week at its Midtown Atlanta studio, thanks to generous community partners and supporters like the judges representing part of the nine historically Black Greek-letter organizations and multiple classes of courts in Cobb County.
Their participation adds a powerful symbol of leadership and civic responsibility to this beloved campaign. These judges not only don the black robes of justice but also serve through the colors of their historic Black Greek-letter organizations—pink and green, red and white, and beyond—representing decades of community engagement and public service.
In addition to their professional responsibilities, these judges remain active in their churches, their sororities, and local outreach programs, continually investing in the communities they serve both inside and outside the courtroom.
The Stuff the Bus drive, benefiting the Children’s Restoration Network, helps provide school supplies to thousands of children across metro Atlanta. Volunteers describe the joy of giving as “Christmas in July,” with students excitedly unzipping brand-new backpacks filled with pencils, pens, paper, and hope.
“Stuff the Bus” is a long-standing community initiative spearheaded by Channel 2 Action News in partnership with the Children’s Restoration Network. The campaign works to provide school supplies to children experiencing homelessness or living in foster care, ensuring they have what they need to start the school year strong. The Children’s Restoration Network serves homeless children and mothers throughout metro Atlanta, offering programs that focus on education, enrichment, and empowerment.
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!
Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens (3rd from right) stands with Robert Haley, the founder & executive director of the Cobb Sheriff’s Foundation, receiving an $8,500 donation from Walmart during the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office Back to School event on Saturday, July 26. CCSO photos.
Submitted information and photos:
On Saturday, July 26, 2025, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office hosted its annual Back to School event at Jim R. Miller Park in Marietta. Families from across the county gathered for a day of giveaways, learning, and community connection.
This free, family-focused event provided children with essential school supplies and educational resources to help them start the school year with confidence. Vendors included local organizations and businesses such as Artportunity Knocks, a Georgia-based nonprofit, and Walmart, along with volunteers across the county.
Walmart presented an $8,500 donation to the Cobb Sheriff’s Foundation. Sheriff Craig Owens and Foundation Executive Director and Founder Robert Haley thanked Walmart for their generosity, which will support future community and youth engagement efforts.
The Back to School event continues to grow as a cornerstone initiative of the Sheriff’s Office, promoting education, preparedness, and partnership with the Cobb County community.
Click the middle button below to view the slideshow.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Send Us Your News!
Let East Cobb News know what’s going on with your organization, or about any recognitions, to share with the community. We love to get photos and stories like the above, as well as calendar event listings and more.
We want to be the go-to source for all the many ways people in East Cobb are involved in the community.
It’s what we call The Power of Local, and we’d love for you to take part!
Pass along your details/photos/videos/information to: editor@eastcobbnews.com, and please observe the following guidelines to ensure we get everything properly and can post it promptly.
Send the body of your announcement, calendar item or news release IN TEXT FORM ONLY in the text field of your e-mail template. Reformatting text from PDF, JPG and doc files takes us longer to prepare your message for publication.
We accept PDFs as an accompaniment to your item. Images are fine too, but we prefer those to be JPG files (more than jpeg and png). PLEASE DO NOT send photos inside a PDF or text or any other kind of file, but d0 send them as attachments to your email.
Of course, send us links that are relevant to your message so we can direct people to your website.
Thanks for your cooperation and we look forward to hearing from you!
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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!
Logan Richardson with, from L-R, Mabry MS counselor Amy Hinsley, nurse Samantha Stephens and principal Jonathan Tanner. CCSD photos.
On Tuesday, the Cobb County School District announced that a rising eighth-grade student at Mabry High School had been recognized by the school for the act of saving his grandmother’s life.
Logan Richardson was honored in May by Mabry principal Jonathan Tanner, not long after the student had performed the Heimlich maneuver on his grandmother, who had begun choking while they were at home together.
According to a Cobb school district release, he asked if he should call 911 and she declined, but he saw she was in serious condition and he dialed for emergency help anyway.
Logan Richardson and his grandmother Nina.
After his grandmother stopped breathing, Logan administered CPR with instructions from the 911 operator.
“Logan’s Grandma was taken to the hospital and eventually released and is OK due to his quick thinking and reaction,” Mabry counselor Amy Hinsley said in the release. “Logan is a true hero!”
A few days later, Tanner surprised Logan with the recognition before his classmates, along with Hinsley, his parents, and Mabry MS nurse Samantha Stephens.
Stephens gave him three beads, signifying hope and will, the loyalty of a wingman and a ladybug, “a symbol of good fortune, good luck and protection.”
Logan said the key to his actions was to “try to stay calm and follow your gut.”
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!
At the last public comment she’s likely to be seen speaking at in front of television cameras and before the Cobb Board of Education, Jennifer Susko had her microphone cut off.
The former Cobb County School District guidance counselor, a persistent critic of the board’s Republican majority and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale, renewed those complaints on Thursday, before the board was set to approve a measure to end broadcasts of public comments.
Susko was making her remarks during a public hearing on the Cobb school district’s proposed property tax millage rate, and chairman David Chastain interrupted her, saying the comments weren’t germane.
“It’s about wasting public resources,” Susko insisted, waving her hand, and Chastain motioned to silence her electronically.
She could be heard continuing to speak, and school board attorney Suzann Wilcox said that “I believe the chairman has ended this commentary.”
About an hour later, the board voted along party lines to prohibit any other commentary from the public from being shown on its cable and livestreaming channels, a policy dating back to 2007.
Chris Ragsdale
The four Republicans, at the behest of Ragsdale, voted for the policy change without comment. The board’s three Democrats had plenty to say in protest, before being on the short end of another significant board vote in recent years.
It was an unnecessary thing for the Cobb school board to do, but not unexpected.
Since 2019, when the board’s GOP majority shrunk from 6-1 to 4-3, it and Ragsdale’s leadership has come under closer, and more vocal, scrutiny from Democratic members and citizens critical of the district’s handling of a number of issues.
Democratic former board members Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard were elected in 2018, and less than a year later, the Republicans voted to ban members from making public comments. So contentious were clashes at open board meetings that they became cringeworthy affairs, all the way around.
Yet four of them took the drastic step to silence themselves. Chastain, who was the board chairman that year as well, said the person holding the gavel shouldn’t have to be a referee.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that eventually, Thursday’s action was inevitable. Howard and Davis are gone, replaced by more conciliatory figures, but with many of the same hot-button topics still on the front burner.
Ragsdale, who didn’t consult board members before proposing a ban on airing public comments, said there are legal reasons for doing so, and because meetings could be more “efficient” if speakers addressed primarily the board and superintendent.
Jaha Howard
That could be interpreted as a desire to deprive critics of what they desire most—a platform, and the rhetorical oxygen that comes with it—to amplify to the wider public.
I think that’s exactly what Ragsdale, who urged his detractors to “take a break” after the 2024 elections, has wanted to do all along.
“If the public comment hadn’t been so impactful,” said Michael Garza of East Cobb, another of the regular critics, “the district wouldn’t be doing so much to impede it.”
There’s some truth to that, but perhaps not as much as Garza thinks. Critics have taken credit for the district’s decision last years to drop a proposed $50 million special events center after they revealed renderings the district never shared with the public.
That project was never properly justified, either in cost or in purpose, and when the details became known, made even less sense.
But Ragsdale’s most vocal opponents have overplayed their hand quite a bit at times. Some formed what they call the Cobb Community Care Coalition, with one member launching an unsuccessful Democratic school board campaign last year.
Their list of complaints is endless, and blistering, and overall I don’t think they’ve been all that effective. While all citizens have the right to address and petition their elected officials, when the same group of people rattles off the same complaints, meeting after meeting, it produces something of a Chicken Little effect.
While some of their criticisms have been valid, the sky isn’t falling like they imagine. The Cobb school district has shortcomings that some of these individuals have rightfully called out, but not always very constructively.
And sometimes they’ve been absolutely foolish, especially when ripping Ragsdale for removing sexually explicit books from school library shelves. These aren’t novels with literary merit, like “Catcher in the Rye” or “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Sharon Hudson
Most of the books that have been taken down were written specifically to introduce children in school settings to subjects they don’t understand, without their parents knowing about it.
To those who wore the “Read Banned Books” shirts while wrongly claiming censorship during public comments: Pick better battles. This was not one of them.
To be fair, a similar dynamic exists during public comments before the Cobb Board of Commissioners, where another handful of citizens lambaste the Democratic majority on a regular basis, with some speakers rambling aimlessly and off-topic.
Sometimes their microphones too are cut off, and they are escorted out away by police. These scenarios are playing out at many local government and school board venues across the country.
I’m not saying that people shouldn’t speak their minds to their elected officials. They should, if they feel so inclined. But how many others haven’t been able to because the usual suspects arrive early and take up the allotted time slots?
The district could have revised the policy to limit how often individuals can speak. But that wasn’t suggested.
For some citizens, the Cobb school district can do nothing right. For others, Cobb County government can do nothing right.
In a county with more than 750,000 people, and more than 100,000 public school students, that’s maybe a dozen people or so all told.
How representative are they?
Yet the superintendent’s legal claims to ban airing of public comments sound like a cop-out. After 18 years, this is only now an issue? He cited no laws and Wilcox wasn’t asked to explain any potential issues either. Is this a subject only for executive session?
We reached out to the Georgia First Amendment Foundation to find out if school districts can be held liable for what public commenters say.
We haven’t heard back, but GFAF president Richard T. Griffiths told Axios Atlanta that “anyone who brings legal action against the school district over comments made by a member of the public would have to prove that the board and school system organized, promoted or scripted the remarks.”
John Cristadoro
Cobb government has tried to address this by forbidding speakers from using visual presentations during their comments, but their words are still aired, and we’ve heard of no legal problems.
The four Republican board members who voted for this ban had absolutely nothing to say. That includes newly elected John Cristadoro of Post 5 in East Cobb, who said he received 30 messages from constituents in favor of continuing to air public comments.
Be he opted to acquiesce in silence, continuing a discouraging tradition among his Republican peers.
We’ve contacted Cristadoro too, but haven’t heard back.
The Cobb County Courier has a solid round-up of comments from many reasonable citizens, some of whom have not commented before, telling the board why this action is a bad idea.
Are some public commenters truly interested in getting resolutions for the subjects at hand, or are they engaging in performative rage-bait for a larger cause? Sometimes I wonder, and I sense this on occasion when monitoring comments on my own site.
Some people have given themselves proud permission to come completely unhinged on a vast array of platforms, and it’s getting worse in real life, including public comment periods.
The best solution is for adults to police themselves—not what they’re saying, but how they do it. And to what end. But so much of social media in particular is Forever Third Grade, reflecting a society with lowering levels of public trust.
Public school boards in Georgia are required to allow public commenters to speak, and most have not been proactive in developing policies to address the overheated times in which we live. In Cobb, from now on, you’ll have to be in the room to know what was said by your fellow citizens.
And there will be no public record of any of this. On meeting minutes as it is, the district now states only the number of public commenters who spoke, and nothing of their comments.
For a school district that was once a pioneer in public access, Cobb is taking on the appearance of one that seeks to control not just the message, but any messenger who diverges from its preferred narratives.
Maybe that will foster the “effectiveness” that Ragsdale desires, but it torches any pretense of transparency.
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!
Despite some pleas for relief, the Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved maintaining the property tax rate for fiscal year 2026.
Board members voted 6-0-1 to hold the millage rate at 18.7 mills. But under state law that constitutes a property tax increase because the district is collecting more property tax revenues than in fiscal year 2025, and did not “roll back” the rate to match those revenues.
At a final tax digest hearing Thursday, several citizens asked for the board to match the “roll back” rate, which would have been 18.499 mills.
The FY 2026 budget (which can be found at this link) was based on smaller increases in the Cobb property tax digest increases than in recent years, an expected 2.1 percent.
The district is taking $43 from its reserves and providing smaller salary increases than in recent years,
Leslie Davis, who has asked for rate reductions in past years, told board members that “your insatiable lust for more and more money has got to stop” but was doubtful that would happen.
That’s because “you already voted on a budget based on your intentions” to keep the rate the same as the last year.
“Isn’t it convenient that that the increase in the budget each year miraculously is in line with the exact increase in tax digest,” continued Davis, who said her school taxes along are going up by more than $1,000.
“Or, more likely, is it that you want to extract as much money as possible out of Cobb citizens while also claiming there is no tax increase because the millage rate is staying the same.”
She also named three Republican board members—David Chastain, Brad Wheeler and Randy Scamihorn—for taking the senior tax exemption for “not caring enough about the school system to put your own money into the school system.”
At the board’s voting meeting later Thursday, board members discussed the millage rate issue only briefly before voting to approve it. Board member Nichelle Davis of Post 6 in Smyrna voted present.
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!
Is your kindergartner excited—or a little nervous—about riding the big yellow school bus for the first time? You’re not alone! That’s why each year, Cobb Schools invites kindergarten and first-grade families to hop on board together for a special preview ride before the first day.
This year, the Bus Ride-Along rolls out on Thursday, July 31, 2025. This fun and helpful annual Back-to-School Bus Ride-Along gives families a chance to:
Practice the morning bus ride.
Meet the bus driver.
Learn how to get on and off the bus safely.
Ease first-day nerves for students and parents.
See for yourself why the school bus is the safest way to get students to and from school.
This ride-along also reminds the community to stay alert for students walking to school or the bus stop, waiting at the bus stop, or crossing the road after getting off the bus. Cobb welcomes students back on Monday, August 4.
What to Expect on the Ride-Along:
Buses will run their regular morning routes on July 31.
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!
Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday that a proposed policy change to bar broadcasts of public comments during school board meetings is necessary for legal and other reasons.
During a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale said the Cobb school district could be legally held liable for the statements of public commenters.
The school board approved the measure, 4-3, along partisan lines (you can read it here) at its voting meeting Thursday night.
The board’s Republican majority voted in favor, and the three Democrats were opposed.
Georgia law requires public school districts to hear public comments but does not mandate that they be aired.
Cobb airs its public board meetings live on Comcast and Charter cable outlets and COBB edTV, its own livestreaming channel including comments from members of the public.
The district’s channel also archives past meetings for the public to view on replay. Other portions of the meetings would still be shown on those broadcasts.
In making prepared remarks at the work session, Ragsdale said that “we provide more opportunities for public comments” than most other school districts and having citizens’ statements aired is “far from the only way to communicate.”
He said comments are designed to address the board and superintendent, and not the public at large. Ending the broadcasts, Ragsdale added, would enhance efficiency and keep the district focused on “the business of students, teachers and our schools.
“We assume risks to the content” when airing comments, said Ragsdale, who said district staff have had to edit comments “due to legal concerns.”
The legal issues concern copyright and intellectual property infringement issues and “tortious” speech, and that on occasion public commenters don’t follow the rules governing their speaking time.
He also said that he’s heard from parents and other citizens who are reluctant to make public comments because “they don’t want to be subjected to Internet ridicule, abuse or doxxing,” a reference to a practice of publicly sharing private information about someone to intimidate or embarrass them.
Ragsdale said that claims that speakers’ ability to express themselves was being denied is “one hundred percent false. This will not diminish anyone’s ability to comment in the least.”
Stacy Efrat
At the start of the work session, six citizens said the proposal amounts to censorship and would diminish the district’s transparency with the public.
East Cobb resident Stacy Efrat, a member of the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration, said that if her body had proposed such a change, “the outrage would be swift, and absolutely justified.”
A member of the Jewish community, Efrat said having the ability to publicly air concerns about anti-Semitic comments and actions in the schools has been vital.
“We must be heard, and our experiences must be part of the public record,” she said.
Efrat, who was appointed by the Cobb County Democratic Committee, mentioned new board member John Cristadoro, a Republican from Post 5 in East Cobb, whom she said “promised us that had our backs, that he would speak out and take action to prevent anti-Semitism in this district. And now we are counting on him to keep his word.”
Cristadoro said that “a lot of my constituents reached out with very pointed questions” and the gist of their concerns were over access, accountability and the timing of the proposal.
He asked how many school districts broadcast public meetings, and Ragsdale replied that there are “far greater number of districts that don’t broadcast anything . . . than there are who do.”
John Cristadoro
Cristadoro asked whether not airing public comments would restrict the public from access to board members or district officials as a result, and Ragsdale said “no, it will not limit access in any way, shape or form.”
Laura Judge, a Democrat who lost to Cristadoro in the November elections, said the public comment proposal “isn’t about order. It’s about power.”
She said that the public’s access to the board has been restricted since groups and individuals critical of board and district leadership began speaking up more vocally.
The board’s three Democratic members expressed concern about the proposal.
Post 2 member Becky Sayler of Post 2 said that for some parents, they come to public comments only after they haven’t been able to redress an issue previously.
Public comment, she said, “sometimes is an option of last resort” and doesn’t support the change.
When she asked whether public comments would be recorded at all by the district, if not for broadcast reasons but for the official record, she was told no.
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!
The Georgia Department of Education has designated four elementary schools in East Cobb as recipients of its John Hancock Award.
The awards are given to schools “that demonstrate excellence in cursive instruction” at the elementary and middle school levels.
Powers Ferry Elementary School—whose students have received Golden Pen Awards from the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K in recent years—was the lone Cobb County School District school to be named a John Hancock Banner and Ribbon of Distinction recipient for the 2024-25 school year.
Those schools have at least 90 percent of their students who can write both their name and the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution in cursive. A total of 93 schools in Georgia earned that designation, according to Georgia DOE.
The John Hancock Banner and Proficiency Ribbon recipients include Davis, Garrison Mill and Keheley elementary schools. At those schools, 90 percent of students can write their name in cursive, and they included 188 schools across the state.
The awards are designed to enhance state standards for English Language Arts, combining a mastery in handwriting with engaging with historical texts.
“As Georgia’s State School Superintendent and a former classroom teacher, I firmly believe learning cursive is more than just a writing skill – it’s a connection to history, critical thinking, and personal expression,” Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods said in a release.
“In an age of digital communication, the ability to read and write in cursive remains essential. Cursive writing builds cognitive connections that support literacy and learning across subjects. We’re committed to developing students who are not only college- and career-ready but also confident in their ability to read, write and think for themselves.”
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!
East Cobb resident Jenny Peterson is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the Cobb County School District for a public comment scuffle in 2023.
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday will hear a proposed policy that would allow the Cobb County School District to stop airing public comments from citizens on its meeting broadcasts.
According to an agenda item for Thursday’s meetings, “Public Participation in Board Meetings” provisions, and specifically, a subsection on broadcast policies, currently state that:
“Speakers should be aware that their public commentary may be broadcast live, filmed, photographed, or recorded by the District or others non-District media sources. The District may rebroadcast public commentary on COBB edTV or on the District or school websites. Any portion of the public commentary that is not in compliance with this Policy (such as prohibited in Section F. above) and/or applicable broadcast authority may be edited prior to broadcast.”
The proposed change would state the following:
“Speakers should be aware that their public commentary may be filmed, photographed, or recorded by the District or others.”
You can read the policy and proposed changes by clicking this link. The public comment period, which typically allows up to 30 minutes of speakers per meeting, would continue in person only.
The measure also would add “tortious” comments to those described as “slanderous, or defamatory . . . or other unsubstantiated claims about an identified or identifiable employee” that would be prohibited from being made by public commenters at the meetings.
That policy change proposal is among several put on the agenda by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and to be presented to the board at a work session Thursday at 2 p.m., followed by possible voting action Thursday at 7 p.m.
East Cobb resident Michael Garza is a frequent critic of the Cobb school district and school board.
All meetings take place in the board room of the CCSD Central Office, at 514 Glover St. in Marietta. An executive session will follow the work session.
The Cobb school district has been airing its public school board meetings live on Comcast and Charter cable outlets and COBB edTV, its own livestreaming channel including comments from members of the public.
The district’s channel also archives past meetings for the public to view on replay.
In recent years some citizens have grown increasingly critical of Ragsdale and the Republican majority on the school board, which holds a 4-3 edge, and sometimes in blistering fashion.
The topics have included district finances related to its COVID response, racial and LGBT cultural issues, school safety plans, demands to change the name of Wheeler High School, removals of sexually explicit books from school libraries and complaints from parents of special education students.
At times, the meetings have been disrupted, either by speakers or attendees, some of whom have been ushered out of the meeting room. Among those incidents included a school board vote in 2022 to hire armed guards, which drew protests.
Other recent public commenters appearing before the school board include bus drivers complaining about safety issues and short staffing, and the head of the Cobb County Association of Educators citing allegations of leadership issues at an unnamed elementary school.
In another proposed change to be discussed Thursday, members of the public who “willfully and actually” disrupt meetings “so as to render the orderly conduct of the meeting unfeasible” could be barred from making public comments or attending meetings for “a specific period of time as allowed by law.”
The current policy ban is up to 60 days, but the district hasn’t taken any such action against commenters. The board has revised its policies to require that all people attending board meetings in person pass through a security screening area.
Tensions involving members of the public and district boiled over in September 2023, when school district officials changed the process for signing up for public comments at board meetings. That prompted a federal lawsuit that is still pending.
Critics complained that was meant to prevent them from speaking up. One of the plaintiffs, East Cobb resident Jenny Peterson, has been a frequent critic of Ragsdale and the Republican board members.
The Cobb school district has been airing live meetings, including public comments before a state law went into effect requiring public comments at all school board meeting statewide. But there are no provisions for whether those public comments must be aired.
JoEllen Smith
Last August, the district prohibited the airing of comments by JoEllen Smith, a resident of East Cobb, who was reading from sexually explicit books that had been removed.
The district said it was doing so due to federal regulations, and resumed airing after her two minutes were up.
During public comment periods, Ragsdale and school board members do not engage with speakers.
Critics have accused Ragsdale and the Republican board majority of being insensitive to their concerns over a period of years and don’t want the public to hear that.
On a school-related social media page Tuesday afternoon, parents were urged to contact board members, including vice chairman John Cristadoro of Post 5 in East Cobb, whom one poster said is a “swing vote,” but didn’t elaborate.
“We need to flood his inbox TODAY and urge him to vote NO on removing public comment from the broadcast,” the poster said.
“Tell John: Cobb families have a right to be heard—and seen. Don’t vote to silence us.”
East Cobb News has left a message with Cristadoro seeking comment.
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!
Three students from Walton High School and two from Wheeler High School have been named recipients of National Merit Scholarships.
Another East Cobb student attending a private school in Fulton County also is among those recipients.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation this week announced 800 more graduating seniors nationwide had been named recipients of scholarships provided by the colleges and universities of their choice.
Those awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study.
The local students, are listed with their high school, college choice and intended field of study:
Jaden Choi, Wheeler, Case Western Reserve University, biochemistry;
Prisha Dev, Wheeler, University of Georgia, medicine;
Chloe Jieun Park, Walton, Emory University, neuroscience;
Rishab Thiyagarajan, Walton, University of Georgia, industrial engineering;
Sophie Y. Wang, Fulton Science Academy, Emory University, public health;
Tiffany Yao, Walton, Emory University, business economics.
The NMSC said that more than 7,100 high school seniors graduating this year received scholarships totaling nearly $26 million.
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!
Following recent reports on changes within the administrative ranks at public schools in East Cobb are a few more new appointments for the coming 2025-26 Cobb County School District academic year.
According to minutes of the Cobb Board of Education’s June meeting, a number of appointments were made that were not announced in the open meeting. They involve the following individuals at schools in East Cobb:
Natasha Beemon, appointed assistant principal at Lassiter High School, from Sprayberry High School teacher, effective July 10;
James Case, appointed assistant principal at Walton High School, from Harrison High School teacher, effective July 10;
Ann Nemeck, appointed Wheeler High School assistant principal, from Sprayberry assistant principal, effective July 10;
Deanna Munlin, retirement from Wheeler assistant principal, effective July 1.
Ashley Taylor, appointed Addison Elementary School assistant principal, from Baker Elementary School teacher, effective July 10;
Jessica Sutton, appointed to Vaughn Elementary School assistant principal, from Mountain View Elementary School teacher, effective July 10;
Michael Williams, resignation from McCleskey Middle School assistant principal, effective June 9.
In May, the school board approved the appointments of new principals at Sprayberry, Wheeler and Mt. Bethel Elementary School.
New assistant principals previously were named at Bells Ferry, Sedalia Park and East Side elementary schools and Mabry and McCleskey middle schools.
More appointments could be announced at Thursday’s Cobb school board meetings.
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!
The 5th Annual “Backing the Need” Backpack & School Supply Drive is happening Now—July 19th. KIDS CARE, a Marietta based nonprofit, and the Cobb County Police Department are seeking new donations to support local students in need. Donations of new backpacks and school supplies for students of all ages are being collected in several locations throughout the county AND on the final day of the drive—July 19th. Any donations are greatly appreciated!
Business Partners collecting donations for this drive are: The Champion Firm, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, Redbud Family Justice Center, The Credit Union of GA, LGE Community Credit Union, School of Rock West Cobb, School of Rock Woodstock, The Artful Rabbit, Sterling Estates of West Cobb, Staples (Dallas Hwy), Edward Jones Financial (Kennesaw), Burn Boot Camp Sprayberry, STV Inc., LiDL (Mableton), Kroger (Mableton), Walmart (Austell) and the Cobb County Civic Center.
JULY 19TH AT THE COBB CIVIC CENTER 9 am – 2 pm. Bring new backpacks & school supplies on this day & enjoy the following:
Meet “Rose” the Comfort Dog who will be onsite to meet and greet. Presented by the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, “Rose” and her amazing handler Angela, will be visiting with us all day. Come get a belly rub in & a cute pic with this pup!
Watch Cobb PALS Youth Step Team Perform @11:15 & 11:45 am. Led by Officer Mitchell of the Cobb County Police Athletic League. Drop your donations off and catch their FREE performances.
Look inside a Cobb County Police Department patrol car & meet a Police Officer.
FREE RECYCLING & SMILES! Keep Cobb Beautiful will be onsite to help us manage our waste & will also be accepting recycling from the public. {Accepted items include: flattened cardboard, plastics, aluminum cans, food grade glass bottle/jars and hard to recycle plastics in the orange Hefty bag.}
Most Needed Items: new backpacks (all ages), spiral & composition notebooks, paper, folders, scientific & pocket calculators, USB drives, 3 ring binders, markers, glue, scissors, pencils, crayons, pens, highlighters, eraser—etc.Prefer to Shop Online? Order directly from KIDS CARE’s Amazon or Walmart Wishlist and have your donations shipped hassle-free!
Monetary Donations Welcome! 100% of funds go towards bulk purchasing of backpacks and school supplies. Every item or dollar helps! https://kids-care2018.org/donate
Thank you! In the past four years, the “Backing the Need” Backpack & School Supply Drive has donated 1,963 new backpacks & school supplies to Cobb County students in need. Your support helps students start the school year with the essential supplies they need—and the confidence to succeed. For a list of donation recipients please visit: “Backing the Need” – RECIPIENTS
Let East Cobb News know what’s going on with your organization, or about any recognitions, to share with the community. We love to get photos and stories like the above, as well as calendar event listings and more.
We want to be the go-to source for all the many ways people in East Cobb are involved in the community.
It’s what we call The Power of Local, and we’d love for you to take part!
Pass along your details/photos/videos/information to: editor@eastcobbnews.com, and please observe the following guidelines to ensure we get everything properly and can post it promptly.
Send the body of your announcement, calendar item or news release IN TEXT FORM ONLY in the text field of your e-mail template. Reformatting text from PDF, JPG and doc files takes us longer to prepare your message for publication.
We accept PDFs as an accompaniment to your item. Images are fine too, but we prefer those to be JPG files (more than jpeg and png). PLEASE DO NOT send photos inside a PDF or text or any other kind of file, but d0 send them as attachments to your email.
Of course, send us links that are relevant to your message so we can direct people to your website.
Thanks for your cooperation and we look forward to hearing from you!
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!
The Cobb Board of Education will hold three public hearings in July before it formally sets the property tax millage rate for the fiscal year 2026 budget, which was adopted in May.
The hearings will be held on July 10 and July 17, with the millage rate also to be set on the latter date.
In May, the school board adopted a $1.8 billion budget, which takes effect today, holding the property tax rate at 18.7 mills, and with $33 million more in spending than the FY 2025 budget.
Because the board isn’t rolling back the millage rate to reflect the FY 2025 totals, that constitutes a property tax increase under Georgia law, and public hearings must be held.
According to a notice the Cobb County School District posted last week, the “rollback” millage rate would be 18.499 mills under the state Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
School taxes comprise the largest portion of property taxes for Cobb homeowners, except for those seniors 62 and over who have received exemptions.
The public hearings on the millage rate are as follows:
Thursday, July 10, at 11:30 a.m. and at 6:05 p.m.
Thursday, July 17, at 6:30 p.m.
The millage rate will be set at the board’s voting meeting on July 17 at 7 p.m. All meetings are in the board room of the CCSD Central Office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.
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!
The Georgia Department of Education has made a major change to its English Language Arts requirements for young students—learning cursive handwriting.
The reintroduction of cursive in grades 3-5 will begin with the 2025-26 school year that begins in August, two years after the state board revised the standards.
In an era of digital media with students learning writing via computer keyboards and with content creation increasingly coming from artificial intelligence, old-school pencil-on-paper communication is making something of a comeback.
Georgia is one of several states mandating cursive instruction, but that’s still only half of the states. Many states dropped cursive following the adoption of Common Core standards in 2010 and haven’t resumed the practice.
The Georgia DOE calls handwriting “a basic tool for life, assists with the development of both fine motor skills and working memory skills; automatic handwriting skills facilitate active learning and efficient communications.”
The elements of a strong literacy foundation, according to the department, consist of phonological awareness, concepts of print, phonics, fluency and handwriting.
According to the new standards, the basics of cursive will be taught in third grade, and in fourth and fifth grades, “students continue cursive handwriting practice to build fluency and automaticity in handwriting to communicate effectively.”
The new standards (you can read them here) also show graphics of ideal handwriting forms that will be part of the instructional process, and offer recommendations on body posture, paper position, how to hold pencils and pens and support for left-handed writers.
The Georgia DOE guidelines, which include links to teaching resources, also include a quote from Dr. Rosemary Sassoon, a British educator and handwriting expert: “Handwriting is the imprint of the self on the page.”
The Cobb County School District also has a resource page with links to English Language Arts instruction at all grade levels.
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!
The Cobb County Branch of the NAACP will once again host its annual Juneteenth celebration in the heart of Marietta Square. The holiday, recognized as the most popular annual commemoration of emancipation from slavery in the United States, is a powerful day of reflection and community.
The festivities start 6 – 11 p.m. Friday, June 13, with an “all-white” block party. The cultural festival happens 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. Saturday, June 14. Enjoy a day filled with delicious food, unique merchandise, informative vendors, a valuable health fair, and captivating entertainment for all ages! Then dads will get their due 2 – 6 p.m. Sunday, June 15, with a “Salute to our Heroes: Happy Father’s Day” celebration. All events are open to the public
All Cobb County Government offices will be closed Thursday, June 19, in honor of the holiday.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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!
“The bottom line is we’re going to be focused on having school,” Cobb superintendent Chris Ragsdale said.
When a student cell-phone ban takes effect in Georgia public schools in the fall of 2026, the Cobb County School District won’t be providing pouches or any other items for students to store their personal electronic devices during the school day.
They’ll have to bring their own.
What’s called the Distraction-Free Education Act becomes effective in July of 2026, and school districts must implement policies to adhere to the new state law, which covers students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
They don’t cover educational devices provided by the district or pertain to staff and teacher cell-phones, and devices for special-needs students with an Individualized Education Program.
Georgia is one of several states to enact the cell-phone bans that advocates say reduce distractions and improve the well-being of young people.
During a Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday night, Ragsdale said that the policy must stipulate what “storage solutions” school districts will be offering to students.
“The storage place is going to be a student’s backpack, or purse, or what have you,” he said.
“The bottom line is we’re going to be focused on having school.”
Cobb has more than 100,000 students and is the second-largest school district in Georgia.
Ragsdale said the policies must be in place by January 2026, and must include punishments for violations of the ban. He said that there will be updates to the student code of conduct that will be announced when the policy has been completed.
Marietta City Schools, which has fewer than 10,000 students, enacted a comprehensive student ban on electronic devices last June, including Marietta High School.
The policy also required students at the Marietta Sixth Grade Academy and Marietta Middle School to place their devices in a Yondr pouches provided by the school district during class periods.
According to a late 2024 report, more than 4,000 school districts in the country provide the Yondr pouches, which generally retail for about $25.
“These pouches lock with a proprietary magnet, ensuring devices remain secure throughout the day,” according to the MCS policy. Teachers at those schools “understand that no assignment should require using a cellphone or access to social media.”
The policy also states that “students will keep the locked pouches with them until the end of the school day, ensuring minimal disruptions during class. Exceptions will be made for students with documented medical conditions.”
Marietta students can use their devices during lunch periods and in after-school programs.
Ragsdale didn’t indicate during his remarks at Thursday’s Cobb school board meeting whether the new Cobb policy might incorporate some of the measures in place in Marietta.
That policy will have to be approved by the Cobb school board.
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!
Nassir Boukari of Wheeler High School with Gail Devers and Champ Bailey. Photos courtesy of Cobb County School District.
Three students and a coach at high schools in East Cobb were among the honorees this month at the 2024–25 Positive Athlete Georgia Awards at Piedmont Church.
According to its website, “Positive Athlete is a recognition program that celebrates high character, high school student-athletes and coaches who have overcome difficult circumstances, given back to their schools and communities in a significant way, or just have an infectious positive attitude that makes everyone around them a better person.”
The banquet featured three-time Olympic track and field gold medalist Gail Devers and former UGA and NFL football star Champ Bailey.
The honorees include:
Wheeler High School’s Nassir Boukari, who was named the state’s most positive wrestler;
Ty Brown, a senior and four-year varsity soccer manager at Lassiter High School, the state’s Most Positive Special Olympian;
Elizabeth Michalek of Walton High School, who received the Northside Hospital Leadership award;
Chris Marcusky, Kell High School boys golf coach, who received the Most Positive Boys Coach award.
“These accolades highlight the dedication of Cobb’s student-athletes, coaches, and schools to not only athletic excellence but also to character, leadership, and community involvement,” Cobb County School District Athletic Director Don Baker said in a release.
“Positive Athlete is an outstanding program, and it is an honor to have so many of our own recognized at this banquet.”
Ty Brown of Lassiter High School with Champ Bailey.Elizabeth Michalek of Walton High School with Positive Athlete CEO Scott Pederson. Chris Marcusky of Kell High School being interviewed as the Most Positive Boys Coach award recipient.
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!
Publix presented the Cobb Schools Foundation with a donation nearing $175K in 2022 for school supply gift cards for students. CCSD photo.
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday heard a proposed change to its bylaws that would open the door for major corporate donors to sit on the board of the Cobb Schools Foundation.
The latter is a non-profit the Cobb County School District operates to support school families in need with learning interventions, food distribution and scholarship assistance.
The district, which operates the foundation, currently requires that board members live in Cobb County. The proposed bylaw change, which was discussed at a school board work session Thursday, would require board members to meet one of three criteria.
They would include having a student in the district, being a graduate of the district or working for a business in Cobb County.
Board chairman David Chastain of Post 4 in Northeast Cobb said that the all-volunteer foundation board of trustees asked for the change. Trustees are volunteers who are appointed by the school board, superintendent and the trustees themselves (here’s a list of the current foundation board).
“Think of the large corporations for the most part, part of Cobb County, and imagine having an officer or a manager who wanted to serve—and I would like to think would want to write a big check—and if they don’t live in Cobb County they’re eliminated from being considered,” Chastain said.
But board member Nichelle Davis of Post 6 in Smyrna said that under the proposal, she wouldn’t qualify, and wanted to amend it to keep residency as a qualifier.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale responded that “that would defeat the whole purpose of the amendment, because you’re saying you’d keep it as is.”
Davis said she meant to keep residency as an “additional”qualifier if someone didn’t meet the other three.
Board member Tre’ Hutchins of Post 3 in South Cobb welcomed the proposal, using Six Flags of Georgia and Wellstar as examples of Cobb businesses that might have potential board members, but also asked to keep the residency option.
Chastain and Ragsdale mentioned Publix, the Florida-based supermarket chain that has donated nearly $350,000 over the last two years to the Cobb Schools Foundation.
“That’s who we’re looking for,” Chastain said.
He said the foundation board members do “actual work” interviewing potential scholarship recipients and performing other tasks.
“It’s not a thing where you show up once a month and take a vote and go home. . . . You’ve got to find the person who really wants to do it.”
Board member Becky Sayler of Post 2 in Smyrna asked for the proposal to be tabled to sort through the residency issue, saying it could be unintentionally exclusive. “Maybe it was a typo in the way that it was prepared, it seemed kind of unusual.”
School board attorney Suzann Wilcox said the proposal, which was not written by her, wouldn’t exclude a parent of a student in the Cobb school district.
“What you could do, if you wanted to, is go back and ask questions of the foundation, and postpone it,” she said.
Chastain withdrew the bylaw proposal, with the intent of having it come back to the school board in July.
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!
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday will be presented with an amendment to bylaws involving the Cobb County School District’s partnership with the Cobb Schools Foundation.
But there’s no information on the board’s meeting agenda on what the amendment is about, and board chairman David Chastain of Post 4 in Northeast Cobb said that details will be presented at a work session starting at 3 p.m.
“The Board will be briefed at the meeting. It’s a normal procedure,” he told East Cobb News on Wednesday. “I am not going to brief the media before I brief my colleagues. That’s why we have a working session.”
The agenda item to be presented by Chastain states that the amendment to the bylaws is “for potential action.”
The monthly school board meetings also include a voting session at 7 p.m. and an executive session in between.
All meetings take place in the board room of the CCSD Central Office, at 514 Glover St. in Marietta. An executive session will follow the work session.
The Cobb Schools Foundation (formally known as the Cobb County Public Schools Educational Foundation, Inc., is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit the district operates that provides support for school families in need with learning interventions, food distribution and scholarship assistance.
Most recently, CSF created a “Fan of the Game” program to invite “community partners” to promote their businesses and organizations by becoming sponsors of athletic programs within the district.
The funding would be used for equipment, coaching development, scholarships, wellness and safety initiatives and uniforms and warmups.
Extracurricular activities are not funded directly by the district, as we noted in April about a new video scoreboard at Walton High School that was paid with private funds, but that board had to formally approve.
The board also will be asked to vote on a measure to approve a permanent utility easement at Sprayberry High School for an existing cell tower.
Georgia Power is requesting the easement due to a new location for a power transformer and power pole providing power to the cell tower.
At the Thursday night meeting, recognitions include the district’s financial services division and its strategy and accountability division.
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!
