The issue of literacy rates—especially in the wake of educational disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 response—is the subject of an agenda item at a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday.
The agenda item, entitled “Literacy Updates,” doesn’t detail what will be presented; East Cobb News has left a message with the Cobb County School District seeking more information.
The board also will hear a presentation about the district’s 2024 legislative priorities, which also weren’t specified on the published meeting agenda.
The board is meeting in public at a 1 p.m. work session Thursday and a 7 p.m. business session at the Cobb County School District Central Office (514 Glover St., Marietta).
The agendas for both meetings can be found here; an executive session will take place in between.
While schools in East Cobb had some of the best Milestones test scores in Cobb for the 2022-23 school year, educators across the state and in Cobb County have been emphasizing ways to address learning loss due to COVID-19 disruptions, especially in third-grade reading, a key benchmark of early literacy.
But others struggled, with several elementary schools having percentages of third-graders at proficiency levels at 65 percent or lower.
Across the state, ELA Milestones scores among third-graders in 2023 rose three percentage points and the percentage of third-graders reading at or above grade-level was up slightly, from 64 to 66 percent.
In ELA, 78.9 percent of Cobb students were rated as developing learners or above, and 78.7 percent met the same threshold in all subjects.
Marietta City Schools has embarked on a program called the “Science of Reading” that school district officials there said has yielded higher scores for third-grade readers. It’s a concept that’s been adopted by the Georgia Department of Education and will be implemented statewide into Milestones by 2025.
At the school board’s evening meeting, recognitions will include STEM certifications at Bells Ferry Elementary School and Mountain View Elementary School and for Lassiter High School teacher Jean Linner, who was recently awarded the Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2023 Gladys M. Thomason Award.
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!
Kennesaw State University announced this week that its combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment for the fall semester is 45,152 students, and all-time high, an the fifth year in a row that enrollment has gone up.
That makes KSU the third-largest university in the state, behind the University of Georgia and Georgia State University, and reflects 4.4 percent overall enrollment growth since the fall of 2022, according to a release.
The rise in the number of students represents an increase of 4.4% over Fall 2022, which includes a 4.1% increase in undergraduate and a 7% growth in the number of graduate students attending KSU.
More than 8,600 freshmen and freshmen transfer students are part of that new enrollment, a 15.7 percent increase from last year.
The number of first-generation students—those whose parents do not have a college degree—also has gone up by 5 percent and represents 38.3 percent of the KSU student body.
Female students are 50.6 percent of the student body, and 49.4 percent are males. African-American students make up 26 percent, and Hispanic and Latino students comprise 15 percent, according to the KSU release.
In 2018, KSU’s enrollment was 36,000 students, shortly after the institution’s merger with Southern Polytechnic State University. KSU grew to 43,000 by 2021, and kmore than 45,000 in 2023.
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!
Karson Stevenson (at left, in green sweater), with other Cobb REACH scholarship recipients and their families. Photo: Cobb County School District.
Karson Stevenson, an eighth-grader at Hightower Trail Middle School in East Cobb, is one of five middle school students in the Cobb County School District who was awarded a $10,000 college scholarship this week.
It’s called a REACH Scholarship, after REACH Georgia, a needs-based mentorship and scholarship program, and the Cobb Schools Foundation, a philanthropic arm of the Cobb school district that supports the needs of students.
Under the REACH program, qualified students receive $4,000 in scholarship aid from the Cobb Schools Foundation, and REACH Georgia will match it by 2.5 times for a total scholarship worth $10,000.
Since its inception in 2012, Georgia REACH has provided scholarship assistance to many students who are first-generation college/post-secondary-bound students.
The students will get their scholarships after high school graduation, with criteria including maintaining a 2.5-HOPE -grade-point-average. They also must “continue to have good behavior and school attendance, and to meet with a volunteer mentor and academic coach throughout high school,” according to a Cobb school district release.
Members of the Cobb school district front office, including Superintendent Chris Ragsdale, were in attendance at a scholarship signing ceremony this week.
Karson Stevenson will be attending Pope High School next year.
Kimberly Martin, Karson’s mother, said in the release that “I just know that he always just been a special child. For somebody to come step up here and actually tell him that and just express that he was actually chosen, it just means so much to me. It just makes my mommy heart so full.”
His father, Kevin Stevenson, said his advice for his son is to “keep going. Don’t give up. Life gives you curveballs, ups, downs. You [will] get happy, you [will] get sad, but through it all, you just keep going and give it your best.”
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!
Bill Rembert Sr., an art teacher at Wheeler High School. has been honored by the Georgia Art Education Association.
He is the 2023 recipient of the association’s Croy West Special Needs Art Educator of the Year Award, according to the Cobb County School District.
That goes to an educator for how they support special needs students.
A former special education teacher, Rembert collaborates with departments throughout the school, including special education, “to ensure all students can share their voices and feel the impact of art in their world,” the district release said.
Those projects include the creation of a sensory art space for special education students.
“Mr. Rembert works to show his school community the importance of art in their day-to-day lives through the installation of murals, display of work throughout the building, and inclusion of a variety of contemporary artists into his lessons. Mr. Rembert has always worked to create a sense of unity and connectedness in his classroom by showing students how all voices are welcome and needed in art spaces,” said Laura LaQuaglia, the district’s supervisor of learning design and visual arts.
He will be formally honored at the GAEA conference in November.
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 Board of Education electoral maps before 2022 reapportionment (left) and after (right).
Attorneys for plaintiffs seeking new electoral maps for the Cobb County Board of Education have filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction.
The motion, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, seeks to prevent the Cobb Board of Elections from setting up 2024 elections with maps passed by the Georgia legislature in 2022 and asks for a ruling by December.
Four of the seven posts on the Cobb school board will be on the 2024 ballot, including Post 5 in East Cobb.
Attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center and other organizations claim those maps violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and want them thrown out and redrawn before 2024 primaries in May.
The plaintiffs have claimed in their lawsuit, filed last year, that the three school board posts in South Cobb presently held by Democrats have been racially gerrymandered to dilute black and Hispanic voting strength.
They include Post 6, which previously included the Walton and Wheeler clusters and which are now in Post 5.
Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the board, and three GOP-held seats will be up for re-election next year.
In their motion (you can read it here), the plaintiffs allege that the maps passed by the legislature placed a majority of black and Hispanic voters in the three southern posts and “bleaches the population of the northern districts,” in which the white populations of three of them were increased.
The motion says that the white population shift was most crucial in Post 7 in West Cobb, where incumbent Republican member Brad Wheeler narrowly won re-election in 2020 over a black Democrat. (see chart below).
The white population in Post 7 at the time was 47.55 percent. The maps passed last year increased the white population to 58.17 percent. Wheeler’s seat is among those set to expire in 2024.
The two posts in East Cobb have the highest percentage of white populations. While Post 5 didn’t change much (going from 66.97 percent to 67.24 percent), the Post 4 difference also was noticeable, rising from 57.24 percent white to 65.56.
David Chastain, one of the four GOP members of the school board, was re-elected to a third term in Post 4 last year.
The plaintiffs’ motion for an injunction comes as the Cobb elections board agreed to begin settlement talks. Ben Mathis, the lead attorney for the Cobb County School District, which had been released from the case, issued a charged statement last week accusing the elections board of “a total surrender” to what he called “leftist political activists” who wanted to usurp the power of the legislature to redraw the Cobb school board maps.
While Democrats control the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the county’s legislative delegation, Republicans currently control only the Cobb school board.
“After they discovered they could not change the direction of education in our county at the ballot box, they manufactured this unlawful court case,” Mathis said, referencing the plaintiffs.
Last week, the district’s attorneys filed a motion in federal court seeking a preliminary injunction to file an amicus brief and introduce rebuttal experts it says are necessary to respond to plaintiffs’ experts on racial discrimination in electoral maps who otherwise would have no opposition in court.
East Cobb News has left a message with the Cobb school district seeking comment on the motion for a preliminary injunction by the plaintiffs.
The school board majority hired Taylor English Decisions, a lobbying component of Cumberland-area law firm, Taylor English Duma LLP, to redraw the maps in 2021.
The Democratic-led Cobb delegation opted for maps that would keep the boundaries relatively unchanged. Republican State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart of West Cobb—whose husband, former legislator Earl Ehrhart, was CEO of Taylor English Decisions at the time—sponsored maps redrawn by the school board’s law firm.
Those maps were approved in the GOP-dominated legislature, while the Cobb delegation’s maps did not receive a vote. Earl Ehrhart is now managing director of Freeman Mathis Decisions, the lobbying arm of Freeman Mathis & Gary, which the board hired this year to fight the redistricting suit.
The plaintiffs’ motion concludes by asking their motion be granted by Dec. 15 “so that an interim remedial map be adopted by January 22, 2024, well in advance of the 2024 elections to avoid hardship to Cobb County’s election administration and to mitigate voter confusion.”
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 New Horizons Symphony Band, which is made up of senior adults, will hold a special concert Thursday to honor the memory of Wheeler High School band director Madison Argo.
The concert takes place at 12 p.m. at the school, and will include works from John Williams and John Philip Sousa.
Another featured piece is “The Mandalorian” by Ludwig Göransson and which will be conducted by Debbie Davies, Wheeler’s first female marching band drum major.
A Cobb County School District spokesperson said the concert is not open to the public and had been scheduled before Argo’s death.
Here’s what Dr. Charles Jackson, head of Cobb New Horizons, said:
“We planned this concert several weeks ago but a new required form was created in the Cobb County Schools requiring visiting groups to go through an additional extensive vetting process. During the delay is when the passing of Madison Argo occurred. When I realized that our concert was going to take place after such a sudden and unexpected loss, I thought it would be nice to dedicate the program to celebrating his life. All of the 98 senior adult members of my band were inspired during their youth by a band director like Madison Argo who instilled a love of making music that was so deep and profound, that it inspired these people to continue playing their band instrument over the course of their life. Some members have now been playing for 50, 60, and over 70 years! What a great legacy for a teacher to share with the world. I want his students to know that he dedicated his life to something that will add beauty and enjoyment over the rest of their life and they should never give up on this gift that he helped them to develop.“
Argo, 32, was in his second year as director of the Wheeler band programs when he died on Sept. 28. A cause of death has not been announced; his family has raised more than $18,000 for burial expenses.
He was a native of Alabama and graduated from Auburn University, where he was a drum major. Argo earned a master’s degree in fine arts from Ball State University and performed with the Cobb Wind Symphony, among other local musical organizations in the Atlanta area.
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!
From JJ McKelvey, Taste of East Cobb event coordinator (and main fundraiser for the Walton Band programs), comes word of a free community show the Walton Raider Marching Band is performing Tuesday.
It starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Raider Valley football stadium (1591 Bill Murdock Road) and it’s the “Alice Underground” show that has won recent multiple awards, including first place at the Buford Marching Band Classic (outstanding music, outstanding visual, and outstanding effect).
Two weeks ago, the Walton band was named Grand Champion, Highest Music Award, Most Entertaining, and several 10 other awards at the Super Bowl of Sound Marching Band Competition at Central High School in Carrollton.
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 parent Nazia Khanzada urged the school board and district to “be more careful with the words they use.”
Several Muslim parents in the Cobb County School District denounced the district for sending out an electronic message last week about an “international threat” from the Hamas terrorist group in the Middle East that they said has led to fear and mistreatment in their own community.
Some addressed a work session of the Cobb Board of Education Thursday and said they and their children were subjected to Islamophobic treatment after the district sent out a message last Friday, as Hamas called for a global day of “anger” as its war with Israel continues.
The district message noted the threat, and said that “while there is no reason to believe this threat has anything to do with our schoools, parents can expect both law enforcement and school staff to take every step to keep your children safe.”
That incensed Nazia Khanzada, mother of a Cobb fifth-grader, who was among those who addressed the board.
“If it had nothing to do with our schools, I ask the question then, why was this message sent out?” she said. “It was not only irresponsible, since it wasn’t substantiated with any kind of specific evidence or threat to Cobb County, but it was also fear-mongering.
“I want the school board to know that this message mentioning Hamas has directly resulted in hate, harassment and bullying threats directed at Cobb’s Arabic and Muslim students and their families, including myself.”
Khanzada said Muslim parents were reluctant to send their children back to school as a result of “the rampant ignorance prevalent with Americans equating Hamas with Muslims, which is insulting and discriminatory.”
Saadia Memon, a Cobb resident, attorney and board member of the Georgia Chapter of the Council on Islamic-American Relations, said the reference to Hamas targets students for bullying and noted a six-year-old Palestinian Muslim boy in Chicago who was stabbed repeatedly to death by his family’s landlord.
“Schools should not be part of stoking these fears,” Memon said. “When schools exaggerate threats by Hamas or any other terrorist organization relating to the Middle East, they are participating in an environment of creating anti-Muslim sentiment, which puts Muslim and immigrant children in nature.
Parent Sana Salim said her son has been called a terrorist in the past. She said he asked her last Friday “is Hamas a new word for terrorist?”
She said she’s pleased with her son’s educators, but is “so disappointed” in the district “for making this statement and adding to Islamophobia.”
School board members did not respond to any of the commenters during the work session.
But at Thursday night’s voting meeting, Superintendent Chris Ragdale offered a brief reply to the comments.
He defended sending out the alert and said that Cobb was among many school districts “taking special steps to ensure the safety of students and staff” last Friday.
“The information we received required us to let the entire district and parents know we were taking the threats seriously.
“However, let me be very clear,” Ragsdale continued. “Bullying and hate of any type will not be tolerated in the Cobb County School District.”
He said that Hamas’ actions “should always be condemned” and issued “thoughts and prayers” to those who’ve been subjected to the violence, and especially to those families of American and Israeli hostages “who are being held by terrorists.”
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!
“We don’t need a committee to do the superintendent’s job,” school board member David Chastain said.
By a 5-2 vote, the Cobb Board of Education on Thursday rejected a proposal by one of its members to change school district policy on books and materials in school libraries.
That was in the wake of the district’s firing of a West Cobb elementary school teacher for reading a book to her class deemed to be in violation of the state’s divisive concepts in education law.
During a work session Thursday afternoon, Democrat Becky Sayler of Post 2 in South Cobb said she wanted to revise a policy last updated in 2012 that governs the evaluation of library books.
Her proposal would have created local media committees to provide feedback for library operations, with the district media committee having the final say.
She said content should be allowed that has won awards and is used in book fairs and other related competitions. Also to be permitted are materials related to major world religions, including the Bible, Torah and Koran.
If a book is recommended to be removed by a media committee, it could not be reconsidered (the agenda item did not include a copy of Sayler’s proposal; we will update it here when we get it).
Sayler said the changes are needed “to ensure that we take intellectual freedom seriously” and because “we don’t want to harm our students by denying their access to quality materials.”
One of the books removed from Cobb schools is “Flamer,” which won a Lambda Literary Award in 2021 in the young adult division. The district said that book was removed because it contains passages about sex acts and masturbation.
Sayler said existing policy, especially given what’s happened in Cobb schools recently, will continue to have a “chill effect” and “diversity in viewpoints would become limited.”
She wanted to have a discussion and a vote next month, but Republican member David Chastain of Post 4 in East Cobb quickly made a motion to reject her proposal.
He said he didn’t want unelected people making those decisions, and said the proposal amounted to “micromanaging the superintendent.”
When Sayler reminded him that Ragsdale is unelected, Chastain replied that “we don’t need a committee to do the superintendent’s job.”
Ragsdale reiterated parts of his lengthy remarks at the September board meeting defending his decision to remove the books, saying that “I have a duty to keep students safe.”
He said that materials deemed to be “vulgar, sexually explicit, lewd, obscene, or pornographic” will continue to be removed.
“If it is deemed to be inappropriate, as these three [books that were removed] are, it has no place in our schools at all.”
Democrat Nichelle Davis of Post 6 in Smyrna asked Ragsdale about the current process for reviewing books and he explained that there is a team of administrators that does the evaluation, with discussion in his executive cabinet.
He said he doesn’t make a decision without that but “the buck stops with me. It’s my decision.”
Davis later said she thought it was important for community stakeholders to have consistency and transparency in being informed about the process.
“It’s impossible to make everybody happy,” she said. “This will not be the last time that we will look at a policy update.”
Ragsdale mentioned that one of the books that was removed—“Me, Earl and the Dying Girl”—contained a depiction of oral sex.
“There is no middle ground,” he said, adding that Sayler’s proposal would not allow for the current review process to continue.
He said he would abide by whatever policy change the board would adopt, but not until then.
Sayler, who is in her first year on the board, said she’s not in favor of pornography, and said the board engaged in micromanagement when it banned the teaching of critical race theory in 2021.
Hutchins wanted to amend the motion to add that the final decision on removing a book should be up to the superintendent or a designee, but Ragsdale said that’s already in state law.
The amendment was withdrawn, and Hutchins voted with the board’s four Republican members against the proposal, with Sayler and Davis voting in favor.
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 School District issued a strongly-worded public statement Tuesday accusing the the Cobb Board of Elections of colluding with plaintiffs who are seeking new electoral maps for the Cobb Board of Education.
The elections board voted last week along partisan lines to begin settling with parties who filed a suit contending that the school board maps passed by the Georgia legislature in 2022 violated federal voting rights laws and diluted minority voting power.
The plaintiffs, who are represented by attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal advocacy group, are attempting to have either the Georgia legislature or a court redraw the maps.
In messages posted to the Cobb school district website (you can read them here and here) and released to the media, Ben Mathis, an attorney for the district, said the district wants to rejoin the lawsuit after a “hasty settlement” with the Cobb elections board “which they worked out in secrecy with their politically allied plaintiffs, [and that] is designed to avoid any legal effort to defend the current map.
“This is not a settlement but a total surrender by the Elections Board,” Mathis said. “This agreement is a complete usurpation of the legislative process.”
The seven-member Cobb school board has a 4-3 Republican majority. The seats of three of those Republicans, including David Banks of Post 5 in East Cobb, will be the 2024 ballot.
Democrats control the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb legislative delegation, and in his statement, Mathis accused the SPLC of trying “to impose their will over the Legislature, the Governor, and the voters of Cobb County.
“After they discovered they could not change the direction of education in our county at the ballot box, they manufactured this unlawful court case,” Mathis continued.
Cobb elections board chairwoman Tori Silas
“To justify what they have done, the Elections Board says it is cheaper to give up than to defend the map against the array of liberal activist groups affiliated with Stacy Abrams and the Democratic Party.”
The Cobb elections board has four Democrats and one Republican, and voted 4-1, with GOP member Debbie Fisher opposed, to begin settlement discussions.
The vote came after a lengthy executive session and there was no discussion by elections board members in open session.
Daniel White, the attorney for the Cobb Elections Board, refuted the collusion claim, and a Cobb government spokesman issued a statement Tuesday from Tori Silas, the board chairwoman, saying her body is “not the proper party to defend the challenged redistricting maps.
“As the only remaining defendant in the case after the School District was given the dismissal it sought, we were left to make the decision that best served the citizens of Cobb County, which is what we did. The settlement allowed our Board to maintain its position of neutrality in this political dispute and was the fiscally responsible thing to do.”
In September federal judge Eleanor Ross issued an oral order precluding the Cobb school district from continuing as an intervenor in the lawsuit.
In a motion filed Tuesday, the district asked for a preliminary injunction to file an amicus brief and introduce rebuttal experts it says are necessary to respond to plaintiffs’ experts on racial discrimination in electoral maps who otherwise would have no opposition in court.
“Plaintiffs must be held to their strict burden of proof, especially when asking the Court to invade the state legislative process,” the Cobb school district lawyers said in their motion Tuesday.
East Cobb News contacted the SPLC, asking why it sued the Cobb Elections Board over a map drawn by the legislature. This is all that we received from its communications department:
“Voting rights are nonpartisan and rooted in the belief that equal opportunities to vote must be available to all people, regardless of their political affiliations, racial, cultural, or religious background. It is fundamental that every voice is heard and that elections are conducted fairly, and that is what Plaintiffs have consistently sought in this case. Plaintiffs look forward to proving their claims to the Court, as the terms of the settlement require before any changes are made to the map.”
The maps were originally drawn by Mathis’ firm, Freeman Mathis and Gary of Cumberland, and were approved by the school board’s Republican majority.
Among the changes in the map was moving Post 6 (formerly the Walton and Wheeler clusters) entirely into the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area, and leaving East Cobb with only two school board seats, Post 4 and Post 5.
The Democratic-led Cobb legislative delegation proposed maps that wouldn’t have shifted the lines as dramatically, but they were never voted on by the Republican-dominated legislature.
The SPLC and other legal groups, including the ACLU of Georgia, filed its lawsuit, Finn v. Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration, last summer.
The plaintiffs include parents and liberal activists and organizations, including the League of Women Voters of Marietta-Cobb.
The lawsuit seeks substantial redrawing of posts 2,3 and 6 in South Cobb, all of which are currently held by Democrats.
White said in response to the Cobb school district’s claims that “the Cobb County School District made a massive blunder in its litigation strategy that cost it the ability to defend the redistricting maps it created. Rather than owning up to its mistake, counsel for the School District has chosen to deflect attention by making outlandish accusations about the Cobb County Board of Elections that it knows to be false.”
White, whose comments were initially published Friday by The Marietta Daily Journal, said the Cobb Elections Board from the outset had sought to dismiss the suit “on jurisdictional grounds” and that his clients could have been held liable if the plaintiffs proved that the Cobb school board “adopted racially gerrymandered maps.
“The Board of Elections agrees that the District should have been allowed to continue its defense of its maps, and moved the Court to let them back in the case. Now that the Court has made it clear the District will not be given that opportunity, the Board of Elections made the decision it felt was in the best interest of the citizens of Cobb County.”
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 Superintendent Chris Ragsdale cuts the ribbon at Eastvalley ES, joined by members of the school board and Eastvalley staff. ECN photos.
Several hundred people braved cool, windy weather around lunchtime Monday for a moment many in the Eastvalley Elementary School community have been anticipating for years:
The official christening of a new campus that not only replaces the obsolete 63-year-old facility on Lower Roswell Road, but raises a new bar for an elementary school.
The nearly 150,000-square-foot building across from Wheeler High School on Holt Road has two stories and more than double the number of classrooms—28 to 63.
“And all under one roof,” noted Eastvalley principal Dr. Whitney Spooner, as the crowd cheered, recalling the many aging portable classrooms that have handled massive overcrowding at Eastvalley for several years.
The gym is four times larger, with six basketball goals, the learning commons includes “a top of the line recording studio” as well as a courtyard with two playscapes and is encircled by a pedestrian track.
Spooner’s teachers applauded wildly when she noted that staff restrooms have gone from three in the old building to 14.
At a cost of nearly $37 million, Eastvalley opened to students and staff two weeks ago after the fall break, after supply chain and construction delays pushed the move from the start of the current school year.
Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the delayed opening is “bittersweet—but now it is more sweet than bitter” as the doors have formally opened.
Monday was chosen for the celebration because it was an asynrchronous learning day in the district for staff development reasons.
The Eastvalley Chorus sang the national anthem and many Eastvalley students and their families turned out to tour the new building.
“This is what SPLOST is allowing us to do,” Ragsdale said, referring to the Cobb Education special-purpose local-option sales tax that funds school construction and maintenance projects.
“Y’all deserve the best and this is truly the best.”
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!
David Banks taking the oath of office for his fourth term in January 2021. Photo: Cobb County School District.
When we spoke with David Banks in April, after a Republican challenger had declared for his seat on the Cobb Board of Education, the four-term Post 5 incumbent told us he was undecided.
That’s still the case, more than six months later, and with a Democratic candidate also having declared for the seat that includes the Pope, Walton and Wheeler high school clusters in East Cobb.
“My wife says no but she said no last time,” Banks told East Cobb News on Monday at the new Eastvalley Elementary School, where a ribbon-cutting ceremony took place.
He said the the main issue is his health—he’s in his early 80s and is dealing with back, hearing and eyesight issues—and the energy level it takes to serve.
“I’ve got to make a decision soon,” Banks said, indicating he’s hoping that will be by December.
His term ends at the end of 2024, and he’s one of three board Republicans who will be on the ballot next year. Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on a school board that has dealt with a number of contentious issues along partisan lines in recent years.
Banks said that former school board member John Crooks was considering a campaign for Post 5 and that he would have endorsed him and retired. But Crooks decided not to run.
Republican John Cristadoro and Democrat Laura Judge are the only announced candidates thus far, and both were in attendance at the Eastvalley ribbon-cutting event.
Eastvalley is among the schools in a Post 5 that was redrawn by the Georgia legislature last year to reduce East Cobb school constituencies to two posts. In Post 4, Republican David Chastain represents the Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry clusters, and Post 6 (formerly Walton and Wheeler) is now in the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area.
“It’s in a state of flux,” Banks said. “There are still a lot of things I’d like to do. But there are a lot of reasons not to do it.”
He said he’s interested in expanding the robotics program at Walton High School and would like to see Wheeler, which has a STEM magnet program, become a “100 percent” STEM school, similar to the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology.
“The future is technology and AI,” said Banks, a retired technology executive. “People don’t understand what’s coming.”
First elected in 2009, Banks has been a controversial figure for his comments on racial and cultural issues and for using his personal newsletter to send messages against the COVID-19 vaccine.
More recently, he drew fire for social media comments disparaging the Roman Catholic faith.
In 2020, Banks won a three-way GOP primary without a runoff but defeated a Democratic challenger only by 2,639 votes.
Cristadoro and Judge are parents in the Walton cluster who have drawn high-profile support.
Cristadoro is being backed by former Cobb Chamber of Commerce President John Loud and has raised more than $30,000 in a campaign finance effort that could reach six figures.
Judge is a member of Watching the Funds—Cobb, a watchdog group that tracks spending in the Cobb County School District, and formerly served as education chair in the citizens cabinet of Democratic District 2 Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson.
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!
An aerial photo of Eastvalley ES peering south along Holt Road (at far right), with the relocated Wheeler tennis courts and softball field in the background.
Monday is an asynchronous learning day in the Cobb County School District, meaning students will be instructed remotely as their teachers have staff development sessions.
Cobb County School District officials are using the occasion to formally celebrate the opening of two new school facilities.
One of them is the new Eastvalley Elementary School, which will have a ribbon-cutting event starting at noon on Monday.
The Cobb school district said the festivities include a flag raising by cadets with the Wheeler High School Air Force JROTC.
The Eastvalley chorus will perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” and principal Dr. Whitney Spooner and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale will be the featured speakers.
There also will be tours of the 150,844-square-foot, two-story building, which is located on the former campus of East Cobb Middle School (380 Holt Road).
The new Eastvalley opened to students on Oct. 2, following the fall break, at a cost of $36.7 million in Cobb-Education SPLOST V funds.
Eastvalley opened in 1960 on Lower Roswell at Holt Road but has been chronically overcrowded for several years, with more than 700 students enrolled in a facility designed for 400.
Many of them were in aging portable classrooms that were the subject of parental complaints.
The new building includes 61 classrooms with a capacity for 962 students. Car and bus parking areas are separated, and there’s an outdoor classroom in a courtyard.
There are two “playscapes” and a large playfield surrounded by an asphalt walking track.
The other ribbon-cutting is Monday at 10 a.m. at the new Betty Gray Middle School in Mableton.
The new Eastvalley ES campus at right, with Wheeler High School across the street on Holt Road. Photos from Cobb County School District
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!
Dr. Elzabeth Goff with Bells Ferry Elementary School students as she was honored at the Marietta Square Thursday. Photos: Cobb County School District
Bells Ferry Elementary School teacher Dr. Elizabeth Goff left her handprints on the Marietta Square on Thursday.
It’s a tradition for those named the Cobb County School District Teacher of the Year (see our post in August), and the honors continued with the Give Our Schools A Hand celebration at the Earl Smith Strand Theatre and organized by the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
Goff has been an educator for 25 years and is a teacher of English as a Second Language.
Inside the theatre, the Bells Ferry chorus serenaded Goff, and some students placed their handprints inside their teacher’s on the wet cement outside.
“They have all kinds of ideas. I support all of those. Occasionally, I will have students that somewhere along the line start changing that idea and they’ll tell you, ‘I would love to be a teacher. I want to be just like you,” she said in a Cobb school district release. “It is the greatest compliment. It’s a wonderful feeling. I feel so much pride.”
Goff and Candance Torrence, the Marietta City Schools teacher of the year, will be honored by the Cobb Chamber on Nov. 13 and will be presented with a free one-year car lease from the Voyles Automotive Group.
It’s part of the Chamber’s monthly Monday Marquee luncheon series and is devoted to the state of education in the county.
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!
Students at Wheeler High School in the Class of 2023 turned in the top composite score for American College Testing (ACT) in the Cobb County School District.
According to figures released by the Cobb school district Wednesday, Wheeler’s composite ACT score is 26.5, up from 23.4 in 2022.
Wheeler is one of four Cobb schools with composite scores over 24. The others are also in East Cobb: Walton Walton (25.8), Pope (24.5), and Lassiter (24.4).
The ACT tests students in curriculum-based English, mathematics, reading and science. The maximum score is 36.
The 127 Wheeler students who took the ACT also turned in the highest scores in each of those subject areas in Cobb (see chart below).
Cobb’s overall composite score at 16 traditional high schools is 22.7, above the state and national averages. But that’s the third consecutive year with a slight decrease.
A total of 2,273 students in the Cobb school district took the test in 2023, including 285 at Walton, 220 at Pope and 212 at Lassiter.
“This is a remarkable accomplishment that truly reflects the dedication and hard work of our exceptional students, the support of their involved families, and the continued commitment of our outstanding and dedicated staff,” Wheeler Principal Paul Gillihan said in the Cobb school district release.
“Together, we have shown the power of teamwork which brings excellence in education and life. Go Wildcats!”
Five Cobb students earned perfect scores of 36, and they attended Wheeler, Walton and Allatoona.
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!
Lassiter High School had the highest graduation rate for the Cobb County School District in the Class of 2023.
The district announced in a release Tuesday that 476 of Lassiter’s 484-member senior class graduated in May, for 98.4 percent.
Lassiter was second in the 17-high school Cobb school district last year, and this year is one of nine schools with a graduation rate of 90 percent or better.
Four of those are in East Cobb. Walton is fourth in Cobb at 96.8 percent (595 of 615 seniors graduating). Pope is fifth at 95.6 percent (461 of 482).
“Every day, our staff embrace and support our students to help them reach the finish line,” Lassiter principal Chris Richie said in the Cobb school district release.
“The support our parents and community provide is exceptional, and ultimately, we are thankful that our students come to school each day prepared to engage in the process of learning. It’s that collective collaboration between our faculty, students, parents, and the Lassiter community that allows everyone to embrace our vision of reaching excellence and climbing higher.”
Kell’s graduation rate was 93.8 percent (317 of 333), and Wheeler’s was 90.7 (477 of 526).
Those figures represent increases of 2.5 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively, from 2022. third in the district behind Osborne, whose graduation rate of 74.3 percent is up 6.3 percent.
Sprayberry’s graduation rate was 87.5 percent (412 of 471).
That’s right at the Cobb average of 87.7 percent, which is up 0.3 percent from 2022. In major metro Atlanta school districts, Cobb is second behind Fulton County, with a graduation rate of 90.3 percent.
Harrison and Hillgrove tied for second in Cobb with graduation rates of 97 percent.
Across Georgia, the overall graduation rate is 84.4 percent, which also is an increase of 0.3 percent from last year.
Public school districts are required by federal law to publish graduation rates, and must use a formula to calculate those figures by counting students who are enrolled for even a single day over four years.
Cobb schools said in its release that Lassiter would have had a 100 percent graduation rate had the numbers been counted to reflect students there who attended all four years.
What the district terms “real” graduation rates includes nine Cobb schools with graduation rates of 99 percent or better.
The Georgia Department of Education has broken down graduation rate data further, including by racial, ethnic, economically challenged and students with disabilities, even at the school level. You can view that information by clicking here.
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!
Kennesaw State University has announced its biggest fundraising campaign in school history.
The Campaign for Kennesaw State (website) comes after private fundraising efforts that began in 2019 netted nearly $120 million, prompting officials to increase the goal to $200 million.
“The outpouring of support for KSU has been nothing short of incredible, and I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone who has given thus far and to those who plan to give in the future,” Kennesaw State President Kathy Schwaig said in a statement issued Friday.
“This campaign comes at a time when the University is experiencing unprecedented growth, and the support garnered from this effort is critical in furthering KSU’s commitment to its students and the community.”
The statement said that the fundraising campaign “will inspire student success through funding for scholarships and support programs, accelerate discovery by strengthening and enriching the University’s multidisciplinary research initiatives and enhance the community by improving academic and athletic facilities.”
Private fundraising efforts have benefitting KSU academic schools and programs and its athletics department, and the public campaign will include “all 11 colleges, Student Affairs, KSU Athletics and University research initiatives,” said Lance Burchett, KSU vice president for advancement and head of the KSU Foundation.
KSU is the third-largest university in Georgia with nearly 45,000 students at its campuses in Kennesaw and Marietta as well as online programs.
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!
Madison Argo, who recently began his second year as the director of Wheeler High School’s band program, has died.
A Cobb County School District spokeswoman confirmed the death, but provided no other details.
“We mourn along with the Wheeler High School community following the passing of the school’s band director,” she said in response to a request for information from East Cobb News.
“Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and all those who are grieving. School counselors will continue to be available to support students and staff during this difficult time.”
Cobb schools were out this week for fall break and the Wheeler marching band also has the week off since the Wildcats football team is idle.
Wheeler’s marching band recently was the only local high school to participate in the EAST COBBER parade.
Wheeler’s band program includes the Wildcat Pride marching band, three large ensemble classes, colorguard, drumline, jazz band, and pep band.
According to his official school biography, Argo came to Wheeler after holding a similar position at a high school in Texas. He also was an associate band director at Whitewater High School in Fayetteville.
Argo was a 2014 graduate of Auburn University, where he was the drum major, and earned a master’s in fine arts degree from Ball State University in 2021.
Argo also has performed with the Cobb Wind Symphony and Emory Wind Ensemble and was a member of various music education organizations.
He also on the music staff for the Macy’s Great American Marching Band in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The Wheeler PTSA issued a statement early Friday evening saying that Argo “made a positive impact on the lives of so many students and staff during his time at Wheeler, and he will be deeply missed.”
The Lassiter High School band program expressed condolences on its Facebook page.
“Madison was a diligent educator, passionate musician, and a friend to many,” the Lassiter message stated. “He will be missed dearly.”
The Ball State band program said on its Facebook page that Argo, who earned his master’s degree there in wind conducting while serving as a graduate assistant, was “a dedicated member of the BSU staff and a tremendous asset to the BSU Band program. Madison’s sense of humor and boundless energy was contagious.
“Madison’s spirit will live on through his students, colleagues, and friends.”
Auburn band director Corey Spurlin issued a statement on Instagram, saying “Madison’s integrity was beyond reproach and was one of the most outstanding students I have had the pleasure of working with during my tenure at Auburn. . . . He loved his family, his band students, music, wrestling, and Auburn. He was a truly great Auburn man, and he will be missed.”
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!
“Mr. Jimmy” Grier, at left, with Timber Ridge ES head custodian Thomas Fleming
A reader shared with us news that was sent out Wednesday to the Timber Ridge Elementary School community that one of its custodians, Jimmy Grier, has died.
Principal Shannon McGill e-mailed parents and staff to say that in his 10 years in the job, “Mr. Jimmy impacted many students and staff during his time at Timber Ridge. The Timber Ridge School community will greatly miss his presence.”
She urged parents to help their students with grieving and to contact school counselors if they desired.
A recent social media posting from the Timber Ridge PTA included a photo of Grier and head custodian Thomas Fleming (above) ahead of National Custodian Appreciation Day next week.
On Thursday, the Timber Ridge PTA posted this notice on its Facebook page:
As many of you know, Monday is national Custodian Appreciation Day, and so many beautiful cards and notes were written for Mr. Jimmy. We plan to send those cards to his family in a few weeks, so that they will know just how much we all loved him. The PTA will also make a memorial to Mr. Jimmy, and we will share that information with you as it becomes available.
Finally, not only do we plan to give Ms Theresa and Mr. Thomas all of the cards and notes you made, along with gift cards the PTA purchased, we would also like to encourage each of you to give them extra love in the days and weeks to come.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Walton’s overall SAT score of 1,255 was third in Georgia in 2023.
Students at Walton, Wheeler and Lassiter high schools had the highest overall test averages in the Cobb County School District for the Class of 2023, according to numbers released Monday by the Georgia Department of Education.
Walton’s “total mean score” was 1,255—the same as last year—and is the third-highest for a public school in Georgia.
Wheeler was in second at 1,184, but that was down 27 points from a 1,211 score in 2022. Lassiter was third at 1,183, a slight drop from 1,186 last year.
Pope students averaged a score of 1,179, compared to 1,178 last year, according to the state data.
The total mean score for Kell seniors was 1,063 and at Sprayberry it was 1,059.
The Scholastic Aptitude Test is administered every spring for seniors. They are tested on evidence-based reading and writing and math.
The Cobb school district said in a release that its districtwide figure is 1,104 out of a possible 1,600 points, the highest in metro Atlanta. That’s a bit lower than last year’s score of 1,111.
Cobb students posted a reading and writing mean score of 541 and a math mean score of 563, both slightly down from last year.
The release stated that the Walton, Wheeler and Lassiter students “outscored their national peers by 252 points, 181 points, and 180 points, respectively.”
The other Cobb schools with total mean scores above 1,100 are Kennesaw Mountain (1,127) and Harrison (1,121).
Walton’s overall score of 1,255 is the third-highest in Georgia, trailing only the Gwinnett School for Math, Science and Technology (1,393) and Northview High School in North Fulton (1,263).
Georgia’s overall SAT number of 1,045, is 42 points higher than the national average for public-school students of 1003, according to the state education department.
Gwinnett’s mean score is 1,091, Fulton’s is 1,085 and Marietta’s is 1,052.
“Our schools are focused on teaching and learning and helping each individual student succeed. That is why Cobb students continue to outscore their peers around the metro, state, and nation. I am thankful for the hard-working Cobb educators and engaged parents who help our students reach their full potential,” Cobb school board chairman Brad Wheeler said in the district release.
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!
“I want the school board to know that this message mentioning Hamas has directly resulted in hate, harassment and bullying threats directed at Cobb’s Arabic and Muslim students and their families, including myself.”
