From L-R: Dhanya Naik, Wheeler High School PTSA; Steven Brown, Walton PTSA; Mrs. Margie Hatfield; Kinsley Brennen, Pope High School PTSA; Shraya Patel, Lassiter High School PTSA; Amanda Tubbs, Kell High School PTSA. Not pictured: Sebastian Jean Francois, Sprayberry High School PTSA. (East Cobb Council PTA)
The East Cobb Council PTA named its 2023 recipients of the Margie Hatfield Scholarship on Thursday at its general meeting at Walton High School.
Hatfield is a former ECC PTA president, and nearly 200 such scholarships have been awarded in the organization’s signature awards program bearing her name.
A $1,000 scholarship is awarded to one student at each of the six high schools in the East Cobb area that “honors the dedication and years of service given by Mrs. Hatfield to the youth of our council. In recognition of her volunteer involvement, the ECCC PTA Margie Hatfield Scholarship Fund awards deserving seniors who have made significant contributions to the community.”
The scholarship requires not only academic success, but asks that students “take on leadership roles within the community and service-based programs during their high school years.”
The 2023 recipients were selected from 25 applicants:
Amanda Tubbs, Kell High School, who is bound for the University of Georgia with plans to major in interior design;
Shraya Patel, Lassiter High School, who plans to attend Georgia Tech, studying management information systems;
Kinsley Brennen, Pope High School, who’s been accepted to Mississippi State University to study elementary education;
Sebastian Jean Francois, Sprayberry High School, who will be pursuing a degree in computer science at Cornell University;
Steven Brown, Walton High School, who will enroll at the University of Alabama with an intended major in business;
Dhanya Naik, Wheeler High School, who will be going to Georgia Tech to study biomedical engineering.
The East Cobb Council PTA is a non-profit made up of 35 PTA organizations to enrich the education of students. The ECC PTA also conducts a Reflections Art Contest, organizes community activities and raises funds for academic programs at its member schools.
Its business partners include MissQuito, Cyclebar East Cobb, My Ideal College, School of Rock East Cobb, Peace Love & Pizza; Mathnasium, Cactus Car Wash and East Cobb Tutoring Center.
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Tianyue Xu of Walton High School and Angie Zhu of Wheeler High School are among the initial group of National Merit Scholarship recipients for the Class of 2023.
Those scholarships went to more than 800 seniors across the nation and are funded by corporations, many of them employing the parents of the students.
The specific scholarship amounts were not revealed, but they typically range between $1,000 and $10,000.
Xu, whose listed probable career field is law, is the recipient of a State Farm Companies Foundation scholarship.
Zhu, who has listed finance as a probable career field, received a National Merit Norfolk Southern Scholarship.
Several more scholarship winners will be announced through the rest of the spring. Here is the criteria, as per the National Merit Scholarship program:
To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, Semifinalists had to fulfill requirements to advance to Finalist standing. Each Semifinalist was asked to complete a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirmed their qualifying test performance. From the Semifinalist group, over 15,000 met Finalist requirements.
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Bottom row L to R : Rashida Lee-Walker, Assistant Principal; Donna Evans, East Cobb UMC; Sarah Alwardt, 5th Grade Teacher Back row standing L to R: Kathy Culbertson, Media Specialist; Sandy Perry, Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K; Jim Perry, Past President KCMGK; Aimee Mendel, Past President KCMGK; Rosie Teague, VP KCMGK; Linda Bonstein, East Cobb UMC; Elayna Wilson, Principal Powers Ferry ES and John Kone, President KCMGK
Submitted information and photo:
On April 14th, 2023 through a cooperative effort of the staff from Powers Ferry Elementary School, volunteer members of the East Cobb United Methodist Church and members of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K (KCMGK), winning 5th grade students received special certificates and books as they were rewarded for meeting the “March Reading Challenge.” Following the presentation ceremony, the students were treated to snacks and an “Amazing Readers” engraved cake for dessert!
Quite an accomplishment indeed and one student boasted he read over 30 books!! … GOOD JOB STUDENTS!
“I don’t know who was more thrilled” one of the volunteers exclaimed, “the 5th graders who won the certificates or the adults (Kiwanis club members and East Cobb First UMC volunteers) who provided all the goodies for the winners.” In any event, everyone is extremely proud of the accomplishments of the students.
The amazing thing about the reading challenge is that, at the beginning of the school year, 42 percent of the students were reading below the basic level. At mid-year, this number was reduced to 29 percent for a dramatic improvement!
Each child completing the challenge got a book to keep and a certificate showing that this is sponsored jointly by East Cobb United Methodist Church, as a Partner in Education, and the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K as a part of its Student Leadership Program.
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He lives in East Cobb and his entry at the show was a carcharocles megalodon, or “big tooth” shark.
Reader Heather Webb-Singh tells us the extinct shark’s tooth is seven inches long, indicating that it was a megalodon mammal between 45 and 50 feet long.
Carson, the son of Bob and Cindy Konopelski, donated his big tooth to his school of choice, the STEM lab at Rocky Mount Elementary School, and presented it to principal Dr. Cheri Vaniman.
Send Us Your News!
Let East Cobb News know what your organization is doing, or share news about what people are doing in the community—accomplishments, recognitions, milestones, etc.
Pass along your details 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. Of course, send us links that are relevant to your message so we can direct people to your website.
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Walton High School is visible in the background from a construction site for a new field for the school’s baseball teams.
Tennis courts at the new Walton athletics facility at Pine Road and Providence Road have been completed and are in use.
Connecting the latest addition to the Walton campus to the main facilities on Bill Murdock Road is the final piece of a long process of overhauling most of the school’s facilities.
It’s also proven to be challenging.
The baseball field was reconfigured in the design stage after nearby residents were concerned about noise and lighting issues.
Cobb DOT won’t be realigning the Pine-Bill Murdock intersection.
Safety and traffic considerations also have factored in. Cobb DOT was planning to realign and straighten out the intersection of Bill Murdock and Pine Road, but that project has fallen through.
The school district also tried to get Cobb DOT to increase pedestrian crosswalks, but Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said that was a “no go.”
Last week, the Cobb Board of Education approved spending $1 million for a dedicated raised pedestrian bridge, a project included in the Cobb Education SPLOST V.
The construction contract was awarded to Lewallen Construction Co. on Bells Ferry Road, and details of the project are still being worked out. The expected timeline is to begin construction this summer and finish in December.
When Cobb DOT announced the Pine-Bill Murdock plans last spring there wasn’t a set price tag.
“Originally, the design was going to have students, teachers, parents, everybody who parks at the school walk all the way up Bill Murdock, cross it, then walk all the way up Pine Road,” Ragsdale said during a board work session last Thursday.
“We know high school kids. They’re not going to make that journey on the sidewalk. We had to provide a safer path that we knew kids would take.”
Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt told East Cobb News that Cobb DOT and the school district “agreed last year on a more cost-effective option over a realignment.”
The path will include a sidewalk along Bill Murdock, with the bridge traversing a creek located in a flood plain area near the intersection.
School board member David Banks, whose post includes the Walton attendance zone, said the Pine-Bill Murdock intersection is dangerous.
“That curve is a very high-level safety concern,” he said. “You’ve got to find some way of slowing people down where they can see around the curve because those students, they’re not always going to look.
“The people who live around Walton, they know the danger. We need to find ways to to minimize this,” he said, suggesting the school district consider a crosswalk in the future.
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Luke O’Malley, a senior at Lassiter High School, has accepted an appointment to enroll in the the U.S. Naval Academy.
He also had received an appointment to to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, but has opted for the USNA and will be joining the Class of 2027 for I-Day in Annapolis, Md., at the end of June.
His parents, Brian and Shelley O’Malley, are Naval Academy graduates and retired Navy veterans. She was a Navy aviator and Delta Air Lines pilot. His older sister, Lauren O’Malley, was a swimmer at Lassiter and also attended the Naval Academy.
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The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved the hiring of a separate law firm for a federal lawsuit that challenges the reapportionment of Cobb Board of Education seats last year.
Cobb Board of Education maps that went into effect on Jan. 1 took Post 6 out of East Cobb. For a larger view click here.
After an executive session, the board voted to hire Galleria-based Freeman Mathis and Gary LLP, which filed a motion in late March seeking judgment, and earlier this month subpoenaed plaintiffs seeking documentation and records.
A June 22 hearing has been scheduled in the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross in Atlanta over the district’s motion for judgment.
The district and board have been represented on most legal matters since 2022 by the Atlanta firm of Parker Poe Adams.
The board didn’t discuss the matter during Thursday’s meeting, including the cost for the legal services by Freeman Mathis and Gary. East Cobb News has left a message with the Cobb school district seeking more information.
The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration was sued last summer by several Cobb parents, who are being represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU Foundation of Georgia and other advocacy groups.
They claim that the Georgia legislature adopted Cobb school board maps that violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act and used race as a guiding factor in redrawing the seven posts.
Those actions included Post 2 and 3 in South Cobb and Post 6, which had covered most of the Walton and Wheeler high school attendance zones, and which was moved out of East Cobb, and mostly into the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area.
Until last November’s elections, those three posts were represented by black school board members; the board’s current African-American members represent Post 3 and Post 6.
The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint last August (you can read it here) that alleges that the four-member Republican school board majority undertook a secretive process to have a map drawn that was then introduced by State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, a West Cobb Republican.
The managing director of Freeman Mathis Decisions, the government relations arm of the law firm representing the Cobb school district, is her husband and predecessor, former State Rep. Earl Ehrhart.
He previously held a similar position at Taylor English Decisions, a lobbying component of Taylor English Duma LLP, a law firm that drew the Cobb school board maps recommended by the board Republicans.
The Ehrhart-sponsored maps were adopted by the legislature last year.
The Democratic-majority Cobb legislative delegation backed another map that would have made few changes to those lines, but it was never voted on in the legislature.
That latter event—ignoring local courtesies—is also at the heart of a separate redistricting lawsuit filed against the Cobb Board of Commissioners, whose Democratic majority voted last October to invoke home rule over reapportionament that drew District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her seat.
“Ultimately, the Board and General Assembly enacted a redistricting plan that whitewashed the northern, eastern, and western districts by packing Black and Latinx voters into the Challenged Districts, as a last-ditch effort to limit the power of their emerging political coalition,” the Cobb school plaintiffs’ amended lawsuit states.
The Cobb school district responded in March, accusing the plaintiffs of making “scurrilous accusations” about board members in what was a “purely political dispute” based on partisan differences.
They included school board actions over the district’s COVID-19 response as well as racial and equity issues—mentioning the banning of teaching critical race theory and the board majority’s refusal to consider renaming Wheeler High School, named after a Confederate Civil War general.
The plaintiffs represent organizations “that in reality promote partisan Democratic causes, and individuals they recruited who are also partisan Democrats, are upset that the effect of the redistricting process did not align with their preferred partisan outcome: a Democratic takeover of the Board of Education,” the Cobb school district motion states.
The school district motion said that the Cobb school board, which isn’t named as a defendant in the lawsuit, can’t be held liable for a redistricting map approved by the state legislature.
The complaint against the new maps, the school district motion said, involves “run of the mill political disputes over which Republicans and Democrats clash every day.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys were given until April 28 to produce documents and prepare for the June hearing for the Cobb school district’s motion.
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Mountain View Elementary School teacher of the year Kristin Shildneck, principal Renee Garris and classified employee of the year Barbara Glynn at a 2018 luncheon.
Renee Garris, who has been the principal at Mountain View Elementary School at East Cobb since 2010 and has been an educator for more than three decades, will retire at the end of the 2022-23 school year.
The Cobb County School District announced her retirement, effective June 30, at a Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday night following an executive session.
Garris also was an administrator for six years and a classroom teacher for 14 years in the Cobb County School District.
She helped prepare the school community for the relocation of the campus from its longtime venue on Sandy Plains Road near Shallowford Road in 2017 to a new site on Sandy Plains, at the intersection of Davis Road.
Garris is a graduate of Cobb County schools and has been on the board of directors for the Northeast Cobb Business Association, which has a formal partnership with public schools in the area.
Also on Thursday, new principals were announced to fill vacancies for the 2023-24 year.
Ashley Beasley, who has been the director of the Cobb school district’s Elementary Virtual Program, was appointed principal at Davis Elementary School.
She has 18 years of education experience, including nine years as an assistant principal. She attended Cobb schools, graduating from McEachern High School, and earned bachelor’s, master’s, educational leadership and educational doctorate degrees from Kennesaw State University.
Beasley is succeeding Kristin Erbskorn, who is retiring.
The new principal at Shallowford Falls Elementary School is Lindsey McGovern, who has been the assistant principal there since 2019.
She has 20 years of experience in the Cobb school district and has taught and was an assistant principal at Brumby Elementary School.
McGovern, who succeeds retiring principal Donna Long, earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and obtained graduate degrees from Kennesaw State.
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The Cobb County School District presented on Thursday a pr0posed fiscal year 2024 budget of $1.448 billion that includes a pay raise for employees and a property tax cut for citizens.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said at a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday afternoon he is proposing a reduction in the property tax rate from 18.9 mills to 18.7 mills, which amounts to a cut of $7.6 million in recurring revenue each year.
If approved by the school board, the millage rate reduction would be the first change in the general fund property tax rate for the Cobb school district in nearly 15 years.
Ragsdale’s pay raise would be a minimum of 7.5 percent for full-time employees, with a range of up to 12.1 percent.
He also is proposing to hire 11 more officers for the Cobb school district’s police department, which currently has 70 officers.
The board voting Thursday night for tentative adoption of the budget.
That allows the district to advertise the proposal for another hearing on May 18, during which formal adoption is scheduled. The fiscal year 2024 budget goes into effect July 1.
Details of the budget proposal, which weren’t released in advance of the board presentation, have been posted at this link.
The school millage rate produces the largest portion of a Cobb homeowners’ property tax bill, and those age 62 and over (except in the city of Marietta) can apply for a senior exemption from paying school taxes.
Chief financial officer Brad Johnson, in his presentation to the school board at the work session, said there is an estimated 13 percent growth in the Cobb tax digest.
He said the budget also would be funded with $87 million in budget reserves, an amount he said is “more than usual . . . but we think is sustainable.” The district has an unassigned fund balance of $198 million, which Johnson said amounts to 40 days of operating expense.
Ragsdale said in response to a question from board member Tre’ Hutchins about the fund balance that because of the estimated expansion of the digest, “we are comfortable” cutting the millage rate and using that much of reserve funding.
He said the additional police officers were requested in response to the deadly shootings of six people at a Christian school in Nashville earlier this month.
“Armed officers onsite help” to prevent deadly shooters, he said, adding that “it’s an absolute preventative measure.”
He has come under some criticism for his plan last year to hire armed but not certified armed guards on school campuses. Some citizens protested the vote last summer when the school board approved the plan.
Ragsdale said Thursday the new officers to be hired will be uniformed officers certified by the Georgia Peace Officers Training Council.
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Ever since he was a teenager, John Cristadoro has tried his hand at any number of activities and jobs.
He’s been a veterinarian technician, clerked in a law firm, took acting classes (appearing briefly on the soap opera “General Hospital”), worked as a personal trainer and began his current career in media sales, initially booking advertising sponsorships on Los Angeles Dodgers’ radio games when he lived in California.
He moved to Atlanta more than a decade ago for a radio sales position, then started his own media agency, Alliance Activation, with present clients including Heineken and Baccardi.
Another client, prominent Cobb business leader John Loud, urged Cristadoro to think about doing something entirely different: running for political office.
John Loud
Specifically, he was being asked to consider a campaign for the Cobb Board of Education.
The 45-year-old Cristadoro moved to East Cobb a dozen years ago, where he and his wife are raising their two children, a son at Dodgen Middle School and a daughter at Walton High School.
Between entrepreneurial life (he’s also involved with two other small businesses) and being a coach for Walton youth sports teams, Cristadoro admits he has a rather full plate.
The son of an Army veteran who graduated from Gilmer County High School in north Georgia, Cristadoro earned a political science degree from the University of New Orleans.
He also served in the U.S. Air Force before settling into a business career.
In a recent interview with East Cobb News, the 45-year-old Louisiana native was also bothered by what he was seeing on the Cobb school board in recent years.
Partisan bickering on racial and equity issues and the Cobb County School District’s response to COVID-19 prompted a special accreditation review that was later withdrawn last spring.
Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the board, and three of the GOP members, including Post 5 incumbent David Banks, are up for re-election in 2024.
Banks, who’s been a controversial figure, told East Cobb News last week that he’s undecided about seeking a fifth term. Laura Judge, a Democratic activist, has filed a declaration of intent form for the Post 5 seat, and said she will announce he decision in several weeks.
Cristadoro said that in recent months, “people came to me and said, ‘John, you need to run.’ ”
One of them was Loud, owner of Loud Security Systems, and a former chairman of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
“He said this school board [elections] are very big,” Cristadoro said, referending Loud, whom he said is a big fan of Superintendent Chris Ragsdale. “They’ve been on the firing line the last couple years.”
After listening to a number of community and school leaders, including meeting with Republican school board members David Chastain and Randy Scamihorn, Cristadoro announced his candidacy earlier this month in the GOP for the seat in Post 5, which includes the Walton, Wheeler and Pope high school clusters.
“I committed mentally and spoke with people and asked for a lot of support,” Cristadoro said. “I’m not a halfway kind of guy. You’ve got to be passionate to do this.
“What made me move to Cobb County? It wasn’t my company [which is based in the city of Atlanta]. It was the schools. I want to work to protect that.”
He said he’s attempted to talk to Banks, but hasn’t made contact.
“I’m not running against him,” Cristadoro said. “I’m running for the school board.”
Cristadoro said that after giving a campaign “a lot of thought,” what’s prompting him now is a desire to “make sure our classrooms remain excellent.”
Here’s his campaign website. He also has formed a steering committee led by Loud, former Cobb school board member Scott Sweeney, the current chairman of the state education board and various East Cobb civic and community leaders.
The new Post 5 territory (in purple) includes the Walton, Wheeler and Pope clusters.
‘Not fire and brimstone’
That a political novice has garnered such support for a seat with a longtime incumbent still in office is a reflection of the heightened interest in the control of the school board.
Democrats hold majorities on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb legislative delegation.
Cristadoro describes himself as a solid Republican, but “not a fire and brimstone Republican.”
He was upset by the special review by Cognia, the Cobb school district’s accrediting agency, and said it was “totally unnecessary . . . Accreditation should not be a political football.”
He said complaints that led to the review—especially racial and equity claims—haven’t panned out.
“If you look at the quality of outcomes of the schools,” Cristadoro said, “it’s not true.”
Cristadoro also said he supports Ragsdale, saying the superintendent has “done a great job” handling the COVID-19 response.
He said his priorities would be to ensure the physical and mental safety of students, including more resources for those experiencing mental health issues.
Cristadoro has coached youth football and wrestling in the Walton feeder programs.
He also said he would “promote the laser focus of our schools’ leadership and teachers’ instruction of all our children.”
When asked about the teaching of critical race theory—which the Cobb school board voted to ban and which is not included in the Georgia education department’s curriculum standards—Cristadoro said the general state-approved measures “have been very successful. The results have been phenomenal. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Cristadoro also supports the continuing Cobb Education SPLOST sales tax referendum for school construction and maintenance.
He also pledged uphold the Cobb senior tax exemption for homeowners aged 62 and over. Although that can be changed only by the Georgia legislature, “I will not support passing a resolution that would alter that exemption.”
Another priority would be to stress entrepreneurial education for students, especially since not every student is college-bound.
“In East Cobb there’s a big push to go to college, and that’s great,” he said. But he added that “here are negative connotations about not going to college” that he doesn’t think are fair.
But he said regardless of their career paths, students need to be “be introduced into fundamental business concepts which will allow them to compete in the world’s economy.”
‘A father who cares’
Given the high stakes involved in the Post 5 race, Cristadoro acknowledged the need for an early start—the 2024 primaries are next May—to gather political and financial support.
His campaign manager, Audrey Neu, is the Cobb Republican Party’s school liaison, and he said a formal campaign committee is being finalized.
He cited a ballpark fundraising figure of around $85,000—Catherine Pozniak, Chastain’s Democratic opponent in Post 4 in 2022, raised around $60,000.
“I know a lot of people and I don’t believe it’s going to be hard to raise money,” Cristadoro said. “I feel very confident I’m going to get a good response.”
He said he keeps hearing in the community that “it’s time for a change” and acknowledged that if he faced Banks in the Republican primary, “it would be tough but I think we would prevail.”
When asked if some might perceive him to be a “Chamber” candidate or one of the local political establishment, Cristadoro responded by saying “I’m my own person. Do I listen to smart people? Absolutely. But no one’s going to tell me what to do.
“I’m interested in listening to people who don’t look, talk or sound like me.”
Cristadoro said he’s going to run “as if I’m running for president.”
He said he wants to stress the “why” behind his candidacy, saying simply that “I’m a father who cares.”
He said a youth football player he coached sent him a hand-written note thanking him for “always having my back.
“I have their backs,” Cristadoro said, stretching the reference to all students in the Cobb district. “That’s the reason we have to do this.
“This is extremely important. Our kids’ futures depend on it.”
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The Cobb County School District’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget will be presented on Thursday to the Cobb Board of Education, which also will be asked to approve several facilities contracts.
A public budget forum will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the board room of the CCSD central office (514 Glover St., Marietta), followed by a formal budget presentation at the board’s voting meeting at 7 p.m.
The board will be asked to tentatively adopt the budget, the first step toward formal adoption in May or June.
Budget information is expected to be made available at this link; the current fiscal year 2023 budget of $1.4 billion includes what Superintendent Chris Ragsdale called “historic” raises (between 8.5 and 13.10 percent for non-temporary employees).
He has not publicly offered any budget priorities for the FY 2024 budget, which takes effect July 1.
Last year the board approved the budget unanimously using additional revenues from the Cobb tax digest, which increased by 10 percent in 2022, and by using nearly $30 million in reserve funding.
Last week the Cobb Tax Assessor predicted the county tax digest would go up by 13 percent. The digest is formalized in July.
The largest portion of a Cobb homeowners’ property tax bill (outside the city of Marietta) is for the Cobb school district, which has held at a millage rate of 18.90 mills for more than 15 years.
The school board will meet at 2 p.m. in a work session at which contracts for architectural and engineering design for a number of new construction projects will be presented.
An executive session follows the work session. Agendas for the public meetings can be found by clicking here.
The new construction projects include a $50 million special events facility approved last month. That will be the new location for graduation ceremonies, as well as a number of academic and extracurricular activities.
The board also will ask to approve design contracts for renovations at Blackwell Elementary School ($5.4 million) and Shallowford Falls Elementary School ($4.1 million) and for the district to hire a construction manager for the replacement classroom building project at Sprayberry High School.
A construction contract for a pedestrian bridge linking the Walton High School campus to the school’s new athletic complex also is on the agenda.
The cost for the bridge is $1 million. The tennis courts have been completed at the new facility, while a baseball field will be under construction soon. The complex, with a cost of $6.7 million, is expected to be completed in December.
At the Thursday evening board meeting, the recognitions include state champion wrestlers from Lassiter, Pope and Sprayberry high schools and state champion basketball team from Kell and Wheeler.
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A political activist who lives in the Walton High School area has filed declaration of intent paperwork to run for a seat on the Cobb Board of Education in 2024.
Laura Tucker Judge filed the declaration with the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration on March 28 as a Democrat seeking the Post 5 seat.
East Cobb businessman and youth sports coach John Cristadoro announced his candidacy last week at the Cobb Republican Party breakfast, and he’s lined up a number of prominent civic and business leaders to support him.
Judge is a leader of Watching the Funds-Cobb, a citizen-based group that has been critical of Cobb County School District financial and spending priorities, and is the education chair for Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson’s District 2 citizens cabinet.
Judge also is the co-elections lead in Georgia for Moms Demand Action, which lobbies to prevent and reduce gun violence, and has spoken frequently at Cobb school board public comment periods, in particular about school safety.
She and her husband run a digital content marketing company and have two children.
In response to a message for comment from East Cobb News, Judge said she will be formally announcing her decision “in the next few weeks.”
“I have been clear previously as an engaged parent and community member that our school board should answer to us as the stakeholders,” Judge said. “Parents, students, and teachers deserve to be engaged with our school board and their voices should be heard.
“While our East Cobb schools are some of the best in not only the county, but the state and nation, community members still have questions regarding financial decisions, literacy concerns, school safety, and discipline issues. Our current board member has not answered those concerns of the community to my knowledge.”
A declaration of intent to run does not obligate a candidate to launch a formal campaign but is an initial step to set up campaign committees for fundraising and other exploratory purposes.
Cristadoro told East Cobb News earlier this week his campaign organization is finalizing paperwork for the same purpose, but as of Friday that had not been filed.
The 2024 primaries will be held next May.
Banks said he expects several other candidates to get in the race but didn’t elaborate on who they might be.
Post 5 was redrawn by the Georgia legislature last year to include the Walton, Wheeler and most of the Pope attendance zones, after previously comprising the Pope and Lassiter areas.
The Walton and Wheeler zones had been in Post 6, which was shifted to include the Smryrna-Vinings-Cumberland area, and which has been in Democratic hands since 2019.
Banks is part of 4-3 Republican majority on the school board. Three of those GOP seats will be on the ballot in 2024.
Banks has been a controversial figure, primarily about immigration, racial issues and COVID-19. Most recently, he sparked outrage about comments he made about Roman Catholicism.
In 2020, he had primary opposition and won without a runoff but won the general election by only 2,639 votes, his closest margin of victory.
Watching the Funds-Cobb posted the East Cobb News story about Banks on its Facebook page on Thursday, noting derogatory comments he made about Democratic board members:
“Whatever our children need and our educators deserve, it’s not a board member who continues to show us he’s got no intention of working with the Democratic board members… or representing all taxpayers and students.
“We hope the next candidates, on either side, agree with us…this attitude is out of date and out of touch with who we are and what Cobb stands for.”
Judge left a comment saying “I can’t wait to see what candidates announce over the next few months.”
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Days after a first-time candidate announced for the Cobb Board of Education seat he has held for nearly 15 years, Post 5 incumbent David Banks said Wednesday he’s undecided about seeking a fifth term next year.
Banks, a Republican first elected to the East Cobb-based seat in 2008, told East Cobb News in an interview that “I haven’t made up my mind.”
He said age and health are among the factors, but that “it will probably be a while before I decide.”
A retired technology executive, Banks, 82, said that “if I had my preference I would go for the 20 years. But I’m at an age where I’ve got to consider what’s best for me and the county.”
John Cristadoro, a 45-year-old media entrepreneur and father and youth sports coach in the Walton High School attendance zone, announced his candidacy last week for the GOP primary, which will be held in May 2024.
Post 5 was redrawn by the Georgia legislature last year to include the Walton, Wheeler and most of the Pope attendance zones, after previously comprising the Pope and Lassiter areas.
Cristadoro said in an interview with East Cobb News that he has tried to contact Banks, but to no avail. The latter was in attendance at a Cobb Republican Party breakfast Saturday where Cristadoro made his official announcement, but they did not speak.
“I’m not running against him,” Cristadoro said. “I’m running for the school board.”
Banks has been a controversial figure, primarily about immigration, racial issues and COVID-19. Most recently, he sparked outrage about comments he made about Roman Catholicism.
The current board vice chairman, Banks fended off two primary opponents in 2020 without a runoff whom he said “were a flash in the pan.”
But Banks won the general election over a first-time Democratic candidate with his slimmest margin, by only 2,639 votes.
He said he doesn’t know much about Cristadoro, who has lined up a list of prominent names to serve on his steering committee, including former school board member Scott Sweeney of East Cobb, now the chairman of the state board of education.
Banks said from what he’s heard about Cristadoro, “he doesn’t seem to be focused on students” but has more of a management focus.
And he said that as for some those supporters behind Cristadoro, “the general public doesn’t know who they are. My name recognition—I don’t think that’s a problem.”
In an interview with East Cobb News Wednesday, Cristadoro said his primary issues are student safety and security and ensuring classroom success for students (a separate post from that interview will be published soon).
Banks said he thinks the Cobb County School District “has a great focus on student success. But if [Cristadoro] can get rid of the three Democrats [on the school board] there won’t be a problem.”
Republicans hold a 4-3 edge on the school board, and three GOP-held seats will be up next year. Partisan squabbles have occurred frequently over the last four years on hot-button racial issues, as well as the Cobb school district’s COVID-19 response and support for Superintendent Chris Ragsdale.
Banks clashed with Jaha Howard and Charisse Davis, Democrats who did not seek re-election last year after serving a single term, and said “they had an agenda. It was racism.”
They were succeeded by Democrats Becky Sayler and Nichelle Davis in Smyrna and South Cobb-area posts in January, and Banks said “it’s more civil now” on the school board.
Banks said the Cobb school district is in stronger shape after making “an extra special effort” to raise teacher salaries.
He also cited ongoing facility improvements in hist post, including a new sports complex at Walton and a replacement campus for Eastvalley Elementary School, as well as recent approval of a new special events facility for the district that will be used for graduation in particular.
Banks said he’ll likely decide whether to run again in a few months, and expects several other candidates to join the race.
“I don’t feel as young as I used to be,” he said. “But as long as my mind doesn’t go away, I think I’ll be okay.”
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An update to our story from Monday about Republican John Cristadoro, who’s seeking the Post 5 Cobb Board of Education seat currently held by David Banks and whose term expires in 2024:
Among those on the steering committee are Scott Sweeney, who represented the East Cobb area for two terms on the school board from Post 6 (Walton and Wheeler attendance zones) and Cindy Cooperman, a leader of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood group.
The committee chairman is John Loud, owner of Loud Security Systems and a former president of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
Other committee members include Mitch Rhoden of East Cobb, head of the Futren Corp., which manages the Indian Hills Country Club; Rob Stearns, a longtime media executive and former director of the East Marietta Basketball League; Jonathan Page, a former candidate for the Cobb Board of Commissioners; David Walens, an exhibit and event industry CEO and a trustee of Kennesaw State University; and former Lassiter High School quarterback Eddie Printz.
Cristadoro confirmed to East Cobb News Thursday he will be making a formal announcement of his campaign Saturday at the Cobb Republican Party breakfast.
On his website, Cristadoro said in a video that his campaign theme would be “passion, precision and purpose,” delivered with sports theme.
Involved in the Walton youth football and wrestling programs, he’s seen holding a football and acknowledging his love of sports.
“As your Cobb County school board member, I will be bringing these three elements to the table each and every day,” he said.
“The quality of classroom instruction must always be our number one goal.”
He references that subject as among his top priorities, along with school safety, maintain the Cobb schools senior tax exemption and continuing the Cobb Education SPLOST (Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax) and fostering entrepreneurship in educational programs.
Cristadoro is an Army veteran who is president of Alliance Tax Solutions, which helps businesses resolve tax issues. He and his wife Gosia have two children in the Walton attendance zone.
Post 5 was redrawn last year to include the Walton and Wheeler zones, along with the Pope zone. Banks, a Republican who is in his fourth term and is the current school board vice chairman, hasn’t announced whether he’ll seek re-election.
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Wheeler’s 11 Georgia Scholars students were the most for any high school in the state.
Sixteen students from three high schools in East Cobb were named Georgia Scholars for 2023 this week by Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods.
Georgia Scholars are identified by the state Department of Education as “seniors who have achieved excellence in school and community life” and they receive a seal with that designation for their diploma.
“Georgia Scholars carried exemplary course loads during their four years of high school, performed excellently in all courses, successfully participated in interscholastic events at their schools and communities, and assumed leadership roles in extracurricular activities sponsored by their schools.”
The class of 2023 has 154 Georgia Scholars, and Wheeler High School in East Cobb has the most for any single school, with 11 in all.
Walton High School has five Georgia Scholars this year, and Lassiter High School has one. The only other school in the Cobb County School District with Georgia Scholars is Hillgrove High School, which has three (full list here).
“I wish them continued success as they embark on their futures, including plans for after high school and beyond,” Woods said in a release. “I know they’ll continue to make us all proud.”
Lassiter High School
Arsh Ali
Walton High School
Brian Michaels
Sri Dhanya Muppalla
Elise Park
Kanishka Sindhwani
Tianyue Xu
Wheeler High School
Natalie Ajemian
Yusra Azeem
Samantha Carlsen
Misha Gupta
Pooja Kanyadan
William Kramer
Mohnish Mara
Rhett Morgan
Dhanya Naik
Srinandan Polavarapu
Katie Swanson
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An East Cobb resident involved in youth sports in the community is expected to announce his campaign this week for a seat on the Cobb Board of Education next year.
That’s the Post 5 seat currently held by four-term Republican David Banks, whose term expires at the end of 2024.
John Cristadoro referenced Friday in a post on a Facebook page created for his campaign a “Special Announcement Coming Soon” at the Cobb Republican Party breakfast on Saturday, April 1.
He’s also launched a “John4Cobb” campaign website indicating he’s seeking the Post 5 seat, but has posted no further information.
In response to a message from East Cobb News, Cristadoro acknowledged he will be officially launching his campaign on Saturday and providing more details later.
Post 5 includes most of the Walton and Wheeler and some of the Pope attendance zones.
Cristadoro is the president of Alliance Tax Solutions, with offices in Atlanta and Houston, which helps businesses resolve tax issues.
He’s a parent in the Walton attendance zone and is involved with the Walton youth football and wrestling programs and East Side youth baseball.
Cristadoro, who is is married with two children, hails from New Orleans and is an Air Force veteran.
He also is involved in Advocates for Love, a Christian ministry that cares for orphans in the Dominican Republic.
Banks, who was first elected in 2008, has not indicated if he will be seeking a fifth term.
His seat is one of four on the Cobb school board that will be up for election in 2024. They include two other posts also held by Republicans, who hold a 4-3 majority.
Banks, who is the current board vice chairman, fended off primary and general election competition in 2020. But he won by his slimmest margin, by only 2,639 votes.
He has been a controversial figure, primarily about immigration, racial issues and COVID-19. Most recently, he sparked outrage about comments he made about Roman Catholicism.
Following reapportionment in 2022, Post 5 was altered to include most of the Walton and Wheeler attendance zones that had been in Post 6, which was shifted to the Smyrna-Cumberland area.
Post 6 was represented from 2019-22 by Democrat Charisse Davis, who did not seek re-election last year.
Some of the old Post 5, including much of the Lassiter attendance zone, was placed in Post 4, in which Republican David Chastain was elected to a third term last November.
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Members of the Hightower Trail MS robotics team. Photo: Cobb County School District
Students from Hightower Trail Middle School and Wheeler High School in East Cobb will be competing in world robotics championships in Texas later this spring.
The five-member Hightower Trail team will be making the trip to the VEX World Robotics Championships for the first time, after placing 14th in the state skill challenge and earning the Teamwork Champion Award.
They are led by Joey Giunta, a teacher at Tritt Elementary School, where three of the current team members got their start in VEX robotics.
In a release from the Cobb County School District, Hightower Trail principal Dr. Hannah Polk said the school began a VEX robotics program this year, backed by the Husky Foundation.
“How impressive to have reached this milestone during their inaugural year, which speaks volumes of the hard work and dedication of each member of the team,” she said in the release.
At the state competition, Wheeler students won the Inspire Award, an award that goes to the team that best displays the FIRST principles.
The Walton High School team is attempting to qualify for the FIRST Competition, and at a recent district competition was given the Excellence in Engineering Award, which recognizes teams that demonstrate outstanding engineering practices and design principles in their robot.
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The Cobb County School District Thursday announced that several principals will be retiring after the current school year, including two in East Cobb.
Donna Long, who has been the principal at Shallowford Falls Elementary School since 2018, will be retiring as of July 1, the district said at a Cobb school board meeting.
Before her appointment at Shallowford Falls, she was an assistant principal at Murdock Elementary School.
Also retiring on July 1 is Kristin Erbskorn of Davis Elementary School, who has been in that position for the last six years.
She has been a teacher and administrator with the Cobb school district for 27 years.
Kristin Erbskorn
Also on Thursday, the Cobb school board voted to renew the Walton High School charter for another five years.
That item was on the consent agenda.
In separate unanimous 7-0 votes, the school board approved spending nearly $16 million to expand and renovate the theatre at Lassiter High School, and nearly $5 million for classroom and parking upgrades at Wheeler High School.
More details about all three of those items may be found by clicking here.
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The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved a special request from Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to build a $50 million multi-purpose facility for a variety of academic and instructional purposes.
During a work session Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale said the most important reason to have such a facility is for high school graduations.
He presented an outline for a facility that would be used nearly every day of the year, and would be able to hold 8,000 people for commencement exercises. There also would be an accompanying parking deck.
A location hasn’t been announced; Ragsdale said he couldn’t offer a timetable for construction until land is purchased.
Currently, most Cobb graduations are at the KSU Convocation Center, which holds 4,000.
Other uses for the building would be for SAT/ACT testing, college and job fairs, band and fine arts programs, science fairs, robotics competitions and other special events.
Currently the school district pays to rent the KSU arena and other facilities for some of those special events, including employee recognitions at Roswell Street Baptist Church.
Ragsdale had wanted a multi-purpose facility included in the current Cobb Education SPLOST VI sales tax, but the school board deleted it, citing more pressing facility needs.
Cobb school district construction and maintenance are financed with SPLOST funds. But in his proposal Thursday, Ragsdale said the project would be funded with $23.4 million from the sales of former school properties—including Mountain View and Brumby elementaries in East Cobb—and $26.6 million in current and future capital outlay reimbursements.
“If there is a top priority for using one-time funds, this is the top priority,” Ragsdale said during a board discussion.
While the vote was 6-1, some board members expressed concerns about school district facility needs elsewhere in the county.
Becky Sayler of Post 2 in South Cobb, who was the only vote against, said that “while I can see the need for this, I don’t feel like it’s a pressing need.”
Ragsdale disagreed, saying that “for far too long, we have had families that cannot have grandparents on both sides attend a once-in-a-lifetime event.
“I think it’s very pressing. Literally, we owe this to the parents. We have tried to find a solution for this for years.”
The closest similar facility is a new convocation center and gymnasium at Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta.
Although he didn’t offer specific dollar figures, Ragsdale said it’s getting more expensive to hold graduation and other events that can now be consolidated in one district-operated facility.
“All of those things are going to cost us exponentially more money to do this year,” Ragsdale said.
He said the main challenge now will be obtaining land for the new facility, especially in finding enough land in a relatively central location in Cobb County.
“I feel like the stars have aligned,” said board member David Chastain of Post 4 in Northeast Cobb. “The finances are there. If we wait any longer, we’re not going to have the geography that we need to build this.”
“It’s very important to do this today, while we still can,” added board member Randy Scamihorn, who made the motion to approve the project.
Board member Tre’ Hutchins of South Cobb made a motion to delay the vote until the board’s Thursday evening meeting, but withdrew it.
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The Cobb Board of Education Thursday will be asked to renew the charter status of Walton High School and fund major renovations at Lassiter and Wheeler high schools.
Those agenda items will be presented for discussion at a work session that begins at 12 p.m. and will be voted on at a 7 p.m. business meeting.
An executive session follows the work session. Agendas for the public meetings can be found by clicking here.
The meetings take place in the board room at the Cobb County School District central office (514 Glover Street, Marietta).
Walton is officially a “conversion” charter school—it opened in 1975 as a traditional school, then converted to a charter school in 1998.
Charter status gives Walton more flexibility in parental governance and curriculum. Walton routinely is near the top in Georgia in standardized testing results and other academic performance metrics, and offers a wide range of Advanced Placement, honors and college preparatory courses.
Although the state of Georgia doesn’t allow conversion charter schools any longer, those that still remain must renew those charters every five years.
The school board agenda item said that this will be the fifth five-year charter for Walton, which has used that status to implement the Walton Enrichment Block program, an International Spanish Academy, a STEM Academy and other programs.
“The autonomy the charter has allowed has been most influential in the curriculum we provide,” according to the renewal application submitted by the Walton Governance Board in September (you can read it here).
“Walton has been able to expand and reorganize the state standards to best serve our students, focusing on critical thinking and deep understanding.”
The agenda item states that 99 percent of Walton’s teachers and 99 percent of parents who responded to a survey about the charter approved renewal.
Also on Thursday’s agenda is a request to spend nearly $16 million in Cobb ED-SPLOST V revenues for theatre modifications at Lassiter High School.
The Cobb school board last fall approved spending $365,000 for architectural design for the project, which includes an expansion of the present facility, along with general upgrades and renovations.
The expected completion time for the work is this December, according to an agenda item.
Another agenda item requests nearly $5 million for classroom renovations and parking improvements, also from SPLOST V collections, at Wheeler.
The renovations are slated for the school’s STEM magnet program building and are expected to be done by this July, with the parking changes slated for completion by July 2024.
At the Thursday evening board meeting, recognitions include state high school swimming champion athletes from Walton and Lassiter.
Also to be recognized is Krista Lewis of Shallowford Falls Elementary School, who was recently named the Georgia art educator of the year.
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