East Cobb Schools

As far as broadsides go, this one was a doozy, even for him.

Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale has made a habit of making pointed commentary in recent months about a number of topics, especially school safety issues and sexually explicit materials in school libraries.

He typically has read from lengthy, prepared remarks, often with his critics in mind, anticipating their latest complaints against him, and responding in kind.

But at a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday, he appeared to be seriously taken aback by numbers presented during a routine presentation of demographic trends as they may affect Cobb schools.

They were flashed on a screen by James Wilson, a former Cobb and Fulton superintendent who heads Education Planners, a private Marietta company that briefs the Cobb school board annually.

The figures that jumped out—that more apartment units have been approved in Cobb County since 2006 than any other jurisdiction in metro Atlanta—brought with it a torrent of sharp, unrehearsed retorts by Ragsdale.

Those numbers? A total of 20,671 multi-family units have been permitted in the last two decades in Cobb, just ahead of DeKalb County, and well above Gwinnett County, which has a population nearing one million, far bigger than Cobb’s roughly 775,000 inhabitants.

“I’ve never seen this kind of data,” Ragsdale interjected during the presentation. “That is more than disturbing . . . that is alarming.”

He tore into the Cobb Board of Commissioners, accusing them of ignoring previous concerns the Cobb school district has had about the impact of high-density zoning, especially apartments.

Even though the school district has a representative attend zoning hearings, Ragsdale claimed that “there is absolutely no attention paid” and “we continue down this path with absolutely zero impact and zero attention and zero concern is being displayed at the approval of development.” 

He mentioned the likely impact of such runaway multi-family growth, including split sessions, and referenced Florida, where he said there are high schools with seven thousand students or more. 

“I don’t know how much we need to pull the big red switch or alarm, but this is seemingly status-quo now,” Ragsdale said of the commission’s alleged neglect about school impacts on their zoning decisions.

While Cobb school enrollment is expected to level out over the next few years, Ragsdale’s greater concern is rising transience in schools with growing numbers of apartments.

Those include most school attendance zones in South Cobb, in Smyrna-Cumberland-Vinings and the Town Center-KSU area as well around Wheeler High in East Cobb, where apartments abound and many schools are well over capacity.

He said that an increase in this trend will “continue to have a detrimental impact on schools’ performance, whether they’re perceived or real.”

In addition, more than 300 units were approved last year in the city of Powder Springs, for a new apartment complex that will dramatically affect attendance in the McEachern zone, where single-family housing has been the rule.

On Friday afternoon, Cobb County government issued a brief statement from Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, inviting the Cobb school district and other “stakeholders” to discuss the matter at her meeting venue, next Wednesday.

“Rather than relying on public statements, I believe our residents benefit most from working together to examine the data and its context,” she said in the county statement. “Through open dialogue, we can reach shared understanding and develop solutions that support our schools, citizens, and students across Cobb County.”

Except that next Wednesday is right in the middle of Cobb graduation ceremonies, which run all week.

Surely she had to know that, right?

This is what happens when two entities don’t have any kind of working relationship at all. In fact, to say that there’s any relationship between the school district and the county would be a stretch.

This isn’t the first time Ragsdale has taken aim at the county, and especially the chairwoman. Two years ago, he blasted her for “derogatory comments” she made about the quality of schools in South Cobb, where she lives. 

(Cupid previously home-schooled her two sons, who now attend Woodward Academy.)

She also hired Jennifer Susko, a former Cobb school counselor who is one of Ragsdale’s biggest public critics, for a short-term diversity role.

So there’s some friction there.

Ragsdale’s comments this week generated some heat on the usual social media channels, where his remarks were called classist, and even smacked of racism and fear-mongering.

There were parents, school advocates and even a prominent zoning attorney on one thread debating the merits and demerits of apartments, and that’s a valid subject worthy of examination at another time.

Ragsdale’s rhetorical shots this week certainly opened up that subject, and related topics about development, for wider scrutiny.

That’s why he should take up Cupid’s offer—not during graduation week, of course—because these conversations haven’t been happening. 

Cobb’s reputation for attracting new residents largely because of the schools can be a double-edged sword. Ragsdale’s worried that too much of the wrong kind of growth will tarnish that track record, and that’s understandable.

But the reality is that Cobb continues to be a magnet, for schools, employment and other reasons, and demand for housing will not slow down because some schools don’t have room, or some have a lot of kids who live in apartments.

The Atlanta Regional Commission is projecting we’ll have a million people by 2050. Ragsdale knows that, and as the district enrollment projections revealed this week, most parts of the county will be fine. East Cobb has been on a flat line for some time now, and our schools are expected to remain that way.

Not only is there little room to build much of anything in this part of the county, what does come in is very limited.

Just a week or so ago, the new Evoq at East Cobb senior apartment complex had a grand opening, on what had been the former Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center. The initial plans were for 125 market-rate apartments for all ages, but those were nixed when Commissioner JoAnn Birrell opposed them, following community opposition (more than 100 townhomes are also being built there now).

 

Many of the new apartments being built across the county are one- and two-bedrooms, designed more for all-adult households than families. A good number of those are like Evoq, for renters 55 and older.

To say that there’s a blank check everywhere in the county on zoning isn’t accurate. 

Neither are Ragsdale’s claims about large high schools in Florida, which following a quick check reveal only a few have more students than our biggest, at around 3,000 or so.

As for his complaints about his representatives being ignored at zoning meetings, well, I haven’t heard them say much of anything for months. School impacts are included in every residential case analyzed by the Cobb zoning staff. 

Are Cobb school officials not being invited to speak, or have they just given up? Are they being dispatched to the meetings at all? The superintendent wasn’t clear about that.

Unlike Cupid, Ragsdale doesn’t have affordable housing issues to contend with. The median home price in Cobb is more than $500,000 now, and the median rent is creeping over $1,300. Many families can’t afford even that low-ball, one-bedroom rate. 

But some of her proposed solutions have been half-hearted, then dropped (like accessory dwelling units).

The county’s well-paid consultant is methodically crafting a Unified Development Code that’s also generated complaints by commissioners who feel left out of the process.

Cupid recently began public meetings about the county’s strategic plan that might be strengthened by a better understanding of what the public schools mean to the community. Schools are mentioned nowhere in that document, in fact.

Nor did Cupid discuss school topics during her first State of the County address this week. But she’ll trot out another similar speech to the Cobb Chamber of Commerce next month.

There may not be time for a schools-county dialogue before then, but it needs to begin, and soon. Before the public, and with the kind of good faith effort that’s been absent for far too long.

You can listen to their most recent remarks below, but imagine that: Cupid and Ragsdale . . . in the same room, speaking to, and not at, or past, one another.

I’ll even bring the popcorn.

 

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