With virtually no discussion, the Cobb Board of Education on Thursday extended the contract of Superintendent Chris Ragsdale through February 2028.
The 6-0 vote took place after an executive session. In the last two years, the vote was largely along 4-3 partisan lines, with the board’s Republicans in favor and with the Democrats opposed.
Democratic board member Becky Sayler was absent from the meeting.
Ragsdale’s latest one-year extension continues his annual salary at $350,000. Unlike a fiery meeting last year, this year’s extension came without much incident.
After a series of votes after executive session, board chairman David Chastain said “we have another personnel motion.”
That was introduced by newly elected board member John Cristadoro of Post 5 in East Cobb, and immediately all six members in attendance raised their hands.
Afterward, there was a smattering of applause from the audience.
Ragsdale said that “I appreciate the vote of support and confidence.”
During a public comment session before the vote, some of Ragsdale’s familiar critics spoke out against what they anticipated would happen.
Former Cobb school counselor Jennifer Susko, wearing a “No Confidence in Ragsdale” shirt, noted that attendees at board meetings now have to walk through metal detectors at the Cobb school district central office as a safety measure not employed at the schools.
She’s been among those protesting Ragsdale and the board’s Republican majority, and which got involved in a scuffle before a board meeting in September 2023 that led to a lawsuit against the district.
“No one ever claimed that y’all’s biggest fear in the lobby—East Cobb moms in orange cardigans—were a threat,” she said.
“Chris said metal detectors don’t work, until it’s supposedly about yourselves in this building. Meanwhile, families in South Cobb, in your schools, where actual gun violence has occurred, have asked for the same protection and been routinely ignored.”
(At a Thursday work session, district officials unveiled the addition of new canine teams trained to detect weapons in school buildings.)
Susko added that when Ragsdale’s contract “is rubber-stamped, by the good old boys, and he smirks and uses his favorite defense mechanism, ‘thanks for the vote of confidence,’ we’ll all know that that the truth—’no confidence in Ragsdale’—echoes in his head, no matter how much he tries to drown out the people of Cobb County.”
School board members also voted Thursday to opt out of HB 581, a law passed by the Georgia General Assembly, designed to cap property tax rates.
Like Cobb government, however, Cobb schools have stated that its current exemptions are more beneficial to parents and taxpayers.
The district claims that it would lose an estimated $43 million under the new homestead exemption law, which “could force the District to cut teacher salaries, increase class sizes, or otherwise harm student learning.”
On the board’s consent agenda included a vote to set maximum price of $9.8 million for major renovations at Bells Ferry Elementary School.
Related:
- Cobb schools to add canine detection teams as safety measure
- Bells Ferry ES reconstruction to cost $9.8 million
- Cobb elementary students recognized in waterSmart contest
- Delta Community college scholarship applications accepted
- Cobb school district 2025-26 transfer window opens
- Cobb school board to hold hearings on homestead exemption
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