Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday he will be seeking an extension of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax with a referendum in November.
What would be Cobb Ed-SPLOST VI would begin in 2024 and for five years would continue to collect a one-percent sales tax for school facility, maintenance and technology expenses.
Local legislation will be required this year to call for a referendum, which would take place in a light election year.
Ragsdale said a project list, called a “notebook,” and details about the process throughout this year will be coming soon.
That process includes public hearings about the project list. A total estimated cost of the five-year collection period, which would also raise funds for similar needs for Marietta City Schools, is to be announced.
At a Cobb school board work session Thursday, Ragsdale said there will be an even higher emphasis on technology, given the expanded remote learning options the Cobb school district has been providing this year due to COVID-19, and that figures to continue on a long-term basis.
“The pandemic has brought a new focus on technology,” he said.
That may include what Ragsdale calls a “one-to-one” initiative for devices, which Cobb students have received since the end of the last school year for remote learning.
The current SPLOST V collection period began in January 2019. The major facility projects include a new campus for Osborne High School and a rebuild of Eastvalley Elementary School in East Cobb.
An architect was hired last February to design the new Eastvalley campus, which will be relocated to the former site of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road. A construction timeline has not been announced.
The process of developing a SPLOST notebook—with public as well as staff and school board input—will take place throughout the rest of the year, leading up to a referendum.
“No other district creates a notebook like we do,” Ragsdale said. “It’s about prioritizing needs.”
The current $797 million SPLOST V was passed in March 2017. This year, the only elections in Cobb County are in its six municipalities.
“This District could not survive without Ed-SPLOST because that is what allows us to build the school buildings, school improvements, athletic fields, and technology our students and staff need,” a Cobb schools spokeswoman said in a statement to East Cobb News.
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School buildings do not need to rival college campuses. The important part is what happens inside the building, not how impressive it is from the outside. Put the money you’re already getting into books for the kids so that they can each have their own. Ragsdale just said that he’s making virtual an option again next year … he hasn’t figured out yet that virtual and digital are totally different. He makes no attempt to fulfill the “children learn differently” thought with more digital schools around the county … he takes them out of the physical buildings instead.
People in the county are having hard enough times already with all this lockdown fallout; we do not need more SPLOST taxes for Ragsdale feather fluffing.