Eastvalley, Walton projects on Cobb school board agenda

New Eastvalley ES campus

The long-awaited rebuild of Eastvalley Elementary School could be a major step closer to fruition this week.

The Cobb Board of Education will be asked on Thursday to approve a $36.7 million contract for R.K. Redding Construction, Inc., of Bremen to replace the aging facility on Lower Roswell Road and relocate the school to the former East Cobb Middle School campus on Holt Road.

As we noted last October, the Cobb County School District released renderings of the new campus, which will include 136,110 square feet and 61 classrooms.

According to an agenda item for Thursday’s meetings, construction is expected to be completed by May 2023 and open to students for the 2023-24 academic year.

Eastvalley parents have been pressing the district about overcrowded conditions for years at the school, which was built in the early 1960s to hold around 400 students.

This year Eastvalley has more than 700 students and more than a dozen trailers, whose conditions have been called “deplorable.”

Funding would come from the current Cobb Ed-SPLOST V, as would a new sports complex for Walton High School.

The district also will be asking the school board on Thursday to approve a $6.738 million contract for Bowen and Watson, Inc. of Toccoa to construct a new baseball field and tennis courts on nearly 20 acres at Providence Road and Pine Road.

As we reported last August, residents of the Independence Square neighborhood objected to plans for the baseball field to be located close to their homes, and asked for it to be reconfigured.

The agenda item doesn’t include a site plan or provide any details of what has changed. In response to a request from East Cobb News seeking more information, a district spokeswoman issued the following statement:

“Superintendent Ragsdale has very clear on this project as he is on all new construction: hear from the community before shovels hit the ground. All available details will be presented to the Board on Thursday and we are confident this is the best design for Walton and the surrounding community.”

The Cobb school board spent $5.65 million to acquire property for the complex, which was planned after several sports teams were relocated due the construction of the new Walton classroom building that opened in 2017.

The Walton softball and tennis teams have been playing home competitions at Terrell Mill Park since 2014.

The softball team has since moved back to the former site of the baseball team, which is playing home games this season at the East Cobb Baseball complex near Kell High School.

Construction of the Walton sports complex is expected to be completed by December.

The Cobb school board also will be asked Thursday to hire an interim law firm.

The board last year hired Atlanta-based Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough as it faced a special review from its accrediting agency.

But according to an agenda item, the Nelson Mullins legal team that has been serving the Cobb school district has left for Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, a Southern regional law firm with locations in eight cities, including Atlanta.

The district is asking the board to hire Parker Poe Adams starting April 1 and under the same agreement as it has had with Nelson Mullins.

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.

The meetings also will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24.

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