New principals appointed at 2 East Cobb elementary schools

The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved the appointment of several principals for the 2020-21 school year, including two at East Cobb elementary schools.

Jessica Appleyard, a longtime teacher and administrator at Mt. Bethel Elementary School, is leaving after seven years as principal to become the new principal at Pitner Elementary School in Acworth.

She will be succeeded by Tucker Smith, who has been the principal at Keheley Elementary School since 2015.

The new principal at Keheley will be former Shallowford Falls Elementary School principal Dr. Felicia Angelle. For the last two years she has been the director of instruction and innovation in the Cobb County School District’s academic division.

In 2016, Angelle was named the Outstanding Elementary School Principal of the Year by the Georgia PTA.

All of those appointments will be effective on July 1.

A longtime former East Cobb educator will be retiring on June 1. Robin Lattizori, a former principal at Mt. Bethel and Dodgen Middle School, among other schools, has been an assistant superintendent since 2013, overseeing elementary schools in west Cobb.

In a brief business meeting conducted via the Zoom teleconferencing platform, the board also approved $4.5 million in SPLOST V funding to be used for roofing projects at four schools in west and south Cobb.

At a work session Thursday morning, also on Zoom, board members heard superintendent Chris Ragsdale provide a briefing on the status of online digital learning through the end of the school year.

(You can watch here.)

Cobb students will be in session through late May, but last week the district cut back the virtual instructional schedule to Monday-Thursday, with Friday designated as a catch-up day.

The district also has facilitated a program to deliver 600 electronic devices to students needing them to complete the school year. Selected students and their families were distributed the computers earlier this week after a fundraising effort by the Cobb Schools Foundation.

In April each year the school board is given a formal presentation of the next fiscal year budget.

That didn’t happen on Thursday, and there’s no word for now on when that might happen. That’s because Cobb, like all other public school districts in Georgia, was awaiting final legislative action on the state budget that includes education funding.

The legislative session has been suspended indefinitely due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

The Cobb school board typically adopts an operating budget in May, after holding three public hearings required by law.

The 2021 fiscal year in Cobb begins on July 1.