East Cobb News

Cobb school district receives computer devices for virtual learning

August 27, 2020August 27, 2020 by Wendy Parker

The Cobb County School District has received the first 750 of a supply of 2,600 Chromebook computers from a Norcross company to help meet virtual learning demands at the start of an online-only school year.

On Thursday the Stratix Corporation, which provides managed mobility services, announced it had delivered the first portion of the devices to the Cobb school district, which is trying to fulfill nearly 40,000 requests from students and their families.

Felicia Wagner, executive director of the Cobb Schools Foundation, a non-profit that provides financial and other assistance to district, issued this statement through Stratix:

“We want all students to have the tools and resources they need to achieve their goals and be successful. With Cobb students returning to school virtually this fall, we had an immediate need to get additional devices to the schools. We felt Stratix was the right fit. They were local to us, had access to the volume of devices we needed and went to great lengths to get us the devices while working within our budget.”

The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed, but the district also announced Thursday it had received another 750 Chromebooks donated by a collection of churches in Cobb County, with another 1,900 on the way.

North Metro Church raised $150,000 for computers for students in Cobb and Marietta schools, with half going to each district, per a Cobb school district release.

The Cobb school district received $8.1 million from the Cobb Board of Commissioners last month in federal CARES Act funding to build out its online learning portal.

When Commissioner Lisa Cupid asked why computer purchases weren’t part of the request, Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said he was confident the district could provide them. He said some Chromebooks earmarked for students in need had gone unused.

Before the school year began, he said the district received 32,000 requests for devices, and another 6,000 requests have been made since online classes began Aug. 17.

Georgia teachers’ head: Back to school not a return to normal

August 27, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Lisa Morgan, Georgia Association of Educators

As the Cobb County School District continues with online-only instruction, the head of a professional teachers organization in Georgia said that the classroom experience that awaits students when they return will not be the way it was before COVID-19.

In a commentary distributed to news organizations, Lisa Morgan of the Georgia Association of Educators asked parents “to please listen to us—the educators who you are asking to enter the school buildings in the midst of a pandemic.”

The GAE represents 30,000 teachers in Georgia, including those in its umbrella organization, the Cobb County Association of Educators.

Unlike teachers’ organizations in other states, they are not unions.

The CCAE supported a July decision by Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale to start the school year online-only, instead of giving parents an option of virtual or in-person learning.

Ragsdale has said that the cases per 100,000 people in Cobb—now averaging around 300 for the last 14 days—represents high community spread that’s not safe for students, teachers and staff.

Cobb school parents have expressed frustration with virtual learning and the lack of a timetable for returning to a classroom environment. Ragsdale said he will be guided by data, and not dates, in making that decision.

Under the district’s previously announced reopening plans, K-5 and special education students will return first, followed by middle school and high school students.

While the virus transmission rates and case numbers for children remains low, Morgan wrote that placing them in large group settings at schools poses a threat: “If the risk is 1 percent that any individual child will become sick, that means that in a group of 100 the chance that one of our students will become sick is 100 percent. Just as it is objectionable to you knowingly to put your children in a situation that will bring them harm, for any of our students to be harmed is unacceptable to us.”

She said that once students do return, “the adaptations necessary to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 will result in a classroom experience absent of the interactions that your child is missing now.”

Those include one-on-one encounters between students and teachers over homework and class assignments and students working together on projects in class.

Lunchtime will also be different: “The current plans for meals vary from system to system, but all include either smaller groups and social distancing in the cafeteria or meals being consumed in the classroom. The social-distanced cafeteria will, by necessity, be a mostly quiet space.”

Other tasks, such as cleaning and hand-washing, also will be time-consuming and disruptive, but they’re precautionary measures Morgan said must be undertaken.

“As much as we all wish returning to in-person instruction would allow us to engage with our students as we have always done, doing so is simply not possible,” she said. “The mode of instruction is not the issue we must solve. The realities of the virus and the continued high rates of transmission in our communities dictate that we must err on the side of caution and safety. While we all can agree that virtual instruction is not optimal, unusual times call for unusual measures that include sacrifice on everyone’s part.

“Working together to ensure that everyone is first and foremost safe and healthy will allow us to then work together to ensure everyone recovers academically, socially, and emotionally.”

You can read her full commentary by clicking here.

The Avenue East Cobb to hold car show on Sunday

August 27, 2020August 27, 2020 by Wendy Parker

The Avenue East Cobb Car Show

For the second time this summer, The Avenue East Cobb is having another car show this Sunday as part of a shopping promotion.

The hours are from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and around shops will be open, including restaurants. Pop’s Lobster Shack.

Monster Customs is putting on the car show, and if you have a specialty car you’d like to show, click here to reserve a spot.

The retail center is continuing free storytime events for kids through the month of September.

Those take place every Wednesday, and here’s more information:

Sign up, bring your blanket or folding chair and join us in the shaded area between Origins and Hand & Stone Massage. Storytelling begins at 10 am, followed by a Take Home DIY craft. To allow for social distancing, reserve 1 ticket per child over 18 months old. https://avenueecstorytime.eventbrite.com

Siblings under 18 mo. do not need a ticket. Suggested ages 2-8 yrs. NO TICKET NEEDED FOR ADULTS. Masks are recommended. Spaces will be marked and first-come, first-served.

East Cobb Democratic Roundup: Candidates to hold trivia event

August 27, 2020August 26, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Two Democratic candidates for State House seats in East Cobb will be holding a virtual trivia event Thursday night. East Cobb Democratic candidates

It’s along a “Guns and Roses” theme on the final day of the Republican National Convention.

Connie DiCicco is challenging State Rep. Don Parsons of the 44th District, and Luisa Wakeman is taking on State Rep. Sharon Cooper of the 43rd District. Here’s more that was sent to our inbox:

“The theme honors the White House’s newly renovated rose garden and the party’s admiration of firearms. Prizes will be awarded to trivia winners.”

The event gets underway at 8 p.m., and you’re asked to register by visiting www.bit.ly/connieandluisa.

(Before we get any complaints from the other side, sit tight: We’ll do a Republican roundup after the convention.)

Candidate virtual town halls continue

The Cobb Community Alliance, a consortium of African-American organizations in the county, has been holding virtual candidate forums ahead of the general elections.

The invited candidates have come from the State House races above, as well as another contested East Cobb seat, District 45, where Democrat Sara Tindall Ghazal is challenging Republican incumbent. Not all of the invited candidates have appeared.

You can watch previous events at the CCA’s Facebook Live page, and that’s where you can tune in for future town halls.

Coming up on Aug. 31 is State House District 46, also in East Cobb, where Democrat Caroline Holko is challenging Republican incumbent John Carson.

A town hall is scheduled for Sept. 14 for Cobb Commission Chairman, in which Democratic commissioner Lisa Cupid is facing Republican incumbent Mike Boyce.

On Sept, 21 a town hall is scheduled for District 2 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners. Democrat Jerica Richardson and Republican Fitz Johnson will be vying to succeed retiring Republican commissioner Bob Ott, who has endorsed Johnson.

You can learn more about the CCA by clicking here.

On Monday a supporter of Julia Hurtado, a Democrat running for the Cobb Board of Education, is having a virtual meet-and-greet. It starts at 7 p.m and the signup information is here.

Hurtado is challenging Republican incumbent David Banks in Post 5, which includes the Pope and Lassiter and part of the Wheeler cluster.

Send Us Your News!

We’re accepting information about political events, fundraisers and campaign activities surrounding the Nov. 3 elections.

Feel free to let us know what you’ve got going on (that’s open to the public) by contacting us: [email protected].

What we’re not publishing—and we’re getting some of this already—are letters to the editor, op-eds and other commentaries endorsing a candidate, or denouncing another one. Some of these have come from candidates and those with partisan affiliations.

Feel free to send us your boilerplate as we dive into more substantial coverage this fall, but bear with us as we navigate what figures to be a very unusual election year—hotly contested races during a pandemic.

Just a quick reminder that East Cobb News does not endorse candidates, and we don’t run guest editorials on any subject, especially politics.

We know passions and tempers are running high about the elections, even at the local level, and we will be incorporating some of that in our regular coverage.

With every seat for public office in East Cobb having both Democratic and Republican candidates, we know there’s going to be a lot of interest, and it’s bound to get ugly before it’s all over.

For more information about how East Cobb News is covering the elections, click our Election Guide link below.

Public hearing on Cobb sex shop changes attracts no comments

August 26, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Cobb sex shop changes

There was plenty of interest from readers to our story on Monday on a proposed ordinance that would make sweeping changes to how sexually oriented businesses can operate.

But on Tuesday, nobody showed up to speak at a public hearing, either in favor of, or against, those proposed code amendments.

Although no businesses were mentioned by name, these proposals brought by Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb follow the recent opening of a Tokyo Valentino store on Johnson Ferry Road, where a more forthright sign advertising its wares has gone up, as seen above.

The City of Marietta recently closed the only other Tokyo Valentino store in the county, on Cobb Parkway across from the Marietta Diner, for violating its ordinances.

The Cobb code amendments would apply only to businesses in unincorporated areas. The primary rationale being given for replacing an entire section of the code pertaining to adult businesses is what’s called “adverse secondary effects,” including crime and loitering, to nearby areas.

County commissioners revise the code several times a year, and before doing so must conduct public hearings.

The new ordinance would limit sexually oriented business to two industrial zoning categories. Tokyo Valentino opened in East Cobb in former Mattress Firm space that is zoned general commercial, and received a business license for a retail clothing store that was to have been called 1290 Clothing Co.

There was vocal opposition before Tokyo Valentino signs appeared, but Ott said the county couldn’t do anything.

You can read through what’s being proposed in the code amendments by clicking here.

There are two more public hearings, on Sept. 1 before the Cobb Planning Commission, and on Sept. 8, the date Cobb commissioners are expected to vote on the code amendments.

Cobb absentee ballot applications available; dropboxes open Sept. 16

August 26, 2020August 26, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Cobb tag offices reopening

The East Cobb Government Service Center will continue to serve as a drop-off spot for the return of absentee ballots for the November general election.

The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration has announced that it intends to have 16 drop boxes available by the Nov. 3 election day.

All of those additional locations haven’t been announced, but the East Cobb center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) was used as a drop box spot for the primaries and runoffs.

The vast majority of Cobb primary and runoff voters cast their votes via absentee ballot.

Cobb Elections is continuing to encourage absentee voting for the general election, given a shortage of poll workers and social-distancing guidelines. Primary voting also was hampered at some precincts, including at Sope Creek Elementary School, by new voting machines not working properly.

The locations listed at the link above will be available for drop box returns starting Sept. 16. Absentee ballot applications can be requested from Cobb Elections by clicking here, and you can also get a prompt to a customized application that will be mailed to you.

The mail-outs won’t start until Sept. 15, and the county and state have not sent out unsolicited ballot applications, as was done for the primaries.

The county sent out a message Tuesday saying there has been some confusion about this, since some private groups and organizations have been mailing out absentee ballot applications.

That’s fine for them to do, but they’re not from official elections agencies. One is the Center for Voter Information, which has been doing this in other states as well.

Keep in mind that these forms aren’t the actual absentee ballots, but an application to have one mailed once it’s filled out and returned.

Cobb Elections had sought federal CARES Act funding to mail absentee ballot applications for all 518,000 registered voters in the county, but earlier this month commissioners rejected taking up that request.

For more information on absentee voting in Cobb County, click here.

Cobb schools named by Forbes among ‘best-in-state’ employers

August 26, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Submitted information:

On August 24, 2020, Forbes announced that the Cobb County School District was being recognized as one of America’s “Best-in-State Employers.” Cobb Schools has been on the list both years since Forbes began the award in conjunction with Statista in 2019.

“We know teachers are the most important part of any student’s experience and this is another confirmation that we are putting our Team first, ” said Superintendent Chris Ragsdale. “Our motto of ‘One Team, One Goal, Student Success,’ is only possible when our employees actually believe it and get the support they need to achieve it. We are grateful for the back-to-back recognition because it shows that we are keeping the main thing, the main thing.”

Cobb Schools moved up one position from 2019—from #23 to #22 in the state. It is one of only two school districts to make the Top 25 in Georgia and landed ahead of notable Georgia companies such as The Home Depot, UPS, and Coca-Cola.

Forbes and Statista select Best-In-State Employers based on an independent survey of more than 80,000 working for companies of at least 500 employees. The surveys are administered using a series of online panels and provide a representative sample of the U.S. workforce.

East Cobb Biz Update: Lidl Woodlawn Square opening date TBA

August 25, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Lidl East Cobb opening

Hiring and other opening signs have been up for months at the forthcoming Lidl store at Woodlawn Square in East Cobb, but there’s still no word yet when the store may open to the public.

We’ve been getting inquiries from readers and today Lidl passed along some information about expansion into Georgia with five more stores, including the East Cobb location, by the end of 2021.

We asked Lidl if there’s a general timetable for opening at Woodlawn Square, if not a specific date, and here’s the reply from the company:

“We expect to have more to share on the East Cobb store over the coming weeks and will look forward to getting in touch with you again then.”

What Lidl is saying for now is that the East Cobb store is part of a $500 million expansion with 50 new stores on the East Coast. The other stores in Georgia are in Marietta (on Whitlock Ave.) and future stores Sandy Springs, Woodstock and Duluth.

Lidl said those five stores will create an estimated 200 new jobs.

Lidl is a German-based discount grocer that competes with another German rival Aldi, and currently has two stores in the south Cobb area.

Lidl first attempted to enter the East Cobb market in 2017 when it sought rezoning of the Park 12 Cobb theatre on Gordy Parkway, but that request was denied following strong community opposition.

Lidl will occupy more than 21,000 square feet of space formerly occupied by The Fresh Market, which closed last October.

The only Aldi store in East Cobb is at the East Lake Shopping Center on Roswell Road, near the Marietta Parkway.

More business news

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Proposed Cobb code changes target sexually oriented businesses

August 26, 2020August 24, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Tokyo Valentino East Cobb

UPDATE: Nobody showed up to speak in favor of or against the new ordinance on Tuesday. There will be another public hearing Sept. 8, the same day Cobb commissioners are expected to vote on the matter.

An initial public hearing is scheduled Tuesday for proposed Cobb code amendments that would make sweeping changes in regulating sexually oriented businesses.

At a Monday work session, the Cobb Board of Commissioners was briefed by Cobb County Attorney’s Office about the proposals, which would expand the definition of sexually oriented businesses and restrict where they can operate.

They would be required to get special sexually oriented business licenses, and all employees would have to have permits. Anyone operating such a business would have to meet buffer and other regulatory measures to abate what are termed “adverse secondary negative effects.”

(You can read through the proposed code amendments here. Reader discretion is advised, since there are some explicit descriptions of sexual acts, body parts and devices.)

The proposed code amendments come two months after Tokyo Valentino, an Atlanta-based adult retail store, opened on Johnson Ferry Road in a vacant mattress store in East Cobb.

That store opened after it received a business license to operate as a retail clothing store under the general commercial zoning category. East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said the county could not stop an adult store from opening there, even if it advertised itself as something else, due to existing ordinances.

The land where the former Mattress Firm store stood has been zoned general commercial since the 1970s

The new store in East Cobb drew community opposition before it opened as Tokyo Valentino and after Morrison initially said that’s not what would be going in that space

Among the court cases attorney Scott Bergthold referenced during the presentation were several current legal disputes involving adult stores in Brookhaven and Sandy Springs operated by Tokyo Valentino owner Michael Morrison.

In June the city of Marietta closed and revoked the business license of a Tokyo Valentino store on Cobb Parkway for violating an ordinance regulating the amount of sexual peraphernalia allowed in a general commercial category.

The proposed Cobb amendments would completely overhaul a section of the county code pertaining to licenses for adult businesses, which Bergthold said hasn’t been updated in decades.

He said courts have ruled that “can’t ban them but can stringently regulate” where they’re allowed to operate and what they can do.

Under the proposed code amendments, the new category of “sexually oriented businesses”—which would include adult retail stores like Tokyo Valentino as well as adult entertainment establishments—would be allowed only in two industrial zoning categories.

Any “lawfully existing” adult businesses operating in other zoning categories would have until the end of 2021 to relocate to an appropriately zoned property, and could apply for “hardship” to extend that period.

Tokyo Valentino aerial map — *An aerial map of the Tokyo Valentino store at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road and surroundings.*

That provision would presumably affect the Tokyo Valentino store on Johnson Ferry Road, the only one currently operating in unincorporated Cobb County.

An adult bookstore would be defined as one that derives at least 25 percent of its revenues from the sale and rental of sexually explicit items and has at least 25 percent of its floor space devoted to displaying those materials.

Sexually oriented businesses also would not be allowed to operate within 750 feet of residentially zoned land, within 1,500 feet of a school, religious facility, government-owned or run building, 1,000 feet of another sexually oriented business and 500 feet of another business licensed to sell alcohol, either on premises or a package store.

The Tokyo Valentino store is located close to some of those kinds of buildings and areas.

The adverse affects Burkholder referenced include declining property values, crime and public safety risks, lewdness, decency and the possible transmission of disease, drug use and trafficking and aesthetic impacts like traffic, litter, noise and blight.

Violations carry a maximum fine of $1,000 per violation, and proposed provisions outline steps the county could take to address repeat violators deemed to be a “nuisance,” including revocation of a business license.

Cobb County Attorney William Rowling said the proposed code changes have been publicly advertised three times since July 31.

Cobb commissioners will conduct a public hearing at their regular meeting that starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Action on the code amendments is scheduled after another public hearing in September.

Tuesday’s full meeting agenda can be found here.

You can watch online here or here or via Cobb TV, the county’s public access outlet, on Channel 23 on Comcast cable

East Cobb neighborhood vandalized with ‘multiple swastikas’

August 28, 2020August 24, 2020 by Wendy Parker

East Cobb swastika — *Photos courtesy of Anti-Defamation League of Atlanta.*

UPDATE: Temple Kol Emeth is holding an interfaith gathering Monday to kick off a community anti-bias training initiative.

Local Jewish leaders are planning a response to an act of vandalism over the weekend in an East Cobb neighborhood that included swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti being scrawled on fences.

Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of Temple Kol Emeth, one of three synagogues in East Cobb, said in a message to his congregation that several fences were spray-painted with “multiple swastikas.”

“The swastika has come to be known as a symbol of Nazism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism. This act and this symbol is not representative of the Cobb County that we know and love and has no place in our community,” he said.

The neighborhood is along Holly Springs Road in the vicinity of Post Oak Tritt Road. That’s near the former site of the Marcus Jewish Community Center’s Shirley Blumenthal Park, which is now the high school campus of Mt. Bethel Christian Academy.

East Cobb swastika

Sernovitz also thanked Cobb Police “for their timely response to the incident. Additionally, we applaud the actions of the residents of this neighborhood for coming together as a community to take back their space and to clean and refresh their public fencing. Thirty members of this neighborhood, children and adults from many different faith backgrounds, worked together to erase the damage that had been done to their neighborhood on Sunday afternoon.”

Kol Emeth was to have held a community event Monday with the Anti-Defamation League of Atlanta, but scheduling conflicts have put that on hold.

“We look forward to working in concert with our interfaith community to combat hate in all of its forms,” Sernovitz said. “Over the coming days, we will be organizing opportunities for dialogue within our TKE community and in concert with our neighbors. As plans progress, we will keep you updated.”

Allison Padilla-Goodman vice president of the ADL’s Southern office in Atlanta, told East Cobb News “stay tuned for a future event!”

Sernovitz just began his tenure in July at Kol Emeth, succeeding longtime Rabbi Steven Lebow, who retired after 34 years.

East Cobb swastika

Cobb continues ‘nice mask ask’ campaign in lieu of a mandate

August 24, 2020 by Wendy Parker

*Although Kroger is one of many businesses requiring East Cobb customers to wear masks, there isn’t a county government mandate to do so.*

When Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said last week he was asking county staff to review Gov. Brian Kemp’s latest order allowing local governments to pass mask mandates, he said he would be reluctant to impose one.

Not just because he thought it would be hard for public safety to enforce, he said, but also because he didn’t think he could get his colleagues to go along with it.

Boyce said a mask mandate would require public hearings and commissioners’ approval of a new ordinance.

Both of East Cobb’s commissioners said last week they don’t support that either.

JoAnn Birrell said in a response to a query from East Cobb News that “I concur with the governor’s order and the Chairman.”

Kemp’s order allows local governments to issue broad mandates if a county averaged more than 100 COVID-19 per 100,000 people over a 14-day period.

Cobb’s average as of Sunday for the previous two weeks was 313 cases per 100,000, as that number continues to trend down.

No Cobb mask mandate

That’s a metric that public health officials have said designates “high community spread” and it’s a key indicator Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale has said will guide a return to classroom instruction. He’s targeted getting that number under 200.

The Cobb GIS office has created a new map letting users gauge community spread data in the county and around the state. When you click on a county, it shows the cases per 100,000 over the previous 14 days, and has color coding to indicate the severity of the spread in a particular county.

Even if a local government issued a community mandate, Kemp’s order still requires the consent of property owners.

Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb also said of a broader mask requirement that “I don’t think it’s enforceable. It’s better to work with businesses and get them to do it.”

That sentiment is part of what Boyce has called a “nice ask mask” campaign that includes the use of billboards, as seen below, and social media messages, including photoshopped images above that include a mask on the Big Chicken.

Kemp’s order does allow local governments to impose mandates on public property, and Boyce said Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris can issue a mask order for county buildings.

Birrell said whatever McMorris may come up with, “I support her decisions.”

Shortly after Kemp’s order, the city of Smyrna imposed a mask mandate. Sandy Springs and Roswell orders require masks only in city buildings.

Most Cobb commissioners have been urging public mask use in their public statements and e-mail newsletters, and they often wear them during their public meetings.

Like Boyce, Ott said he has noticed high levels of voluntary mask compliance when he’s out and about.

“We just can’t be thinking up laws that are unenforceable,” Ott said.

No Cobb mask mandate

Global Zoom outage affects start of 2nd week of Cobb schools

August 24, 2020 by Wendy Parker

It”s already been a manic Monday for Cobb school students, teachers and parents and many others globally.

Zoom, the video teleconferencing platform that’s become heavily relied-upon during the COVID-19 pandemic, has crashed around the world.

We got a text from a Cobb schools parent shortly after 8 a.m. saying the Cobb Teaching and Learning System, the district’s instructional portal, was down.

The district said around 9:30 a.m. that CTLS is operational, but that since 8:10 a.m., “Zoom has been experiencing a worldwide outage. The problem is being worked on, District staff is in direct contact with Zoom executives, and currently, there is no timetable for its return. We will update our community via social media and email as soon as the situation is resolved.”

Zoom is how student attendance is marked and virtual class participation is conducted. The parent who texted us said Microsoft Teams is being utilized as a backup. The district said that alternative had some issues and was down at times last week.

CTLS had some technical issues at times during the first week of all-online classes in Cobb last week.

The district also said to parents Monday morning that “your student’s workload is still accessible. Your teachers will be contacting you with more information shortly.”

Cobb schools has set up a technical support system for parents and teachers:

Parents can e-mail [email protected] or call 770-426-3330 for assistance, while students can e-mail [email protected].

ARC holding webinar on Chattahoochee RiverLands proposal

August 23, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Chattahoochee Riverlands Hyde Farm

We got a lot of reader interest about this post from a couple weeks ago about the proposed Chattahoochee RiverLands project, and here’s a follow-up to that:

On Tuesday, the Atlanta Regional Commission is having a webinar for the public to learn more, discuss and ask questions.

The RiverLands project envisions more than 100 connected miles of multi-use trails, from the Buford Dam near Lake Lanier to the Chattahoochee Bend State Park near Newnan.

A bridge connecting Hyde Farm in East Cobb to Morgan Falls Overlook Park in Sandy Springs is one of the additions that’s part of the

The webinar starts at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, is free and you can sign up by clicking here. The ARC’s Paul Donsky has more on the What’s Next Atl blog about the project.

East Cobb parents frustrated with online start to school year

August 22, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Cobb parents frustrated online start — The Cobb County School District acknowledged technology issues during the first week of all-online school, but stressed **the many positive reports** it said it got from teachers, parents and students.

The technology glitches that came with starting a new school year all-online weren’t unexpected. The Cobb County School District rolled out a massive new platform on Monday’s first day that was difficult for some students, parents and teachers to access.

Many parents reported troubles logging in, or being unable to get audio and live chats and Zoom links, or were having issues with specific browsers and devices.

Others said they had few problems and commended the district, which reported 107,000 first-day logins (enrollment is 112,000) on the Cobb Teaching and Learning System.

Even those with problems praised their children’s teachers and principals, many of whom were pressed into computer troubleshooting duties.

Among them is a mother of two children at East Cobb schools, who reported that her kids’ classroom connections crashed on more than one occasion during the week.

The district acknowledged what it said on Thursday afternoon was “an intermittent, system-wide interruption to the CTLS platform” that lasted for roughly two-and-a-half hours.

That crash, the mother told East Cobb News, was an emotional breaking point for her.

“The teachers are trying so hard, but the technology is in and out,” said the mother, who did not want to be identified, nor where her children attend school.

She wanted to have her children attend schools in person before Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale in July switched to an all-online start, citing COVID-19 concerns.

Now, she’s concerned that the virtual start to the school year might last longer than just a few weeks, and that poses more than technology problems for her kids.

“Mentally, these kids need to connect with their friends, they need to connect with their teachers and with other people” in person, and not just online, she said.

She said her middle school student is not faring well outside of a school environment, and she’s spoken with several other parents, some of whom were breaking down because of what their children are having to navigate.

“They’re struggling to be online all day,” said the mother, who also was choking with emotion.

Another mother of East Cobb students, Amy Henry, has been outspoken and public against the all-virtual start, starting a parents group called “Let Parents Choose,” which held rallies in recent weekends, demanding what she calls a “common-sense plan” to return to classroom instruction.

She and her husband moved last year from DeKalb County, where their children were in private school, and chose East Cobb and the Walton High School district because of the public schools.

Henry and her husband both work and she said they cannot do so at home. When the all-virtual decision was made, they put their kindergartener and fourth-grader in private school. Their two older children are Walton students attending online classes at home and participating in football and volleyball.

*Amy Henry, with four children in the Walton district, leads a parents group for in-person school that held a rally on the Marietta Square last weekend.*

She said her high schoolers experienced some of the same technology problems but is more concerned about what it’s going to take to get schools open for students.

Ragsdale told the Cobb Board of Education Thursday that one of the key metrics he’s looking at is what public health officials call “high community spread.” Anything more than an average of 100 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days is considered high, and that figure in Cobb County now is in the 300s.

That’s why he’s reluctant to give a date for a phased reopening, although other school districts, such as Gwinnett County, which welcomes K-5 students back to classrooms next week, have been doing that.

Noting the low COVID-19 case rate for children under 20, Henry said other factors need to be considered.

“This virus is not a death sentence, not for everyone,” she said. “What in life is 100 percent safe? The damage we’re doing to kids [by not being in school] is immense. We’re creating a generation that’s fearful of the world.”

Henry and the unidentified mother said they support measures such as mask-wearing at schools, “but at some point we have to ask what kind of damage we’re doing to kids in the long run.”

Henry said she understands the difficult situation Ragsdale and other superintendents are in, and she doesn’t want schools to open and then have to shut down because of a virus outbreak, as has happened in some Cherokee and Paulding schools.

But Henry said the virus isn’t going away and “we cannot settle for virtual.”

In the meantime, she and other Cobb school parents will be getting some additional help. On Thursday, the Cobb school district set up a technical support system for parents and teachers:

Parents can e-mail [email protected] or call 770-426-3330 for assistance, while students can e-mail [email protected].

Wheeler HS graduate creates petition to keep school name

August 22, 2020August 22, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Wheeler grad video — *Once a nearly all-white school, Wheeler has one of the most diverse student bodies in the Cobb County School District, as exemplified by its Class of 2020.*

After an online petition was started this summer to change the name of Wheeler High School, a graduate of the East Cobb school has started one of her own to keep the name as it is.

Connie Behensky, who attended Wheeler with her four siblings, recently started what she calls “Don’t let them take the name away of our beloved high school,” and it has generated more than 200 signatures.

“We have great memories of our friends and teachers and just the best years of my personal life. You have let them remove our statues you are not going to take this away from us,” she wrote in her introduction.”

Behensky’s effort comes two months after a group calling itself “Wildcats for Change” started a petition demanding that the Cobb County School District rename Wheeler.

The school on Holt Road is named after Joseph Wheeler, a former Confederate general who was readmitted to the U.S. Army after the Civil War and served in Congress. He is one of the few Confederate officers buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Wildcats for Change petition has more than 4,500 signatures, including that of Cobb Board of Education member Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters.

The group also has started a private Facebook group.

Those seeking to keep the Wheeler name discussed their memories on the new petition, including Mark M., who said he was part of the school’s first graduating class in 1967:

“Changing the name of the school will do nothing to change history. Leave it alone.”

Cathy M., a 1977 graduate:

“I am from the South. My parents are from the South. This is our heritage, Southern Heritage. Those who are demanding that anything southern (names, statues, locations, etc.) be changed and destroyed are bigots. Instead of standing strong against those that want to destroy the South, the politicians, stores, companies, professional sports organizations, manufactures and many more cave and bow down to these lunatics.”

Todd H.:

“The school was never about a singular person, of whom I never knew existed. It was about the memory of all the people who I went to school with. Don’t sully the memory.”

Leslie G., who graduated in 1969:

“Don’t punish us for what our ancestors did. People we never knew and whose views we don’t share. It was just Wheeler, my alma mater. I never even knew who he was until this ridiculous idea came up a few months ago. Please don’t invalidate the youth of so many of us.”

During a Cobb school board meeting Thursday, Davis said she had received correspondence from a descendant of Joseph Wheeler “who wanted me to know he had turned his life around.”

Her comments came during a discussion about creating a committee to examine school naming and renaming policies.

Board member David Morgan made the proposal after he noticed that there are no schools in the 112-school Cobb district that are named after minorities.

Morgan didn’t refer to Wheeler, or to a similar petition begun to change the name of Walton High School, but said he wanted to craft a policy to reflect the diversity of the Cobb school district.

According to the district’s own data, Cobb’s overall student body of nearly 112,000 students is 37 percent white, 30 percent black, 22 percent Hispanic and six percent Asian.

Wheeler was for many years a nearly all-white school, but is now one of the most diverse in the Cobb school district. Georgia Department of Education figures from March showed that Wheeler had 811 black students out of a total enrollment of 2,159.

Among the notable alumni of Wheeler is Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton, who is African-American and graduated in 1984.

The school board voted 4-3 to create a 10-member naming/renaming committee, and Davis said she wanted to serve. The panel will have three school board members, and each person on the seven-member school board will appoint a citizen from their posts.

Board member David Chastain, a Wheeler graduate who represents the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, voted against, saying he liked Morgan’s suggestion of a possible policy change but said “I don’t think we need to form a committee. . . . We do need to make this part of our consciousness as we move forward.”

Sewell Mill Library to reopen Monday after COVID-19 closure

August 21, 2020 by Wendy Parker

After being closed since Aug. 7 after an employee was exposed to COVID-19, the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center will reopen on Monday beyond curbside service.

The Cobb County Public Library System made the announcement on Friday, and here are the details:

Sewell Mill will be open Mondays, 10 am to 8 pm; and Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 am to 6 pm. Curbside service pickup hours will return to Sewell Mill on Mondays from 11 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 7 pm; and Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 am to 2 pm.

Cobb Library patrons are asked to schedule curbside appointments at the libraries offering the service at least one hour in advance on the same day of the planned appointment. A form for scheduling the curbside appointments and more details are available at www.cobbcat.org/libraryexpress.

For information on Cobb libraries, including open locations and libraries offering curbside service, visit www.cobbcat.org or call 770-528-2320.

60 percent of all Cobb COVID cases were reported in July

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb school board member blasted for ‘China virus’ reference

August 23, 2020August 21, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Cobb school board member China virus

Cobb Board of Education member David Banks is coming under fire for making a reference to COVID-19 as the “China virus” in his weekly e-mail newsletter.

Banks, a three-term Republican from East Cobb, sent out a newsletter on Tuesday listing recent retirees from the Cobb County School District, and led with this sentence:

“Since the China virus is still of concern, the CCSD Retiree ceremony was canceled this year. “

Not long after that, Julia Hurtado, a Democrat who is running against Banks in the Nov. 3 election, posted a message on a private Cobb schools Facebook page saying that “I am heartbroken for any of the Asian kids this man represents,” and encouraged anyone bothered by what he had written to go to her website.

Other social media messages have expressed similar sentiments, and East Cobb News heard from a constituent of Banks, parent Jonathan Chen, whose children attend school in Post 5, which includes the Lassiter and Pope clusters.

He said he’s lived in Post 5 since 2010 and hadn’t heard of Banks, and thought the reference was xenophobic.

“I feel it is critical that he be held accountable for his words, especially since he has been tasked with the education of our children,” Chen said.

Chen, a pulmonary doctor with the Wellstar Health System, said it’s not wise to name a virus or pathogen after the location where it was discovered because “has the effect of casting blame on the area as the source of disease which can lead to discrimination, isolation, and even violence.”

Chen said if such an outbreak were to have originated in Marietta, “fear now arises that all Marietta residents are infected so consequently, they are viewed with suspicion, fear, and even hatred by residents of surrounding communities.”

He added that “calling the SARS-coV2 virus the China virus blames China and Chinese people for the virus,” and that he refers to it as the Coronavirus.

East Cobb News has left a message with Banks seeking comment.

UPDATED:

At 9:15 a.m. Sunday, Banks e-mailed this reply to East Cobb News:

“I read your article.

“I received less than 100 negative emails concerning the ‘China virus’ and all but one came from Democrat voters. This is not a ‘blast.’ Several thousands would be a blast. These people are racists and you carried their water. Don’t be used to divide.”

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES:

During a Cobb school board work session Thursday, two of Banks’ colleagues referenced the incident without mentioning him by name.

The board was discussing an anti-racism resolution that ultimately failed in a 3-3 vote, with Banks voting present. He said that resolution was unnecessary and read language from district’s non-discrimination policy.

Board member Jaha Howard made a motion to amend the resolution to include an apology by any board member who had said anything racist or offensive. That amendment failed.

Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, said before the vote that board colleagues have made slurs, and that “if we can’t condemn that as a board I don’t understand why we’re moving forward with this resolution.”

She and Howard were among the three black Democrats who voted against the resolution, saying it didn’t go far enough in condemning racism in the school district. Three votes in favor of the original resolution were the other white Republicans on the board.

It was the third time that the board attempted to come to a consensus on an anti-racism measure, following other local governments, including Cobb County, and metro Atlanta school districts.

Johnson certified as Cobb commission GOP runoff winner

August 21, 2020August 21, 2020 by Wendy Parker

The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration has certified Fitz Johnson as the winner of the Republican runoff for District 2 of the Cobb Board of Commissioners. Fitz Johnson, Cobb commission candidate

Johnson is a Vinings resident who got 4,925 votes, while former Cobb Planning Commission member Andy Smith of East Cobb had 4,839 votes.

In a note to supporters after the certification, Johnson said he spoke with Smith and Kevin Nicholas, who finished third in the June 9 GOP primary, and “I look forward to working together with them to win in November.”

Johnson will face Democrat Jerica Richardson in the Nov. 3 general election, with the winner succeeding retiring Commissioner Bob Ott.

The November ballot for East Cobb voters is now set. Here’s a quick look ahead at other contested local, state and federal races, most of which were settled before the runoff.

Cobb Commission Chairman

Mike Boyce, (R), incumbent, vs. Lisa Cupid (D), current Commissioner from South Cobb

Cobb Board of Education, Post 5

David Banks, (R), incumbent, vs. Julia Hurtado (D)

Cobb District Attorney

Joyette Holmes (R), appointed incumbent, vs. Flynn Broady Jr. (D), special election

Cobb Sheriff

Neil Warren (R), incumbent, vs. Craig Owens (D)

Georgia State Senate, District 32

Kay Kirkpatrick (R), incumbent, vs. Christine Triebsch (D), a rematch from 2018

Georgia State House, District 37

Mary Frances Williams (D), incumbent, vs. Rose Wing (R)

Georgia State House, District 43

Sharon Cooper (R), incumbent, vs. Luisa Wakeman (D), a rematch from 2018

Georgia State House, District 44

Don Parsons (R), incumbent, vs. Connie DiCicco (D)

Georgia State House, District 45

Matt Dollar (R), incumbent, vs. Sara Tindall Ghazal (D)

Georgia State House, District 45

John Carson (R), incumbent, vs. Caroline Holko (D)

U.S. House of Representatives, Georgia 6th District

Lucy McBath (D), incumbent, vs. Karen Handel (R), a rematch from 2018

U.S. Senate

David Perdue (R), incumbent, vs. Jon Ossoff (D)

U.S. Senate Special Election

Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican appointed in January, will compete in “jungle” primary will take place with candidates from both major parties. If the leading vote-getter fails to win a majority, the top two finishers will meet in a runoff of Jan. 5, 2021. The winner will fill out the final two years of the term of former Sen. Johnny Isakson.

There are eight Democratic candidates and Loeffler is one of six Republican candidates. The primary field also includes candidates from the Green Party and the Libertarian Party, and four independents.

Cobb school board buys land near Walton HS; adopts budget

August 24, 2020August 20, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Walton sports complex land

The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday voted to purchase nearly four acres of land close to Walton High School for $2.65 million, adjacent to newly acquired land for a new softball and tennis complex.

After an executive session, the board voted 6-1 in two separate motions by Post 6 member Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters.

The properties include 3.5 acres at 1483 Pine Road for $2 million, and 1.2 acres at 3753 Providence Road for $650,000 (indicated by the blue stars on the map above).

At last month’s meeting, district officials announced the board’s intent to acquire the new parcels.

Those parcels are located next to 15.2 acres on Pine Road that the district purchased in November for $3 million (red star), after threatening the property owner, Thelma McClure, with eminent domain.

There’s a sign fronting that property on Bill Murdock Road, and across from the Walton campus, that it’s to be the future home of Walton varsity tennis and softball teams.

Their old facility is where the new Walton classroom is located, and the teams have been playing home competitions since 2014 at Terrell Mill Park.

Walton softball parents had been considering legal options under Title IX, a federal law banning sex discrimination in education.

The board didn’t discuss the additional land purchases at Thursday’s meeting. The only member to vote against was Jaha Howard of the Campbell and Osborne clusters.

Funding for the property acquisition comes from Cobb Education SPLOST V revenues. So will construction costs, but those have not been determined and there isn’t a timetable for that project.

The school board also voted 7-0 for a fiscal year 2021 budget of $1.3 billion. It includes using $31 million in reserves to close a $62 million deficit following state budget cuts in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

The budget maintains an existing property tax rate of 18.9 mills, includes step salary increases and there are no pay cuts or furlough days for employees.

The budget was amended to add $15 million in spending for COVID-related expenses.

For full budget details, click here.

Sprayberry Crossing developer seeks delay in rezoning request

August 20, 2020 by Wendy Parker

Sprayberry Crossing rendering

The developer of a proposed mixed-use project at the Sprayberry Crossing shopping center is asking for a delay in a rezoning request for another month.

Kevin Moore, an attorney for Atlantic Residential, sent a letter on Wednesday to the Cobb Zoning Office asking for a continuance from the September calendar to October. Moore wrote that the delay “will allow additional time to continue working through concerns and questions expressed by area residents and homeowner representatives and present proposed agreeable stipulations.”

Continuance requests are generally granted by staff as long as they come at least a week before public hearings. The Cobb Planning Commission was scheduled to hear the Sprayberry Crossing case on Sept. 1.

Atlantic Residential wants to build 61,500 square feet of office and retail space (30,000 for a major grocer), 178 apartments, 122 senior-living apartments and 50 townhomes on more than 17 acres.

The developer also wants to build an open-air entertainment and food hall and incorporate walking trails and greenspace around an existing family cemetery.

The proposal is seeking a rezoning category called redevelopment overlay district (ROD), for the first time since it became a category in 2006.

Earlier this month Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell held a virtual town hall providing information about the zoning process and the Sprayberry Crossing details in particular.

She told East Cobb News on Thursday that “I’m receiving emails both for and against the proposal. Keeping a tally.”

Many residents have pushed for an overhaul of the long-blighted retail center that’s there now—the property has been on the county’s redevelopment list.

But others are concerned about apartments going up in a community of single-family homes and additional traffic in the Sandy Plains and Piedmont Road corridor.

The ROD designation would mean that any development contained within does not set a precedent for the area surrounding a property that may be zoned that way.

At least 10 percent of the housing units in an ROD must be set aside for residents making no more than 80 percent of an area’s average median income.

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Cobb Commission Chairman

Cobb Board of Education, Post 5

Cobb District Attorney

Cobb Sheriff

Georgia State Senate, District 32

Georgia State House, District 37

Georgia State House, District 43

Georgia State House, District 44

Georgia State House, District 45

Georgia State House, District 45