Cobb-based Tommy Nobis Center is a past winner of a Delta Community Philanthropic Fund grant, receiving $10,000 for its Early Youth Employment Services program, which offers job and life skills training to special needs students throughout metro Atlanta.
Submitted information and photos:
Delta Community Credit Union (www.DeltaCommunityCU.com), Georgia’s largest credit union with $6.8 billion in assets, has begun accepting applications for its 2021 Philanthropic Fund grant program.
Throughout 2021, the program will distribute a total of $125,000 to 20 non-profit organizations committed to the health and well-being of young people and financial literacy and education, including programs focused on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEM/STEAM).
Since its inception, the Delta Community Philanthropic Fund has invested $630,000 in 148 non-profit organizations that offer education, career training, and health and human services to tens of thousands of people in metro Atlanta.
“We have seen, first-hand, the positive impact these worthwhile organizations make in the lives of individuals, children and families,” said Delta Community CEO Hank Halter. “As our Philanthropic Fund enters its eighth year, we remain committed to investing in initiatives that support education and the physical and financial health of those who live in the communities we are privileged to serve.”
The application window for the 2021 Delta Community Philanthropic Fund closes Aug. 31, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Applications must be submitted via the online portal at www.DeltaCommunityCU.com/PhilanthropicFund.
In addition to its Philanthropic Fund, Delta Community invests in local communities through school sponsorships, scholarship programs, and support of chambers of commerce, industry partners and civic organizations.
Delta Community’s Hank Halter, CEO and Reina Short, Community Development Manager; Dave Ward, CEO of the Tommy Nobis Center; Monica Oliveiro, Nobis Center Development Specialist. Delta Community CEO Hank Halter and Community Development Manager Reina Short; MUST Ministries’ Dr. Ike Reigherd, Don Crampton and Yvonne Byars.
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Submitted information about Sharon Mason, an East Cobb resident who’s getting a three-year extension as president and CEO of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce:
Today [July 14], the Cobb Chamber Board of Directors announced to extend the terms of the organization’s President and CEO Sharon Mason employment agreement for another three years, through December 2023.
“Since her start as President & CEO in January 2018, Sharon Mason has been leading the Cobb Chamber to achieve its desired vision to be a catalyst for innovative solutions, and create healthy conditions for business. In just three years, Sharon has led the Chamber through the sale of its 35-year-old building and its move to the 10th floor of 1100 Circle 75 Parkway, the expansion of programming, including the launch of the International Council, Workforce Target Industry Councils, and Marquee Monday, a rebrand, and record membership growth,” said John Loud, 2020 Cobb Chamber Chairman and President of LOUD Security Systems. “I have worked closely with Sharon for the past 15 months, and I’ve never worked with someone so committed to their job, to the people they manage, and to the Chamber’s mission to nurturing an environment where businesses can prosper.”
As President and CEO, she leads the Chamber’s efforts to create jobs, strengthen the economy and quality of life for businesses and the community while building Cobb County’s reputation regionally, nationally and beyond. With the Board of Directors moving forward with her contract extension five months before it was set to expire is a vote of confidence regarding Mason’s outstanding job performance.
“Serving this Chamber and our community as its President and CEO is an honor,” says Sharon Mason, President and CEO of the Cobb Chamber. “I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished together with our Board of Directors and chamber team. Now, more than ever, Cobb’s businesses need our organization. We are here to help businesses find their way forward through this time of uncertainty and into the future. I look forward to continue working with our Board of Directors and staff to advance our economy forward.”
Mason has more than 18 years of chamber of commerce experience, including at the Cobb Chamber starting in 2005 and the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce prior. She has held varying leadership positions of increasing importance. Prior to her selection as CEO, Mason served as the Cobb Chamber’s COO in 2013 to 2017.
Mason is a Georgia native and an active member of the community including serving on the Regional Business Coalition Executive Committee, Council for Quality Growth Board of Directors, Wellstar Kennestone Hospital Regional Board, Children’s Healthcare Cobb Community Board, IgniteHQ Board, Cobb County School District Superintendent Advisory Committee, and the Georgia Chamber’s Resiliency and Recovery Task Force. In 2018, she was named by Governor Deal to the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Board (GRTA) and continues to serve on this board. She also is a Marietta Rotary member and was Foundation Director in 2015-2016, is a past president of Friends for the East Cobb Park non-profit (2012-2013), and served on MUST Ministries Board of Directors from 2014-2019. Mason is a graduate of Chamber Institute for Organizational Management (2011), Leadership Cobb (2012), Regional Leadership Institute (2014), Honorary Commanders (2015), Leadership Atlanta (2018) and is active in these alumni associations.
In 2019 and 2020, Mason was named to Georgia Trend’s Top 100 Most Influential Georgians, Top 100 Most Influential Women in Georgia by Engineering Magazine and Atlanta 500 Most Influential list. In 2020, she was named by James Magazine to the Most Influential Georgians list. She was also named to liveSAFE Resources Academy of Women Leaders in 2015 and Atlanta Magazine’s Women Making a Mark in 2019.
Mason received her bachelor’s from Samford University. She lives in East Cobb with her husband and middle school daughter. They are active at East Cobb Church.
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The Cobb Board of Education has a adopted a tentative fiscal year budget of $1.3 billion that will not include pay cuts or furloughs for teachers and staff.
Chris Ragsdale, Cobb schools superintendent
It’s the first step toward formal budget adoption in August, three months later than usual.
That’s because of delays in state funding since the Georgia legislative session was delayed due to COVID-19.
Nearly half of Cobb County School District funding comes from the state, which is cutting that amount this year by $62 million.
“Now more than ever, our staff who have responded successfully and professionally to each obstacle they have encountered over the past several months, need to know that we are there to support them. They are our first priority because they make our students their first priority,” Cobb schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale said in a statement.
The school board also will be holding the property tax rate at 18.9 mills, which has stayed the same for nearly two decades.
The budget proposal would include using $31 million in reserve funds to help offset the state budget cuts. Funding under Georgia’s Quality Basic Education Act is expected to be $518 million.
Local property tax digest growth of 5.15 percent will yield an additional $48 million in revenue (for a total of ($541 million); therefore the district must conduct public hearings for what under state law is considered a property tax increase.
(More financials, including line-item details, can be found here in what’s called the budget popular report.)
Cobb schools also received nearly $16 million in CARES Act funding from the Georgia Department of Education, and this week was granted $8.1 million from the Cobb Board of Commissioners in more CARES Act funding for distance learning content.
Charisse Davis, one of three Democrats on the board and who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, advocates revisiting the Cobb senior tax exemption and closing some loopholes.
On Thursday she asked for information not included in the budget proposal that revealed that this year the senior tax exemption is worth $132 million, up from $122.7 million in 2019, $111.9 million in 2018, and $101.1 million in 2017.
However, she’s been unable to get the board’s Republican majority to consider the matter. Some of them favor working to change the state’s educational “Fair Share” formula, under which school districts must send the amount of 5 mills from their local property tax revenues to the state.
The Cobb school district said for FY 2021 that Fair Share amount is $166 million.
The Cobb school board is to hold one more public hearing on the budget, on Aug. 20, the same day it formally adopts it.
In the meantime, the board also approved on Thursday a spending resolution to fund operations for the month of August, with revenues of $107 million and expenses of $111 million.
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Earlier this week organizers of the Corky Kell Classic announced that some of the games in the season-opening week of the Georgia high school football season will be moving away from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta.
That includes the East Cobb matchup between Kell and Walton that’s scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 22.
Instead of playing at the home of the Falcons, the Longhorns and Raiders would be squaring off at Mill Creek High School in Gwinnett County.
Corky Kell organizers made the change due to social distancing and sanitizing concerns at the NFL stadium.
We say “would” because the Georgia High School Association, which oversees high school athletics in the state, is monitoring preseason workouts that continue on Monday.
They’ve limited high school football teams according to social distancing and sanitizing guidelines. On Monday, teams will be allowed to practice with helmets, which must be sanitized before and after every practice.
The GHSA board of trustees is meeting Monday to discuss the opening of fall sports. In Georgia, those are football, volleyball, cross country, softball and flag football.
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday that the school district will start the school year online-only, and many extracurricular activities are being cancelled. He said high school sports are still on for now, but he would be following GHSA guidance.
A total of 11 games at the Corky Kell Classic are scheduled over four days starting Aug. 19. The other locations are at West Forsyth High School, Dacula High School and Barron Stadium in Rome.
The Kell-Walton game is scheduled to kick off five games at Mill Creek on Aug. 22, with a start time of 9 a.m. The only other Cobb school involved, McEachern, will face North Gwinnett in the finale at 9 p.m.
For the last two seasons, the final slate of Corky Kell Classic games had been played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Last year, Walton rallied to defeat Norcross, and Kell edged Mays. For the first time, the Longhorns and Raiders slated to play each other in the event named after the late Wheeler High School coach and administrator.
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With the start of the school year going online-only, the Cobb County School District has added a way for parents to request devices for students who need them.
Parents are asked to go to the ParentVUE portal and log in, then click the “Back to School Choice” from the menu bar on the left. From there click “Full Remote” then “My child does not have access to a device, and I am requesting one.”
The district’s special website, Cobb Learning Everywhere, is providing updated information on all aspects of the reopening.
Earlier this week the district received $8.1 million in CARES Act funding from the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which will be used to acquire and develop digital curriculum and related content for the existing Cobb Teaching and Learning System portal.
The funds won’t be spent on purchasing devices for students. When school campuses closed in March, the district worked with the Cobb Schools Foundation to provide devices for students who needed them.
At a commissioners work session Monday, Ragsdale said some of the Chrome Books that were provided were not claimed.
But critics of the reopening plans said adequate technology was not provided to students in need, and worried that they would fall further behind.
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After failing to come to a consensus over a modified anti-racism resolution proposed in June, the Cobb Board of Education is tabling the matter once again.
This time it’s for 90 days, as the board agreed following a lengthy discussion at its work session Thursday.
Board member Randy Scamihorn presented a revised resolution but board members Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard said they could not support it and asked him to withdraw it.
Howard distributed his own version on social media earlier this week (you can read it below) that calls for the Cobb County School District to commit to “actively working against systemic racism and bias” and acknowledges that “systemic racism and racial prejudice” have left a “devastating legacy” in Cobb County.
He also wants the district to undertake “targeted anti-racist programs and policy.”
Scamihorn objected to the phrase “systemic racism” and said Howard’s resolution was “too stark” and not unifying enough.
“I’ve tried to build a positive document,” Scamihorn said, although he didn’t have his version available during the meeting. (We’ve asked for a copy and will post it when we get it.)
Both Howard and Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters are black Democrats; the board’s four-member Republican majority are white.
David Morgan, a black Democrat from South Cobb, kept pushing for a compromise that would get to a 7-0 vote. He said what Scamihorn revised “checked the boxes that would have had my support. I’m an African-American man and I want to get along with everyone.
“We need something to speak to that,” that speaks to all in a school district with 113,000 students and 18,000 teachers and staff.
“Mr. Morgan is optimistic we can come to a consensus, and good Lord, I hope he’s right,” Scamihorn said.
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Our Senior Citizen Council of Cobb County food drive held at the Cobb Senior Wellness Center on July 8 was a great success! We collected hundreds of pounds of food and paper goods for eligible seniors. Nearly 50 cars dropped off donations. We were pleasantly surprised that lots of people had full trunks to donate, not just one or two bags. The Senior Center said the donations were a godsend since they were running low on food to distribute.
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Let East Cobb News know what your organization is doing, or share news about what people are doing in the community—accomplishments, recognitions, milestones, etc.
Pass along your details to: [email protected], and please observe the following guidelines to ensure we get everything properly and can post it promptly.
Send the body of your announcement, calendar item or news release IN TEXT FORM ONLY in the text field of your e-mail template. Reformatting text from PDF, JPG and doc files takes us longer to prepare your message for publication.
We accept PDFs as an accompaniment to your item. Images are fine too, but we prefer those to be JPG files (more than jpeg and png). PLEASE DO NOT send photos inside a PDF or text or any other kind of file.
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!
Based upon the Governor’s latest executive order and after consultation with public health officials, Cobb County is postponing the planned “soft” reopening of some senior centers on July 20th. Despite rigorous cleaning protocols and social distancing plans in place, the continued rise in coronavirus cases and the Governor’s extension of the Public Health State of Emergency prompted the delay. Senior Services will work with county leaders and Cobb & Douglas Public Health to determine when we may be able to move forward with reopening some of the centers.
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The Cobb County School District has announced it intends to acquire property near Walton High School, next to land designated for a new sports complex for the school’s varsity softball and tennis teams.
During a Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday afternoon, Marc Smith, the district’s Chief Technology and Operations Officer, stated the board’s intent to purchase two land parcels.
They’re 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).
The announcement was made after the board emerged from an executive session, where land matters are discussed.
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.
Smith said the purchase of the additional property is scheduled to be finalized at the board’s August meeting, but he didn’t elaborate. There was no discussion by the board during the brief voting meeting, which followed a nearly-five-hour work session that included the announcement that the new school year would start online-only.
According to Cobb Tax Assessors records, the Pine Road property is owned by Harold and Joan Estes, and has a single-family ranch home built in the early 1960s.
The Providence Road land is owned by Maudelle Gilbert Gibson, and a single-family home there was built in the mid-1970s.
Since 2014, the Walton softball and tennis teams have competed at Terrell Mill Park, giving way to a new classroom building.
Walton softball parents had been lobbying for the new complex, and were considering legal action under Title IX, a federal education sex discrimination law, since the Walton boys’ baseball team has remained on campus.
Funding for the property acquisition comes from Cobb Education SPLOST V revenues. So will construction costs, but those have not been determined.
When it’s finished sports complex will be the final component of a comprehensive rebuild of the Walton campus.
The new classroom building opened in August 2017 at a cost of $48 million, and last fall a new gymnasium and performing arts theatre opened where the original classroom building once stood, with a price tag of $31 million.
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Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday morning that the Cobb County School District will be starting online-only, instead of with original plans to offer in-person classes and remote options.
At the start of the Cobb Board of Education work session, Ragsdale said that “this decision has been weighing on me for a while” and that his decision to go to online only was done in part because the district “could not provide any more information than the people asking the questions.”
The school year will still start on Aug. 17, and teachers will still report on July 26, Ragsdale said, but current public health data and guidance from the Georgia Department of Education “does not support opening” with classroom instruction possible.
Ragsdale did not say how long online-only learning would last, and that the district could later add classroom learning.
Ragsdale said public health data indicated that Cobb remains in a “high community spread” status for the COVID-19 virus.
“The sooner we can get out of the high spread the sooner we can return to face-to-face,” Ragsdale said in a question related to that subject by school board member Charisse Davis.
“Our teachers are awesome, and they will continue to do an awesome job virtually, but nothing takes the place of in-person instruction from our Cobb County teachers,” he said. “I am not setting a timeline for how long our students will engage in virtual learning. We will continue to monitor the data and work with public health officials so we can open for face-to-face instruction as soon as humanly possible.”
You can watch Ragsdale’s announcement in full below.
Ragsdale said while many on-campus events are not being scheduled, high school athletics is still on for now.
He said parents and teachers have had many questions about reopening plans, both academic and otherwise, and said that the health of students and staff “is our top priority.”
Here’s more from the district about the decision, with more details expected.
Parents had until next Wednesday to choose a classroom or virtual option for their children for the fall semester.
Parent and teacher groups had scheduled a protest later today at the CCSD central office to express concern about the original reopening plans.
Other metro Atlanta school districts have announced online-only starts, including Atlanta. On Thursday, after Ragsdale’s announcement, the superintendents of Marietta and Fulton County schools said they also would be starting virtual-only.
School board Jaha Howard praised the Cobb decision, saying it “was the right thing” to do, and said the district needs to be more transparent in its decision-making process.
Ragsdale said “this is a totally different environment” from the end of the previous school year, which switched to virtual-only after the district closed campuses in mid-March.
He said the district is still soliciting parental surveys to help in its decisions moving forward.
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The Cobb Board of Education is holding its monthly meetings starting Thursday morning, and at least two groups critical of reopening plans are staging a protest later in the day.
A group of parents calling itself School ROCS (Reopen Our Classrooms Safely) has called for a march to start at 5 p.m. Thursday at Larry Bell Park in Marietta, then to proceed to the nearby Cobb County School District central office.
On Wednesday, the Cobb County Association of Educators said it would join in, and asked its members to wear red to “protest the lack of information regarding returning to school and working conditions for employees.”
The school board is holding its work session, executive session and voting meeting in succession in virtual form starting at 10 a.m. Thursday. (Agendas here.)
The board hasn’t met in person or heard public comments since the COVID-19 outbreak shuttered schools in March.
Since announcing its protest, ROCS has blistered Cobb school district officials, primarily in social media forums, for its reopening plan.
The group thinks the district’s plans, which were revised last Friday, are not complete and have left parents, staff and students confused.
The start of the school year has been delayed by two weeks to Aug. 17, but ROCS said it wants a further delay for a “safe, realistic, comprehensive plan” that includes information on how it plans to respond to CDC guidance, contingency plans for what to do when students and staff test positive for the virus and to make masks mandatory.
The district is “expecting” staff and “strongly recommending” students wear masks, but is not requiring them.
ROCS, whose leaders including incoming school board member Tre Hutchins, also wants the district to lay out plans to assist low-income families who may need more digital resources as the school year goes along.
Hutchins was among those speaking this week at a Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting to protest the district’s CARES Act funding request that calls for online content acquisition only, and not funding to aid students already at a disadvantage.
Parents have until Friday to choose a classroom or remote learning option for their students. They will not be allowed to switch options until after the fall semester.
An East Cobb parent who’s been critical of the district on bullying issues has launched an online petition to make masks mandatory in Cobb schools.
Rob Madayag, who briefly was a candidate for the school board seat held by David Banks, said in a social media posting that he’s “still in disbelief that the Cobb County School District would think it’s fine to put an adult teacher in close proximity to 20 or 30 bioweapons factories the entire day without reducing the risk to the teacher by requiring kids wear masks.”
Madayag has long disputed Cobb school district discipline figures. Those will be one of the items to be discussed Thursday at the board’s work session.
The agenda also includes discussion of an anti-racism resolution that was delayed from last month, and another interim spending resolution until the board can finalize a fiscal year 2021 budget.
District officials are expected to present a budget proposal to the board in August. That’s been delayed due to the COVID-related delay in the legislative session, and Thursday’s meeting also calls for what’s called a tentative budget adoption.
Cobb schools gets around half of its $1.1 billion budget from the state, and is anticipating a $62 million shortfall due to state budget cuts.
A virtual budget public forum begins at 9 a.m. Thursday, followed by a virtual tax digest public hearing.
All of Thursday’s meetings can be viewed online here on the Cobb school district’s website, or on Comcast Cable Channel 24.
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Manav Shah, a student at Wheeler High School, sends along the following information and photos about his work with young refugees in Clarkston, and the “Liberated Voices” initiative he started to address issues they face in adapting to American society.
“As Manav interacted with youth at the refugee enclave in Clarkston, Georgia (called the Ellis Island of South), he realized that they faced an uphill battle during the resettlement process in United States. Manav’s further interactions led him to understand the various xenophobic experiences refugees faced on a daily basis resulting in drug abuse and even violence amongst these youth. To help refugee youth cope with these stressful conditions and combat discrimination, Manav started an initiative called “Liberated Voices” that engages youth in critical conversations regarding identity, racism and discrimination. He uses art as a vehicle of communication, because it is independent of language and literacy, and could be the portal into youth’s minds and what they have witnessed. His workshops features artists like Ai WeiWei and Bansky who have ignited social and racial change in local communities by creating ‘protest art’.
Manav Shah
Amina, a participant of these workshops had lived in the United States for more than 5 years, but she was still very anxious to start high school. Amina and her family had left Somalia after the civil war broke out and were forced to live in refugee camps in Kenya. They were amongst the few who got a chance to move to the United States and have been in living in Clarkston, GA for the past few years. She was mocked at and called names like “penguin” as she would wear a hijab at her middle school. She was very worried that she would not fit in her high school.
Amina has been participating in workshops offered by LiberatedVoices and says that these workshops offer a safe environment for her to engage herself in critical conversations regarding identity, racism and discrimination with other refugee youth. She learned about ‘protest art’ and was able to sketch her own experiences with racism and persecution. Amina was able to explore what constitutes “American” identity, and how to be proud of her culture and religion.
Besides Clarkston, Manav has worked with Yazidi refugees in Lincoln, Nebraska and the Rohingya refugees in Chicago, Illinois, empowering about 500 middle-and-high school refugees and minorities. Manav’s honor comes with a $1,000 prize, which he plans to reinvest in his protest art workshops this summer. He has already been able to expand his workshops in Kenya with about 250 children and is in active conversations with refugee communities in Nepal, Belgium and Iraq. His other experience in race relations includes starting a Diversity Club at his school and an internship with Columbia University for research in refugee policies.
“This is what really motivated me – this almost unbreakable cycle of distress peers my age were facing helped me realize that things needed to change,” Manav said. “I’ve learnt so much and been so inspired by my young mentees! One of the biggest things that’s even applicable to my life is that even the smallest changes can make a huge impact. I’ve realized that everyone can change and re-engage in their communities in good ways! That really goes to anyone – especially high school students who want to get involved with improving race relations within their communities. Youth have the power to create any change they want to see if they are passionate. Just go for it!”
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!
Submitted information and photos about three East Cobb students—two from Pope and another from Wheeler—who took place in the 6th Congressional District Art competition:
Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Marietta) has announced the winners of the 2020 Sixth District Congressional Art Competition. McBath recently hosted a virtual reception and awards ceremony with the participants and their families.
“I was so impressed by the talent and creativity of these high schoolers,” said McBath. “I am so grateful to each and every one of our participants for sharing their gifts with our community. These days, it is so important that we celebrate and uplift artists and the beauty they bring to our lives.”
The winners of the Sixth District 2020 Congressional Art Competition are:
First Place:“Puebloan Memories of the Past and Present” by Connor Johnson (Centennial High School)
Second Place:“Stranger” by Evelyn Armstrong (Pope High School)
Third Place:“This is I” by Elisa Xia (Chattahoochee High School)
The first place winner of the competition will have their work displayed in the Cannon Tunnel at the U.S. Capitol. The second place winner will have their work displayed in Rep. McBath’s Washington, DC office. The third place winner will have their work displayed in Rep. McBath’s Sandy Springs District Office.
In total, twenty students competed in the 2020 Sixth District Congressional Art Competition. High schools represented in the competition included Pope High School, Chamblee Charter High School, Milton High School, SKA Academy of Art and Design, Northview High School, Centennial High School, Chattahoochee High School, Johns Creek High School, Wheeler High School, and Cambridge High School. To view a virtual gallery of all submissions for this year’s competition, pleaseclick here.
Founded in 1962, the Congressional Art Competition celebrates and promotes the arts in high schools across America. Over 650,000 students have participated in this competition since its inception. This is Rep. McBath’s second year hosting the competition for the Sixth District.
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!
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Runoffs will be taking place in several primary elections in Cobb County, next month, including the Cobb Board of Commissioners District 2 Republican race.
The runoff elections are on Aug. 11, and early voting starts next week.
From next Monday, July 20, through Aug. 7, voters can go to the Cobb Elections and Registration Office (736 Whitlock Ave., Marietta) from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and cast their ballots.
Early voting also will take place at additional locations, including the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road), from Aug. 3-7 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
There will be no early voting on Sundays, Saturday, Aug. 8, or Monday, Aug. 10.
On Election Day, Tuesday, Aug. 11, voters must go to their assigned polling locations, open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can check your voting status and view a customized sample ballot at the Secretary of State’s My Voter Page.
Cobb Elections officials are saying that lines are expected at all locations, long lines will be expected and that social distancing measures will be followed.
The District 2 commission GOP race is down to East Cobb resident Andy Smith and Vinings resident Fitz Johnson in what was a close three-way race in the July 19 primary.
The winner will face Democrat Jerica Richardson in the November general election.
That’s the only Republican runoff election in Cobb. There’s a Democratic runoff for Cobb Superior Court Clerk between Nancy Syrop and Connie Taylor.
Two non-partisan judicial runoffs also will be taking place. For Superior Court Judge, Jason Marbutt will be facing Greg Shenton. A State Court Judge seat will be decided between Tricia Griffiths and Diana Simmons.
Cobb Elections is seeking poll workers for the runoffs. They must be at least 16 years of age and be U.S. citizens who can read, write and speak English. They also must be Cobb residents with no prior felony convictions for at least 10 years.
All new workers will be trained and will be paid. An online application can be found here.
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday voted to approve an $8.1 million request from the Cobb County School District for resources to bolster online learning, but not after another testy discussion for the second day in a row.
By a 3-2 vote, commissioners signed off on funds from the federal CARES Act so the district can purchase content to add to its Cobb Teaching and Learning online portal that could accommodate the full 113,000-student enrollment for remote instruction if necessary.
The county received $132 million from the federal government to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, and commissioners have spent $50 million for small business grants, as well as funding for non-profits for emergency food supplies and to help tenants work with landlords to pay back rent and avoid eviction.
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the majority of the funding the district was seeking would be spent on content from a variety of sources. In March Cobb schools switched entirely to remote learning, but Ragsdale has said the district needs a “more robust” portfolio of digital materials should classes go 100 percent online.
The Cobb school district has pushed back the start of classes to Aug. 17 to prepare for in-person and online options that parents are choosing this week.
Three other metro Atlanta school districts have said they are holding fall semester classes online only.
Ragsdale told commissioners another superintendent asked him if Cobb would be going to online-only, and he said that “it’s a rumor, but no decision has been made.”
After Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce and Commissioner Lisa Cupid clashed at a Monday work session to hear the district’s proposal, Cupid blistered Ragsdale when she asked whether he had run the request by the Cobb school board.
Ragsdale said that the CTLS project has been in development for several years, and that he had discussed the CARES Act request at school board’s June meeting.
At that point, she interrupted him, saying she’s heard from multiple school board members who’ve said they’ve never been presented with the funding request.
Cupid also said teachers have been e-mailing her about the matter.
“I cannot support anything that my peers on the BOE have not authorized,” said Cupid, of South Cobb, who is facing Boyce in the November election for chairman.
She told Ragsdale that due to the way he presented the funding request, “my intelligence is being undermined.”
Cupid didn’t identify the board members, but she continued expressing concerns from Monday about students lacking access to technology, and implored him to “not let these students fall further behind.”
Several citizens spoke during the commissioners’ public comment session Tuesday in opposition to the district requesting CARES Act funds only for technology. Some identified themselves as Cobb school teachers and a former Cobb school counselor, and said that students in need still need laptops, and teacher and staff need personal protective equipment.
They said they were coming to commissioners because the school board has not heard public comments since going to virtual meetings in March.
The speakers included incoming school board member Tre Hutchins, who also wants the district to regularly provide students with masks, which aren’t in the reopening plans. Staff will be provided masks, although neither they nor students are required to wear them.
Cupid and Keli Gambrill voted against the school district’s funding request; commissioners Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb supported it, as did Boyce.
Boyce said before the vote that Ragsdale’s request federal guidelines for CARES Act distribution.
While he said that “I acknowledge all the issues” commissioners heard, “the real issue” is that the district is facing a $62 million budget deficit.
While CARES Act funding can’t replace all of that, Boyce said the “request reflects the sentiment” of the superintendent and the school board.
Commissioners are delaying a CARES Act request from Marietta City Schools until July 28.
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The final group of National Merit Scholarship recipients this year include three Walton High School seniors who will be receiving aid from their chosen universities.
They are Daniel Catanese (music) and Guy Kemelmakher (mechanical engineering), who will be attending the University of Georgia, and Erik Pitts (business), who is headed to Texas A & M University.
These scholarships range from between $500 and $2,000 each. Recipients were chosen after submitting an application that included an essay describing leadership positions and contributions in school and community activities, as well as their academic and being endorsed and recommended by a high school official.
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For a larger view, click here. Source: Cobb Finance Office
The proposed fiscal year 2021 Cobb government general fund budget revealed Monday is $1.8 million less than the current budget and does not include pay raises for county employees.
During a Cobb Board of Commissioners work session, assistant county finance director Buddy Tesar outlined the proposals that include no new positions, continuing a restricted hiring process and that call for steep reductions in capital expenses.
The $473 million budget proposal holds the line on the current general fund property tax rate of 8.66 mills and assumes a flat tax digest after increases of more than three percent in each of the last two years.
The overall Cobb government budget—which includes separate funds for fire and emergency services, debt service, capital expenses, the hotel-motel tax and other categories—is proposed to be $732.897 million, slightly less than the current $732.998 million.
The first public hearing on the proposed budget will take place at the commissioners’ regular meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The meeting takes place in the second-floor board room of the Cobb government office building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta. You also can watch here or here or on the county’s public access outlet, Channel 23 on Comcast.
For a larger view, click here. Source: Cobb Financial Office
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has been saying since the COVID-19 outbreak that he would not be proposing merit raises but he wants to continue the county’s STEP salary and grade program for public safety employees initiated last year.
The general fund is funded with property tax revenues, and revenue from them in the the FY 2021 general fund budget is projected to be $306 million, up from the current $302 million.
That reflects a small bump in the tax digest, although the millage rate will not be going up. Under state law, that counts as a tax increase, and commissioners are required to hold three public hearings.
Other hearings will take place on July 21 and on July 28, when commissioners are scheduled to adopt the budget.
Personnel costs in the proposed budget would rise from $296.4 million to $316.6 million.
Contingency spending also would go down sharply, from $18 million currently to only $3 million in fiscal year 2021.
Around $12.7 million of that contingency was spent on a four-percent merit increase for county employees, and an additional seven-percent for public safety employees, as commissioners addressed staffing and retention concerns for police officers, firefighters and sheriff’s deputies.
In addition, the economic fallout from COVID-19 closures has produced a steep drop in hotel-motel tax revenues that help the county pay off bond debt for Truist Park.
The proposed hotel-motel tax revenues are $9.9 million, down from the current $17.5 million.
The total proposed for bond stadium debt service is the same as the fiscal year 2020 total of $22.4 million, and would include transfers from other capital service funds. No transfer funding from the hotel-motel tax is included in the budget proposal.
An additional $732,000 in property tax revenues also would be shifted into the stadium debt service fund.
Other revenue losses factored into the budget proposal include cuts of $1.7 million in fines and forfeiture, due to a curtailed court calendar since the virus, as well as a $910,000 loss in licensing and permitting revenue.
The additional personnel costs include increases in pension and health-care costs.
For a larger view, click here. Source: Cobb Finance Office
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Cobb superintendent Chris Ragsdale says the district needs to complete a “more robust” online learning portal.
A presentation by the Cobb County School District for emergency funding resulted in a bit of a clash between county commissioners Monday.
The Cobb and Marietta superintendents are seeking CARES Act funding from the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which is overseeing distribution of $132 million for responses to COVID-19.
Cobb superintendent Chris Ragsdale is seeking $8.1 million for the CCSD to complete development of its Cobb Teaching and Learning System, an online resource that became more heavily utilized than usual when district schools closed to in-person learning in March.
Ragsdale told commissioners that the final phase of the portal, called CTLS Learn, has been in progress but needs to become “a more robust” resource should schools have to close again.
He said the district has redirected existing funding for that effort, “but we’re going to run out of funding” to have CTLS Learn ready by the time classes begin on Aug. 17.
“We have to be prepared with 113,000 students and 8,000 teachers to be online with CTLS without missing a beat,” Ragsdale said.
The district is offering both classroom and remote learning options for students, whose parents have all this week to choose that environment.
The CARES Act funding, Ragsdale said, would enable the district to purchase and develop enough online curriculum materials to accommodate full-fledged distance learning.
CTLS currently has around 700,000 resources, he said, and the additional elements would be purchased from vendors, obtained from open sources and developed in-house.
Ragsdale also said that unlike the end of the last school year, when students’ grades as of March 13 were allowed to stand, there will be academic accountability.
Commissioner Lisa Cupid, who represents South Cobb, said she was disappointed the district’s proposal didn’t include technology assets—computers and internet access—for students in need.
Ragsdale said that wasn’t part of his proposal, and based on unused Chrome Books that were given out this summer to students in need, he was confident the district could provide them.
She also asked if the district would be providing masks to students, since they’re not going to be required, and Ragsdale said that each student would be given one mask. Masks also will be available for teachers and staff, who are “expected” to wear them.
At that point, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce cut off Cupid, saying her questions were off-topic, telling her “I’m running this meeting.”
She protested, saying all aspects of the district’s preparations for the start of school were germane.
(Boyce and Cupid will be squaring off in the November general election in the chairman’s race).
Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb told Ragsdale that “all this could have been avoided” if the district had requested funding to pay employees and for personal protective equipment (PPE).
“If you had done that, there would have been no questions from the board,” Ott said. “I’d rather see a request for PPE than for a learning system.”
Ragsdale said he was asking the county for online learning funding since that’s “a finite amount of money, “whereas PPE funding “is a flexible amount.”
The Cobb school district received $16 million in CARES Act funding from the Georgia Department of Education, and Ragsdale told commissioners that’s being used to pay for employees providing student meals during the summer, and to help offset an anticipated $62 million budget deficit.
When asked by Commissioner Keli Gambrill of North Cobb if the CTLS Learn could be completed by Aug. 17, Ragsdale said it could.
Marietta City Schools are asking for $2.9 million in CARES Act funding from the county, to be used for social distancing and safety measures that include classroom partitions and required masks, and for staffing to provide daily temperature checks for students.
Superintendent Grant Rivera also wants to purchase Chrome Books for every student in the district, which has around 9,000 students.
Commissioners will take action on both funding requests at their voting meeting Tuesday morning.
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As shops at The Avenue East Cobb continue to open—around 40 tenants are open for business now—the retail center’s management has scheduled some outdoor activities in the summer months (we noted previously a car show that took place in late June.)
On July 23 there will be the third in a series of Dinner & Drive-In Movie Nights, with a Christmas in July theme. Santa Claus will arrive in a convertible and show the movie The Grinch, around dusk.
Coming up on Aug. 22 will be the Chalk It Up! Birthday Bash for BoB, a fundraiser and celebration of the Box of Balloons non-profit. Families will reserve a parking spot for a donation to the organization and decorate it with chalk for prizes.
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!
A Cobb GIS Map of COVID-19 deaths by ZIP code, with icons showing the locations of long-term care homes. For more details click here.
Since we began breaking down COVID-19 cases, deaths and other data in Cobb County and specifically East Cobb, we’ve been getting queries from readers imploring us to dig further into the numbers.
Some think the seriousness of the virus is overstated considering the high number of people who test negative and the very high percentage of those who recover.
They worry that a slide back into lockdowns would not only devastate the local economy, but some wonder if there isn’t an intent to close things down until after the November elections.
Others think we’re not doing enough to illustrate the spread of a virus that’s killed and sickened far too many people, and that we should hunker down until the case numbers decline, or a vaccine is developed.
Most just want to know how to better understand numbers that are floating around in incredible quantities, and from an increasing variety of sources.
The biggest problem is the limited range of the data that is community-specific, and especially pertaining to East Cobb.
On Friday a total of 339 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Cobb County, a weekday single-day high since the Georgia Department of Public Health began issuing daily updates in March.
(A total of 556 new cases were reported in Cobb on Monday, July 6, reflecting a lag due to the Independence Day holiday weekend.)
As of Friday in Cobb County, there were 6,708 confirmed cases of COVID-19, fourth-highest in Georgia, and 250 deaths, second only to Fulton County.
On Saturday, Cobb’s case count rose by 232, to 6,950 cases, and three more deaths were added, for 253 overall.
Those are staggering numbers, and some readers have been asking us what exactly do they mean? It’s easy to see graphs and charts showing big jumps in cases alone and get very jittery. How concerned should we be?
What’s the larger context we should be thinking about? Who’s getting the most sick and dying the most, and who’s experiencing only mild symptoms or none at all?
Cobb and Douglas Public Health figures showing higher case rates for younger age groups. For more local data click here.
This more recent crest of cases—which is disproportionately affecting younger age groups—is not bringing with it the death rates we saw in the spring, when many elderly and at-risk people were the primary casualties.
The Cobb and Douglas Public Health website, like the state’s, has a lot of valuable information, but quite often it’s hard to parse data that readers say they want us to examine.
CDPH breaks down cases by age group, but not deaths. It also tracks the test positivity rate (how many people test positive against all those it tests), which is at 6.76 percent in Cobb, up from around five percent just a few weeks ago.
Those are figures noted by Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, who issued a public health alert last week as a result.
CDPH has tested 18,571 people in Cobb County. If you factor in those 253 deaths, that’s 1.36 percent of people in Cobb who’ve been tested for the virus—at least by our public health agency—who’ve died.
If you measure deaths against what as of Saturday is now 6,940 positive cases (what’s called a case fatality rate), that figure is 3.6 percent.
Cobb government’s Geographic Information Systems department also has been tracking COVID numbers, focusing mostly on data stemming from case and death counts.
How many of those who are testing positive these days are seriously ill? Beyond hospitalization numbers, which have been going up in Cobb and elsewhere in Georgia but are still considered manageable, that’s unclear.
How many people have mild or no symptoms at all also isn’t known. Since anyone is being encouraged to get tested, it would be helpful to know how many asymptomatic cases there are. But that’s data that isn’t readily available.
In East Cobb, we’ve had 1,271 confirmed cases of the virus, and 44 deaths. That’s up from 1,034 and 41 a week ago. But that’s about all that we know, for now.
As we noted in that last report, 16 of those deaths were in ZIP Code 30068, in East Cobb, which has a number of long-term care homes.
While that information has been helpful, it’s become public only in recent weeks. There’s nothing more in the ZIP Code data to indicate the infection rate (those who test positive against those tested) and the case fatality rate.
We don’t even know the age, gender or racial breakdowns by ZIP Code, or how many of those cases involved people with other underlying health issues.
This is information that might calm the fears of many citizens, fears that have been skyrocketing in recent weeks.
Right before Friday’s numbers came out, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said he wouldn’t issue a mask mandate, as some mayors have done in Georgia, because he thinks it’s unenforceable.
After Friday’s numbers were reported, the Cobb County School District issued revised reopening plans that do not require staff or students to wear masks.
That’s set off a firestorm of emotion and anxiety that figures to get even more heated before classes start next month.
How masks became such a fraught issue is a topic for another column, but it does show the continuing uncertainty, not just over data, but how to interpret it and how to develop strategies to combat the virus.
We are drowning in data without having a better understanding of it. Other data that might better explain how many people seriously become sick, or not, is harder to come by.
Yet politicians and public health officials keep peddling the same pedestrian messages they have since March—wash your hands, practice social distancing, and wear a mask in public.
Gee, thanks Mom.
After four months, this is all they can still say? This isn’t reassuring the public any more than continuing to extend emergency orders, as the governor and judges have done, at least until August, and possibly into the fall.
How much longer will business owners, employees, students and parents, religious worshippers, sports fans and everyday citizens be told to continue placing their lives and well-being on indefinite hold?
How much longer will there be public demands to mask up, and lock down, healthy people? Especially school children, who are in an age group with the fewest virus cases of all? Is this even a good thing for our society to expect?
The numbers are all over the place, begging to be better organized, and so are the reactions to a crisis that seems to have no end.
Cobb County appears to be in good shape, based on data that goes beyond raw case and death counts.
However, those are the metrics that dominate government response, media coverage and good bit of public opinion.
They’re also feeding a social contagion that’s sweeping through our country faster than COVID-19, and that might be the most difficult outbreak of all to contain.
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!
