A couple weeks ago we brought you the story of Charlie Porter, an East Cobb resident who was preparing for a kidney transplant, along with his son Teddy, who was his donor.
That procedure took place last Tuesday in Nashville, and this morning we got the following information and photo above from Charlie:
“I have been in a bit of a bubble since surgery but now that my head is clearing, I wanted to let you know that the transplant was a huge success. Teddy did great and he is now back home being taken care of by his mother and girlfriend. I’ll remain in Nashville for another six weeks or so.
“The surgical staff, nurses etc are all very happy with how everything went.”
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!
The following East Cobb residential real estate sales between July 10-14, 2023, were compiled from agency reports. They include the subdivision name and high school attendance zone in parenthesis:
July 10
4655 Andrea Pointe, 30062 (Hadley Walk, Pope): $1.05 million
2081 Reverie Ridge, 30068 (Reverie, Walton): $3.35 million
1055 Della Street, 30068 (Brighton Park, Wheeler): $467,500
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!
As he was planning another back-t0-school extravaganza earlier this summer, D.A. Layne lost his mother.
She was so much more than a parent, as he told friends and participants at his 5th annual In The Layne Backpack-N-Swag event Saturday in East Cobb.
She was his inspiration for so many things beyond the successful basketball career he enjoyed at Wheeler High School and the University of Georgia.
She taught him to give back to the community, and helped him start the event that provides free backpacks and school supplies for students in need at the start of the school year.
“What she wanted for me was what she wanted for all of us,” Layne said as a small group of friends and families honored her memory with a balloon release at the basketball courts at Grace Church Marietta on Holt Road.
Earlier in the afternoon, families turned out to enjoy food, live music, bouncy houses and the backpack giveaways.
While there was plenty of labor and goodies donated—including the box lunches from Zaxby’s—Layne said his foundation pays for the backpacks and school supplies.
Nearly 500 people signed up in advance, and Layne said they had to cut off registration after that.
“We want to reach everybody we can,” he said, adding that those turning out come from beyond the East Cobb community to include other parts of metro Atlanta. “Thousands even.”
He began In the Layne Hoops to help children through basketball, but his community work has gone beyond the court.
During the Christmas holiday season, he works with sponsors to hold a toy drive for children who otherwise wouldn’t get gifts.
It’s part of what he said his mother stressed to him from a very young age, and it’s an influence he hopes to continue spreading.
“We’re still grieving here,” he said. “But we have to keep it going.”
Layne and his family observe a moment of silence for his mother before a balloon release in her honor.
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It made common sense as a first-time business owner to meet others for networking, referrals, and doing some business.
What I didn’t know was the extent to which many of these small-business owners go to serve their communities.
As in really serving their communities.
After a corporate sales career, ECBA member Butch Carter in 2013 became the owner of Honest-1 Auto Care in East Cobb and Johns Creek, and where I’ve happily had my vehicles serviced over the years.
But like many business owners I’ve come to know through ECBA and elsewhere, that’s only the start of what Carter means for the community.
He’s also the current president of the Rotary Club of East Cobb, which next weekend will stage its biggest fundraiser, the Dog Days Run.
The Rotary Club is involved in charitable work in this community and beyond to an amazing degree, and has set a goal of raising $100,000 from that event that it will give out to more than 20 non-profit organizations.
Carter touched on this effort earlier this month at the ECBA regular business luncheon, which was themed around the ideas of business and community building.
“We’re typical of a lot of small businesses in East Cobb in that we give back to the community,” Carter said.
He calls what he advocates “cause marketing” and at the luncheon representatives of other Cobb non-profits spoke, including Shelly Owen of the Cobb Community Foundation, which she says connects “donors who care with causes they like.
“We’re not the fixer of the problem, but we’re the convener of those who can.”
She said the CCF last did an extensive human needs assessment in 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, and will be conducting another one this fall.
CCF helps connect major and corporate donors with its Corporate Community Champions program.
“It’s an awesome way to connect with others in the community,” Owen said.
On a small-business scale, Honest-1 is involved in efforts to raise awareness for breast cancer that started by selling pink wiper-blades.
He urged his fellow business owners to think creatively about how they can help, by donating items or products or services from their businesses, as well as expertise.
An Air Force veteran, Carter has has held cookouts for veterans at his shop on East Cobb Drive and has supported the work of United Military Care, an East Cobb non-profit that assists veterans and next weekend will have its We CARE Vet Fair at the Cobb Civic Center.
It’s a place for veterans who need services, help navigating the Veterans Administration bureaucracy, and basic assistance with food, housing and medical care.
Leenie Ruben, a retired marketing professional who does community outreach for United Military Care, has found the value of associating with the ECBA, and attends many events.
She said at the luncheon that the work of UMC continues to grow, with the ranks of veterans in Cobb County swelling to more than 44,000.
Another longtime ECBA member, Susan Hampton, has spearheaded the organization’s sponsorship of an appreciation dinner for Cobb Police Precinct 4 staff and the entire Cobb Fire and Emergency Services Department.
She’s expanded that advocacy into a role with the Cobb County Public Safety Foundation, a non-profit that supports local public safety professionals.
Next Saturday, that group also will have a benefit event, the First Responder 5K Run/Walk, at The Battery Atlanta.
ECBA member Susan Hampton is also involved with the Cobb Public Safety Foundation and the East Cobb Lions Club.
Hampton, a former East Cobb Citizen of the Year, also is involved with the East Cobb Lions Club, which conducts 15,000 eye screenings a year for children in need.
These are all examples of what MUST Ministries CEO Dr. Ike Reighard offered to urge business owners and leaders to start “kicking your buts.”
“I would like to help, but . . . ” is the common refrain that Reighard, also the senior pastor of Piedmont Church in East Cobb, said he has heard in many years of community advocacy.
He picked up on the theme of cause marketing by explaining that “people look for companies and organizations that are oriented that way.”
He rattled off many things that “volunteering does for you,” including making new friends and staying connected with people close, instead of resorting to screen companionship.
“You get surrounded by people who have the same values that you have,” Reighard said. “And you’re building friendships along the way. It makes you happier.”
Volunteering “also gets you out of your comfort zone. The day your memories are greater than your dreams, you’re dead in the water. It gives you a sense of purpose.”
Carter said the work of blending business and serving community is an easy “win-win” for both.
“Our goal is to help build a better community.”
If you’d to get involved in any of these organizations financially and/or as a volunteer—and you don’t have to be a business owner—here are their links:
95 percent of Mt. Bethel ES third-graders were reading above grade levels in the 2022-23 academic year.
For the second year in a row, students at some East Cobb schools turned in some of the best results in the Georgia Milestones testing for the 2022-23 school year.
And students at other schools in East Cobb continued to struggle, reflecting slightly changed results overall from 2022, according to Georgia Department of Education data released Friday.
Georgia Milestones test students in grades 3-8 in English Language Arts and math, in grades 5-8 in those subjects plus science, and those areas plus social studies in grade 8. High school students are tested in American Literature, algebra, biology and U.S. history.
Students are categorized in one of four levels, based on those test scores: Level 1 is Beginning Learner, Level 2 is a Developing Learner, Level 3 is a Proficient Learner and Level 4 is Distinguished Learner.
Educators across the state and in Cobb County have been emphasizing ways to address learning loss due to COVID-19 disruptions, especially in third-grade reading, a key benchmark of early literacy.
Across the state, ELA Milestones scores among third-graders in 2023 rose three percentage points and the percentage of third-graders reading at or above grade-level was up slightly, from 64 to 66 percent.
In ELA, 78.9 percent of Cobb students were rated as developing learners or above, and 78.7 percent met the same threshold in all subjects.
The Cobb County School District said in a release Friday that those scores were among those that led metro Atlanta.
Across the board, 73.8 percent of Cobb students were reading at or above grade level, trailing only Fulton County.
In several East Cobb schools, third-grade reading achievements were high, with Timber Ridge (96.7 percent), Mt. Bethel (95), Tritt (94.9), Shallowford Falls (93.1), Murdock (92.2), Mountain View (91.6) and Sope Creek (90.1) leading the way with students at or above grade-level.
In the ELA results, 50.7 percent of Tritt third-graders (138 students testing) were distinguished learners.
Conversely, students at other East Cobb elementary schools struggled, with those scores under 70 percent among third-graders at the following schools: Keheley (67.9), Powers Ferry (67.2), Bells Ferry (62.7) and Brumby (55.1).
More than half of the 158 third-grade students who tested at Brumby (51.3) were considered only beginning learners in ELA.
Four East Cobb elementary schools were among the Top 10 in Georgia fifth-graders reading at or above grade level: Timber Ridge (98.8 percent), Mt. Bethel (97,4) and Rocky Mount and Sope Creek (94.6).
Several East Cobb middle schools turned in high marks for percentage of proficient learners.
In ELA, those schools were Dickerson (82.6), Dodgen (76.5), Hightower Trail (76.0), Mabry (74,4) and Simpson (71.2). In eighth-grade math, Dickerson (87.8), Dodgen (80.7) and Hightower Trail (80.2) also led Cobb schools.
At the high school level, full-year End of Course test results were similar to 2022. The Cobb school district percentage of students at or above grade-level in reading was 77.3.
Grade-level or above reading status was tops at Lassiter (96.1), Pope (94.4), Walton (92.6), followed by Kell (81.9), Sprayberry (75.6) and Wheeler (73.8).
Walton students had the highest full-year EOC percentages of proficiency learners or above in Cobb in all four testing areas: American Literature (84,3), Algebra I (69.8), Biology (89.2) and U.S. History (83.2).
Lassiter and Pope students weren’t far behind in those categories, while Wheeler students had the lowest proficiency or above learners across the board, including 36.1 percent in Algebra I and 47.7 percent in U.S. History.
Here’s more of a breakdown on the Milestones assessments from the Georgia DOE, including state, school system and school level scores from both last winter semester and the past spring semester.
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 Board of Education candidate John Cristadoro said Friday that a number of prominent business, community, educational and political leaders have endorsed his campaign for the East Cobb-based Post 5 seat.
They include former Cobb commissioner and Georgia Public Service commissioner Stan Wise, Superior Plumbing CEO Jay Cunningham and former Cobb Republican Party chairs Scott Johnson and Rose Wing.
Cristadoro is a Republican with two children in the Walton attendance zone who is seeking the seat currently held by GOP school board vice chairman David Banks, who has not said said if he will be seeking a fifth term next year.
The Post 5 seat includes the Walton, Wheeler and Pope attendance zones. Democrat Laura Judge, also a parent in the Walton zone, has announced her candidacy.
Cristadoro is a first-time candidate but has compiled a lengthy list of influential supporters he’s calling his “campaign leadership team.”
They include John Loud, CEO of Loud Security Systems and a former chairman of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce and Scott Sweeney, a former school board member from East Cobb who’s the current chairman of the Georgia Board of Education.
Cunningham is one of four current members of the Cobb County School District’s Finance and Technology Committee that conducts oversight of the education SPLOST to endorse Cristadoro.
The others are Shane Spink, a community leader in the Sprayberry High School area and Wayne Brown, an engineer, both appointed by Post 4 Republican school board member David Chastain.
Lesley Litt, business executive, was appointed by Republican Brad Wheeler and Cunningham by Republican Randy Scamihorn.
The seats held by Banks, Wheeler, Scamihorn and Democrat Tre’ Hutchins will be up for election in 2024.
As East Cobb News first reported earlier this month, Cristadoro has raised nearly $30,000—loaning his campaign $10,000—for what’s expected to be an expensive campaign. Judge has raised nearly $9,000.
In his release Friday, Cristadoro said of his new supporters that “I am very honored these known leaders have chosen to join our campaign team. They will be very beneficial in assisting our campaign goal to keep the Cobb County School District strong and a recognized leader in academics.”
Stan Wise—Former Ga. Public Commissioner, Cobb County Commissioner
Jay Cunningham—CEO of Superior Plumbing, CCSD F & T Committee
Scott Johnson—Served on Georgia Board of Education; previous Chairman of Cobb GOP
Shane Spink—F & T Committee Member for CCSD and businessman
Alice Stouder—Former Cobb school district assistant superintendent
Wayne Brown—Member of CCSD F & T Committee
Lawson Kirkland—Senior V.P. in the banking industry
Peter Heinzleman—Former CEO of Cobb EMC and current business owner
Lesley Litt—Immediate Past Chair of CCSD F & T Committee and CEO of CrystalFlex
Hilda Wilkins—Retired Cobb school principal and Director of Accreditation for Cobb Schools
Dan Joy—Principal with Rule Joy Tramell & Rule Architecture Design
Dan Payrow—President of R.S. Andrews
Rose Wing—Attorney and former Cobb assistant district attorney and previous Cobb GOP Chair
Tracy Cullo—Chair of East Cobb Republican Women’s Club
Simone Thomas—East Cobb Community resident and community activist
Irey Sanders—Regional V.P of Brasfield & Gorrie
Pam & Tom Reardon—Cobb Republican activists
Bob Kilinski—Regional Operating Partner Keller Williams International
Jeff Chassner—Chief Sales Officer at New Realm
Lewis Lampley—Senior Clinical Research at Boston Scientific
Stephanie Joseph—East Cobb Resident and community activist.
Ryan Casey—Owner of Paper Connexion
Michael Trent—CEO of Trent Consulting and youth baseball coach
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!
Workers were completing finals tasks after a new steeple was raised at Sandy Plains Baptist Church Wednesday. ECN photo
It’s been nearly three years since the steeple at Sandy Plains Baptist Church (2825 Sandy Plains Road) was destroyed during a storm.
So at long last—and after numerous delays—the new steeple was ready to be put into place on Wednesday, and the congregation decided to make an event out of it.
News media were contacted, church members set up tents to cool off while they and the public watched, and the proceedings were live-streamed for nearly six hours (see video link below).
A large crane lifted up the base, which was fastened into place by two workers, and then the steeple was lifted up and fastened above that, finished off by the installation of thecross
It was a painstaking process to replace the destroyed steeple that went up in the 1990s, when the church had to be rebuilt due to a fire.
The initial delays were prompted by COVID-19. Later, the replacement steeple exceeded county height restrictions and had to be redesigned.
The first services with the new steeple take place on Sunday.
Sandy Plains Baptist Church photos and livestream.
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 commissioner Jerica Richardson announced this week that there will be what she’s calling a “Home Buyer’s Empowerment Seminar” Sunday from 2-5 p.m. at the Cobb Civic Center (548 South Marietta Parkway SE).
It’s aimed at first-time home buyers who need assistance in getting started, including finance how-tos.
There will be speakers, an overview of the mortgage process and a look at the local market, affordable housing, preparing for homeownership and a Q and A with housing professionals.
The seminar is free and you’re asked to register by clicking here.
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!
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said she didn’t offer a substitute motion to reduce the general fund millage rate by 0.21 mills because she couldn’t get any support.
Cobb’s two Republican commissioners wanted to reduce the general fund millage rate Tuesday before adopting the fiscal year 2024 county budget, but couldn’t get their Democratic colleagues to agree.
Even after more than two dozen citizens pleaded for a cut in the wake of rising property assessments, commissioners voted along party lines to preserve the 8.46 general fund millage rate.
The vote to set the millage rate was 3-2, with the Democrats voting in favor and the Republicans against.
That came after a substitute motion by Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill to roll back the general fund millage rate to 7.168, which would match current FY 2023 revenues.
That motion failed, with Gambrill and fellow Republican JoAnn Birrell voting in favor, and the Democrats opposed.
The vote to adopt the $1.2 billion spending plan, which takes effect on Oct. 1, went along the same 3-2 split.
“I can’t support this budget,” said Birrell, who at a town hall meeting last week said she was working to find a way to cut the general fund rate.
But during a nearly three-hour discussion on the budget Tuesday, she didn’t offer a proposal, saying she couldn’t generate any support from commissioners.
That apparently included Gambrill, whose motion to cut the general fund rate even further took Birrell by surprise.
The difference between the 7.168 and 8.46 mills is 18 percent, according to Cobb Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann, and that represents a dollar difference of $54.4 million.
The millage rate action also moved the Cobb fire fund up slightly to 2.99 mills; the rollback rate for that is 2.64 mills.
Residents from around the county spoke during the final public hearing on the millage rate and budget to say that much higher tax bills they’ll pay in October compound their struggles to pay for rising costs for housing, food and utilities.
Some said they or people they know may be priced out of their homes.
Since she moved into her current East Cobb home four years ago, Robin Moody told commissioners her tax bill has gone from $1,900 to $3.500.
“On behalf of Cobb County, we can’t afford this right now,” she said.
Others said that renters will be hurt because their property owners can’t claim homestead exemptions.
A few spoke on behalf of the proposed budget, including Jackie Bettadapur of East Cobb, the former Cobb Democratic Party chairwoman, who asked that the millage rate not be lowered.
She said that Cobb homeowners have been “insulated” with a floating homestead exemption and an exemption from school taxes for homeowners 62 and over, and that the demand for county services is growing, and getting more expensive.
“None of this is free and all of this is subject to inflationary pressures,” she said.
The new budget includes $19 million more in spending than the current FY 2023 budget.
Birrell repeated concerns she expressed at the town hall, saying that while she supports some of the additional spending—especially for public safety salaries and benefits—”these things have to be sustainable.”
She was against the creation of 34 new jobs across county government, and said that her proposed 0.21 mills reduction would take out $8.1 million in spending.
“It’s not much but it’s something,” she said, adding that the only way to stop “overspending” is to roll back millage rate to 7.168.
“Cobb has always been a county that other counties look up to,” Birrell said. “But we’re going in a downward spiral that needs to stop.”
But Democratic commissioner Monique Sheffield of South Cobb said the county has an obligation “as the Good Book tells us” to help and share with others, especially those in need.
She also reminded citizens that for most of them, their school taxes represent the biggest portions of their tax bills—in some cases more than 60 percent—and noted that some of those complaining to the county don’t go to school board meetings.
Last week the Cobb Board of Education lowered its millage rate by 0.2 mills but also adopted a $1.4 billion FY 2024 budget that is higher than last year.
“I urge you to be more vocal at the school board meetings because that’s where the majority of your tax increase is coming from,” Sheffield said.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said the county simply can’t curtail the millage rate because of growing obligations for services, and said that would have “drastic repercussions” because the county staffing levels haven’t fully recovered from recession years.
She referenced a 2016 rollback pushed through by then-Chairman Tim Lee and supported by Birrell that resulted in a $30 million budget deficit.
His successor, Republican Mike Boyce, got a millage rate increase passed in 2018 that Cupid support but Birrell opposed.
“What we’d be essentially doing is going back and not doing what our citizens expect of us,” Cupid said of a rollback.
“This is not easy for anyone, but if we don’t make decisions today we will have even more dire decisions to make tomorrow.”
Commissioners also voted 5-0 to ratify the school board’s millage rate adoption, as it is required to do so by law. When asked if commissioners had any discretion to do otherwise, County Attorney Bill Rowling said such an action would likely lead to litigation.
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!
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!
David Zandstra after his arrest in Cobb; Gretchen Harrington. Photos: Delaware Co. (Pa.) district attorney
A retired minister who has been living in East Cobb has been charged with abducting and killing an eight-year-old girl who was attending Bible school at his church in Pennsylvania nearly 50 years ago.
The district attorney in Delaware County, Pa., west of Philadelphia, said Monday that David George Zandstra, 83, has been charged with murder and kidnapping of a minor and the possession of an instrument of crime.
Zandstra was taken into custody on July 17 by Cobb Police after being questioned by Delaware County investigators who had traveled to Marietta.
He remains in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center after being denied bail, charged with being a fugitive from justice, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
Gretchen Harrington went missing on August 15, 1975, as she was walking in Marple Township, Pa., to Bible school at Trinity Church Chapel Christian Reform Church, where Zandstra was a pastor. The girl’s father was a pastor at The Reformed Presbyterian Church nearby, which also served as a venue for the Bible school.
The DA’s office said her father became worried when she didn’t show up at the latter church that day, and reported her missing to police.
Gretchen Harrington’s skeletal remains were identified at a state park several miles away on Oct. 14, 1975.
But the case into finding her killer went cold after some early leads fizzled, according to a release on Monday from Jack Stollsteimer, the district attorney in Delaware County.
A witness at the time said the victim was seen with the driver of a Cadillac or station wagon. The driver was interviewed by police but denied seeing the girl on the date she disappeared, the DA’s office said.
After living in Pennsylvania, Zandstra resided in Plano, Texas, before moving to the Marietta area. His Cobb booking report residence is listed as being in the Lakewood Colony neighborhood, off Shallowford Road and west of Trickum Road.
Cobb property tax records indicate Zandstra and his wife have owned a home in that subdivision since 2005.
The case was revived when Delaware County investigators earlier this year talked to an individual who said she was best friends with Zandstra’s daughter, and who would stay at the minister’s home for sleepovers when she was a girl.
The witness said that when she was 10, she was awakened by Zandstra groping her, and another friend told her that he “did that sometimes,” according to the Delaware County DA.
That was right before Gretchen Harrington went missing. The same witness also told authorities a child in her class was almost kidnapped twice, and noted in her diary that she thought Zandstra might have been behind those attempts, the DA’s office said in the release.
After the DA’s office located Zandstra in the Marietta area, investigators traveled to Georgia earlier this month to talk to him.
Stollsteimer said Zandstra initially denied any involvement in Gretchen’s disappearance and killing, then was told of the witness’ allegations of his sexual misconduct.
Zandstra said he saw Gretchen Harrington walking by herself along a road as he drove in a green station wagon on the day she disappeared. He offered to drive her to the Bible school and she accepted.
Instead, he drove to a wooded area, parked the car, and asked her to remove her clothing, the DA’s office said.
Stollsteimer said Zandstra then told his investigators that after she refused to comply, he struck her in the head with his fist, causing her to bleed, and he tried to bury her body before leaving the area.
Stollsteimer said Zandstra is refusing to waive extradition to Pennsylvania, and that a request will be submitted to Gov. Josh Shapiro to forward to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
“Justice does not have an expiration date. Whether a crime happened fifty years ago or five minutes ago, the residents of the Commonwealth can have confidence that law enforcement will not rest until justice is served,” Lt. Jonathan Sunderlin of the Pennsylvania State Police said in the Delaware County DA’s release.
Stollsteimer thanked Cobb Police among various law enforcement agencies that have been working on the case for decades.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children issued a statement from the Harrington family:
“We are extremely hopeful that the person who is responsible for the heinous crime that was committed against our Gretchen will be held accountable. It’s difficult to express the emotions that we are feeling as we take one step closer to justice.
“If you met Gretchen, you were instantly her friend. She exuded kindness to all and was sweet and gentle. Even now, when people share their memories of her, the first thing they talk about is how amazing she was and still is…at just 8 years old, she had a lifelong impact on those around her.
“The abduction and murder of Gretchen has forever altered our family and we miss her every single day. We are grateful for the continual pursuit of justice by law enforcement, and we want to thank the Pennsylvania State Police for never stopping in their constant search for answers. We would not be here today if it was not for them. Thank you for your understanding, love, and continued support. It means the world to us.”
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Suzette Spinelli of Lassiter talks to the media after being told she was the Cobb school district’s 2023 high school teacher of the year. ECN photo and video
For Suzette Spinelli, Tuesday started out the same as it had for the last 47 years, the first day back to school for teachers.
The veteran Lassiter High School art teacher wore a light, sleeveless dress on a hot day as she attended a teachers’ assembly at the school’s concert hall, where Cobb County School District Chris Ragsdale was a special visitor.
He had come there not just to thank teachers—”what you do every day makes a difference”—but to acknowledge a certain teacher in particular.
It was Suzette Spinelli, whom he announced had been named the Cobb school district’s high school teacher of the year for 2023.
She was in a total state of surprise as she was greeted by family members bearing flowers and hugs.
“You thought when you got up you were just going to work today,” Ragsdale told her as her colleagues, administrators from Lassiter and Cobb school district and two board members rose to congratulate her.
Now in her 48st year as an educator, Spinelli has been with the Cobb school district for 41 years, and has spent much of her career at East Cobb schools. She’s been at Lassiter since 2001, and previously taught at Daniell and Simpson middle schools.
She said teaching isn’t something she does for recognition.
“This was the last thing I expected,” Spinelli told the media after her honor.
She said for a few years now, she’s been asked how long she might want to continue to teach, but retiring isn’t something that’s crossed her mind.
“Every day, every year is a new beginning,” she said, noting that her first students are now in their early 60s.
“The students haven’t changed in all these years,” Spinelli said. “I see them grow and develop and and I still stay in touch with some of them.”
Spinelli said her passion for teaching stems from her desire to instill creativity in their students, even though most of them won’t have professional arts careers.
Spinelli’s previous teaching stops include Daniell and Simpson middle schools in East Cobb.
She said she’s learned as much from them as she teaches them, and “they have made my art better. . . . Being an art teacher is the best job ever.”
What drives her, she said, is her “hands-on” approach to teaching. “I’m still old school,” Spinelli said, admitting the difficulties of teaching art virtually at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I survived,” she said. “I wasn’t the best at it, but I survived. I just love what I do.”
Her work goes far beyond the classroom, as she has been an advisor and instructor for students entering art competitions, as well as a judge for art shows. She’s also had her own work exhibited at the Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, the Fine Arts Gallery at Kennesaw State University and The Gallery at Johnson Ferry.
Spinelli’s daughter, Cara Smith, was named Chalker Elementary School’s teacher of the year in 2022.
Spinelli was named Lassiter’s teacher of the year in April and is a finalist for the Cobb school district’s overall teacher of the year, which will be announced later in the fall semester.
Ragsdale said that after the individual school teachers of the year are named by their peers, a special committee at the Cobb school district begins the process for choosing the grade-level recipients.
Before his stop at Lassiter, he visited teachers at Awtrey Middle School and Bells Ferry Elementary School, who are the other finalists for overall teacher of the year.
They are Annelisa Bellack at Awtrey, who teaches social studies. Dr. Elizabeth Goff is an English as a Second Language teacher at Bells Ferry.
“It’s an awesome event to go to all three schools,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite things to do.”
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The following East Cobb residential real estate sales between July 3-7, were compiled from agency reports. They include the subdivision name and high school attendance zone in parenthesis:
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From the time he was a young boy, Teddy Porter was raised by his father in a modest home in East Cobb where he participated in a variety of youth sports.
He played recreational basketball at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and baseball at Sandy Plains Baseball, and football in the Pope High School programs. His father was his youth coach for a couple of years.
With his years as a Pope student disrupted by COVID-19 closures and restrictions, Teddy wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after graduating in 2021.
A few months later, Charlie Porter, his father, was told he would need a kidney transplant.
Without hesitation, Teddy volunteered to donate a kidney.
“I thought that I probably had the best chance” to be a good match, he said.
But Charlie was hesitant, even though Teddy did turn out to be an ideal donor.
“I don’t know how much time I have left,” says Charlie, 69, from the living room of his home off North Hembree Road, in an interview this week with East Cobb News.
“But at first I said I don’t want to put my 21-year-old-son under the knife.”
A friend, Brenda Isaac of the One Love Learning Foundation, an Atlanta non-profit that helps children in disadvantaged situations through the establishment of schools and community gardens, reminded him that he wanted to raise his son in a stable community, and that he made sacrifices to do so.
“Here’s his chance to give back,” Charlie recollected Isaac telling him about Teddy’s offer to donate a kidney.
On Tuesday, Charlie, Teddy and Isaac will be in Nashville, where the transplant will take place at Vanderbilt Health.
After the surgery, Teddy will return home after a few days, while Charlie will have to stay for at least a month, and possibly up to eight weeks.
In the months since they made this father-son arrangement, Charlie said he’s been able to reflect upon the role of his children—he has two daughters, 40 and 38, who are Teddy’s half-sisters—who have rushed to their father’s side during his health crisis.
“It’s been a lesson in love for me,” said Charlie, who had to retire last year after a 30-year career in the trade show business. “They’ve shown up unconditionally for me.”
Teddy’s parents are divorced. He was home-schooled for a while until his father got sole custody. His mom is still close by—she’ll be looking after Teddy after he returns from the transplant operation—and he said he doesn’t see much of a downside to being a donor.
“My mom has been very helpful,” Teddy said.
He’ll lose a kidney, but said doctors told him the capacity of his remaining kidney “expands by 20-30 percent.”
There aren’t many side effects, although he can’t take ibuprofen. And he won’t be able to go back to heavy lifting at various trade show jobs he’s had right away.
As a male, he can’t pass on the gene for Alport Syndrome, a rare condition Charlie inherited from his mother.
And if Teddy should need a kidney transplant at some point in his life, he would be a priority since he’s been a donor.
“Most people with this don’t make it to my age,” Charlie says of Alport Syndrome, which affects mostly children and young adults.
He’s had a uralysis every five years, and it’s the one he had in 2021 that resulted in the Alport Syndrome diagnosis.
After about a year, Charlie wanted a second opinion, after enduring quite a bit of fatigue. In addition to his work, he couldn’t even mill around in his garden or volunteer at the One Love Learning gardens, including one at Maynard Jackson High School in Atlanta.
Neither has he been able to continue taking up yoga, which he says has been a revelation to him. After his mother died, he started taking classes at Peach Out Power Yoga in East Cobb, and befriended owner Karen Patton.
“I fell in love with it,” Charlie says. “It changed my life in many ways.”
He credits yoga in part for contributing to his his otherwise good health, which made him a strong candidate for a transplant.
So he’s hopeful about his prospects after the transplant.
“If all goes well, I should be able to get another eight to 10 years,” Charlie said.
“I thought it was 20,” Teddy responded.
On Tuesday, Teddy’s surgery will begin early in the morning, and last around two hours. Charlie’s surgery will take place immediately after that, and he is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days before staying in an Airbnb he has rented out in Nashville.
While he rehabs, there will be follow-up visits with doctors before he’s allowed to return home.
Charlie’s already turning the wheels in his own mind about becoming active in his life again. He served on the board of the East Cobb YMCA, in addition to his career and other community activities.
“I have been active since I was 16 years old,” he said. “That’s been the hardest thing for me. Now I’m starting to look at the other side of this.”
He wants to get back to yoga and gardening, and to see his son further into adulthood. Teddy said he’s pondering college but possibly joining the military more than that.
“This process has been a family affair,” Charlie said. “My three children have rallied around me, and it’s amazing to me that they said they were going to do this together.”
Charlie looked Teddy squarely in the eyes and said “my son gave me a purpose. A big part of my life was raising this boy, and I just wanted him to be a good boy.
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Cobb residents have been up in arms over the prospect of higher property tax bills as Cobb commissioners are scheduled on Tuesday to adopt the fiscal year 2024 budget and millage rates.
Commissioners also are being asked by the Cobb County Water System to raise water and sewer service rates for the second time in less than two years.
An item on Tuesday night’s agenda (you can read it here) is seeking an increase that would raise the average residential bill by more than $5 a month.
The water system said it needs the rate adjustment because it’s costing more to buy chemicals, wholesale water and materials and to dispose of biosolids, as well as to fund “planned infrastructure replacements and upgrades.”
The water system says the average residential customer consumes around 5,000 gallons a month, and is charged around $54.85 for water and sewer and a $7 monthly service charge.
“It should be noted that this is among the lowest rates in the Atlanta Metro area, and it is substantially lower than most other major counties,” the agenda item states.
The rate adjustments would raise water commodity charges (the cost per thousand gallons used) by 7.5 percent and sewer commodity charges by 8.5 percent. The water system also is asking to increase the service charge for all meter sizes.
The rate hike, if approved, would go into effect Oct. 1, when the county’s fiscal year 2024 begins.
“Even with the proposed rate adjustment, our rates will remain lower than other major counties in the metro Atlanta area with our average residential customer,” the agenda item states, “paying $1.35 for the delivery of 100 gallons of treated water, removal of the water once used, treatment of the wastewater to a very high standard, and return of the resource to either Allatoona Lake or the Chattahoochee River where it is available for further use and enjoyment.”
Here is a detailed fee schedule the water agency has submitted with its proposal for a rate increase.
She has been opposed to transferring water system revenues to the county’s general fund and has pushed for that amount to be lowered.
Birrell reiterated that objective at a town hall on Wednesday about the budget and millage rate. The proposed budget would reduce water system revenue transfers from 7 percent to 6 percent.
A final hearing on the proposed budget (details here) and millage rate will be conducted by commissioners at the beginning of the meeting (summary agenda here).
The general fund millage rate is proposed to remain at 8.46 mills but because of rising property tax assessments the state considers that a tax increase and hearings are required.
At Birrell’s town hall and elsewhere citizens have pleaded for a reduction in the millage rate. She said she supports a cut but hasn’t determined how much that might be and needs two other votes from commissioners.
Cobb school board members voted Thursday to adopt a fiscal year 2024 millage rate of 18.7 mills, a 0.2 reduction. But school taxes will still be going up as Cobb announced a record tax digest of $58.1 billion for 2023.
The full agenda for Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting can be found by clicking here.
It begins at 7 p.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
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Last weekend, Habitat for Humanity of NW Metro Atlanta and the Cobb Interfaith Habitat Coalition (CIHC) hammered the first nails and raised the first walls on their 22rd annual Habitat house.
This year’s faith groups include Smyrna First United Methodist Church, Bethany United Methodist Church, the Islamic Center of Marietta, East Cobb Islamic Center, Temple Kol Emeth, St. Thomas the Apostle, Log Cabin Church, Covenant UMC, Unity North Church, McEachern United Methodist Church, St. Catherine’s Episcopal, First Presbyterian of Marietta, and Due West United Methodist Church.
This year’s corporate partners include Pinkerton & Laws Construction of Atlanta, Fortune Johnson, Foresite Group, Moore Colson, Atlanta West Carpets, and Nissan.
The build is for future homeowner Vernita, who has worked as a General Manager at McDonald’s for 21 years. Vernita is always willing to lend a helping hand, a quality that has allowed her to create a family environment with her work staff. She chose this role because it gave her the flexibility to spend time with her daughter Diamond, who is now 21.
The family of two lives in a Villa Rica apartment where the living conditions are very stressful. Vernita didn’t think she would be able to afford the down payment on a home, but now that she is approved for Habitat for Humanity’s affordable homeownership program, she is so excited to have a place to call home. She is most excited about spending time outside working in the yard.
“For more than two decades multiple religious organizations from many different faiths and denominational backgrounds, come together with corporate partners for the common purpose to build,” says Jessica Gill, CEO, Cobb County Habitat Coalition.”
The CIHC coalition uses the motto, ‘We Build to Coexist, We Coexist to Build’. Henry Hene, longtime coalition co-chair said, “Despite obstacles, and regardless of the economy, for 22 years, this coalition stayed the course of showing selfless service and demonstrating faith in action.”
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Carly Lyon reads to the school board from “My Shadow is Purple,” the book at the heart of the firing of a Cobb school teacher over Georgia’s divisive concepts in education law.
Although they weren’t permitted to directly address the firing of a Cobb County School District teacher over Georgia’s “divisive concepts” in education law, parents, teachers and other citizens found a creative way to get their point across on Thursday.
During a public comment session at a Cobb Board of Education meeting, a speaker read from the book that got fifth-grade teacher Katie Rinderle fired from her position at Due West Elementary School.
The book in question, “My Shadow is Purple,” by Australian author Scott Stuart, is a picture book about a child of elementary school age who doesn’t identify as a boy or a girl, but falls into what has been called by some as “non-binary.”
Among the charges against Rinderle is that she told students to use “they/them” pronouns to refer to the main character of the book instead of a gender-specific identifier.
Speakers at the school board meetings were told by Suzann Wilcox, the school board attorney, they couldn’t comment about a pending personnel matter. Rinderle is appealing her termination and a hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 10.
Michael Garza
The Cobb school district concluded the subject matter taught by Rinderle violates the 2022 divisive concepts law, which bars educators from teaching that racism is “systematically” racist, that a group of people is inherently “oppressive” and covers some issues about sex and gender identity.
The law that prompted an outcry from teachers and education organizations across the state as being draconian and lawsuits have been filed.
Rinderle’s termination, which came after the school district investigated complaints by Due West parents, is the first in Georgia since the law was passed.
For some parents, who came to the school board meeting wearing purple shirts saying “Ban Bias Not Books,” the action smacks of what they claim is the district’s lack of an embrace of a diversity and inclusion agenda.
Jeff Hubbard, president of the Cobb County Association of Educators, asked that the district reinstitute “No Place for Hate,” a curriculum program developed by the Anti-Defamation League.
Anna Clay, who said she is a Cobb teacher, was wearing a purple shirt.
She said the schools “should be welcoming of all students. Some are boys. Some are girls. Some are neither. Some are trans. Some are still figuring it out. They all deserve to be treated with respect. They all deserve to be represented in classroom literature.
“Our students are human beings, not divisive concepts.”
Michael Garza of East Cobb adapted a portion of the book’s text to explain his some of his educational experiences, and to comment on the Cobb school district’s actions.
Caryn Sonderman
“What I am left wondering is why is hate speech always free, yet your administration is quick to dismiss speech that validates me,” he said. “Being gay, being brown, being Jewish, being different is not a sin. When we all band together, your bigoted policies will not win.”
At a Thursday afternoon work session, Caryn Sonderman of East Cobb thanked the district for not allowing the teaching of those issues.
She said that the “truth is found in only one source God’s word. . . Are you building the kingdom of Satan or are you building the kingdom of God?”
“Children are being confused and deceived when God clearly made a man and a woman, a boy and girl, and you influence children to get them to think they can be other than what God made them to be.”
Board members did not comment, but later in the meeting approved a request by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to give him authority to establish procedures and create a list of qualified candidates to serve on tribunals that conduct personnel hearings that are submitted to the school board.
“Tribunal members must possess academic expertise and must be impartial,” according to the agenda item, which was passed on the consent agenda.
During a brief discussion at the work session, the matter involving Rinderle was not mentioned.
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“I don’t want to get into a situation where we tax people out of their homes or can’t pay the rent,” Cobb school board member David Banks said in supporting a 0.5 millage rate cut.
As he did during the adoption of the Cobb County School District’s fiscal year 2024 budget in May, school board member David Banks didn’t cast a vote Thursday when it came time for setting a new millage rate.
As he did previously, Banks, the board’s vice chairman from East Cobb-based Post 5, voted present as his colleagues voted 6-0 to set the millage rate at 18.7 mills.
The millage rate is set separately from budget adoption since the Cobb tax digest isn’t formalized until July, when the Cobb school district budget goes into effect.
That’s 0.2 mills less than the millage rate that’s been set annually since 2007, but not as much as Banks wanted.
At a work session and voting session Thursday, he reiterated his desire for cut of 0.5 percent, due to rising property tax assessments that have prompted an outcry from citizens across the county.
He repeated claims that even with a 0.2 cut, the FY 2024 budget includes the largest tax increase in the history of the Cobb school district.
But during the work session, Brad Johnson the district’s chief financial officer, said he researched that issue and found that in 1972, the Cobb school budget had a tax increase of more than 30 percent.
That was a few years before the Georgia legislature approved a senior tax exemption for homeowners 62 and over from paying school taxes.
“I’m not for a wholesale reduction,” said Banks, a fourth-term Republican, saying that a 0.5-mill cut would suffice “until we get to a level that is appropriate.
“I don’t want to get into a situation where we tax people out of their homes or can’t pay the rent.”
It’s a similar concern expressed at a town hall meeting held Wednesday by JoAnn Birrell of the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which is scheduled to adopt a budget and millage rate on Tuesday.
The new $1.4 billion school district budget based on an 18.7 millage rate includes substantial pay increases for teachers and full-time employees, who have received strong pay and benefits raises for after several lean years.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said those initiatives have been necessary to make Cobb schools competitive for hiring and retaining teachers, issuing a common refrain of “so goes the district, so goes the county.”
But Banks persisted with a line of questioning that irritated board chairman Brad Wheeler, a fellow Republican, who wanted to “move along” with the discussion.
“Please don’t interrupt me,” Banks shot back, as the two went back and forth like that for a few moments.
At the evening voting session, the board’s three Democrats also said they liked the idea of a bigger reduction, but only one of them, Tre’ Hutchins of Post 3 in South Cobb, voted with Banks on the latter’s amendment to reduce the rate to 18.4 mills.
First-term Democrat Nichelle Davis of Post 3 in Smyrna said the 18.4 millage rate is “a step in the right direction.”
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Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy (CNPC), the official Friends Group and Primary Philanthropic Partner of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA) announces Brittany Jones as the first Executive Director in the organization’s history. Hiring an executive director signifies a major milestone in CNPC’s development and growth. Jones began her new role on July 10.
Before joining CNPC, Jones served as Chief Experience Officer at San Francisco’s Filoli, a National Trust for Historic Preservation site. She most recently was Executive Director of Smith-Gilbert Gardens in Kennesaw, Ga. In 2021, Jones completed her Master’s in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco. Through her final capstone project, “DEAI in Nonprofits: Through the Lens of Museums and Gardens,” she explored practices and barriers around Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion. Jones received her Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies at Florida International University.
“We couldn’t be more proud that our volunteer-led organization has reached a point where our size, complexity, and strategic goals necessitate the appointment of a dedicated leader to manage and oversee its operations,” says Graham Dorian, CPNC President and Board Chair. “Brittany is inclusive, collaborative, and strategic and has the skills and experience to continue to develop CNPC. We are confident her commitment, fresh perspectives, energy, and expertise will allow us to continue to be an impactful partner for the national park.”
“What CNPC has accomplished in just 10 years is astounding, and I am thrilled to be joining such an active, growing, and engaged organization!” says Jones. “I have a deep passion for parks and the volunteers who care for them and look forward to enhancing CNPC’s ability to achieve our mission and create a meaningful impact.”
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A federal judge has said a group of plaintiffs suing over redistricting of Cobb Board of Education seats doesn’t have a legal claim against the Cobb County School District.
Cobb Board of Education maps passed by the legislature were first recommended by the school board’s Republican majority.
That doesn’t end the lawsuit, filed on behalf of several plaintiffs by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU and other attorneys.
Judge Eleanor Ross also ruled against the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration, the defendant, to have the suit dismissed entirely.
Plaintiffs claimed that the Georgia legislature, which passed the new maps last year, violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act and used race as a guiding factor in redrawing the seven school board posts.
Those actions included Post 2 and 3 in South Cobb and Post 6, which had covered most of the Walton and Wheeler high school attendance zones, and which was moved out of East Cobb, and mostly into the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area.
Among the claims made by the plaintiffs was that the Cobb Board of Education’s four-member white Republican majority “voted on racial lines and without substantive debate to hire—at great expense to the county—a consulting firm to draw a proposed map” and that the process “both the hiring of a third party to draw the redistricting maps and the Board’s decision to forego bids from multiple firms— strayed from the Board’s past practices.”
That map was adopted by the legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp and went into effect for the 2022 elections.
The lawsuit seeks to declare the drawing of posts 2, 3 and 6 unconstitutional based and to order the legislature to draw a new map.
But in a ruling issued Tuesday, Ross, of the U.S. District Court in Atlanta said that “the Court finds that the above allegations are insufficient to establish a ‘longstanding and widespread practice’ by the District of recommending a racially gerrymandered map for the Board of Education elections in Cobb County.”
Ross, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, issued the ruling nearly a month after a hearing in her courtroom.
The Cobb school district hired an outside law firm as it sought a judgment that it shouldn’t be held liable for a redistricting map approved by the state legislature.
In a release issued late Thursday afternoon, the Cobb school district said the following:
“The suit is an unfortunate extension of efforts by political activists and organizations to exert influence in Cobb County’s schools. . . .
“While the Court’s opinion frees the District and its Board members from baseless accusations of racial discrimination, the District continues to be concerned that Cobb County Board of Elections, a politically appointed body, chose not to join the District in asking Judge Ross to rule in its favor and conclude the lawsuit.”
The SPLC issued the following statement from Poy Winichakul, one of its attorneys for voting rights:
“Despite the district’s mischaracterizations of the court’s order and the case itself,we are pleased that the plaintiffs’ case against the Board of Elections is moving forward. Judge Ross declined to rule on any of the district’s arguments related to the map. What this means is that our case is proceeding exactly as plaintiffs originally pled it last summerand the district will no longer spend the county’s resources litigating the case, but instead will return to its important job of educating the students of Cobb County. We look forward to proving our case on the merits.”
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