The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday will be asked to consider spending nearly $378,000 to convert an unused theater on the Wheeler High School campus for a robotics lab.
The matter will be up for discussion at a 2:30 p.m. work session, with action scheduled for a 7 p.m. voting meeting Thursday.
Both meetings will take place at the Cobb County School District central office (514 Glover St., Marietta), and you can read through the agendas by clicking here.
An executive session will take place between the two public meetings.
The agenda item for the Wheeler robotics lab calls for completion of the project by March 2022.
It’s part of a continuing effort to establish robotics programs in all Cobb County School District high schools. The funding would come from current Ed-SPLOST V funds.
As East Cobb News reported Monday, several Jewish groups in metro Atlanta have called on the school board to publicly condemn anti-Semitism after swastika and “Heil Hitler” graffiti was found on bathroom walls at Pope and Lassiter high schools in East Cobb.
But there’s not an item on the board agenda to discuss the matter. Chairman Randy Scamihorn told us while he condemns the incidents, he wants ongoing school-level investigations to be played out.
Some of those Jewish groups and individuals have organized an online petition and are expected to speak to the incidents during the public comment periods at Thursday’s meetings.
A traveling party from Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb is organizing an appearance for the evening meeting “to call out the board’s inadequate response to the recent acts of anti-Semitism at two of its schools and to ask for the reinstatement of anti-hate educational programming to help prevent more in the future,” according to a social media posting for the synagogue.
“Please bring signs. Anti-Semitism has no place in our schools!”
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An East Cobb attorney who has been critical of the Cobb County School District on bullying issues is running for Post 5 on the Cobb Board of Education in 2020.
Robert Madayag is seeking the seat currently held by David Banks, whose third term ends next year. Post 5 includes most of the Pope and Lassiter high school attendance zones, as well as part of the Sprayberry cluster (see map at the bottom).
Madayag is the father of students at Sprayberry, Simpson Middle School and Kincaid Elementary School.
Earlier this year, Madayag assisted parents, including some at Walton High School, who complained about how the district responded to their claims about their children being bullied. He thinks the district underreports data on the number of students who report bullying.
Madayag said in his announcement that “there is no doubt that the CCSD has done a great job of helping those students at the top,” but said he’s heard from “countless parents about how their kids were bullied, suffered racially charged language, and were forced to fight the school district to have their kids provided basic needs.”
His priorities include doing a countywide assessment about how bullying cases are handled, providing transparency to the public on how much the district spends on legal fees and creating the position of Chief Equity Officer.
Madayag also wants to address what he says are “stories upon stories of parents with special needs kids that have had to fight and fight with the CCSD, at their own great expense, just to get treatment that other school districts provide without fighting.”
East Cobb News has left a message with Madayag seeking more information about his candidacy.
Madayag, who is running as a Republican, is a former chairman of the Modern Whig Party of Georgia, which formed in 2009 with a centrist platform aimed at those disaffected with both Democrats and Republicans.
Currently the seven-member school board has four Republicans and three Democrats. Four seats are up next year, including Post 1 (North Cobb), Post 3 (South Cobb) and Post 7 (West Cobb).
Madayag is a U.S. Navy veteran who earned an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, then earned a law degree from Villanova University. He practices patent and corporate law in the Atlanta office of Lee & Hayes, a national firm.
He and his family have been involved in school and youth sports and music activities in their community. His wife Rebecca has been a member of the PTSA board at Simpson, and he has coached and served as an emcee for his sons’ football teams and at Sprayberry freshman and JV football games.
Banks, a Republican, has not indicated whether he’s running again. Matt Harper, an IT project manager, has announced his candidacy in the GOP primary (campaign website).
Harper taught science for three years at Murdock Elementary School and he and his wife Sharon have two daughters who attend Cobb schools. He also has served on the Murdock School Council.
Post 5 includes all or part of the following school zones:
High Schools: Pope, Lassiter, Sprayberry
Middle Schools: Hightower Trail, Mabry, Simpson
Elementary Schools: Davis, East Side, Eastvalley, Garrison Mill, Mountain View, Murdock, Powers Ferry, Sedalia Park, Shallowford Falls, Tritt
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Charisse Davis was elected in November 2018 to represent Post 6 on the Cobb Board of Education. A Democrat, she narrowly defeated two-term incumbent Republican Scott Sweeney to represent the Walton and Wheeler clusters, as well as a portion of the Campbell cluster, where her two sons attend school.
A former educator in the Atlanta and Fulton County public schools and currently a youth services librarian in the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library System, Davis was sworn in in January.
On Tuesday, Oct. 1, she’s holding a town hall meeting in the cafeteria of Sope Creek Elementary School (3320 Paper Mill Road) from 7-8 p.m.
In her first few months on the board, Davis has suggested, along with Jaha Howard, another first-year Democratic board member, that the district should explore the possibility of making some changes to the Cobb schools senior property tax exemption.
Cobb is the only school district in metro Atlanta whose senior tax exemption comes without any conditions, such as an income threshold.
Davis and Howard also have called for the district to create a cabinet-level position for equity and diversity in the wake of calls by some parents and school staff in the county for Cobb schools to address what they claim are unaddressed and systemic racial biases.
Both of those topics have caused friction on the school board, whose 6-1 Republican majority before Davis’ and Howard’s election was reduced to 4-3.
East Cobb News met with Davis before the school year began to discuss her first few months on the board.
There’s been a learning process that naturally comes with being a newcomer, but most of Post 6 is East Cobb. Davis said her 15-year teaching experience working in very different schools in Atlanta—one a Title I elementary school and another a high-achieving school in Buckhead with an international baccalaureate program—has been helpful as she’s gotten started.
“Just sitting with people, in the beginning it’s all about listening,” she said. “It’s parent to parent, there’s nothing that you can’t discuss in a constructive way. There’s no challenge that anyone in East Cobb is talking about that I can’t understand.”
More than anything, Davis said, “I want them to know there’s someone who’s easy for them to get to.”
Charisse Davis, at right, takes the oath of office with her husband Sean and sons and fellow board members Jaha Howard and David Chastain in January. (ECN photo)
Among the early school year events she’s attended include a gathering of principals and school leadership with the East Cobb County Council of PTAs.
She said what she’s learned from parents everywhere, regardless of a school’s academic reputation or a family’s socioeconomic status, is that they want the same things for their children.
“They’ll say, ‘I don’t want to have my kid in a good school in a district that’s so-so,'” she said. “They want all our schools to be great. We’re all connected. We all benefit from having a strong district.
“What I find is a lot of parents bring up that they want everyone in the district to be doing well. To talk about these issues should never be about pitting some people against others.”
She said one of the most pleasant surprises to her is “seeing how much can be done at the school level” and that a big part of her role as a school board member is facilitating connections between parents and the larger school community, as well as school staff and teachers.
“You hear from families whose experiences are unlike your own,” Davis said. “My job is to help them and connect them, sometimes it’s with people, and sometimes it’s with information.”
Davis said she thinks last year’s election results in Cobb, which included Democrats making other inroads in the county (including Lucy McBath winning the 6th Congressional District) have sparked some broader conversations about local governance, as Cobb political and cultural demographics continue to change.
The Cobb school district enrollment of nearly 112,000 for the current 2019-20 year is 37 percent white, 30 percent black, 22 percent Hispanic, six percent Asian and four percent multi-racial.
“It’s encouraging to see so many more people being engaged,” Davis said. “It’s not just for a presidential election. People are waking up to the fact that these things have been happening, and that there are so many elections that are happening right down the street.”
Touching the senior third rail
At her first meeting in January, Davis was nominated to be the board’s vice chairwoman in what turned out to a series of party-line votes. That vote failed, as Republicans David Chastain (of Post 4 in northeast Cobb) and Brad Wheeler were chosen to be the board’s officers.
“On a seven-member board, we are three votes, Democrats, people of color, younger,” Davis said. “We have a nice little balance that is getting more representative of the county. It would show the great strength of our board to acknowledge that.”
She and Howard, a pediatric dentist who represents the Campbell and Osborne clusters, have spoken together about some issues that have ruffled feathers.
The senior tax exemption, enacted in Cobb by the Georgia legislature in 1973, comes to more than $100 million a year. Davis mapped out the disparities on her own website, illustrating senior tax exemption qualifiers in other metro Atlanta school districts.
At a school board retreat earlier this year, Davis asked that the district study the impact of possible changes to the exemption. She cited a recent change in the senior exemption for Forsyth County schools, where “they had households with kids registered in schools, but were taking the exemption.”
That exemption, in a heavily Republican county, amounted to around a half-million dollars a year. That may seem like small change in Cobb, Georgia’s second-largest school district (behind Gwinnett) and a $1.1 billion budget. The Republican majority on the Cobb board voted down her request for a study to see what such a change might mean in Cobb.
At an East Cobb business breakfast meeting in April, Chastain said adamantly that “we’re not taking away the senior exemption.”
“No one called for getting rid of it. People start with that, and then they’re not listening to anything else,” Davis said. “That’s been frustrating because people have gotten upset, but I don’t think we should get rid of it.”
Davis added that right now, “we don’t have any qualifiers [for exemptions]. Let’s think into the future, let’s plan for the future, because that $100-plus million dollars that we have now, it’s only going to grow.”
“We’re not going to agree all the time, and that’s okay,” Charise Davis said about Cobb school board deliberations. “That’s always been my point. Let’s have the discussion.” (ECN file photo)
Charges of bigotry
In late August, Davis appeared at a Cobb Donuts for Democrats event at which she explained school funding, board procedures and other issues with a Powerpoint presentation.
After showing a slide of a group shot of the board, someone asked if the four Republicans were older white males. Davis said that they were. The Marietta Daily Journal made note in its “Around Town” political column, including a fiery e-mail from Republican State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart of West Cobb, who accused Davis of being “the most bigoted board member ever to sit on the Cobb Board of Education.”
In a response on her Facebook page, Davis explained that she was simply pointing out factual information about the board’s makeup, not making a comment about it.
“I understand that our political environment is highly charged, and it may feel good to attack a school board member for a perceived slight,” she said. “But I know I’m here for kids and I welcome you to engage with me about your ideas on how to support the students of Cobb County.”
She also included a photo of her with her husband Sean, who is white.
The proposal came about for what Chastain said had become overly political comments, sometimes not even about school matters.
At the August board meeting, Howard mentioned President Trump and state and local elected officials whom he accused of not being ethical, as well as immigration raids, the Sterigenics lab closure and gun violence.
That the vote to ban comments was taken during the work session and not a business meeting was unusual, and it sparked cries from Howard—the likely target of the ban—and Davis that they were being silenced, including about some school issues.
“When a couple of us get here and bring up words like ‘equity,’ we’re censoring,” Davis said at the Sept. 19 meeting. “You want to censor members on the board agenda. That’s not okay.”
After several failed amendments by Howard and David Morgan of South Cobb, also a Democrat, the board voted 4-3 along party lines, with the four Republicans in the majority, to impose the comments ban.
‘Let’s have the discussion’
Davis has said from the time of her campaign last year that while test scores in Cobb continue to rise (especially in East Cobb), she wants to address the lingering question of “are we meeting the needs of all our students?”
She said she was encouraged that parents have come to her “after seeing something mentioned on social media and I welcome those conversations that because conversations happen on social media.
“But it would be a shame,” she added, if parents “don’t think they can come” and have offline, one-on-one discussions.
She also commended Superintendent Chris Ragsdale, “who has always been very open about having our questions answered,” and as she has learned more about how Cobb’s largest employer operates (with a work force of more than 18,000), her appreciation for what they do also has grown.
“We’ve got some great, talented people working for this district,” she said.
After a few months on the board, Davis said she’s encouraged that some dialogue she’s felt is long overdue beginning to take place.
“We’re not going to agree all the time, and that’s okay,” Davis said. “That’s always been my point. Let’s have the discussion.”
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All Cobb County School District employees will get raises ranging between 8 and 12.6 percent in the fiscal year 2020 budget presented to school board members and the public on Wednesday.
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said it’s the biggest raise in at least 25 years and may be the biggest ever for Georgia’s second-largest school district, with 112,000 students.
“We have truly maximized the dollars so we can do this,” he told board members at a Wednesday afternoon work session. The board was expected to tentatively approve the $1.17 billion budget propopsal, with final approval expected May 16.
The raises are across-the-board, and apply to all non-temporary employees, from teachers to administrators, and include custodians, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, substitute teachers, social workers and counselors.
Ragsdale said the size and scope of the raises were enabled by the Georgia legislature’s approval of $3,000 pay raises for teachers.
The Cobb budget includes “step” increases for eligible employees and adds school nurses to the “step” ranks for the first time. Teacher allotments will increase by 90, and district public safety employees also will get a “competitive salary adjustment” in the budget, which maintains a property tax rate of 18.9 mills.
According to Brad Johnson, the district’s chief financial officer, the raises will account for $74 million in expenses. The additional teacher allotments, adjustments for public safety, school nurse “step” increases, a change in how bus drivers are compensated and 7.5 new custodial positions will cost another $9.6 million.
A total of $81 million in increased revenues, including $43 million in state Quality Basic Education funding as well as $30 million in additional property taxes due to an estimated 5.5 percent growth in the Cobb tax digest, has been worked into the budget proposal.
The proposed budget also calls for spending $18.3 million in reserves.
“I’m very pleased with the raise and the respect and consideration it shows for all employees,” said Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators, which represents teachers and non-administrative employees. “I’m super ecstatic we got step raises for nurses. We can offer them an incentive to stay.”
Ragsdale said those teachers on the higher end of the proposed raises will be newer teachers, in large part to incentivize retention.
Deputy superintendent John Adams said Cobb has the highest retention rate of the six biggest school districts in Georgia and has the lowest rate of teachers leaving for other districts.
But Cobb is behind other districts in metro Atlanta in starting teacher pay, which is around $43,000 a year.
Last year most Cobb school employees received a 2.6-percent raise and a 1.1 percent bonus. The former became available only after the state ended education austerity cuts.
There will be no bonuses in this Cobb budget, Ragsdale said, because he wanted the additional pay for employees, especially teachers, to add to their retirement system calculations.
“There are a lot of teachers watching this meeting now who are a lot happier than they were this morning,” said school board member David Banks of East Cobb.
The full budget details will be posted soon on the CCSD’s budget page. Another public hearing will take place at 6:30 p.m. on May 16, right before the board is scheduled to vote on final budget adoption.
The new budget will take effect on July 1, when the district’s fiscal year begins.
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On Tuesday Charisse Davis, the new Cobb Board of Education member for Post 6, will hold what she’s calling an education discussion meeting with parents at Dickerson Middle School.
The informal meeting lasts from 7-8:30 p.m. and will take place in the auditorium at Dickerson (855 Woodlawn Drive).
Earlier this month, Davis was sworn in for a four-year term after she defeated incumbent Scott Sweeney to represent Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters.
Davis, who had never run for public office before, is a former teacher who is now a librarian in Fulton County. She also was nominated for chair and vice chair in last week’s school board officers’ elections.
Post 6 also includes part of the Campbell High School cluster, where she lives. Her two sons attend Cobb schools in that area.
She is one of two new board members in Cobb. The other is fellow Democrat Jaha Howard, who represents Campbell and Osborne. He also will be in attendance at the Dickerson meeting.
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Two of East Cobb’s three representatives on the Cobb Board of Education will take the oath of office Monday in the first of two special-called meetings next week.
David Chastain
David Chastain and Charisse Davis will be sworn in, along with Jaha Howard, in a meeting that starts Monday at 7 p.m. in the board room at the Cobb County School District Central Office (514 Glover St., Marietta).
Chastain, a Republican who represents Post 4 (the Kell and Sprayberry clusters), was re-elected to a second term in November.
Davis is a Democrat who ousted two-term Republican Scott to represent Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters. Howard, a Democrat, also is newly elected in Post 2, which includes the Campbell and Osborne clusters.
There is no other business on the Monday meeting agenda.
Charisse Davis
On Tuesday morning, the newly comprised board will elect officers for the calendar year 2019. Each year they choose a chair and a vice chair, and that meeting will take place in the same place, starting at 9 a.m.
Chastain was the vice chairman in 2018 and previously has served as a chairman.
With the changes to the school board, the partisan split also has changed. Republicans held a 6-1 majority, but this year they hold a 4-3 edge.
After electing officers, the board will go into executive session for a student discipline matter.
The first regular board meeting of 2019 will take place Jan. 17.
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Design work for a new Sprayberry High School gym and renovations to the school’s career training building was approved by the Cobb Board of Education Thursday.
The board voted 7-0 to spend $925,162 for an architectural and engineering design contract with CDH Partners of Marietta.
Plans call for a new main gymnasium and renovations to the Sprayberry’s CTAE (Career, Technology and Agricultural Education) facility.
That project, as well as design work, is included in the upcoming Cobb Education SPLOST V collection period that begins Jan. 1. The design contract will be paid for out of the general fund, which will be reimbursed with SPLOST V revenues.
At a work session Thursday afternoon, John Adams, the Cobb County School District deputy superintendent, was asked by school board member David Banks where the new gym would be located on campus.
Adams said that “we have to hire an architect to tell us what we can do and where.”
Most other East Cobb high schools have gotten new gyms in recent years, or are getting them. Wheeler opened Wildcat Arena three years ago, Pope opened a new gym earlier this year and construction on new gyms at Walton and Lassiter are underway.
The new gyms are built with a capacity of 3,000 and the Sprayberry facility is expected to cost around $20 million.
Another board member, former Sprayberry administrator Randy Scamihorn, asked if the school’s baseball field may have to be relocated to accommodate the renovations.
Adams gave him a similar answer, saying that “we have to get an architect on board.”
He said that the CTAE facility would have a similar capacity within an improved building.
The board also voted 7-0 to approve $90 million in short-term construction bonds to begin work on SPLOST V projects in advance.
The district wants to speed up the completion time for projects and find cost savings with interest rates on the rise.
Brad Johnson, the district’s chief financial officer, told board members at the work session that interest rates have been going up 4-5 percent a year.
The $90 million in bonds, called TANS (tax anticipatory notes) would be repaid at the end of 2019 with revenues from SPLOST V.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said it’s a “no brainer” to get started with construction at a lower cost, “instead of waiting for a higher interest rate to kick in.”
Johnson estimated that the strategy could enable the district to “come close to breaking even” after the interest costs are paid.
Earlier this year the school board approved $40 million in TANs for similar reasons. Those funds were applied to completion of the East Cobb Middle School and Brumby Elementary School rebuilds, as well as the Lassiter and Walton gym and fine arts projects that are part of the current SPLOST IV collection.
“We’re borrowing more,” Johnson said, “but we’re borrowing for a longer time.”
Also included on the SPLOST V project list is rebuilding Eastvalley Elementary School on the former site of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road.
The school board is expected in January to formalize issuing the bonds, with revenues anticipated by February.
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The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday adopted a set of legislative priorities for the 2019 session, and the contentious issue of school calendars tops the list.
Scott Sweeney
The board voted 6-0 to endorse Superintendent Chris Ragsdale’s recommendation that the Cobb County School District determine when school years should begin an end.
The issue came up this year with the creation of a special State Senate study committee.
Some within the Georgia tourism industry have indicated that starting school in early August has had a detrimental effect on their business.
The study committee has held hearings around the state and is meeting now during a special session. Among the bills being considered would call for a statewide school start after Labor Day.
As far as Cobb schools are concerned, that should be a matter of local control.
“Whether it is giving Cobb the flexibility to test a new assessment system that has the potential to benefit all students in Georgia or allowing local communities, like Cobb, to approve school calendars that best serve the needs of their students and staff, local control is a must,” Ragsdale said in a statement.
Earlier this decade members of the Cobb school board sparred over setting the calendar. In recent years, however, it’s adopted what’s called a “balanced” calendar, with an early August start date and more breaks than a calendar with a later start time.
The balanced calendar also is strongly supported by the Cobb County Association of Educators.
The board also included in its legislative priorities proposed changes to the “Local Fair Share” component of the Georgia Quality Basic Education Act.
In this provision, school districts are levied five mills of their local property tax rate, with the funding going to the state.
East Cobb board member Scott Sweeney noted at a work session earlier Thursday that Cobb sends $144 million annually to the state, and advocates capping the Local Fair Share amount at $100 million.
Cobb schools said that getting $44 million in return would enable it to hire 488 teachers or build two new schools.
Other priorities include changing graduation rate calculations “that more accurately reflect schools’ academic process” and pushing for a return to local control of K-12 dual enrollment programs.
Current graduation rate guidelines require school districts to count all students enrolled in a four-year period, regardless of how long they attended classes in that time.
In 2018, Cobb reported a countywide graduation rate of 85.18 percent. While that’s a record, district officials said the graduation rate would be 97.1 percent if only students who attended high school in Cobb all four years were counted.
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Earlier this month, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced that Smyrna-based Floor & Decor, a do-it-yourself home improvement retailer, was moving its headquarters to a nearly-vacant office building at the Wildwood office complex.
The 16-story, 329,000-square-foot building at 2500 Windy Ridge Parkway, where Coca-Cola Enterprises once had office space, has only one current tenant.
That’s meant that the commercial tax digest has dropped to nearly nothing since Coke and other tenants moved out over the last two years.
Floor & Decor, which has agreed to a 12-year lease to expand its headquarters and add a projected work force of around 500 employees, is seeking $16 million in development-issued bonds.
A 19-year-old company that operates more than 90 stores in 26 states, Floor & Decor has built a major distribution facility in Savannah and launched an initial public offering, according to Bisnow.
With a 10-year abatement, Floor & Decor would pay 10 percent of its tax obligation in the first year, with that figure rising 10 percent a year until the full rate is paid at the end of that period. During that time, the development authority would hold title to the property, which would be taken off the public tax rolls.
Another tax abatement request, by Home Depot, is seeking nearly $50 million in bonds for a long-term office lease in the Cumberland area and would bring in 700 new jobs.
Part of the abatement request process is briefing the Cobb Board of Education, and both were presented Thursday.
Amy Gerber, an executive with the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, said at a school board work session that before Coca-Cola and other tenants moved out, the assessed tax value of 2500 Wildwood was around $23 million. Now it’s around $17 million.
But the tax benefit to the Cobb school district has plummeted, she said, estimating around $100,000 in annual lost revenue for schools in the last two years.
The Development Authority doesn’t need school board approval to issue bonds, but chairman Clark Hungerford and executive director Nelson Geter provided information and answered questions.
School board member Randy Scamihorn of North Cobb asked if the district would lose out if Floor & Decor gets the abatement and then leaves.
Hungerford said the district is currently losing out now, and that deriving greater tax revenue as the abatement decreases is a win for the schools.
“You don’t lose anything, you achieve increased revenue,” he said. “You have not given anything back.”
If a building stays empty or nearly vacant, Hungerford added, then there’s a problem due to “continued deterioration. . . . That would be a loss.”
East Cobb school board member Scott Sweeney concurred: “It really is in our best interest to see the commercial tax digest in our county grow.”
The Floor & Decor and Home Depot requests are coming up as the Cobb Development Authority is involved with another tax abatement issue in the Powers Ferry corridor that’s going to court.
In June, East Cobb citizen Larry Savage, a former Cobb commission chairman candidate, contested the issuance of those bonds. In September, a Cobb judge invalidated the bonds, ruling that the proposed economic benefits don’t justify a tax break.
MarketPlace Terrell Mill developers Eden Rock Real Estate Partners and Connolly Realty have purchased the entire 24-acre tract at Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill roads. That includes the former Brumby Elementary School, where the Kroger would be located.
Ground-clearing for the rest of the complex, which includes restaurants, small retail and a luxury apartment complex, has just gotten underway.
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By a unanimous 7-0 vote Thursday, the Cobb Board of Education approved a measure to increase a Cobb school employee pay raise over what was adopted in May.
The extra 1.5-percent raise comes on top of 1.1-percent raises that were previously approved for all 15,000 Cobb County School District employees, as well as 1.1-percent bonuses.
The school board also voted Thursday to establish the 2018 millage rate at 18.9 mills, a figure that has been in place for 11 years.
The Cobb schools fiscal year 2019 budget that began July 1 is $1.2 billion.
The raises will cost just under $22 million. The additional raises were proposed by Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale after the Cobb tax digest grew more than school officials anticipated.
They had forecast 6 percent growth, but the net tax digest increase for Cobb schools for 2018 ended up being 8.2 percent. The Cobb tax digest for this year is a record $36.7 billion.
Ragsdale said not all of the extra money is being used for the raises, although “a vast majority” of the $38 million more coming into school district coffers is. He said the school system wasn’t able to afford a pay raise last year and he wanted to reward staff when it was fiscally possible to do so.
At a public hearing Thursday afternoon, Donna Rowe of the Cobb Association of Realtors expressed concern about basing pay raises on revenue from property values.
“That is a fluctuating thing and it is dictated by the market,” said Rowe, who is based at the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in East Cobb.
She said she was speaking as a citizen, mindful of the real estate market during the recession.
Ragsdale addressed that concern, saying that “we not spending every single dollar” of the tax digest windfall on raises.
“Yes, it’s recurring revenue, but it’s prudent for us to make sure that we are financially stable” in case of unexpected expenses, he said.
The board approved the pay raises without discussion.
The additional pay boost, which also will apply to substitute teachers, is “a great step forward,” said Cobb County Association of Educators head Connie Jackson, who had been pressing for a 2.6 percent raise.
That’s what has come to pass, thanks to the additional tax digest growth and another $10 million in state funding due to the termination of state education austerity cuts.
The bonuses will be paid in December. Eligible teachers also will be receiving STEP increases based on their years of service.
Cobb teachers returned this week to begin preparing for the 2018-19 school year. The first day of classes is Aug. 1.
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The Cobb tax digest has grown by more than originally anticipated in 2018. As a result, superintendent Chris Ragsdale is proposing Cobb school employee pay raises that are larger than what was adopted for the fiscal year 2019 period that began July 1
Instead of a 1.1-percent across-the-board increase that was approved last month, the Cobb Board of Education is being asked to amend that pay raise upward, to 2.6 percent, at its July meeting on Thursday.
The proposal for the extra raise came after the county tax digest grew by 9.1 percent for this year. Cobb schools budget staffers projected a six percent increase.
The school board in May approved only a 1.1 percent one-time bonus, to go into effect in December. But the end of state education austerity cuts in May prompted Ragsdale to propose a 1.1 percent raise for some employees, mostly at the school level, on top of the bonus.
School board member David Morgan of South Cobb said that wasn’t enough. So did Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators, who pleaded for a 2.6-percent raise to help Cobb move up from near the bottom in starting teacher salary levels for school districts in metro Atlanta.
She suggested raising the millage rate from 18.9 to the maximum 20 mills to do that, but the rest of the board wasn’t in a tax-raising mood.
“I am sure the over 15,000 school employees will be happy to hear this good news and teachers will receive a much needed raise,” school board member David Banks, who represents the Lassiter and Pope districts, said in his weekly newsletter over the weekend. “It is critical that Cobb be in a position to retain our teachers and valued support employees.”
He said he also wished the raise could be higher.
Also on Thursday, the school board will hold the final of its required public hearings on the school tax millage rate, followed by the adoption of the millage rate. The hearings are at 12 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., in the board room at the CCSD Central Office, 514 Glover St., in Marietta.
Nobody spoke at the first millage rate hearing last week.
The board will have a work session at 1:30 p.m., followed by an executive session, and will reconvene at 7 p.m. for the business meeting.
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Walton High School has a new principal who will be very familiar to students when she takes over at the start of the new school year.
She’s assistant principal Catherine Mallanda, who’s been at Walton for 17 years.
Mallanda was one of several principal and administrative appointments made Tuesday morning by the Cobb Board of Education.
She succeeds Judy McNeill, who is retiring after 30 years at Walton, including the last 10 as principal. The change is effective Aug. 1, the first day of the 2018-19 school year in the Cobb County School District.
Mallanda, who had earned $97,721 annually in her previous role, will have a yearly salary of $131,303 as Walton principal. She hold degrees from Georgia Tech and the University of West Georgia and a Ph.D. from Southern Mississippi.
She also was a classroom teacher at Walton and McEachern High School before becoming an administrator in 2003.
Some other East Cobb schools also will be getting new principals.
Sprayberry High School is one of them. Joseph Sharp has resigned, effective June 15, to move to Alabama. He will be succeeded by Sara Griffin, a current Sprayberry assistant principal, who starts June 18.
Griffin will be paid $112,965 annually as principal. She had earned $81,848 as an assistant principal last year at Sprayberry. She also was an assistant principal and teacher at Kell High School.
Griffin earned degrees from Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Kennesaw State.
Longtime Dickerson Middle School principal Carole Brink is retiring as of Aug. 1, but her replacement has not been named.
Felicia Angelle is leaving Shallowford Falls ES for the CCSD central office.
James Rawls, who has been assistant principal at Cooper Middle School, becomes the new principal at Daniell Middle School on July 1. Former principal David Nelson was recently reassigned to become principal at Pine Mountain Middle School.
Rawls earned $79,839 as an assistant principal at Cooper since 2004. His salary at Daniell will be $103,083. He has degrees from Armstrong Atlantic State University and Argosy University and previously was a teacher and administrator in Atlanta and Savannah public schools.
Shallowford Falls Elementary School also will be getting a new principal to be named later. Felicia Angelle is leaving to become the CCSD’s academic division director of instruction, innovation, teaching and learning. She starts her new position Aug. 1.
Dr. Tricia Patterson has resigned as Tritt Elementary School principal to become director of the Marietta City School’s STEM Academy. Her successor comes from elsewhere in East Cobb. Karen Carstens, who had been an assistant principal at Powers Ferry Elementary School, begins her new duties tomorrow.
Carstens, who also has been an assistant principal at Sope Creek Elementary School, had been earning $82,017. A previous teacher at Shallowford Falls, her salary there as principal will be $102,182.
Assistant principals on the move
The school board also made the following appointments involving East Cobb schools below the level of principal:
Mount Bethel Elementary School teacher and administrator Jaime Davis to assistant principal there;
Vaughn Elementary School principal Kevin Carpenter is now assistant principal at Powers Ferry;
Sedalia Park Elementary School assistant principal Zachary Mathis to the same position at Vaughn;
Former North Cobb principal Joe Horton is now an assistant principal at Sprayberry.
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Longtime Walton High School principal Judy McNeill is retiring.
Walton Principal Judy McNeill
In making several principal-level appointments Thursday evening, the Cobb Board of Education accepted her retirement, effective Aug. 1, the first day of the 2018-19 school year.
Her successor was not immediately named. McNeill’s name was not included on a list of more than 200 retiring Cobb County School District employees who were honored at a luncheon last week.
In what turned out to be her last year at Walton, McNeill oversaw the move to a new campus building and had to handle gun-control protests that included a walkout in February.
The Cobb district did not endorse the walkouts, and permitted principals to determine how their schools might honor victims of a Florida school shooting that sparked the planned demonstration.
In an interview with East Cobb News, McNeill said students had organized a memorial observation before classes that day, and discouraged students from following through with a walkout.
After some student protest leaders announced they had more than 2,000 signatures to walk out, only around 200 or so Walton students participated.
School board member Scott Sweeney, who represents the Walton attendance zone, said at the end of Thursday’s meeting that McNeill was “an absolute joy to work with. . . . We wish her the very best in her retirement.”
The school board also appointed David Nelson, principal at Daniell Middle School, as the new principal at Pine Mountain Middle School, and Faith Harmeyer, an assistant principal at Mt. Bethel Elementary School, as the new principal of Nicholson Elementary School.
Those appointments are effective June 1.
The school board formally adopted a fiscal year 2019 budget of $1.2 billion Thursday that includes a 1.1-percent raise for all district employees, a 1.1-percent bonus for many employees and STEP increases for eligible employees.
The budget, which goes into effect July 1, does not include a millage rate increase. Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators had asked the school board to raise the millage rate from 18.9 mills to the limit of 20 mills for higher increases.
But Sweeney and David Chastain, who represents Post 4 in Northeast Cobb, opposed raising the millage rate any higher.
The vote was 6-1, with school board member David Morgan of South Cobb opposing. During a work session on Thursday afternoon, he pleaded for a raise in the millage rate, showing charts illustrating how Cobb’s starting teacher salary average of $42,364 is 9th out of 12 districts in metro Atlanta.
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The day after the Cobb Development Authority approved issuing $35 million in bonds for a tax abatement for a portion of a new East Cobb commercial project, developers’ representatives explained the situation to the Cobb Board of Education.
The school board is typically briefed on tax breaks heard by the authority, due to their impact on school tax revenue.
The developers of the MarketPlace Terrell Mill, a mixed-use retail and residential development on the site of the present Brumby Elementary School, were seeking a break for the portion of the project that is to include a Kroger superstore.
Brian Fratesi, a vice president for Connolly Investments and Development, which is building the project, said during a school board work session Thursday that MarketPlace Terrell Mill is “a gateway to East Cobb.”
The abatement would cover only the Kroger portion of the $120 million project, which was approved in February in a zoning case by the Cobb Board of Commissioners. The 23.9 acres at the northwest corner of Terrell Mill Road and Powers Ferry Road includes aging commercial, shops, restaurants and office space.
Brumby is relocating to a new campus on Terrell Mill Road in August, and its sale prompted the MarketPlace project, seen as a linchpin of redevelopment in the Powers Ferry corridor.
Fratesi said the Cobb County School District currently gets around $34,000 in annual tax revenues from existing commercial activities on that site.
By the time the tax abatement period ends, 11 years after it begins, he estimated the school district would receive more than $500,000 a year in tax revenues from MarketPlace complex.
The Kroger store would be exempt from taxes its first year of operation, then would gradually pay an assessed tax value phased in over a 10-year period, in rising increments of 10 percent each year.
Fatesi said the Kroger is slated to be in the second phase of the project, with the first phase calling for the construction of restaurant and retail space, a self-storage unit and a nearly 400-unit luxury apartment complex.
When asked about the rental units’ impact on school enrollment, Fatesi said it would be minimal, since they’re expensive, one- and two-bedroom apartments being marketed primarily to Millennials and downsizers.
The MDJ reported that two members of the Development Authority voted against the bonds, including Karen Hallacy of East Cobb, concerned about a precedent being set by retailers for getting tax abatements.
But two East Cobb board members were ecstatic. Scott Sweeney, whose Post 6 includes the Powers Ferry area, said the MarketPlace proejct “will help our tax digest in the long run.”
He said that the per-student share coming from commercial tax revenue in Marietta City Schools is higher than Cobb’s, at around $1,400 a year, because of what that city derives from its commercial digest.
“I do like the project,” said board member David Banks of Post 5 in Northeast Cobb. “It’s good and I think the whole county will benefit.”
Fatesi said the first phase of MarketPlace could break ground by August or September, with completion expected 18-24 months after that. The Kroger would be completed in another 18 to 24 months, he said.
The board also heard outlines of another proposed tax abatement for a manufacturing company that is looking to expand its operations to near SunTrust Park and The Battery.
A research and development facility would bring more than 800 high-paying jobs in what’s being dubbed “Project Dashboard.” The company, which is seeking more than $260 million in development bonds for a tax abatement, is not being identified for the moment.
Jack DiNardo, a commercial real estate relocation expert who represents the company, told board members discussions on its potential Cobb move are in “progress,” and that a decision could come “sometime this summer.”
He said a requested tax abatement would be for $21 million.
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Construction will begin soon on the final phase of the Walton HS rebuild, after the Cobb Board of Eduction approved a $31.7 million contract Thursday.
The school board went with the recommended low bidder, Evergreen Construction of Cobb, which will build more than 151,000 square feet of gymnasium and performing arts space on the site of the original classroom building.
Included in the final phase are main and auxiliary gymnasiums, a wrestling room, a weight room, locker rooms, a main theater, a black box theater and band, orchestra and choral suites.
Completion is expected late next year.
The school board also approved phasing out the auxiliary gym at Lassiter High School, which is getting a replacement competition gym.
The first new principal appointment for an East Cobb school for the next academic year also was approved by the school board Thursday.
Jonathan Tanner, who has been the principal at Campbell High School for the last three years, will be the new principal at Mabry Middle School. He succeeds Merrilee Heflin, who is retiring, and will start on June 1.
Tanner is returning to the East Cobb area. He is a former teacher at Lassiter and assistant principal at Simpson Middle School, and also served in an administrative role at J.J. Daniell Middle School.
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The original Walton High School building has been torn down, and new gymnasium and performing arts space will go in its place. According to an early look at next week’s Cobb Board of Education meeting, a low-bid contract for $31.7 million is being recommended for approval.
The school board will hold a work session at 1 p.m. Thursday and a business meeting at 7 p.m., also on Thursday. Both meetings take place in the board chambers at the CCSD Central Office (514 Glover St., Marietta). Here’s the full agenda packet for the meetings.
Before the evening session, a public budget forum will take place in the same place starting at 6:30 p.m. Citizens can comment on a proposed $1.2 billion fiscal year 2019 budget. That figure has grown from an initial figure of $1.059 billion in March.
Board members also are scheduled to tentatively approve that budget, and future public hearings will be held before formal adoption in May.
Walton students moved into a new $48 million classroom building in August, and demolition of the original 42-year-old building has taken place over the winter.
The new 151,000-square-foot project will include main and auxiliary gymnasiums, a wrestling room, a weight room, locker rooms, a main theater, a black box theater and band, orchestra and choral suites.
Cobb-based Evergreen Construction is the low bidder, and its proposal comes in at nearly $3 million less than the estimated cost of $34.69 million. The funding is earmarked in the current Cobb Education Cobb SPLOST IV, and the projected completion date is November 2019.
The new Walton project isn’t the only major rebuilding contract on the school board’s agenda Thursday. A rebuilding contract totaling $47.4 million will be considered for Osborne High School, as will a new gym and theater project at Harrison High School for $22.3 million.
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With a forecast of more sub-freezing temperatures tonight and overnight, Cobb schools will be closed again on Thursday.
The Cobb County School District said the closure is for students and staff for the second day in a row.
The Cobb Board of Education work session and regular meeting, both scheduled for Thursday, have been postponed to next Thursday, Jan. 25.
A state of emergency declared by Gov. Nathan Deal for 83 counties in Georgia, including Cobb, remains in effect.
Temperatures are expected to dip back into the teens tonight and overnight, as any snow and ice that melted today will refreeze and create black ice.
Weather conditions may not reach above freezing in Cobb until Thursday afternoon. Here’s what Cobb County government posted earlier Wednesday afternoon:
Bill Shelton, Cobb County DOT Road Maintenance Director, says crews are restocking supplies of gravel for what will be a long day and night of treating roads. “I don’t see conditions on the roads changing much overnight,” Shelton said. “Even when the temperature gets above freezing Thursday, shady spots and low-lying areas will not thaw out. So we will keep running routes and treat all those areas to make sure roads are safe.”
Shelton says so far Cobb DOT crews have; – Put down 3400 gallons of brine before the snow started, – Used 300 tons of salt and 1200 tons of gravel since the snow fell, – Eight trucks continuously running routes, with others restocking material.
Morning sessions at Studio 348 for Women cancelled. Afternoon sessions still scheduled;
Thursday Postponements
East Cobb Middle School PTSA meeting and volunteer appreciation scheduled for Thursday will be held Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 6 p.m. in the ECMS Media Center;
Primrose School at East Cobb’s parent information meeting tonight at 6:30, was scheduled for Camps Kitchen & Bar, rescheduled to Sunday, Jan. 28 at 3:30 p.m. at the same venue;
Thursday delayed openings
Cobb County Government, 10 a.m. Thursday; Cobb libraries 11 a.m.;
Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, 10 a.m. Thursday;
East Cobb and Northeast Cobb YMCA, 10 a.m. Thursday (tentative);
St. Ann Catholic Church parish office, 10 a.m. Thursday. No 6:30 a.m. or 9 a.m. Mass services;
Mansouri Family Dental Care, noon-5:30 p.m.;
Olde Towne Athletic Club, opening at noon;
Atlanta Swim Academy, opening at 1 p.m., all morning classes cancelled.
We’ll be continuously updating other closings, cancellations, postponements and road and weather news for the rest of your Wednesday afternoon and evening here.
Send your weather news and photos and we’ll post it here: editor@eastcobbnews.com.
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In late September both Dickerson and Dodgen middle schools were named National Blue Ribbon Schoolsby the U.S. Department of Education.
Last week the Cobb Board of Education formally recognized the administrators and teachers at both schools.
Dickerson and Dodgen were among 342 schools nationwide earning the Blue Ribbon designation, and they’re among 17 East Cobb schools so named since the award began in the early 1980s.
In both group photos the school board members and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale are in the back row. The Dickerson staff, in the photo above: Dr. Carole Brink, principal; Sandra Alford, assistant principal; and teachersRebecca Johson, Tara Thieme, Jackie Roche, Jennifer Attard, Maureen McLaughlin, Megan Lankes, Natalie Cornwelland Drew Starnes.
In the photo below, the Dodgen staff in the front row: Dr. Loralee Hill, principal; Gary Jackson, assistant principal; Sheri Dennard, Teacher of the Year, 8th grade lead and math teacher; Marlo Sharp, French teacher; Tonia Martin-Gatlin, counselor; and Tricia Eoff, counseling office clerk.
Dickerson also was recognized by the school board for recently being named recipient of an Award of Excellence in Physical Education by the Georgia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.
Those recognized by the school board included Dickerson physical education teachersMaureen McLaughlin, Megan Lankes, Natalie Cornwell, Duane Perozzi and Drew Starnes.
It wasn’t quite unanimous, but close. The Cobb Board of Education Thursday voted 6-1 to adopt Cobb school calendars for the 2018-20 academic years after a brief discussion.
Scott Sweeney
The board didn’t make any changes to the calendars proposed by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale (see charts below). The first day of school for each of the next two years will begin on Aug. 1, and will include regularly scheduled breaks that have been the case in the last few years.
The “balanced” calendar had been the subject of strong board and community division in recent years, but not for this calendar scheduling cycle.
The only vote against was Scott Sweeney of Post 6 in East Cobb, who repeated comments he made at a recent work session that a large number of messages he’s received (63 percent) were in favor of a delayed start to the school year.
He also cited other issues, such as extracurricular activities, that are affected by a balanced calendar, and said he hasn’t received any evidence of academic improvements based on the adoption of a balanced calendar.
Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators repeated the organization’s support of the balanced calendar and urged the board to use the adopted calendars to serve as a template for future years.
Also on Thursday, the board accepted the resignation of Mary Elizabeth Davis, the Cobb County School District’s Chief Academic Officer. She has been named the new superintendent for Henry County public schools.
Adopted 2018-19 Cobb school calendar
Adopted 2019-2020 Cobb school calendar
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A reminder that the Cobb school calendar for the 2018-20 academic years are slated for adoption tonight.
It’s the last item on the Cobb Board of Education’s regular meeting agenda. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District Central Office, 514 Glover Street, Marietta. (here’s a link to the full agenda).
Earlier this month, the board discussed Superintendent Chris Ragsdale’s proposed calendars for the 2018-19 and 2019-2020 years, which would both start on Aug. 1 (previous East Cobb Newspost here).
While there hasn’t been the contentious reaction from school parents or on the board as in previous news, East Cobb school board member Scott Sweeney noted at the work session that he gets a lot of feedback from parents who want a later starting date.
Both proposed calendars have generally the same scheduled breaks—late September in the fall, mid-February in the winter and early April in the spring—as well as the usual Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year’s holiday breaks.
For the 2018-19 proposed calendar, the last day of school would be May 22, and for 2018-19, the final day would be May 20 (The full calendar proposals are attached at the bottom of this post).
Also tonight, the school board will formally recognize both Dickerson Middle School and Dodgen Middle School, which were recently named National Blue Ribbon Schools by the U.S. Department of Education (previous East Cobb Newspost here).
The board also will honor Dickerson, which was recently given an Award of Excellence in Physical Education by the Georgia Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.
