The Cobb Board of Education approved the hiring of a construction manager for the Cobb County School District’s new special events facility Thursday, but the vote wasn’t unanimous.
By a 5-2 vote, the board signed off on the district’s recommendation to hire Winter Construction Co. of Atlanta to oversee construction of the facility, which will be located next to the district’s central office on Glover Street.
The price for the project is estimated to be $50 million, and Winter will be paid 0.8 percent of that amount—around $400,000. The school board in December approved spending $3 million for the property.
A separate vote on the construction project itself will take place later. Funding will come from Cobb Education-IV SPLOST.
The facility, which will seat 8,000, will have graduations and other district-related special events. Estimated project completion is 2026.
But during a board work session Thursday afternoon, school board member Becky Sayler of Post 2 in the Smyrna area said she wasn’t satisfied the board was getting enough details.
The advance meeting agenda did not include the recommended construction manager and included the word “placeholder” in large bold print.
When Sayler asked Chief Technology and Operations Officer Marc Smith for more details, including a final cost, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale interjected to say that won’t be known until construction bids come in.
She pressed for other information–feasibility, cost savings, budget impact, maintenance and staffing costs–and Ragsdale said that “all that information was covered” when the board approved the decision to build a special events center in 2023.
“I remember getting big-picture ideas, but I still have not seen details for an expense of this magnitude,” said Sayler, who was the only board member to cast dissenting vote last year.
“Once the project was approved, we started moving down the path of getting the project in plan and that’s where we are today.”
Sayler and Post 6 board member Nichelle Davis, also of the Smyrna area, were the votes against the construction manager recommendation on Thursday.
In other action Thursday night, the school board voted along partisan lines to make changes to the district’s fiscal management possibilities, removing language requiring board approval of budget transfers.
The vote was 4-3, with the four Republicans voting in favor and the three Democrats voting against. Critics said that move would give the superintendent too much power over financial matters.
Ragsdale and district officials claimed otherwise, and a motion by Sayler to subject financial transfers to board approval failed, along the same party lines.
The board also voted to award a $6 million construction contract to R.K. Redding Construction, Inc. of Bremen for HVAC, door hardware, and plumbing improvements and restroom renovations at Shallowford Falls Elementary School in East Cobb.
The project is expected to be completed in July 2025.
Also on Thursday, the district announced several staff retirements, including East Cobb Middle School principal Leetonia Young, effective June 30.
She has been a teacher and administrator in Cobb since 2004.
Related:
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- Post 5 school board candidates qualify for primary
- Cobb school board extends superintendent’s contract
- East Cobb high schools included in state AP Honors program
- Powers Ferry ES ‘Terrific Kids’ homored by Golden K Kiwanis
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