With Dodgen principal Dr. Loralee Hill applauding, Fred Veeder reacts to being named the Cobb middle school teacher of the year by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale Wednesday. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
Fred Veeder was sitting in the cafeteria with his peers Wednesday morning, shortly after a welcome-back staff breakfast. The Dodgen Middle School teacher had no idea he was about to become the center of attention.
Then an entourage from the Cobb County School District, including superintendent Chris Ragsdale, entered the room, along with Veeder’s sister and mother.
He had been chosen the Cobb district’s middle school teacher of the year, and he was completely blown away by the honor.
The surprise announcements were repeated for teachers at Nickajack Elementary School in Smyrna and Harrison High School in Kennesaw.
Ragsdale, who told the Dodgen teachers that “you are the rock stars” of the school district, said breaking the news to the selected teachers is “probably one of my favorite things to do.”
A seventh grade math teacher at Dodgen for the last 15 years, Veeder was humble in being asked to speak to his colleagues.
“This is for all of us, not just me,” Veeder said.
Dodgen Middle School teachers listen to Fred Veeder after he was named a Cobb teacher of the year finalist.
Asked later what the honor means, Veeder still couldn’t believe it. “Oh God,” he said. “It just blows me away. I just love the job so much. That’s the reward in itself. This. . . this is surreal.”
Teaching is a second career for Veeder. He previously owned a Chevron station in Buckhead. After selling that business, he decided to go back to college and complete his education.
He’s been at Dodgen all 15 years as a public school teacher, but his teaching career isn’t a happenstance. His mother was a seventh grade math teacher before him, and she warmly embraced him at the celebration.
“He was just born to be a math teacher,” Dr. Loralee Hill, the Dodgen principal, said of Veeder. “It’s in his blood.”
Dodgen Middle School teacher Fred Veeder gets a hug from his mother, a retired 7th grade math teacher.
She said that what distinguishes Veeder is a “passion for the kids that’s insurmountable” and his success in engaging with them in the classroom.
Hill said while Veeder is a demanding teacher in a demanding subject, the way he questions students in classes is among the best she’s observed by a teacher.
Veeder also has been a sponsor of the Dodgen math club while teaching a 7th grade honors class. Hill said students taking math support classes eagerly sign up for him to be their teacher.
Not only is Veeder constantly willing to collaborate and learn new things, Hill said, he passes on that knowledge.
“He’s a legend in our community,” Hill said.
Veeder is a finalist for the Cobb County School District teacher of the year, which will be named after the start of the school year.
Among the perks is the free use of a vehicle of his choice for this school year from the Ed Voyles dealerships.
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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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The Cobb County School District expects more than 2,000 educators to attend two upcoming job fairs open to anyone interested in certified teaching positions. The job fairs put teachers face-to-face with school administrators in a relaxed and personal setting and gives them the opportunity to talk directly about teaching and learning in a diverse and dynamic school district.
Elementary Schools Job Fair
March 27, 2018 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Wheeler High School
375 Holt Rd NE
Marietta, GA 30068
Middle and High Schools Job Fair
March 29, 2018 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Kennesaw Mountain High School
1898 Kennesaw Due West Rd NW
Kennesaw, GA 30152
Cobb County is the second largest school district in Georgia and is recognized as a premier system in which to teach, lead and learn.
“The Cobb County School District was, once again, the first district in Georgia to issue contracts for the upcoming school year,” says Kevin Kiger, Executive Director of Human Resources, “Doing so enables us to recruit and hire the best educators before anyone else. We are always seeking the finest educators who are ready to join the Cobb Family and support our vision: One Team, One Goal: Student Success.”
For more information and to start an application, interested persons can visit www.teachcobb.org.
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Parents, friends and family members of Walton students offered support during the March 14 walkout. (East Cobb News photo)
Cobb County School District high schools are beginning to issue suspensions for students who participated in National Walkout Day last week. Some East Cobb students say they’re still waitng to hear what there punishment will be.
Kara Litwin, organizer of the walkout at Pope High School, told East Cobb News Wednesday that she and others who walked out are receiving a day of in-school suspension on Monday.
Walton walkout leaders said the estimated 260 students at their school who walked out will receive a day of ISS on Tuesday.
Cobb schools did not support the walkout and said students who left their classes in a gun-control protest would be subject to disciplinary action under the district’s student code of conduct. Those actions would be left up to individual school principals.
Hannah Andress, the Lassiter leader, told us Wednesday night her administration hasn’t announced any punishment. She thinks it’s also going to be a day of what’s referred to as ISS. Instead of attending classes, students will gather in what’s essentially a day-long study hall. She also told us this:
“I want something like assigned community service for the younger participants so, when the apply to college, they don’t have to explain ISS on their record. But I’m willing to take any punishment if it means getting my message across.”
We also heard from Josh Spear, a student at Harrison High School in West Cobb, who said his school also has issued one day of ISS that he will be serving on Friday. “However,” he added, “I will fight to ensure that the school district pays for the violation of students’ first amendment rights.”
We’ll update this story as we get more information about forthcoming punishments.
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As a television news helicopter buzzed overhead, several dozen parents, family members and friends of Walton High School walkout students gathered Wednesday morning to show their support on National School Walkout day.
The group of about 30-40 people huddled in brisk temperatures at the back entrance to Walton, near the football field where walkout students were planning their protest, holding signs and talking quietly among themselves.
At 10 a.m., they grew quiet as the names of the 17 victims of the Feb. 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., were pronounced. A moment of silence followed, and the group waved to students walking to and from the main school building, and to those who remained inside.
A solemn reading of the names of the 17 victims of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting a month ago today.
Walkout activity was not visible from their gathering spot on Bill Murdock Road and Pine Road. Motorists were stopped by officers patrolling the entrance to the back parking lot.
Initial reports were that only a few hundred Walton students walked out, far fewer than the more than 2,000 students protest organizers said had signed up online. Around 100 or so students each at Lassiter and Pope reportedly participated in walkouts.
UPDATE: Around 12:30 p.m. today, John Adams, the deputy superintendent of Cobb schools, posted this message on the Cobb County School Unofficial Community Page on Facebook:
In short, only a small fraction of our students engaged in protests, mainly at a relatively small number of schools. Over 99% of the students in CCSD behaved appropriately and did not violate school rules in any way. Over 90% of our schools did not experience any significant disruption. Less than 1% of our students engaged in some sort of protest.
In total, less than 1,000 students engaged in a brief protest out of approximately 112,000. Walton, for example, only had about 250 students walk out, which was far less than the 2,300 number that had been recently forecast for that location.
In general, nearly all of our students complied with the school rules and worked successfully with our principals to find non-disruptive ways to express any concerns. Congratulations to both our local school administrators and to our students for handling this situation so well.
The gates to the front entrance of Walton were locked, and no visitors were allowed earlier in the morning for a memorial event approved by the school administration.
No vehicles were allowed near the main Walton High School entrance after the school day began.
At nearby Pope High School, several Cobb Police vehicles blocked the lone entrance to the school on Hembree Road, and uniformed officers approached motorists seeking to enter.
Pope High School was off-limits to outsiders Wednesday.
The National School Walkout was observed across the country on the first-month anniversary of the Parkland, Fla., shootings, and students at Walton, Lassiter, Pope and other East Cobb high schools have been vocal and visible in expressing their desire to do something about school safety.
Officially, however, the Cobb County School District did not support the walkout, and threatened students who did with unspecified disciplinary action. School officials cited safety and a desire not to disrupt classes for their decision.
Various news outlets and social media posts were reporting that students at some schools in East Cobb and elsewhere were being strongly encouraged and possibly even physically forced to remain in their school buildings.
In response, a message posted at the Sprayberry Athletics Facebook page said 150 students gathered in the school cafeteria at 10 a.m. and staged a 17-minute peaceful observation in honor of the Parkland victims, “but at no time did students attempt to leave the building, nor were they locked in their classrooms and prevented from exiting.”
Jane Mathers, the grandmother of Walton senior Madeleine Deisen, one of the walkout leaders, said she doesn’t believe the safety explanation given by Cobb schools.
“I don’t believe that at all,” said Mathers, who was part of the supporters group, adding that the school district’s threat of student discipline “is a very big disappointment.
“What I support is action that will cause change and that will protect students,” said Mathers, who lives here and part of the year in her hometown of Haddonfield, N.J., where she said a school-endorsed observation was scheduled Wednesday at 10 a.m., the designated walkout time, at a school football field.
The National School Walkout also was planned as a demonstration in favor of gun control. Few of the signs at the Walton parent gathering specifically referred to that issue, but many had signs and wore buttons saying “Not One More.” Most expressed their disappointment with the Cobb schools decision and encouraged students to get involved in what they believe in.
Mathers acknowledged that gun-control alone isn’t the solution to the problem of school shootings. “There is no one answer to the problem,” she said, but added that it’s a shame “this particular school district and this particular school” has taken the stance it has.
Before the school day Wednesday, Walton administrators, teachers, students and invited guests gathered for a commemoration of the school shootings.
The event wasn’t open to the public, and East Cobb News was denied a coverage request. But we were allowed to have a program from the service. It indicated that the names of the Parkland victims were read aloud, and participants had an opportunity to lay flowers and visit a letter-writing table to leave their tributes.
At the end of the event, trumpeters Daniel Hudadoff and Duncan Farquahar played “Taps.”
The event was organized by the Walton Principal’s Leadership Committee, Student Government Association and other student groups. On the back of the program, it read “Thank you for supporting the students and keeping us safe,” listing Principal Judy McNeill and the Walton administration, Cobb schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale and Cobb school board member Scott Sweeney.
“We are pleased to let you know we had a beautiful day today,” the Walton administration said in a message to parents Wednesday afternoon, detailing the morning service that was “followed by a very calm day and classes proceeded as usual.”
The message concluded that “a large police presence” accompanied the students walking out, “and as typical of Walton students they thanked the officers for keeping them safe.”
One of the Walton students who walked out is sophomore Ema Barber. She told East Cobb News she left her biology class at 9:55 and signed a sign-out sheet, then walked to the stadium area.
“I was a little bit anxious because I didn’t know how many people would show up,” she said. But she the walkout was rather uneventful. There were some police and security blocking doors, but Barber said she was not stopped.
She said the Cobb schools estimate of around 250 students walking out sounded right to her, and figured the lower turnout than expected was because students weren’t sure what the consequences might be for their actions.
At 10 a.m. the names of the Parkland victims were read aloud as the students huddled on the football field. There also was contact information posted about elected representatives, including U.S. Rep. Karen Handel, and Barber said some of the students were going to call her office about gun control and school safety issues.
She said students were allowed to return to the classroom without any incidents that she knew about. Cobb schools had an early release day Wednesday, and Walton and other high schools wrapped up their school day at 11:30 a.m.
Barber said while she supports some gun control measures, the importance of the walkout was to begin to raise awareness that she hopes will continue. She also said she’s not sure what kind of suspension or punishment she may receive, but “I’m not too worried about it.”
The message from the Walton administration sent out Wednesday made no reference to any possible disciplinary action.
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Walton High School Principal Judy McNeill sent out this message to parents this afternoon:
We have received many reports of a threat made against the school for tomorrow, March 14, 2018. The administration along with school police have thoroughly investigated all reported information and have found nothing credible to substantiate a threat to our school. We are very thankful students and parents have come forward with various information as we must all work together to keep us all safe. If you ever receive any concerning information in the overnight hours, please call our local police at Precinct 4.
ORIGINAL POST, 3:41 P.M.
The day before students are staging gun-control “walkout” protests, Cobb schools issued a reminder that all campuses will be closed to “visitors” on Wednesday.
This doesn’t include parents dropping off or picking up their children. Cobb schools are on an early release schedule Wednesday, with high schools letting out at 11:30 a.m., followed by elementary schools at 12:30 p.m. and middle schools at 1:30 p.m. The rest of the afternoon is a professional learning day for teachers.
The Cobb County School District is not endorsing the walkouts and is threatening to subject those students who do to its code of conduct.
Walkouts are planned nationwide for 17 minutes at 10 a.m. as part of what’s being called National School Walkout, to honor the 17 victims of the Feb. 14 high school shootings in Parkland, Fla., and to advocate for gun control.
Students at Walton, Lassiter, Pope and other East Cobb high schools have said hundreds of students have signed an online petition to take part.
Individual schools have been given latitude to conduct their own observances as an alternative. Cobb schools cited safety reasons and conducting an undisrupted school day for its decision.
J.J. Daniel Middle School will conduct a 17-minute period of “observation and reflection” and a school-wide moment of silence. Students also will participate in a 17-day student “walk-up challenge,” in which they will be asked to get acquainted with 17 students they don’t already know.
Walton High School is holding a memorial service before classes as part of a #WhatsYour17 effort for students to engage in acts of kindness.
A visitor invited to attend the Walton event is Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who said in his remarks at Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting that such an alternative to a walkout “is making it into a teaching moment.”
The Cobb schools statement issued today didn’t indicate whether media wishing to cover Wednesday events would be considered “visitors” or not. East Cobb News was initially denied a request to cover the Walton service at the school level; we’ve got a call into the CCSD for clarification.
The Cobb office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was holding a press conference later this afternoon at Pope High School to support the right of students to walk out and “to make sure that any consequences which result are fair and not excessive or disparate.”
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The organizers of a Walton High School walkout in favor of gun control say nearly 2,300 students have signed up for a planned protest on March 14.
That’s an overwhelming majority of the students at Walton, the second-largest high school in the Cobb County School District by enrollment, with nearly 2,700 students.
Natalie Carlomagno, a Walton sophomore, said in an interview with East Cobb News that an online petition to gauge possible student participation in the event got many more signatures after Cobb school officials announced last week they would not support the demonstrations.
“After that statement, our RSVPs skyrocketed,” Carlomagno said. “I think people will go through with it.”
The students are planning to walk out of their classes for 17 minutes, starting at 10 a.m., on March 14, in the memory of the 17 students and staff gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. last month.
Cobb school officials have cited safety reasons and disruptions of the school day for opposing this action, and said students could be subject to disciplinary action for violations of the student code of conduct.
Carlomagno said she and the other Walton organizers initially wanted the protest to take place in front of the school, under the flagpole, but there isn’t enough room.
She also said the logistics of the protest are also up in the air after she and other organizers met last week with Walton Principal Judy McNeill, who told them she was disappointed that they wanted to walk out.
Carlomagno said McNeill suggested the demonstration take place before school on the walkout day.
“That’s unacceptable,” Carlomagno said, insisting that the scheduled 10 a.m. walkout was the best way to show solidarity with the national protests.
Another suggestion was to allow the walkout to take place at the Walton football stadium, but Carlomagno said school officials didn’t want that.
(We’ve left a message with Walton officials and will update with a response.)
On Wednesday Cobb high school superintendents are getting together with high school-level district staff. Cobb school district spokesman John Stafford said it’s a regularly scheduled meeting to discuss a number of issues and topics.
“Will [the protests] be a topic of conversation? It will be hard to think it won’t be,” he said.
The district has not commented further on the walkouts except to reiterate the need to prioritize safety. Stafford said limiting the presence on high school campuses to students and staff is paramount.
While parents can come and pick up their children at any time, he said, others who may want to come to a school, especially individuals and organizations with an interest in the protest, will not be permitted.
“That’s part of our safety concern” about the walkouts, he said. “We’re not going to open up the campus to anyone who wants to come to campus.”
Stafford said there have been some suggestions from those in support of the walkouts that they would be no different than fire drills.
But having thousands of students walk out at the same time “most certainly is different,” he said.
“It’s not the same thing at all, from a security and safety standpoint.”
Carlomagno, who’s 15, said the Walton protest is to include a moment of silence for the Parkland victims, as well as a voter registration drive, and to let students know who their elected officials are. Although she and most Walton students are too young to vote, she said it’s important to let them know “what they can do to become more politically active.”
The shootings also hit home for Carlomagno, who grew up in Broward County, Fla., where Parkland is located. She said the similarities of Walton to the Parkland school, both with large suburban student bodies, have been mentioned by her friends.
“I keep hearing the conversations,” Carlomagno said, adding that she was reassured about safety measures at Walton after two “code red” drills were conducted last week.
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As temperatures climbed toward freezing this morning, Cobb County government offices and libraries opened, and road clean-up continued, aided by some very welcome sunshine.
Late last night, Cobb spokesman Ross Cavitt said that around 200 accident calls were reported to county 911 dispatchers within the first 24 hours of the storm, including 15 stranded motorists, 10 hit-and-run incidents and two needing fire extrication from their vehicles.
No serious injuries have been reported, but the roads are still icy and slushy in some places.
Earlier this morning Cobb DOT said there were 50 reports of black ice throughout the county overnight:
Most major roads in good shape but side streets, especially those in shade, remain problematic. Be safe if you are venturing out. Fortunately traffic is light.
If you’re a CobbLinc rider, local and paratransit service began at noon, but XPress bus services are cancelled today.
Temperatures could reach the high 30s or even 40 by mid afternoon, with lows tonight and overnight falling back into the mid-to-low 20s.
Then it’s getting warmer starting Friday, and for most of next week. Friday’s highs could get into the low 50s and by Sunday we could get into the high 60s.
We a few updates about openings, closings, cancellations and postponements from East Cobb businesses, faith communities and other organizations beyond what was posted on the link just above, but we’ll keep adding to this list below during the afternoon.
We’ll also update with news about whether Cobb schools will have classes Friday. They’re closed again today, and today’s school board meetings have been postponed to next Thursday.
We’ll also be catching up with some other news that we’ve been wanting to post here the last couple days—and there’s a lot going on to share in East Cobb—starting later today and tomorrow as well.
Thursday openings
Transfiguration Catholic Church
XenGo Fusion Kitchen & Sushi
The Avenue East Cobb
Ted’s Montana Grill
Johnny’s New York Pizza
Book Exchange
St. Andrew UMC, at 1 p.m.
Once and Again Books
The Art Place-Mountain View, at 1 p.m.
East Cobb and NE Cobb YMCA open until 7 p.m.
Thursday closings/cancellations
Tonight’s Walton PTSA open house and general meeting
All practices/activities for East Marietta Basketball
The Cobb Watershed Stewardship program’s Privet Pull Mob for this afternoon at Noonday Creek Park
Send your weather news and photos and we’ll post it here: editor@eastcobbnews.com.
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Just after 3 p.m. Monday, the Cobb County School District announced via social media that all classes and other school activities are back on for Tuesday:
All Cobb County schools will resume classes on Tuesday, December 12, on a normal schedule.
Cobb schools have been out of session since an early release on Friday, as a winter storm approached metro Atlanta and left in some areas nearly a foot of snow.
Some of those areas included portions of Cobb County, and resulted in power outages that includes some school facilities.
Cobb schools cancelled Monday classes for that reason, and because of icy roads, including school parking lots and driveways.
Temperatures reached above 50 degrees on Monday afternoon, and lows tonight aren’t expected to fall below 40.
As of 3 p.m. Monday, Cobb EMC said it was down to restoring power to 1,377 Cobb customers and working to repair a broken power pole on Ebenezer Road.
Georgia Power reported Monday afternoon that it has around 6,000 customers still without power, with a handful in Northeast Cobb.
Earlier Monday, Cobb DOT said that Davis Road between Holly Springs Road and Sandy Plains Road remained closed, due to downed trees and power lines that also cut off electric power.
All Cobb government offices reopened under regular hours on Monday, including libraries, which were closed all weekend due to the winter weather.
On Monday evening, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (955 Johnson Ferry Road) is holding a Christmas Festival concert at 7 p.m. That was an addition to the schedule after two Saturday holiday concerts were cancelled due to the weather.
The forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday calls for mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid-40s and for the rest of the week, with highs in the low 50s projected for Thursday and for the weekend.
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