Longtime Walton High School principal Judy McNeill is retiring.
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.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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!
Walton High School has been named one of the Top 10 public high schools in Georgia by U.S. News, but other East Cobb high schools also fared well in the annual rankings that were released on Wednesday.
Walton comes in at No. 9 on the Georgia list, the highest-ranked Cobb County high school. Nationally, Walton is listed at No. 314, as well as No. 96 among charter schools and No. 144 among STEM schools across the country.
However, U.S. News has come in for criticism for its high school rankings (as well as college rankings it also releases annually).
Last year, the American Enterprise Institute wrote that too much emphasis is placed on Advanced Placement results, concluding that the “rankings promote the notion that the best high schools are the ones with the highest outcomes.”
The Atlantic has written previously that the U.S. News high school rankings, which began in 1998, are harmful and have a formula that’s too simplistic.
The Cobb County School District eagerly shared the news on its social media channels on Thursday, noting that eight of the 16 high schools in the system were included in the national rankings.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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!
Seven East Cobb schools surpassed the maximum scores in the latest CCRPI test results released Thursday by the Cobb County School District.
The CCRPI—which stands for College and Career Ready Performance Index—is a state accountability measure that gauges overall achievement results and how schools are preparing students for the next level of education.
The CCRPI is formulated on a 100-point scale as follows:
Student progress totaling 40 percent (Milestones results from year to year);
The remaining 10 percent related to closing the achievement gap (between the 25 percent lowest-performing students in a school or district compared to all Georgia students).
At the elementary school level, Timber Ridge (100.5), Murdock and Sope Creek (100.3 each) led all of Cobb, earning what’s referred to as “challenge” points in such categories as improved results among subgroups of students and innovative measures at a school, the so-called Exceeding the Bar (ETB) score.
Three Cobb middle schools, all in East Cobb, also exceeded the 100 mark: Dickerson (103), Dodgen (101) and Hightower Trail (101.5).
At the high school level, Walton’s score of 101.1 led the county as well. The high school achievement score includes graduation rates.
Cobb’s overall CCRPI score of 82.9 was higher than the statewide average of 75. For the high-scoring schools in East Cobb, those results were among the best in Georgia.
Timber Ridge’s score of 100.5 not only was a gain of 5.8 percent from 2016, but it’s one of the highest in the state (Lake Windward, in north Fulton County, topped out at 104.5). Timber Ridge scored 47.1 on achievement, a perfect 40 in progress, and earned 3.4 challenge points.
In a statement, Jeffrey Castle, the Timber Ridge principal, attributed his school’s results to “a supportive parent community, engaged students and motivated, highly-capable teachers who have the education of the whole child as their main priority.
“Our focus last year was on progress, with implementation of computer-based reading intervention programs, and on intentional delivery of rigorous instruction and congruency among curriculum, assessments and instruction.”
All but two of the 21 East Cobb elementary schools had higher scores than 2016, but the drops by Kincaid and Sedalia Park were slight.
The biggest jump was at Powers Ferry, with a score of 72.3 representing a 14.5 percent increase from a year ago, the fourth largest boost among Cobb elementary schools.
Although the achievement score at Powers Ferry was 26 and its progress was at 37, the school reported a score of 8.3 (out of 10) in closing the achievement gap.
In a release, Cobb schools said that measuring year-to-year progress in 2017 is not exact because of some minor changes to how the CCRPI is formulated. At all levels, science and social studies were removed as indicators in the progress and achievement gap categories.
Elementary Schools
2017 Score
Change from 2016
All of Cobb ES
80.5
+4.8
Addison
93.0
+5.3
Bells Ferry
89.3
+7.5
Blackwell
86.2
+6.8
Brumby
67.8
+7.1
Davis
87.5
+2.4
East Side
96.3
+4.5
Eastvalley
93.5
+5.8
Garrison Mill
96.8
+1.5
Keheley
88.7
+2.6
Kincaid
89.9
-0.9
Mt. Bethel
96.4
+1.4
Mountain View
99.7
+7.8
Murdock
100.3
+6.2
Nicholson
88.5
+11.2
Powers Ferry
72.3
+14.5
Rocky Mount
97.4
+5.0
Sedalia Park
68.9
-0.1
Shallowford Falls
88.0
+1.0
Sope Creek
100.3
+6.1
Timber Ridge
100.5
+5.8
Tritt
96.8
+6.0
Middle Schools
2017 Score
Change from 2016
All of Cobb MS
82.0
+2.2
Daniell
77.9
-2.1
Dickerson
103.0
+4.3
Dodgen
101.0
+1.4
East Cobb
79.2
+3.6
Hightower Trail
100.5
+2.9
Mabry
91.3
0.0
McCleskey
82.5
-0.3
Simpson
89.9
+3.2
High Schools
2017 Score
Change from 2016
All of Cobb HS
87.3
-0.9
Kell
85.8
-6.4
Lassiter
99.9
0.7
Pope
92.9
-6.5
Sprayberry
86.7
-2.0
Walton
101.2
-1.2
Wheeler
90.3
+1.7
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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 results of the 2017 Scholastic Aptitude Test, one of the major guideposts for college admissions, were released on Tuesday. East Cobb SAT scores were among the highest in Georgia.
Walton High School’s mean score of 1,242 was second in all of Georgia, trailing only the Gwinnett School of Math, Science and Technology (1,315). But three other East Cobb schools also placed high in the statewide mean scores as well: Lassiter was 7th at 1,189; Pope was 15th at 1,164; and Wheeler was 22nd at 1,153.
Kell finished just above the Cobb County School District mean of 1,088 with a score of 1,091, while Sprayberry’s mean score is 1,049.
The SAT is administered by the College Board, and tests students in two cluster subject areas: Math and ERW (Evidence-Based Reading and Writing). The score grading is from 400 to 1,600.
This is a change that was made in the last year, with the previous maximum score 2,400. The redesigned test includes questions about history, science and social studies (more comparable to the ACT); whereas the previous test focused on math and English.
Three Walton students earned perfect scores of 1,600 in the 2017 testing period.
“Our teachers are doing a great job focusing on literacy in the classroom. This focus has had a positive impact on all of the state and national measurements,” Walton principal Judy McNeill said in a statement issued by the Cobb County School District. “We thank the faculty, students, and community for making Walton such a positive learning environment. We have students that really want to do well.”
The Georgia Department of Education offered this summary of the statewide results, which also include links to district and school-level databases. Here are the six East Cobb high school scores, as well as the Cobb, Georgia and national results.
UPDATED, 10:16 a.m. Friday: The CCSD has provided the names of an additional 12 students from Wheeler to its original release that were initially omitted. The figures in the story reflect those changes. — WP
Of the East Cobb students named semifinalists, 33 come from Walton High School, and 19 more are students at Wheeler High School. According to the CCSD, Walton has the second-highest number of semifinalists for any school in Georgia. Kell, Lassiter and Pope all had semifinalists, and Cobb schools overall had 82 semifinalists.
A CCSD release explains the program and process from here:
“These academically-talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth about $32 million that will be offered next spring. About 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.”
Here are the East Cobb students named as semifinalists, listed by school:
Kell High School
Mitchell Q. Gacuzana
Lassiter High School
Radhesh D. Amin, Christopher L. Butcher, Christopher W. Clark, Justin Q. Coleman, Jerry J. Harrison, Virginia J. Langmaid, Seth A. Nye, Anastasia A. Onyango, Oliver J. Park, Samuel R. Quiroz, Brenna Salkin, Kyle T. Waldner, Seo Y. Yoo
Pope High School
Francesca Burke, Ellie R. Coe, Caleigh A. Cullinan, Suzanna A. Jiwani, David A. Reingold
Walton High School
Kento M. Arendt, Jiwoo Bae, Harper S. Barbaree, Eli M. Burstiner, Carlson L. Chiles, Daniel Cho, Andrew H. Chyong, Clayton J. Eshleman, Catherine Fan, Kaylynn L. Hiller, Daniel C. Hudadoff, John C. Hults, Elaine S. Hwang, Bita Jadali, Tiffany N. Jeng, Gina J. Kang, Laura K. Key, Hyunjin A. Kim, Lucas Y. Kuan, Jayanth Kumar, Luke H. Lavin, Eileen W. Law, Cecelia I. Lu, Harsimran Minhas, Jacob H. Moore, Robert A. Morgan, Siddharth J. Natham, Wesley D. Nourachi, Adarshini Raja, Akshat V. Sistla, Wendy Yao, Wooju R. Yim, Grace K. Zhou
Wheeler High School
Andrew R. Benecchi, Shawn M. Doss, Chibuzor I. Eduzor, Kevin Fan, Rohan R. George, Nikhil I. Jindia, Dhananjay Khazanchi, Jeet Kothari, Erin Z. Leydon, Alexander Madison, Melam Master, Colin T. McMillen, Anusha Moudgal, Arvin T. Poddar, Suyash Rajesh, Amithav B. Reddy, Michael A. Shible, Sofiya Vyshnya, Charles A. Wood
The original Walton High School building stands empty, with a new classroom facility having just opened.
Tearing down the old building, which opened in 1975, is needed to complete the Walton rebuilding project, making room for a new gymnasium and fine arts building.
A proposed demolition contract is on the Thursday agenda for the Cobb Board of Education, which is holding its monthly work session (from 2 p.m.-5 p.m.) and business meeting (beginning at 7 p.m.) on the same day due to the upcoming fall break the week of Sept. 25-29.
School officials have received a low bid of $3.584 million from Triad Construction Co. of College Park and are recommending board approval (pages 35-36 of agenda) of the Walton demolition.
The new Walton gym and fine arts components, which are expected to be completed in 2019, represent the final part of the $48 million Walton rebuild, which was approved by Cobb voters in 2013 in the Cobb Ed-SPLOST IV referendum.
Also on Thursday’s agenda, the school board will consider approving construction easements at two East Cobb elementary schools:
The new Brumby Elementary School, to be located on Terrell Mill Road, totaling 2,363 square feet, for new curbing, gutters and sidewalks to the entrance (pages 30 & 32 of agenda);
Murdock Elementary School, 2320 Murdock Road, totaling 9,500 square feet, at the request of Georgia Power Co. to provide electricity to a new portable classroom (pages 30 & 34 of agenda).
At the 7 p.m. meeting Thursday, the Cobb school board also will recognize Walton’s girls state tennis championship team, Georgia Art Education Association teacher honorees Kerri Waller of Simpson Middle School and Kathleen Petka of Walton and the CCSD high school-level classified employee of the Year, Alice Brown of Lassiter High School (previous East Cobb News posts here and here).
The Cobb school board meetings take place in the board room at the CCSD Central Office, 514 Glover St. They are shown live on Comcast Channel 24 and CHARTER Channel 182 and streamed live on Cobb edTV (more viewing details here).
East Cobb ACT scores represented the four highest Cobb County school-wide composite figures for 2017, led by Walton High School.
ACT results were released Friday by the Cobb County School District. Walton’s composite score of 27 (out of a possible 36), led the way for all 16 high schools in Cobb, followed by East Cobb neighbors Pope (25.6), Wheeler (25.1) and Lassiter (25.0.)
Cobb’s composite score of 22.9 is a record for the district, and for 2017 it is four points higher than the national ACT composite and 1.5 points above the Georgia composite (full Cobb release).
The other two East Cobb high schools posted composite scores just below the Cobb average: Kell (21.6) and Sprayberry (21.0). The 2017 scores for all six East Cobb high schools represented increases from 2106, according to data released by the CCSD.
The ACT, a major barometer for college admissions and merit scholarships, is taken by high school students and consists of four subject-area sections (English, math, reading and science). A total of 7,800 Cobb graduating seniors took the ACT in 2017, about 54 percent of the high school enrollment.
Ten individual students recorded perfect ACT scores, including five from Walton and one each from Lassiter and Wheeler.
“These scores are just one indication of the quality of public education in the Cobb County School District and underscore our mission of One Team, One Goal: Student Success,” Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said in a statement Friday. “The credit for the results goes to our hard-working students and dedicated teachers and administrators.”
Wheeler’s score of 25.1 represents the biggest gain in the CCSD from 2016, a full point higher than a year ago. Principal Peter Giles said in a statement that the school in recent years began giving freshmen pre-ACT tests to prepare them for their senior exam.
“This gives students exposure to the format of the ACT,” Giles said, “while showing students that they are not limited to the SAT.”
Here’s how many East Cobb high school students took the ACT, school-by-school:
Kell: 214 students tested (62.6% of all seniors): 21.6 composite score;
Lassiter: 363 students tested (72.2%): 25.0;
Pope: 334 students tested (69.4%): 25.6;
Sprayberry: 164 students test (40.3%): 21.0;
Walton: 483 students tested (74.9%): 27.0;
Wheeler: 221 students tested (48.6%): 25.0.
More information on the Cobb ACT results can be found here.
Information submitted by the Cobb County School District:
Wildlife Forever named Walton High School art teacher, Kathleen Petka, the 2017 State-Fish Art Educator of the Year.
Along with her award, the 13-year veteran teacher earned a $500 gift card for classroom art supplies from the award’s sponsor, Triarco Arts & Crafts. The national award, which supports Wildlife Forever’s mission of conservation education, preservation of habitat, and management of fish and wildlife, is given to educators who communicate the spirit of conservation to students through excellence in visual arts education.
Petka educates her students about the importance of safeguarding natural resource through their annual participation in the State-Fish Art Contest, supported by the U.S. Forestry Service, among other preservation organizations.
Since her students started participating in the State-Fish Art Contest, they have won numerous state awards.
“The contest is a wonderful opportunity for students to learn, care, share, teach, and create,” Petka explained. “They take ownership of their works [of art] and get to select the state fish of their desire, write with meaning, create art with a message, and they get to share their works, all while learning how important it is to be mindful of our environment.”
Here’s more on the Wildlife Forever state-fish art program.
The new Walton High School building is open, and on Sunday afternoon, the day before classes were set to begin, several hundred students, parents, elected officials and others celebrating ribbon-cutting ceremonies and an open house.
Among the honored guests, in addition to local officials, were Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson and newly elected Congresswoman Karen Handel.
The three-story, $48 million classroom and administrative office structure replaces a 42-year-old main building that has been overcrowded for years. The old building will eventually give way to the second phase of the Walton project that is to include a new gymnasium and fine arts building scheduled for completion in 2019.
The 300,000-plus-square-foot main building is around 40 percent bigger than what it is replacing. Walton opened in 1975, at a time when rapid growth in East Cobb was vastly overburdening school capacity.
Isakson, whose children and granddaughter attended Walton, told the audience that while he was working as an East Cobb real estate broker in the early 1970s, then-Cobb school superintendent Kermit Keenum warned him that new schools in the area—especially high schools—had to be built, and fast.
Isakson helped the school system with finding land, and noted that the Bill Murdock Road properties on which Walton and nearby Dodgen Middle School are located cost around $4,500.
“That would cost at least 10 times that amount today,” said Isakson, who was formerly the president of Northside Realty. He called the new Walton building “a pearl of beauty.”
He was among the speakers who kept referencing the education SPLOST (or special local option sales tax) funding that paid for the new Walton building. Isakson said more than $6.8 billion has been spent on school construction across Georgia with SPLOST funding, and he thanked Cobb leaders for leading the way in changing the state constitution to allow for such referenda.
Isakson also said it’s not just bricks and mortar, but “teachers, parents and students” that make a school community strong.