Wheeler HS robotics lab funding on Cobb school board agenda

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.

The meetings also will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24.

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!”