The Cobb County School District (CCSD) is the school district which operates public schools in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. The school district includes all of Cobb County except for the Marietta City Schools, though a number of schools in unincorporated parts of the county have Marietta addresses.[3] It is the second-largest school system in Georgia (behind only Gwinnett County Public Schools) and 23rd largest in the United States.[4] The district is the county's largest employer[5] and one of the largest in the US (at least in school systems). All Cobb County schools are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and the district is among the first to have earned district-wide accreditation.[6] The superintendent of the school district is Chris Ragsdale.[7]
Board of education
As a body created under provisions of the Georgia's constitution, the Cobb County Board of Education has full authority to control and manage the public schools within the county, excluding any independent school system. This means that like other school systems in the state, it is directly under the Georgia Department of Education and not subject to city or county government control. This also means that it has separate funding through its own property tax (except on senior citizens) outside of Marietta city limits, and 1% county-wide sales tax which it splits with Marietta City Schools based on which jurisdiction it was collected in.
As of April 2023, the elected board members of the Cobb County Board of Education of the Cobb County School District are:[8]
Randy Scamihorn (Post 1)
Becky Sayler (Post 2)
Leroy Tre' Hutchins (Post 3)
David Chastain (Post 4, board chair)
David Banks (Post 5, board vice-chair)
Nichelle Davis (Post 6)
Brad Wheeler (Post 7)
The board manages a fiscal year 2022 general-fund operating budget of $1.17 billion.
The original Clarkdale Elementary School was a Cobb County school that opened in the 1960s and closed on September 21, 2009, due to the massive flooding in Georgia that day, which submerged the school to the ceiling in the waters of nearby Noses Creek. Despite being built outside the 100-year floodplain, water rose ankle-deep on the grounds as the children were being evacuated.
The school housed about 450 students. For three school years, these students attended Compton Elementary (K-2) and Austell Intermediate (3–5). The new Clarkdale Elementary opened in mid-August 2012 near Cooper Middle School (although the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared the original site acceptable[10]), while the previous building awaited demolition, a delay which the local neighborhood complained about.
State funding (a bond for 20% of the cost of replacement) was vetoed by GovernorSonny Perdue on procedural grounds in early June 2010.[11] Most of the remainder will be covered by insurance and leftover SPLOST funds.[12]
At least one other school has been demolished. The original Blackwell Elementary School in the Blackwells community was built in the 1920s on Canton Road (old Georgia 5), as the county's first consolidated school. The historic schoolhouse, and all of its later additions, were destroyed in summer 1997 and closed for a year while a new replacement was built on the same site, in an institutional style much like the plain architecture of an office park rather than a historic school.
The original Mountain View Elementary was rebuilt farther down Sandy Plains Road; the original was demolished in 2018 for a new shopping center. Also located in a busy business district, Brumby Elementary on Powers Ferry Road was set to be replaced by a mixed-use development in 2020 with a Krogersuperstore by 2022. Both Brumby and East Cobb Middle School opened new schools next to each other on Terrell Mill Road in August 2018, although local residents objected to the expected traffic and noise. The old East Cobb Middle School, located directly across Holt Road from Wheeler HS, will be home to a relocated Eastvalley Elementary School.
Controversies
Power to Learn laptop initiative
In 2005, the district implemented a technology initiative called Power to Learn, which supplies individual laptop computers to students for use in the classroom. The initiative was to be initially funded by a portion of the special-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) funds approved by Cobb voters in the 2003 referendum and earmarked for technology improvements. The first of three proposed phases of the initiative was approved by the Board of Education in April 2005, authorizing purchase of Apple laptops for all teachers, upgrades of middle school business labs, and the establishment of four high school pilot sites to test and evaluate individual student laptop use.
Former county commissioner Joseph "Butch" Thompson filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education on May 31, 2005. The lawsuit charged that Cobb voters did not specifically authorize the program in the 2003 SPLOST vote. On July 29, 2005, Superior Court Judge S. Lark Ingram mandated the Board of Education to use technology funds as specified in SPLOST II and ordered a permanent injunction to halt the Power to Learn initiative. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Ingram, "The ruling had nothing to do with the merits of the program. But fair notice of such use was not given to the public when the referendum for [the sales tax] was held." Board chair Kathleen Johnstone announced on August 1 that the laptop program "was no longer an option." The board voted on August 25, 2005, to appeal the ruling, which was thrown out by the Georgia Supreme Court.
Superintendent Redden's resignation
The Board of Education hired New York-based auditing firm Kessler International in July 2005 to investigate the bidding process for the initiative, amid allegations that the bidding process which selected Apple Computer as supplier for the initiative had violated state law. The board received the Kessler report on August 14, 2005. The report indicated flaws in the selection process that were not in line with state procurement policies. Superintendent Gen. Joseph Redden offered a page-by-page rebuttal of the audit report to the board on August 17, 2005. Redden announced his resignation on August 24, 2005.[13]
Grand jury investigation
Upon the request of the Board of Education, Cobb District Attorney Pat Head was granted an order on October 6, 2005, to empanel a special grand jury to investigate the bidding process. On April 19, 2007, the 25-member grand jury released its report and suggested no criminal charges be filed. The report was critical of the school district's procurement processes, and suggested that the district provide greater definition and clarity to its purchasing procedures. The release of the grand jury report concluded the laptop initiative saga. The school district began refreshing outdated computer systems throughout the county in early 2007, precisely as outlined in SPLOST II.
In 2002, Cobb County School District voted to put stickers on textbooks with a message including the admonition cautioning students that "evolution is only a theory." Plaintiffs brought suit on separation of church and state grounds, with the initial trial finding for the plaintiffs. Cobb County School District appealed and the verdict was overturned and remanded for a new trial, at which time plaintiffs and Cobb County School District reached an out-of-court settlement, with the district agreeing to remove the stickers.[14]
Teacher's sexual contact with student
A Cobb County teacher was discovered to have had sex with a 17-year-old student. When brought to trial, the teacher pleaded that the student had consented. This defense was allowed by the Superior Court judge and upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2009. This led the Georgia legislature to pass a statute in 2010 making it a crime for a teacher to have sexual relations with a student.[15]
