During its Thursday night meeting, the Cobb County Board of Education voted 4-2-1 to extend Superintendent Chris Ragsdale’s contract through 2026.
Two of the board's Democrats, Leroy Tre' Hutchins and Becky Sayler, voted against extending the contract, while Democrat Nichelle Davis abstained.
Davis said her newcomer status on the board led her to abstain.
Since he was hired as district superintendent in 2015, Ragsdale’s contract has been extended every year in February or March so that it remains at the maximum three years allowed under Georgia law.
In February of last year, the board added one year to Ragsdale’s contract, extending it through 2025. Ragsdale was paid a salary of $350,000 in 2022, and school board Chairman Brad Wheeler told the MDJ Thursday that Ragsdale's salary in the extended contract remains unchanged.
Though it was not on the agenda for the board’s meeting Thursday, the extension was a topic in the board’s executive session that is closed to the public. The vote was cast during the subsequent public meeting Thursday night.
In the last two years, the board’s four Republicans stood behind the extension, while the board’s three Democrats at the time — Hutchins, Dr. Jaha Howard and Charisse Davis — voted against it twice.
Kennesaw State had five players in double figures and outscored Liberty 18-6 over the last 4:24 of the game to earn an 88-81 victory in arguably the biggest game in its Division I history Thursday.
Not since a 2010 matchup and victory against Georgia Tech had the announced crowd of 3,059, which seemed more like 5,000 or 6,000, been as loud or seen a better basketball product on the floor of the KSU Convocation Center. The support helped bring the Owls back from a 14-point second-half deficit, and saw them take over solo first place in the ASUN. Kennesaw State , which is having its best season in its 18-year Division I history, leads Liberty by a full game with three games left to play in the race for the regular season title and the Number 1 seed in the conference tournament. Now, it will be important for Kennesaw State to come down off the emotional high and start to prepare for Queens on Saturday. It is the final home game of the year, and it will be key if the Owls hope to win that elusive first conference championship.
The Cobb County School District is set to offer 500 of its educators the chance to obtain graduate degrees at no cost.
The initiative, called Georgia’s BEST, which stands for “Building Educator Success Together,” is made possible by a partnership between Cobb schools and the University of West Georgia, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced Thursday.
The Cobb school board unanimously approved $500,000 of surplus funds from the district’s current budget to jumpstart the initiative this year. Cobb teachers who apply and are accepted to the program will have the chance to start their studies as early as this summer, Ragsdale said. Cobb schools leadership will work with UWG to identify areas where the district has the highest need, such as special education and leadership, to determine which degrees will be offered to eligible employees.
Through the partnership, UWG will discount tuition and fees for degrees pursued by the Cobb educators by as much as half. Cobb schools will pay for the degrees.
A Marietta grocery store slated for closure on Powers Ferry Road may be razed and replaced with apartments and new retail, pending approval from the city.
Atlanta-based developer William Casaday, under the company WC Acquisitions, is requesting a rezoning from the city to build 322 apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail at the site of the old Kroger at the corner of Powers Ferry and Delk roads.
The 50,000-square-foot grocery store is slated for closure, as Kroger is building a new store just down the street in the Marketplace Terrell Mill shopping center. Once the new store is complete (scheduled for this spring), the old one, built in 1982, will be shuttered. In order for WC to redevelop the property, the city of Marietta will have to rezone it from a commercial category to a mixed-use category. The Marietta Planning Commission, a board which advises the City Council on zoning matters, is scheduled to hear the proposal at its March 1 meeting.
The property is the furthest east within the city limits, surrounded on most sides by unincorporated Cobb County.
Marietta City Schools Superintendent Grant Rivera has a new No. 2.
On Wednesday, the Board of Education approved the hiring of Jami Frost as the district’s new deputy superintendent.
Frost, who will receive a salary of $210,000, joins Marietta schools from the county’s other school system — the Cobb County School District, where she served as assistant superintendent of south-side elementary schools, overseeing daily operations for 22 schools.
Frost replaces Belinda Walters-Brazile, who is retiring after 32 years in education, including six as Marietta’s deputy superintendent. With more than 29 years of education experience, Frost worked for 13 years as a principal at two of Cobb’s schools: Dowell and Ford elementary schools. She has also worked as an assistant principal and a teacher. Frost has a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in curriculum and teaching, both from Auburn University. She also has a master’s degree in middle grades education.
The General Assembly will get a choice this year whether to legalize gambling in Georgia by statute or constitutional amendment.
Legislation introduced into the state House and Senate this week takes the constitutional amendment approach, which would put the issue to Georgia voters in a statewide referendum.
The Senate version is limited to legalizing sports betting, while the House measure would also allow casinos and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing. Two bills introduced into the legislature earlier this year would legalize sports betting by statute. Avoiding the constitutional amendment route means they wouldn’t have to gain two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate to pass.
#CobbCounty #Georgia #LocalNews
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