Every legislative session, decisions made under the Gold Dome directly impact classrooms across Cobb County. Every year, legislators across the state hear the voices of Cobb students, staff, and families as they make policy decisions for the entire state. During the December Board of Education meeting, the school board approved Cobb’s 2025 Legislative Priorities, which advocate for Financial Sustainability, Educational Access, and Safety and Security. 

“In Cobb, we are committed to creating schools where students feel secure and are empowered to achieve their best through high-quality instruction in a safe learning environment,” said Board member David Chastain. “Our students continue to excel past their peers because our teachers can focus on what students need to know to succeed now and in the future.” 

Safety and Security

Safety is the District’s top goal, and maintaining or increasing safety funding is a high priority for the Board. Since the Barrow County tragedy, Cobb has faced over 80 false threats, which have caused significant anxiety for parents, students, and staff and put a strain on resources. The Board supports stronger criminal penalties for threats against schools. 

The Board also believes students’ health should be safeguarded by increasing protections for minors against access to THC and vape products. 

Financial Sustainability

The Cobb Board of Education believes decisions that affect students, particularly about money, are best made by those who know students best. To ensure schools have the money they need to educate children, the Board opposes diverting funds from public education. More specifically, Cobb advocates for fiscal notes on all education legislation that affects school funding and calls for equal financial accountability for all recipients of public education money. 

Educational Access

The Cobb Board of Education prioritizes sustaining the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) to be able to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. Like Cobb’s Georgia’s BEST, which incentivizes teacher growth by offering tuition-free advanced degrees, TRS is a significant tool that allows teachers to be recruited and retained. Additionally, applying charter waivers to Strategic Waiver School Systems (SWSS) would provide schools with more flexibility while maintaining accountability. As significantly, the Board emphasizes the need for adequate funding for literacy coaches and professional learning, which are critical to addressing learning loss and improving student outcomes. 

In addition to approving the legislative priorities for 2025, the Board also updated policy related to school choice. 

More Choices for Parents

Offering families a variety of high-quality educational options has long been a priority of our Superintendent and Board. Both inside and outside of Cobb, interest in non-traditional options continues to grow, with almost 9,000 Cobb students currently taking advantage of Cobb’s non-traditional options. With this Board-approved policy, parents inside and outside Cobb have more choices and more access to Cobb’s world-class education. Homeschool and private school students inside of Cobb, and students across Georgia, may soon be able to access courses from a high-quality certified teacher at a time and place most convenient for them. More details about how private school, homeschool, and students across Georgia can take advantage of a Cobb education will be publicly released once available. 

Superintendent Ragsdale Thanks Cobb’s One Team, Emphasizes Preventive Approach to Safety

In the final Board meeting of 2024, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale reflected on the outstanding contributions of Cobb Schools' entire One Team in ensuring the district maintains a national reputation for excellence. He also underscored the district's commitment to proactive school safety measures, emphasizing that the District must be “preventive instead of reactive when it comes to the safety of students and staff.” 

The Superintendent’s full remarks are included below the video. 

“As we close the calendar year, I believe it is important to reflect on the year we have had, particularly thanking those making it possible for the Cobb County School District to perform at the highest levels in our state and enjoy a national reputation for excellence. 

Of course, that list starts with our One Team. I firmly believe the Cobb County School District provides our students and community with the most outstanding team of educators and support personnel in the State of Georgia and the nation. I am frequently reminded of the excellence every day that our team members provide as individuals and as a team. We are reminded through internal and external reports, such as Forbes recognizing us as one of the best places to work in the state for six consecutive years and recently as a best place to work in the nation. 

But, you know I am the biggest supporter of the efforts of our One Team. You hear me say it on a daily basis. 

However, there are other team members who do not receive that level of recognition but who are indispensable members of our team and key to our success as a district. I would like to address that tonight. 

The first group I would like to acknowledge are the members of this board. This board solidly supports the continuing excellence in this school district and our team. While the ‘4-3’ votes tend to get more attention, this Board has a number of very important ‘7-0’ votes demonstrating a common and bipartisan support of our students, our team, and our goals. I truly appreciate those consistent 7-0 votes when I ask you for the resources necessary to ensure our team remains the best in the business. 

The second group of team members are the citizens of Cobb County, who constantly remind us of their expectation that this school district will continue to provide excellence in teaching and learning every day. The citizens of this county have also been extremely generous in supporting what we need to meet that expectation, both financially and in all other ways. This quiet but constant support is why families and businesses consistently list the excellent reputation of our schools as one of - if not THE - prime reason they are moving to Cobb County. 

While the financial support is key to meeting our goals, it is not the only way the citizens of Cobb support our schools. During an era of unmatched political polarization, it is heartening to see the support of this board of education, and this school district is solidly bipartisan. The voters spoke loudly in their support of our school board members and the decisions this board and district have made. I do not believe the election and re-election of our whole board members was because of a "D" or an "R" following their names, but their decisions constantly supporting our students, our team, and our schools. 

Demonstrating this, in the most recent election, Vice President Harris received more votes in Cobb County than President Biden did in 2020 - and so did board members whose political party is other than the Vice President’s. The means in a time of increasing party-line voting, thousands of Cobb citizens voted for a school board member belonging to a different political party than their presidential selection. That is a bipartisan mandate from Cobb citizens to continue on our present course—and we will. So, to the citizens of Cobb County, red, blue, and otherwise, please know we greatly appreciate your support, we do not take it for granted, and will continue to lead in the way you have mandated. 

As an example, we always place student and staff safety as our top priority, and in this new era of school safety, I have highlighted the need to be preventive rather than reactive. 

It seems as though school safety is still drawing the attention of the media. The reason for that statement is that following a tragedy, such as the one in Apalachee, there is a hyper-focus on school safety, and rightfully so. Unfortunately, it does not take very long for that hyper-focus to fade. I was pleased to see the recent article on the front page of the AJC entitled "Schools face pressure to buy weapons detectors." The article quoted numerous experts in the field of school safety. While the article primarily focuses on weapons detectors not being very effective in keeping school, students, and staff safe - the takeaway from the article is - according to the experts - be preventive instead of reactive when it comes to the safety of students and staff. 

Following the tragedy at Columbine, many districts succumb to the pressure to install metal detectors in schools. According to this article, ‘several studies in recent years concluded that there’s no clear evidence to suggest metal detectors prevent school violence.’ - but I can tell you one thing clearly demonstrated from the metal detector installation in schools is the delay in students entering the school for class. One of the experts was also quoted in the article as saying, ‘The research doesn't show that they're all that effective at even detecting weapons. They're sort of a symbolic thing…’ 

So, while some districts are still choosing to take a stand on installing these types of devices, the experts are hoping districts will ‘prioritize prevention over reaction.’ Another expert is quoted in the article as saying, ‘The whole idea of weapon detection is really too late. Prevention has to start before there's a gun in the school.’ The article concludes with the following quote from an expert saying, ‘really it's a systems problem of sharing information and having support systems available to work with these troubled young people long before they show up with a gun.’ 

Again, I am so glad to see the experts being utilized to convey the message of preventive over reactive where school safety is concerned. I am so proud of our school district being one of the first in the nation to not only recognize this very concept but be one of the first in the nation to actually implement a systems-based approach in helping to identify issues before they become problems and problems before they become tragedies. I look forward to bringing information to the Board in executive session and information to the community, which we can share publicly on the successes our partnership with the Servius Group brings in getting us left of launch. In the Cobb County School District, we will always have students and safety as our top priority, and we will always choose safety over sound bites.”

Board Recognitions 

Cobb STEM Certification – Cheatham Hill Elementary School 

2024 GHSA Class 5A Cross Country Individual State Champion – Josie Hutchinson, Pope High School 

2024 GHSA Class 5A Cross Country Girls State Champions – Pope High School 

2024 GHSA Class 5A Volleyball Girls State Champions – Pope High School 

The Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) Farm to School Award – Food & Nutrition Services 

The Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) School Nutrition Division Cafeteria Award of Excellence – Lindley Middle School

16 Years of Service to the Cobb Schools Board of Education – Board Member David Banks