During the first board meeting of 2024, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale delivered an update regarding books and his promise to protect Cobb students.

“I want to begin by again complimenting the Marietta City School Board and school district. They have been working on the same problem, just with a few less books, as we remove sexually explicit materials from our schools. Some have taken issue with the process we’ve used to remove some of the books we’ve already found, and I feel the need to repeat what I’ve said before. 

It simply does not matter how we learn about a sexually explicit book being in our schools. Once we learn sexually explicit content is in front of our students, it is our responsibility to protect our students and inform our parents. I have said it before, and I am repeating it again: this is about good and evil. We have a professional and moral obligation to protect students from vulgar, lewd, sexually explicit, obscene, and pornographic material. 

We are familiar with the 23 books and the sexually explicit content that Marietta has found and are currently reviewing to see which locations have any of the books, and the same process will be taken. Our team continues to actively review the millions of books in our schools, and I will be sure to bring an update on that process as it becomes available. 

As you can imagine, the review process of more than a million books is not a quick nor simple task; however, that being said, I do commit that we will complete the review and continue to remove any sexually explicit material from our schools.”

The January Board meeting also included updates related to Ed-SPLOST projects for the Cobb Schools community. Some of the Ed-SPLOST highlights include the approval of the following agenda items:

• Recommendation for Approval of Architect Appointment for the Replacement of Annex Buildings at Kincaid Elementary School, Mount Bethel Elementary School, Murdock Elementary School, Sope Creek Elementary School, and Tritt Elementary School
• Recommendation for Approval of Architect Appointment for the Timber Ridge Elementary School Renovation Project
• Recommendation for Approval of Architect Appointment for the Bells Ferry Elementary School Addition and Modifications
• Recommendation for Approval of Architect Appointment for the New Career Academy #2 – Northern Cobb Area
• Recommendation for Approval of Architect Appointment for Tapp Middle School Renovations
• Recommendation for Approval of Architect Appointment for a New Elementary School - Southern Cobb Area 

Board Recognitions

2023-2024 GHSA Class 6A One Act Play Best Actress State Champion – Morgan Morell, Allatoona High School

2023-2024 GHSA Division 3 State Flag Football State Champions – Pope High School