During the April Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale outlined his steadfast commitment to protecting students and supporting the educators who help Cobb students succeed at a higher rate than their peers across the state and nation.  

Superintendent Ragsdale updated the community on the removal of four additional books that, after having gone through the District’s thorough review process, were found to contain lewd, vulgar, sexually explicit, and graphic content inappropriate for a public school.  

“As long as I am the superintendent of the Cobb County School District, I will work tirelessly to ensure your children are not given unrestricted access to materials containing lewd, vulgar, and sexually explicit content, nor will your taxes be used to fund it,” Superintendent Ragsdale declared during the meeting.  

Most of those demanding children have access to the removed content are activists, not educators. As Superintendent Ragsdale pointed out in his remarks, he is standing up for Cobb educators who have “expressed concern that those activists advocating for the acquisition and inclusion of sexually explicit material see it as an important first step to requiring ALL teachers include those materials in lessons in their classrooms.” 

That is not going to happen in Cobb Schools. 

“As I have repeatedly stated, ‘I do believe the attempt to sexualize children is evil, and we as educators have a professional and moral responsibility to prevent it,” Superintendent Ragsdale said. “This is not only a professional but moral obligation. And I will reiterate my position; I will not be moved.” 

Superintendent Ragsdale also made another announcement about the District’s continued support of educators. 

Superintendent Ragsdale Recommends Significant 4.4%-9% Raise for all Non-Temporary Employees. 

Students and staff continue to remain the top priority in the Cobb County School District’s proposed budget for the new school year.  

During the April Board meeting, Superintendent Ragsdale detailed the District’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2025, which includes a significant 4.4%-9% proposed raise for every non-temporary staff member in the Cobb County School District. The proposed raise includes a salary step increase for all eligible employees and reflects the $2,500 raise Gov. Brian Kemp budgeted for teachers. 

The proposed raise for FY 2025 follows the healthy raise in Fiscal Year 2024, which also included the first millage rate decrease since FY 2007, benefiting Cobb County taxpayers.  

In May, the Board of Education will have an opportunity to vote on final approval of the Superintendent’s proposed budget and demonstrate why 99% of Cobb educators plan to return to support Cobb students next school year. 

“I never get tired of saying Cobb is the best place to teach, lead, and learn. I’m especially excited about the raise for Cobb’s teachers and the new math and science curriculum that middle and high school students will experience through virtual reality. The Cobb taxpayer should be proud of this budget that keeps taxes as low as possible and prioritizes students and teachers,” said Board member Brad Wheeler.

Additional Highlights for the Proposed FY2025 Budget:  

• The FY2025 Tentative Budget is balanced. 
• FY2025 General Fund is approximately 1.7 billion.  
• The District continues to maintain a AAA Credit Rating from 3 Global Credit Rating Services (Moody’s Investor Service, Standard & Poor’s, and Kroll Credit Rating Agency).  
• The District is the only government entity or corporation in the United States with 3 AAA Credit Ratings. 
• The Cobb County School District’s finances continue to be audited annually by a professional, independent auditor (Mauldin & Jenkins CPAs). 
• More specifics for the FY2025 budget will be available here. 

One line item from the budget focused on the expansion of high-quality learning options to revolutionize the way students learn math and science.  

During the meeting’s math and science update, Board members heard from pioneer educator Anurupa Ganguly about her company’s Prisms platform, which uses adaptive Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) to transform the learning experience, boost interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and rapidly improve student proficiencies. More students across Cobb will soon have access to the experiential learning platform for math and science, as the platform is rolled out to 20 additional middle and high schools. 

While Cobb Schools Board members David Banks and Brad Wheeler were aware of how the high-quality learning option could positively impact student achievement and have advocated to have the resource extended to more Cobb students, the other Board members also listened intently and excitedly about the new learning platform.  

As outlined in Superintendent Ragsdale’s priorities, Cobb uses data to make our decisions. That does not only apply to decisions about high-quality learning options, like the Prisms math and science program. During the meeting, Board members heard how data plays a vital role in keeping absenteeism down across Cobb Schools. 

Across the country, the percentage of students missing at least 10 percent of a school year has surged from 15 percent in 2018 to 28 percent in 2022. However, in 2023, Cobb Schools was almost ten percentage points lower and one of the lowest in the metro area.  

That is because Cobb uses data to build processes for district intervention strategies, which include high levels of student engagement, which Cobb teachers on demand via CTLS. Additionally, thanks to CTLS, District staff can communicate through multiple avenues to encourage involvement from parents. District staff—teachers, school counselors, social workers, administrators, and parents—work directly with parents to solve the problem.  

Other contributions to Cobb’s lower absenteeism rate include: 

• District school safety protocols outlined on Cobb Shield help students feel safe about participating in school. 
• The District’s strategic plan was developed with attendance in mind because attendance is a critical part of student success and, ultimately, of producing contributing citizens. 
• Part of ensuring Cobb is the best place to teach, lead, and learn is investing in Cobb educators through competitive yearly salaries and programs like Georgia’s BEST.  
• The increased allocation of social workers and a stronger focus on serving low-performing students so those students have access to more adults and tutoring support.