Cobb school board delays decision on new elementary school

Parents in south Cobb calling for a new school to replace aging classrooms will have to wait longer to find out if that’s going to happen.

Cobb school board members voted at a meeting Thursday to delay deciding whether to put $5 million toward developing a new elementary school in south Cobb to replace Clay and Harmony-Leland elementary schools.

Board members said they need more time to study the issue and figure out whether the money should be put toward the new school or hiring more teachers to serve the entire district. The board is expected to take up the matter at its next meeting in June.

The elementary schools are two of the oldest in the Cobb school system. Parents at Harmony-Leland say the school is rife with leaky roofs, mold and flooding problems and ill-equipped to handle the latest technology needed to bolster student achievement. Built in 1951, Harmony-Leland had more than 160 students over its capacity and seven trailers on its site as of last spring.

Last year, Cobb school board members voted to put $5 million into developing a new elementary school in south Cobb that could take on students from Clay and Harmony-Leland elementary schools.

Randy Scamihorn, Cobb school board chairman, said the understanding then was that the board would put $5 million each year toward this new school, for no more than three years. “So that would be approximately $15 million from the general fund to go toward a new school,” Scamihorn said.

Scamihorn said the board also was looking to use money from the sale of Brumby Elementary and Mountain View Elementary to fund the new south Cobb school – bringing the projected total for it to close to $30 million.