School board meeting
Cobb’s school board will meet at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the district’s central office located at 514 Glover St. in Marietta.
For the past eight months, Cobb administrators and an outside consultant said they worked meticulously in developing a thick book of construction, technology and other projects worth almost $718 million to be completed over the next five years using a potential 1 percent special sales tax.
Cobb’s school board is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to place the special purpose local option sales tax proposal on the March ballot.
Though critics have their doubts and some worry about rushing voters, administrators said they did extensive research on the district’s growth, consulted school principals and maintenance workers, and identified the district’s true needs — not wants.
While the district’s growth will plateau, they said, its 112 schools are in need of repairs, upgrades, expansions, new theaters, gymnasiums and paint jobs. At least five schools will need to be replaced.
The district should build a $29 million college and career academy to better serve high school students, according to the plan.
Critics say the final SPLOST book is riddled with errors, and full of pork projects.
“District officials need to remember that they need to be fiscally responsible with our money,” said Kimberly Euston, a Cobb County parent and the chair of the Facility and Technology Committee, an advisory group created to watch the spending of SPLOST. “SPLOST can no longer be the crack cocaine that the district is addicted to.”
Two school board members — Kathleen Angelucci and Tim Stultz — have said they think the proposal should be placed on the November 2013 ballot instead.
“Moving this out would give the community a longer time to … assess this,” Angelucci said.
Administrators and several other board members say the book is fine.
“It’s a needs-based notebook from front to back,” said Chris Ragsdale, the district’s deputy superintendent of operational support.
The SPLOST option was provided in 1996 to school districts as a way to fund capital projects. The Cobb and Marietta City school districts expect to collect around $797 million through the SPLOST referendum passed in 2008 with 60 percent approval.
With those funds, Cobb has replaced three elementary schools, built three ninth-grade centers and upgraded several facilities, along with other projects.
That SPLOST is due to expire at the end of next year.
Education Planners, a Marietta-based education consulting firm, was hired at a cost of $75,000 to create a list of capital projects to be completed under the new plan.
James Wilson, the CEO of Education Planners, first presented a draft of the book to the board in September.
The 111-page book includes the replacement of Walton High School, $40 million worth of textbooks, $4 million worth of band equipment and $29 million worth of new school buses.
Administrators posted the draft on the district’s website and distributed it at parent meetings and town halls asking for feedback.
On the website, hundreds of community members complained of dilapidated facilities and outdated technology.
“We allowed for the community to peruse this at their leisure and provide input,” Ragsdale said, mentioning the district created four drafts of the book. “We took that input, and we responded to that input.”
But Euston said she’s identified several errors in drafts of the book such as band instruments for elementary schools with no bands and new gym floors for schools that didn’t ask for them. Euston said the Facility and Technology Committee should have been involved in developing the book.
“They haven’t sat down with every principal, but we have,” she said.
Several current SPLOST projects will be impacted if the proposal isn’t placed on the March ballot, Ragsdale said. There will also be a three-month gap where the district won’t receive any SPLOST funds, creating a budget shortfall for ongoing projects.
If SPLOST is placed on the March ballot and passes, the district would start collecting funds in January 2014.
If it’s placed on the November ballot, the district wouldn’t start receiving funds until April 2014.
There’s a strong anti-tax culture in Cobb. In July, almost 69 percent of voters struck down the proposed 1 percent regional sales tax for transportation. In 2011, a four-year extension of the county’s SPLOST for parks, recreation and road renovation throughout Cobb passed by only 79 votes.
Waiting may be a better option than having a SPLOST proposal that fails, Euston told board members at a special meeting last week to discuss the proposal.
“I ask you to stop this train,” Euston said, referring to the proposal as “put together haphazardly.” “Let’s get more community input, let’s get the notebook right and let’s have a vote in November, not March.”
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