Friday, April 26, 2013
Opposition to Common Core curriculum standards resulted in 4-3 votes against new texts starting with the 2013-14 academic year.
The battle against Common Core curriculum standards came to Cobb County Thursday night. Opponents of the federally-embraced guidelines filled the Cobb Board of Education board room to strongly protest spending $7.5 million for new mathematics textbooks in the Cobb County School District. And after some heated debate, and by 4-3 votes in two separate votes, the board made those opponents happy in rejecting the measures. They were at their most vocal right before the votes, when board member Kathleen Angelucci of Northeast Cobb pleaded for more time due to a "groundswell" of concern about the new standards in numerous states, including Georgia. "When Common Core was adopted, nobody knew what was in it," she said. "It's like Obamacare. You …
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
See what some of your neighbors had to say about today’s vote on continuing Cobb’s one-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for schools.
If Patch readers’ opinions are any indication, we may not know which way today’s vote will go until the last ballot is tallied. A Patch poll that ran from 5 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday was split right down the middle on how respondents said they would be voting today—or had already voted during advance balloting. Today’s election will determine whether or not the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) for school maintenance and construction projects will continue for the Cobb County School District and Marietta City Schools once the current SPLOST ends on Dec. 31. Both sides of the SPLOST issue shared their thoughts in the comments stream on Monday’s story. Patch reader Larry H was among those wanting to ax the tax: “As a …
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Tuesday's referendum is expected to be close as the sales tax extension gets a key endorsement.
With advance voting completed, all that remains for the Cobb Education SPLOST IV referendum is Tuesday's final day of voting. Voters will decide whether to continue to tax themselves one penny on the dollar for school construction and maintenance projects. The proposed collection period, which would begin Jan. 1, 2014, and conclude on Dec. 31, 2018, would generate $717.8 million for the Cobb County School District and $55.4 million for Marietta Public Schools. Supporters of the referendum say extending the SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) is the most affordable method to pay for needed capital projects. Opponents who held a rally on the Marietta Square last weekend believe the project list includes too many unnecessary …
Monday, March 11, 2013
Four additional locations will be open from Monday through Friday for the Cobb Education sales tax referendum.
Advance voting for the Cobb Education SPLOST IV referendum expands to four satellite locations this week. Advance voting also continues this week at the Cobb Elections Main Office, 736 Whitlock Ave. The hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Satellite advance voting takes place Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the following locations: The formal Cobb Education SPLOST referendum date is March 19. There will be no advance voting on Monday, March 18. Voters also may choose to vote by mail, and requested ballots also will be mailed starting today. Voters can apply for a ballot on the Cobb Elections website and have it mailed to them. A sample ballot also is available on the Cobb Elections website, but that feature has been …
Thursday, March 7, 2013
The Cobb Taxpayers Association is organizing Sunday's event at the Marietta Square.
Opponents of the upcoming Cobb Education SPLOST IV referendum will hold a rally this weekend. The Cobb Taxpayers Association said a "Rock the E-SPLOST" rally will take place from 12-1 p.m. Sunday at the Marietta Square. Among the speakers are former Cobb Commission Chairman Bill Byrne, who lost his bid to return to his old job in last year's elections and Kim Euston, the former chairwoman of the Cobb Board of Education's Facilities and Technology Committee, which conducts SPLOST oversight. Also fighting the Education SPLOST extension is the Cobb-based Georgia Tea Party. “This rally represents the culmination of a tremendous grassroots effort to defeat the E-SPLOST,” CTA president Lance Lamberton said in a statement. “It is also an …
Thursday, January 31, 2013
The four-year 1 percent sales tax will be collected until December 2015 and must be spent on voter approved projects.
- GOVERNMENT
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Thursday, January 31
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners recently approved several items funded through the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. These actions included: County staff and Acworth Mayor Tommy Allegood also provided commissioners with an update on collections and expenditures from the current SPLOST. This four-year 1 percent sales tax will be collected until December 2015 and must be spent on voter approved projects. Each quarter the county commission receives an update on collections and expenditures. Click here to watch the presentation.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
The Cobb Board of Education approved a resolution Wednesday, but heard a strong dose of anti-tax sentiment.
As expected, the Cobb Board of Education on Wednesday adopted a resolution to call for a March 2013 referendum to extend the Education SPLOST. But the job of selling voters on a $717 million school construction and maintenance project list figures to be a challenging one, given Cobb's recent SPLOST track record. The one-cent sales tax, if approved by voters, would begin in January 2014 and would be collected through December 2018. But before the vote, representatives of a local taxpayers group and the Georgia Tea Party spoke out against a March referendum. And the chairwoman of the school board's SPLOST citizen oversight panel predicted that the finalized SPLOST IV "notebook" (see attached PDF) will fail at the polls. The board voted only…
Friday, November 2, 2012
The revised project list will be discussed at a special called meeting on Monday.
The Cobb Board of Education has called a special meeting for next week to discuss the proposed SPLOST IV construction and maintenance project list. The meeting is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Monday in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover Street, Marietta. The board met last week to go over a revised "notebook" (see attached PDF) totalling $717 million in proposed projects that Cobb voters may be voting on early next year. At the end of that meeting, board member Alison Bartlett asked for another public meeting to continue finalizing the project list. The board is expected to vote later this month on whether to call for a referendum, which is likely for March 2013. Among the major revisions is a…
Sunday, September 16, 2012
The final consultant's report to the Cobb Board of Education is the basis for a possible referendum in early 2013.
The thick, heaving binders handed out to Cobb Board of Education members Wednesday detailing $717 million in school construction and improvement needs are also packed with wish lists more than double that dollar amount. A final presentation made to board members at a work session hammered down $2 billion in requests to match the anticipated revenue that would come from an extension of the current one-cent local option sales tax for the Cobb County School District that ends at the end of 2013. Whether that referendum is called is up to the school board, which is slated to hold public hearings this fall. In the meantime, the 209-page "SPLOST IV notebook" (see the accompanying PDF) will be sent back out to Cobb school communities for …
Friday, July 20, 2012
A diverging diamond interchange (DDI) is an intersection traffic solution designed to increase capacity, decrease congestion and minimize cost.
- GOVERNMENT
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Friday, July 20, 2012
GDOT will assist Cobb County to construct a diverging diamond interchange at Interstate 75 and Wade Green Road. A diverging diamond interchange (DDI) is an intersection traffic solution designed to increase capacity, decrease congestion and minimize cost. The DDI is designed to ease the flow of heavy traffic by eliminating a left turn signal and allowing two-directions of traffic to cross the opposite side of the side or cross street at or near the bridge point over the freeway. Cobb County will be responsible for completing and funding the preliminary engineering and right-of-way costs for the project. Once completed, GDOT will fund up to $1 million of construction costs from their operational improvement lump sum. The rest of the $1.625 …
fran
9:51 pm on Sunday, April 28, 2013
Hell, let's not teach any academics in schools. Let's just teach kids how to fire a handgun and read the bible. That's all you need here in Georgia, right? more ›