STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT:
Cobb Writing Fair Celebrates
Students' Creative Writing
Congratulations to all students who entered the 2007 Cobb Writing Fair, a celebration of the District's best young creative writers. Local schools submitted entries for District competition in early March, with five winners selected from each grade level. The first place winners from each grade level will have their works submitted to the statewide Young Georgia Authors Writing Competition.

All of the District-level Writing Fair winners will be honored at a special ceremony May 3 at Wheeler High School. For the list of Writing Fair winners, see the Cobbcast blog.

SPLOST NEWS:
SPLOST II Drives District-Wide Technology Refreshment

Change usually doesn’t happen overnight, but in classrooms and computer labs across the Cobb County School District computer workstations are being upgraded while students and staff are at home asleep. As part of the sales tax-funded improvements specified in SPLOST II, more than 30,000 new computers are currently being integrated into Cobb schools and offices, replacing all classroom, computer lab and administrative workstations in service for five or more years.

During the first three refreshment sessions at Sprayberry High, Russell Elementary and Mableton Elementary, the integration team swept in after school hours and worked late into the evening, installing more than 1,000 new computers. Read the full story...

SPLOST UPDATE:
The good news story of SPLOST continues for Cobb County taxpayers. In February and March, the school board:

• Approved a contract with MCI Enterprises of Atlanta in the amount of $1.5 million for mechanical HVAC improvements at Tritt Elementary School. The scope of the work includes replacing the current system with a new water source heat pump system, and adding air conditioning to the gymnasium.

• Approved a contract with Faith Technologies, Inc. of Woodstock, Ga., in the amount of $643,777 to replace the main electrical switchgear and panels at Lassiter High School and McEachern High School.

• Approved a contract with Presley Inc., of Paducah, Ky., in the amount of $960,000 for mechanical HVAC improvements at Wheeler High School. The scope of the work includes replacing the current system with a new water source heat pump system.

These projects were part of the SPLOST II program approved in 2003. To view the agenda items for the projects, please click here.

DISTRICT NEWS:
Cobb Named Among 'Best 100 Communities For Music Education'
The Cobb County School District was included in the list of the 'Best 100 Communities For Music Education,' ranked by the NAMM Foundation and the American Music Conference (AMC). Thousands of teachers, school and district administrators, school board members, parents and community leaders participated in a national survey that assists the AMC in selecting the communities that best support music and its benefits to a well-rounded education. Cobb has been included on the list in 2000 and every year since 2004.

District Releases 2006 Annual Report
The 2006 Annual Report for the Cobb County School District is available online. Released online for the fifth consecutive year, the Annual Report the Annual Report provides 24-hour access to a comprehensive overview of District operations, financial results, testing data, and school-specific information from the past year.

The District first moved to an online format for its Annual Report in 2002, providing parents, community members, and the media 24-hour access to information about enrollment, school programs and operations, test results, the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), and more. The report is also available to search and print in Adobe PDF format.

Construction of Allatoona High, Pickett's Mill Elementary On Schedule;
Redistricting Calendar Updated

The properties for Allatoona High and Pickett's Mill Elementary schools are slowly taking the shape of school campuses. Recent aerial photos of the construction provide an exciting view of both properties, which will open for the 2008-09 school year (see Allatoona High above, Pickett's Mill below).