School District Divisions

Technology Services
Equipping the Tools for Education

After more than four years of outsourcing its technology support and services, the District returned these important functions to in-house service in 2007. The move has resulted in greater control of all internal technology systems, with less financial cost to the District. Cobb hired more than 100 field technicians, programmers, network engineers and software engineers to provide everyday support and to continue the technology refreshment made possible by SPLOST II.

In February 2007, the District began the SPLOST-funded technology refreshment that would replace thousands of outdated computer systems.

More than 32,000 classroom computer systems and administrative workstations were refreshed in 2007, making curriculum delivery more effective and providing District employees with more efficient ways to get their jobs done. Each of the refreshed computers was five or more years old. Also as part of the SPLOST II program, more than 8,500 Cobb County teachers received their own laptop computer in 2007. Technology services continues to update 12,000 printers throughout the District during the first quarter of 2008. Also on the horizon is refreshment of all servers, as well as improving the network’s speed and reliability.

A major focus for Technology Services is the pilot program for the 21st Century Classroom initiative. Seven schools are currently serving as testing grounds for cutting edge classroom technology that will change the way students interact, learn and achieve. More than 400 classrooms at Bells Ferry, Belmont Hills, Clay, Green Acres, and Mt. Bethel elementary schools, Durham Middle School, and Sprayberry High School were converted into 21st Century Classrooms with interactive white boards, LCD projectors, student response systems and audio/visual equipment.

The intent of the 21st Century Classroom is to provide teachers with tools to more effectively engage today’s learners. Teachers are faced with the task of communicating a curriculum to a new generation of students who are very technologically proficient. With the tools of the 21st Century Classroom, each teacher will be better equipped to teach in a technological arena that compliments the world in which today’s students live, play and interact.

“Students today are part of a technological environment that is far different from the world in which most adults grew up,” said Chris Ragsdale, the District’s chief technology officer. “Cell phones, text-messaging, personal web sites and interactive computer programs are all a routine part of our children’s lives. They find the technology intuitive, and they assimilate it very quickly. When these tools are introduced to a classroom setting, the students become engaged right away.”

The District will perform a comprehensive evaluation of the project to determine its effectiveness. Documents detailing the plan for the implementation and evaluation of the 21st Century Classroom initiative were developed by the District and evaluated by the Facilities & Technology Review Committee. These documents and other information about the initiative are available on a special section of the District Web site.

Teachers new to the District received ‘out of the box’ training on their new laptop computers in August 2007.

The Board of Education also has approved a major upgrade to the District’s
Wide Area Network (WAN). The WAN upgrade, to occur in all schools over the course of 2008, will increase the network bandwidth of elementary and middle schools 100 times and the bandwidth of high schools
10 times, allowing for faster data transfer. The new seven-year WAN contract
will allow the District to implement and maintain a more robust network at a lower cost than the prior contract.

Financial Services
Effective Management of Taxpayer Dollars

The Financial Services division is responsible for managing $1.2 billion in revenue received by the Cobb County School District annually. Departments include: Procurement, Field Services, Disbursements, Accounting, and Budget.These departments perform tasks such as ensuring that the District’s 16,000-plus employees are paid each month, that the five-year $697 million Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) is accounted for properly, and that the $908.8 million general fund budget is expended and budgeted accurately.

The District passed a significant milestone in February 2007 by making the final payment on $221 million in bond debt that had been a liability for the District since 1995. With the bond officially retired, the District has joined the ranks of a select group of school districts in Georgia and the nation that can claim to be entirely free of bond debt. The District has carried some form of bond debt for at least half a century.

Financial Services prides itself on managing taxpayer dollars in the most effective and efficient manner possible and has received substantial acclaim for its efforts, including:
• Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO) for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2006. The School District has received this award for the past 23 years for excellence in the preparation and issuance of the District’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.
• Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for the 2006 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The School District was the first in Georgia to receive this award in FY 1979-80, and has continued the trend for 27 consecutive years.
• Budget Presentation Award: The District prepares an official budget document each year which is issued as a separate report. The District has received prestigious budget presentation awards for this document from GFOA since 1990 and from ASBO since 2005.

The Cobb County School District’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is available online. Also see the Financial Results section of the Annual Report for the District’s financial overview.

Area Assistant Superintendents

Since 2002, six Area Assistant Superintendents have served as supervisors and consultants for school principals, focusing on student achievement. Each oversees at least two high schools, as well as the elementary and middle schools that feed them. The Area Assistant Superintendents have strengthened inter-grade-level communication and planning.

Philip Lanoue, Area 1 Elementary Schools Austell Primary Austell Intermediate Bryant Primary Bryant intermediate Clarkdale Clay Harmony-Leland Mableton Riverside Primary Riverside Intermediate Russell Sanders Primary Sanders Intermediate Sky View High Schools Pebblebrook South Cobb Special Schools Central Alternative Middle Schools Floyd Garrett Lindley Dale Gaddis, Area 2 Elementary Schools Argyle Belmont Hills Birney Brown Fair Oaks Green Acres Hollydale King Springs Labelle Milford Nickajack Norton Park Teasley High Schools Campbell High Osborne Special Schools Oakwood Middle Schools Campbell Middle Griffin Smitha Alice Stouder, Area 3 Elementary Schools Brumby East Side Eastvalley Mt. Bethel Murdock Powers Ferry Sedalia Park Shallowford Falls Sope Creek Timber Ridge Tritt High Schools Pope Walton Wheeler Middle Schools Dickerson Dodgen East Cobb Hightower Trail Lynda Martin, Area 4 Elementary Schools Addison Bells Ferry Blackwell Chalker Davis Garrison Mill Keheley Kincaid Mountain View Nicholson Pitner Rocky Mount High Schools Kell Lassiter Sprayberry   Middle Schools Daniell Mabry McCleskey Palmer Simpson James Carter, Area 5 Elementary Schools Acworth Baker Big Shanty Bullard Frey Hayes Kennesaw Lewis McCall Primary Pickett's Mill High Schools Kennesaw Mtn. North Cobb Allatoona Middle Schools Awtrey Durham McClure Pine Mountain Barber Dr. Susan Galante, Area 6 Elementary Schools Cheatham Hill Compton Dowell Due West Ford Kemp Powder Springs Still Varner Vaughan High Schools Harrison Hillgrove McEachern Middle Schools Cooper Lost Mountain Lovinggood Tapp