The meeting will be in the theater of the high school at 6:30 p.m. Harrison High School is at 4500 Due West Rd., in Kennesaw.
“I’ve received emails from the Harrison community and in order to respond, I feel like a public forum is the best format in explaining my vote,” she said.
On March 22, Bartlett, along with board members David Morgan, Kathleen Angelucci and Tim Stultz, all voted against Cobb Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa’s recommendation to approve the $14.5 million construction as is, and for the entire project to be broken out into individual renovations and construction. Their vote resulted in harsh criticism from the Harrison community.
Bartlett said she wanted to amend the recommendation because it came in over budget and because enrollment at Harrison had fallen by nearly 600 students since 2007.
Bartlett said she’s received about 160 emails about the Harrison vote since then, but she said nearly half of those were about the need for a new track.
Heather Ryan, who announced last week that she would be running against Bartlett in part because of the Harrison vote, said she and other parents from the Harrison community plan to attend the forum.
“There will be a group of us there,” she said. “We have emails blasts that are going out through Harrison and all of our feeder schools, all the way down through elementary (to tell people about it).”
When asked if she would ask questions during the forum or just listen, Ryan said she wasn’t sure yet. She also could not say approximately how many from her email group would be able to attend.
Still, board member Lynnda Eagle and the school board chairman, Scott Sweeney, have called a re-vote on the issue at next Wednesday’s school board meeting.
The district has already spent nearly $500,000 for architectural and design fees on the Harrison project.
Eagle currently represents Harrison, and has for the past four years, but according to the new reapportionment map, Bartlett will now represent the school. The map was approved the last day of the session in March and signed by Gov. Nathan Deal.
The map shifts all seven Cobb board posts in some form or fashion, specifically reorganizing Bartlett’s area, which formerly covered Osborne High, to now represent McEachern, Harrison and Hillgrove high schools. Eagle will now represent Allatoona, North Cobb and Kennesaw Mountain high schools.
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Just this week, the Cobb County government said the tax digest will drop another 4% over last years rate. This means even lower revenues. Couple that with the 40 million dollars we borrowed to stay afloat this year and we have trouble. With or without SPLOST funds, we can no longer afford to build and maintain anything until our budget issues have been resolved.
I hate the idea of overcrowding and I would love to see every school in the county outfitted with the latest and best equipment, but for now, this just will not happen. The choices are simple, a tax increase or re-zone school zones. I would suggest no one is West Cobb would want either of these.
Also, since you are worried about the "1%" of tax money already collected, in case you missed it, your school board used it a few weeks ago to try to save the budget...i.e. it is gone. As in "not there", as in "spent." If you are really an advocate for our schools and our children, I would much rather see you focus on the time our children will spend in school next year, or class sizes, or academic standards....not the viability of trailer space.
Congrats to the calendar crowd. You have provided us with a clueless board to help "lead" the school system through these tight days.
It really is not the time for petty vendettas and silly overarching statements.
Did you miss the "in part"? I'm willing to give a good listen to Ms. Ryan and happy that we'll have a choice. As a Harrison districted parent I WANT someone who will fight for our district. Ms. Bartlett is fighting AGAINST us!
opposite. Maybe the back stabbing would end with
her departure.
And for those actually going, please let us know of the campaing promises that will surely be throw out to the crowd.
Bartlett needs to explain why Harrison is still 207 students over capacity while having 11 trailers and then needs to detail her solution to this issue.
Bartlett can’t ship the students to Hillgrove (over capacity by 139), or Kennesaw Mountain (at capacity with 3 trailers).
Bartlett needs to remember that a major goal of the SPLOST initiative was to get students out of trailers and into classrooms.
Bartlett needs to support the majority vote of the board that determined the location of the West Cobb 9th grade center at Harrison.
And to actually say that 'the board is being fiscally responsible' is laughable after wasting a half million bucks of tax payer money.
The decrease in enrollment as I see it is 2-fold:
1. The kids who were grandfathered to stay at Harrison while they are actually in Allatoona district are graduating year by year.
2. The down swing in the real estate industry in the economy. People aren't moving out and people aren't moving in. HOWEVER - this will not last forever. Be proactive, CCSB and ANTICIPATE this.
Can the MDJ ask for the notebook? Can the MDJ get the minutes from the F/T meetings that discussed the project, and approved the notebook? The data exists, please produce it, CCSD. Bartlett is correct to delay the project. Not abandon it, but delay it. We have schools that are fire hazards. Please spend the money for safety first.