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New Technology Rushes to Cobb County Through STEMapalooza

By: Amecia Matlock

[Kennesaw, GA, June 18, 2019]- A multitude of sponsors and advocates of hands on interactive and technical learning stunned attendees with new research and programs at Cobb County’s Stemapalooza Tuesday. Kennesaw Mountain Highschool opened its doors to cobb county educators and students in the community to showcase the new technology and resources becoming available to aid in curriculum.

The keynote speaker of the evening was Nigel Nisbet was the keynote speaker at the event. He runs the MIND Research institute blog and has done several TED talks and seminars advocating for STEM based learning. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

He was present on behalf of ST Math which is a game based learning platform. It starts at pre-k and goes through middle grades. Nesbit said “It’s all about getting kids to learn to solve problems with prior conceptual understanding and thinking.” He said that this differs from traditional learning which can often be regurgitation of facts, instead of actual thought processing.

He presented about why it is so important to get children thinking critically and the benefits it presents. He also talked about how difficult it is to get children to think this way especially at an early age.

There were several other exhibitors that set up camp at Stemapalooza Tuesday, one of them being Teressa Fuller at BrainPop. BrainPop is another game based learning platform that has been around for over 20 years. BrainPop also focuses on interactive learning, and they had something very special to reveal. Creative coding is the newest edition to the BrainPop platform. Coding techniques are embedded into the projects so children learn how to code without even knowing it. Fuller said “We’re integrating with scratch and bit code so that’s both log and text based code in that respect we are able to integrate it so that students aren’t learning to code, they’re coding to learn.”

In this new technology driven world it was important to Fuller that children aren’t just going to coding class but are learning the ins and outs of coding technology on a daily basis.

Cobb County is always district wide with BrainPop and incorporates it into the curriculum. They maintain a very strong connection. Fuller said they were”here to share the love.”

Julia Crownover was representing Legends of Learning. They are another game based learning platform with a twist. Crownover said “We are a game based learning platform with over 2,000 video games in math and science for grades 3-8 and they’re all standards aligned.” She said that Legends of Learning has a good relationship with Cobb County and perfectly aligns with their curriculum. Crownover did a presentation showcasing their products and showing teachers how they can incorporate Legends of Learning into their classroom. Legends of Learning strictly focuses on math and science, and specializes gameplay based on grade level and required learning standards.

Crownover said her favorite part was connecting with other educators and STEM professionals in the industry. Stemapalooza also served as a networking event for STEM leaders, educators, and school board representatives.

By Jacari Brooks

JONESBORO, Ga.- The Clayton County Board of Commissioners held a public meeting in order to discuss the adoption of the Clayton County fiscal year budget for 2020 Tuesday evening. 

The Chairman, Board of Commissioners, and citizens of Clayton County engaged in discussions that hoped to come to agreeing terms for the annual proposed budget. There were four representatives present at the meeting; Chairman Jeff Turner, commissioners Felicia Warner, Demont Davis, and Gail Hambrick. The purpose for the meeting was to discuss a plan among the citizens of the county to develop and embrace the plan set by the Board of Commissioners in order for it to be executed properly. Some citizens that were representing companies gave presentations to speak on their ideas on how to improve agendas of the county. 

There were other factors during the meeting in which the board and citizens hoped to accomplish. It was to agree on topics such as potential funding sources and the appropriation of expenditures. Those factors were discussed so that there would be a resolution to make improvements. 

The first and major point discussed at the beginning of the meeting was how MARTA and the transportation be more efficiently for those who depend on that transportation. A presentation was given by Virgil Fludd, who has represented MARTA in past meetings with the Board of Commissioners. During the presentation, he spoke on how the company was going to try to provide more finances and funding to make improvements to help the bus operation run at a higher frequency and become more reliable in Clayton County. After the presentation, commissioner Felicia Warner had questions for Fludd as to why there haven’t been improvements since the last time he met with the board. 

“I don’t have the financials to tell you which projects and how long they’re going to be financed through,” Fludd said. “It is our position I believe that is to provide the level of service that you will expect that were going to need to have for additional funding.” 

In addition, he acknowledged that it would be a challenge which led to questions and comments that were asked by the board members. Commissioner Davis offered his thoughts on the matter as it pertains to the funding for the bus operations. 

“We’re only covering about 8 percent of all the bus stops we have in the county,” Davis said. “Honestly, I’ve driven up and down hwy 1941 and 138, especially with this rain, you see folks walking in dirt and sitting on the ground. I would really hope we aggressively put together a plan that’s going to aggressively take care of these issues.”

Commissioner Warner echoed the same comments by telling Fludd that the board would like to see the financials and show the total cost of the project because the issues need to be fixed for the people in Clayton County who depend on the transportation. 

“Bring us financials to the board meeting and show us,” Warner said. “You know what’s more important than time is energy, and we need to see some energy spent on the people of Clayton County.”

This was so there could be a second look to see what exactly needs to be done in order to improve the bus transportation. However, the board concluded that they would like to hear the presentation again at a later date.

Among this issue, there were other agenda items that were discussed during the meeting such as health care, retiree benefits, and proposed pay scale for law clerks. Most of those items were approved by the board members. 

By Rebekah Ozbun

SMYRNA, Ga.—Smyrna City Council approved Monday the motion to give rights of the Cochran Wall to the city of Smyrna at the City Council Meeting.

“After the dedication of the property to the city, the wall will be the responsibility of the city. If property owners and developers that back up on the wall want to make any changes, they will have to request this of the city,” Smyrna community development director, Rusty Martin said.

The issue of the Cochran wall was brought up in a previous council meeting in April when Matt Junger of M. Junger Homes LLC, introduced a rezoning petition to build four single-family homes on Roswell Street. He wanted to make changes to the wall to have enough space on the sidewalk next to the wall.

Junger was looking to modify the wall to create a safe amount of room for the sidewalk or to take out the bike lane in the street leading up to Walker Court. His goal was to take down part of the wall and to move it back a few feet and rebuild it using the same materials.  

When this request was first brought to the city council, the crowd was against this because of the historical context of the wall. Roswell street neighbors felt that breaking down and moving the wall was disrespectful to the city and to the wall itself.

The Cochran wall in Smyrna has been in place since 1938 and many of the residents present at the meeting were determined to see the wall remain the same.  

“If we could preserve the wall it would be a win-win for all,” Smyrna resident, Ron Davis said, “I would like to thank the Mayor and the city for working towards this solution.”

Martin brought forward the proposed changes to the city ordinance, which included a decreased regulation width for the sidewalk and the ownership of the wall being turned over to the city. All construction decisions and changes involving the Cochran wall must now be brought before the city council and be approved.

“If any other developer were doing this project, they would have already removed the wall and been done with it without getting approval,” Junger said, “I guess this is one of those no good deed goes unpunished situations.”

More than half of the residents in Monday evening’s meeting stood up and cheered when the revisions and the ownership and responsibility for the wall was approved 6-0 by the council board.

At this decision, Junger will be able to move forward in the construction of the two single-family homes, but will not be able to make the changes to the Cochran wall that he intended on making.

 “I can agree with the revisions that have been made,” Matt Junger said, “I am honestly just grateful for this to be finished.”

Contacts:

Matt Junger—404.493.1555

Ron Davis—ronalddavis179@aol.com

By Jessica Baker

KENNESAW, Ga.-The Kennesaw City Council met to approve agenda items Monday at its weekly meeting.

The meeting began at 6:30 p.m. and opened with the mayor of Kennesaw, Derek Easterling, and the council’s five members initiating the Pledge of Allegiance and each council member describing something good that had happened to them recently.

The objective of the meeting was to vote on items on the weekly agenda. A few of these items included: approval of resolution to adopt Kennesaw City Strategic Plan, approval of resolution to adopt the Public Art Master Program and the request to surplus and dispose of equipment.

The Kennesaw City Cemetery Strategic Plan was created through participation in the professional assistance program offered by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC.) The plan’s purpose was to outline the short and long-term goals, recommendations and strategies that will further the activities and capabilities in regards to the city cemetery.

According to Lea Addington, the assistant city clerk to Easterling, the cemetery is historical, with one of the first markers dated to be somewhere in the 1860s, and the plan was to increase tourism for Cobb County.

“Part of it was going out into the community and seeing what would bring more people to the cemetery,” Addington said. They had “post a board put up on the wall and had people come up and put stickers on what would bring them to the cemetery, what aspects of the cemetery interest them, and then coming up with events and different things to bring more people to the cemetery and to spread more awareness of the cemetery.”

The second item of business was the Public Master Art Plan, which began its research in 2017, with the purpose of the plan to lay out strategies, short and long-term goals, discern potential partnerships, funding methods and other opportunities that can advance public art in all forms on private and public property throughout the city. Mayor Derek Easterling said a lot of research went into figuring out what the public wanted from the plan, a task spearheaded by members of the Art and Culture Commission.

“They’ve come up with an idea of how to include collaborative projects, with KSU, with other artists in the, in the community, for displaying in the city at different venues, whether it be a park here at City Hall, or Depot Park, and we have some pieces at the museum,” Easterling said.

A new member of the Art and Culture Commission, Daniel Bernard, was sworn in at the meeting prior to commencement.

The final item on the list was the request to surplus and dispose of a 2003 Chevrolet Malibu, which had been primarily used for employee travel. It had fallen into disrepair and was no longer operable. The City’s auto-shop attempted to figure out the issue and arrived at the conclusion being that the vehicle had a computer/electrical failure, with the cost to repair the vehicle determined to be greater than the value of the car.

The staff requested that the Malibu be surplused and sold as scrap metal, which was approved by Public Works Director Richard Stewart.

According to Mayor Easterling, the profits from the Malibu will be used for funds for the city.

“Typically we put anything that can be surplussed to a website. It’s gov.com or govdeals.com and we sell it,” Easterling said. “So, any money that we can sell it for, we put back into the monies for the city.”

The council adjourned shortly after the final vote was counted. All items listed on the agenda came to a unanimous vote of 5-0.

The council will not be meeting next week since most of them will be in Savannah at the Georgia Municipal Association Conference.

“It’s part-education and part-networking. So some of our council members will be taking training classes on different topics,” Addington said. “It’s also a chance for them to interact and network with some other council members from other municipalities.”

Contact Information:

Mayor Derek Easterling: deasterling@kennesaw-ga.gov
Cell: (404) 496-2563

Assistant City Clerk Lea Addington: laddington@kennesaw-ga.gov
(770) 424-8274 x3106

Written by Treasure Johnson

ATLANTA– The City of Atlanta Task Force to Promote Public Trust held its second meeting to discuss the effectiveness and necessity of four departments accused of massive overlapping on Tuesday at the Atlanta City Hall.

The Independent Compliance Office, Ethics Office, Law Department Compliance Office and Office of Transparency took the stand to defend their usefulness to the committee and the public. In the last meeting, the committee and public felt like there was too much overlap between the departments and that they could be consolidated into fewer departments.

Each department deals with local government compliance at some level and as some of the representatives mentioned, there is some overlap. Rhonda Sadler-Collins, Law Department Compliance Officer stated that there is no exact method to determine who has the final say when jurisdictions overlap.

“The way that we address it now is we sit down in a room and talk through which particular parts of the allegations each department will handle,” Sadler Collins said.

Chief Transparency Officer for the City of Atlanta Kristen Denuis mentioned that her department focused on ensuring compliance with the Georgia Open Records Act. She also said that her office worked closely with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to come up with new policies and adjustments to roll out throughout the year.

The Ethics Office and Independent Compliance Office stated their plan to foster collaboration through the next year, which includes revising existing Board Rules to determine how the offices will work together. Also, to establish procedures/guidance for officials and employees to minimize confusion and overlap of responsibilities.

The public attendees expressed a growing concern that there are too many government agencies to keep up with and it makes it harder to be transparent with their constituents.

“Who do you hold accountable when there are four bodies that are supposed to monitor this area?” said Atlanta Resident Stephanie James.

Task Force member and former president of Morehouse College, Robert Michael Franklin Jr., compared the complexity of government to a swiss watch.  

“The Atlanta city government is beginning to resemble a swiss watch, meaning it is growing more complex and not more simple and that raises a concern for all of us,” Dr. Franklin said.  

The public attendees were not opposed to consolidating the departments to save money and simplify the government.

“I like to know that my tax dollars are being used efficiently,” said Atlanta-Native Katie Summerour. “There’s no point in having everyone do the same job.”

The meeting concluded with the board not seeming convinced of the necessity of four separate departments; However, no official decisions on the fate of these departments were made at this time.

The Task Force was implemented to evaluate the city’s policies and administrative priorities and offer recommendations to fix them and amend public trust. The group will meet for four meetings before making their final recommendations to the Mayor.

Members of the task force include former prosecutors, members of academia, Atlanta residents and former judges.

The Marietta Board of Education met Tuesday night to for their monthly meeting at the Marietta Schools Central Office to discuss budgets for the coming year, as well as to approve various projects and ideas.

            The Board met for its monthly meeting to discuss various points, such as various policy revisions and budget decisions. The meeting moved along quite briskly, with the main points being recognition of StoneBridge Church of Marietta for their contributions to the school district and its students, as well as the adoption of new programs for disadvantaged and disabled students and their families.

            The meeting began with an inspirational story told by board member Kerry Minervini, in which she talks about opportunity and how it surrounds us even when life seems most hopeless. This was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and a quick reminder of the rules of the meeting, such as how to address board members and when the best times for comment are.  

            The meeting then turned toward votes for new policy and resource allocation for the county schools. During this time, the chair of the board, Jason Waters, read out each issue and quickly took a vote, all of which were unanimously approved. The entire process took less than five minutes, allowing the board to quickly move forward to its public recognition of the StoneBridge church.

            The next segment of the meeting was dedicated to recognizing StoneBridge Church of Marietta for their various contributions to the school district over the years. Kim Simmons, a representative for the church, was present to accept a certificate and shake hands with each of the board members, posing each time for pictures. The superintendent of Marietta schools, Dr. Grant Rivera, said some extremely kind words about the church, praising it for its outreach and the way it has helped touch the lives of the children in the community through good work.

            “StoneBridge has just done so much for these schools, from donating books to volunteering their time and money.” said Leah Oliveri, a local parent. “They truly embody the giving nature of Christianity.”

            This period of recognition was followed by a short speech from Billie Newton, who works in the Department of Special Services for the school district. She announced a new outreach program that the county will be starting for families of disabled and disadvantaged students.

            “We are happy to announce that Marietta City Schools will be participating in the Special Olympics in Spring of 2020.” said Newton, who seemed ecstatic to announce this to the community present. 

            Afterwards followed a brief summary of last years budget, then the presentation of the preliminary 2020 budget. The board unanimously approved the new budget as well, including a provision of about $17 M to be set aside as an emergency fund.

            Finally, a new program which focused on emotionally-led counseling for at-risk children was presented to the board. The program would work with these children and their families to help correct their behavior by teaching them why the behavior is unacceptable and what steps could be taken in the future to avoid them. The program will be premiered at Park Street Elementary and limited to the school for a year, as a test to prove its efficacy and worth.
           

“I have incredible confidence in allowing principals to steer and show us that this is worth the investment.” said Dr. Rivera.

            The meeting concluded with the board opening the floor for discussion, with a few parents asking questions about the new programs that were presented earlier. This period passed quickly without incident.

            The entire board and audience seemed happy, so the meeting was adjourned. A few of the parents present stayed behind to talk directly with board members, who made themselves available for any questions or ideas.

            The next will take place on Tuesday, July 16^th at the same time and place.

Contact info:

Leah Oliveri: loliveri1215@gmail.com

Dr. Grant Rivera: grivera@marietta-city.k12.ga.us

By Jessica Baker