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Superintendent Ragsdale offers condolences, touts recruitment numbers and previews teacher bonuses
Summary
Superintendent Ragsdale opened the March 19 meeting with condolences for recent deaths in the school community, defended the district’s special‑education services, highlighted recruitment and retention efforts (including a March 14 job fair with high applicant numbers), and said teacher bonus administration will return to the board next month for approval.
Superintendent Mr. Ragsdale opened the board meeting March 19 with condolences for three students and two employees recently lost and urged the community to follow through on offered support. He told the board he would not discuss personnel or individual student matters in public beyond offering condolences and reminded attendees that public comment is noninteractive.
Ragsdale highlighted the district’s special‑education services and said families move to Cobb County for those services. He credited district staff and named Brenda Carter (special‑education leadership) for her work. He provided quantitative program details, saying district social workers completed more than 500 home visits, handled over 11,000 referrals and made more than 25,000 parent‑student contacts.
On recruitment and retention, Ragsdale described a March 14 job fair at Truist Park that drew applicants from multiple states: he said the event saw about 500 applicants in the first two hours and more than 3,000 applicants overall for roughly 450 posted slots. He thanked partners such as the University of West Georgia for partnering on a program that offers degree support to staff.
Ragsdale also referenced upcoming teacher bonuses tied to state funding. He said the administration will present an agenda item next month asking the board to approve how the bonuses will be administered; if approved, he said the bonuses would be distributed to employees in May.
The superintendent concluded with appreciations for volunteers, maintenance staff and district teachers, and the board then moved to consent items and adjournment.
