Cobb school district criticized over use of "alarming" apartment data

Catch up quick: At the May 15 school board work session, a demographic study showing the number of multifamily permits issued in Cobb County and cities and counties across the region was presented by Education Planners, a Marietta-based consulting firm.

• According to the presentation, more multifamily units were approved in Cobb County (20,671) than any other county in metro Atlanta between 2006 and 2024.
• "This kind of approval for these types of developments is inviting, and almost guaranteeing, that transience is going to increase and not only increase but continue to have a detrimental impact on school performance, whether perceived or real," Ragsdale said at the session.

Caveat: The numbers presented by Education Planners did not include permits approved by the City of Atlanta or Rockdale County, which are both part of the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC).

By the numbers: According to data provided to Axios by the ARC, the City of Atlanta far outpaces Cobb County in the number of multifamily permits approved.

• Atlanta approved around 83,000 permits between 2006 and 2024, roughly four times as many approved by Cobb during the same period.

What they're saying: Matthew Stigall, a member of A Better Cobb, which advocates for improved mobility and accessible housing, told Axios the school district "cherrypicked" data to match its narrative.

• "There is a pattern of a narrative that these improvements to our county will bring a certain type of student that will harm our schools, and it just ... doesn't hold logic," he said.

Zoom in: After the district sent out a May 15 news release that shared Ragsdale's concerns, commission chair Lisa Cupid emailed Ragsdale and school board members the following morning and offered to meet with them to discuss the demographic study.

• Cupid's suggested date of May 21 was rejected by Ragsdale, who said it was "simply not realistic to expect the board and I to attend this meeting on less than a week of notice," according to an email shared with Axios.
• Cupid said that "given the alarm that was shared" through the district's report and news release, she thought offering a chance to sit down face-to-face was the appropriate response.

Between the lines: Since 2020, nearly all countywide elected positions in Cobb have flipped from Republican to Democratic control.

• The Cobb school board is the only Republican-controlled elected body in the county.

The intrigue: Ragsdale also took aim at the number of apartments under construction in Powder Springs and the effect it could have on district schools in that area.

• A spokesperson for Powder Springs told Axios the district has not been in regular contact with the city over residential construction.

Context: This isn't the first time the district and school board members have publicly criticized county commission policy.

• During the 2024 election, then-school board chairman Randy Scamihorn used his "Just the Facts" blog to criticize a proposed county program that would have used sales taxes to fund various transit projects.
• Scamihorn said the proposal, which voters ultimately rejected, would increase transiency among students and families.

The bottom line: Becky Sayler, one of two Democratic school board members who ended up meeting with county representatives, told Axios that what should not be lost in this debate is there are "real kids and real families" who live in multifamily developments.

• "I want our children to feel welcome in our schools no matter where they come from, no matter what economic background their parents have, no matter their living situation," she said.

Go deeper: Atlanta lost 232K affordable housing units from 2018 to 2023