Cobb Schools Super Sounds Alarm on 'Transiency,' Apartments

MARIETTA — Cobb County Schools Superintendent Chris Ragsdale railed against the rate of apartment development in Cobb, the negative impact of “transiency” and changes to the county within the “last three years” during the school board’s Thursday afternoon work session.

His comments came during a presentation from education consultant James Wilson on population growth in Cobb.

According to data Wilson cited, more apartments have been built in Cobb in the last three years than single-family homes — something Ragsdale interrupted his presentation to raise the alarm about.

“This is probably the most concerning (statistic) that everybody should be paying attention to. That is, everybody who actually cares about the quality of education in Cobb County,” Ragsdale said.

While he didn’t mention her by name, Cobb commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid has led the county during the period Ragsdale referenced, and the two have clashed before.

Mobility and graduation rates

Ragsdale added that the rate of mobility in the county skews data on high school graduation rates, using Osborne High School as an example.

According to Ragsdale, while Osborne has a graduation rate above 70%, that number rises to 94% for students who are at the school all four years. He said that signals the negative impact that transiency has on the learning experiences of students.

“The reason I bring that up is to set the context for the reason that Osborne’s presented graduation rate from the state is because of transiency. Transiency is brought about because of apartments, and families taking advantage of apartments which might offer, you know, you get the first month’s free rent when you move in,” Ragsdale said.

Democratic Cobb school board member Becky Sayler made the point that transiency is not necessarily brought on by apartments.

“I just want to say transiency isn’t necessarily caused by apartments, but by people having economic hardship,” Sayler said. “I know as a school district, we really strive to be able to reach kids from all backgrounds. So maybe this means we’ll have to learn to do even better, if we have more kids coming from those backgrounds.”

Different developments’ impacts

Fellow Democratic board member Leroy Tre’ Hutchins added that many of the developments in Cobb County are luxury apartments that have one or two bedrooms, that are catering to single people or young couples without children — not filled by families seeking affordable housing.

“We don’t have necessarily affordable options in Cobb. We don’t have affordable housing, per se,” Hutchins said. “... I think sometimes when you think of apartments you think of a lot of mobility ... but these apartments are not built to be apartments like they were 30 years ago. Most people are staying longer and they’re also not having families in those communities.”

Ragsdale challenged that point, stating proof lies in the way Smyrna has been developed in recent years, specifically duplexes built across from Smyrna Elementary School.

“I’ll see your statement and I’ll raise you with the city of Smyrna. We were told and preached to ... ‘Nope, these are middle class, business professional, young, straight out of college — you’ll never see a kid in those apartments.’ But the last time I checked, adults are not riding tricycles,” Ragsdale said.

Hutchins reiterated that when projecting growth from developments, the district should only consider apartments with three bedrooms or more, and discount any that are designed to serve students or seniors.

‘Point the finger’

While Hutchins told the MDJ after the meeting that he doesn’t use the word transiency because of the stigmatizing implications it can have on the students it is used to describe, Ragsdale didn’t hesitate to lambaste apartments and the effect those moving in and out of them have on the district.

“That is not the kind of residential growth that you want to see because, again, it promotes the false narrative as we see at Osborne High School,” Ragsdale said. “Not to mention that when you have transiency in the district, that negatively impacts the learning process for the students.”

More than once, Ragsdale harped on the point that much has changed for the worse within the last three years.

“The type of residential growth matters. And over the past three years, the trend is not good,” Ragsdale said. “That is not the way you want to see residential growth in the county. Period. Full stop. ... I’m not saying who you need to point the finger at, but we need to be very concerned with the fact that over the past three years, more apartments have been built in Cobb County than single-family residences.”