By Rebecca Gaunt
Second and third graders at Bells Ferry Elementary in Marietta will attend school at Chalker Elementary starting in August 2025 for the duration of a major construction update to the main building.
Cobb County Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said it was necessary due to space constraints. The relocation is expected to last for two years, with completion slated for 2027.
“With the implementation of this project, there will be some growing pains. Land is limited at Bells Ferry,” he said.
Detailed information went out to families Friday, according to the superintendent.
Transportation will not be affected. Students will be picked up at their regular bus stops and driven to Chalker.
Winter Construction is managing the project, which was approved by voters as part of the 2021 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
Bells Ferry serves 750 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the district website. It was built in 1972.
Chalker Elementary School in Kennesaw is less than three miles from Bells Ferry.
Ragsdale announced at Thursday’s work session that two additional books have been pulled from all Cobb schools, bringing the total to 34.
Students will no longer have access to “Triangles” by Ellen Hopkins or “A Stolen Life: A Memoir” by Jaycee Dugard in school media centers.
Three other titles by Hopkins were previously pulled from circulation in the district: “Crank,” “Tricks,” and “Identical.”
Ragsdale didn’t detail the reasons for pulling “Triangles,” but he did talk at length about Dugard’s memoir. The book tells of her experience being kidnapped in 1991 and held for 18 years by her captors.
“It is extremely difficult to imagine a human being treating another human being, especially a child, in such a tragic manner. The reason “A Stolen Life” is being removed from general circulation are those very graphic descriptions of the rapes and other sexual abuse she endured, as well as language used throughout the book…it is the decision of a parent when or if their child has access to this material,” he said.
Ragsdale referenced a Marietta Daily Journal article “Sex Trafficking Pipeline Runs Through Cobb” by Hunter Riggall, He said he was shocked to learn from it that 91% of children who are being trafficked attend public school at some point while being victimized.
“Moving forward, our partnership with Servius will allow us to identify indicators suggesting human and child trafficking occurring in Cobb County, which then will allow us to focus intervention efforts to make human trafficking in Cobb a difficult crime to commit,” he said.
Servius is the intelligence gathering company whose partnership with CCSD was announced at the October school board meeting. The secretive nature of the presentation, during which the presenters declined to provide the name of the company or full names of the staff, has drawn criticism in the community. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke the story the same month regarding who was actually behind the company: a former Navy Seal named Rob Sarver who previously provided security for the wealthy on vacation through the company.
Rebecca Gaunt earned a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in education from Oglethorpe University. After teaching elementary school for several years, she returned to writing. She lives in Marietta with her husband, son, two cats, and a dog. In her spare time, she loves to read, binge Netflix and travel.