East Cobb PTAs Urge SPLOST Passage

A recent e-mail blast from the Dickerson Middle School PTSA began this way:

"What do the following have in common?

• Saturday Night Live premiered on NBC
• Gerald Ford was President
• The Vietnam War ended
• The first VCR was developed in Japan
• BIC introduced the first disposable razor"

But this was no ordinary pop quiz.

The answer -- "They all occurred in 1975, the same year that Walton High School was built!" -- is the introduction to a message sent out Friday urging Dickerson parents to vote for the $717 million Cobb Education SPLOST extension.

While the Dickerson PTSA's approach was creative -- and which was also sent out by the Walton PTSA on Friday -- the bottom-line pro-SPLOST message is the same as others sent out by a number of public school-related organizations in East Cobb.

Dickerson is among the feeder schools into Walton, which would get nearly $40 million if the March 19 SPLOST IV referendum is approved and whose parental groups have been actively campaigning for passage.

The actual schools and cannot explicitly advocate either for or against the SPLOST, nor can school resources or staff time be used for that purpose.

But parental groups, including the Walton Facilities Foundation, have been repeating talking points available on the Cobb County School District's SPLOST IV information page.

The WFF's primary thrust is that the aging main building at Walton is vastly overcrowded and has been upgraded in piecemeal fashion, and that a major overhaul is necessary after 37 years.

PTA messages also are touting what the current and previous SPLOST collections have paid for.

At Sope Creek Elementary School, it's "a new gymnasium, a new playground, much needed technology upgrades, an intercom phone system (VOIP), flooring replacement, plumbing, bathroom modifications and paving," according to a message this week issued by that school's PTA.

The East Cobb County Council of PTAs has been urging its affiliated groups to "Pump Up the Volume on SPLOST!" by sharing "the list of benefits your school will receive, as well as those in its cluster in your newsletters, Facebook pages, booster club news and other venues" and to get information from the CCSD site.

At the same time, the umbrella group also reminds PTAs not to utilize taxpayer-funded resources to spread the word, including school copy machines and websites and school buses.

Advance voting expands on Monday at several Cobb satellite locations, including the East Cobb Government Service Center.

The Cobb Taxpayers Association and the Georgia Tea Party will be holding a rally Sunday  at the Marietta Square in opposition to the SPLOST, which they claim contains too many unnecessary projects, in particular a proposed $30 million career academy and athletic and arts facility upgrades.

But in harking back to a 1970s theme, the Dickerson and Walton PTSAs are undeterred:

"SPLOST is groovy! Vote yes!"