Commercial Truck Insurance in Marietta, GA

MARIETTA, Ga. - Twenty-five books have been banned from the Marietta City Schools' reading center.

Last month, the district voted to ban 23 books. Since then, parents have filed appeals to keep every single one of those books on the shelves.

Before the vote Tuesday night, parents on both sides argued their points.

"It's about removing sexually explicit material paid for by taxpayer funds," said Matt Anderson.

"Show me the data about the harm these books cause because the data is telling us they only create positive outcomes," said Jenny Storino.

These 23 books are in addition to two books that were removed back in the fall, "Flamer and Me" and "Earl and the Dying Girl."

Tuesday night, the school board rejected the appeal by a vote of 6-1.

Karla Jacobs is with Marietta in the Middle, a group of parents that wrote the appeals.

"We're disappointed in what happened tonight. The biggest losers in this whole book ban debacle are the students who have lost important books from their media center that speak to their lives and experiences," said Jacobs.

Becky Simmons is pleased children will no longer have access to these books in the school library.

"I am so grateful for a school board and having Dr. Grant Rivera for having a set standard of what should be allowed in our school system," said Simmons.

Mark Oshiro is an author of children's books who lives in metro Atlanta. While none of his books were pulled from the Marietta City Schools' libraries, his books have been banned in other states.

"I've been dealing with this for six years since my first book banning. I'm not a stranger to it, it's just increased in intensity. I'm very happy to see so many other parents and educators fighting back," said Oshiro.

Supt. Grant Rivera says a committee of educators spent thousands of hours determining which books were not appropriate for students. He's hoping the district can now move forward.

"I want to bring this community back together in the way that this created divisiveness and hope to continue to make decisions for the kids," said Dr. Rivera.

MARIETTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The Cobb County Water System lifted its boil water notice Saturday morning after a large water main break was repaired.

Water testing confirmed the water is safe to consume, the department said. Some may experience low pressure or discolored water, which you can fix by running cold water for several minutes.

The pipeline originally ruptured around 1 a.m. near Macedonia Road and Red Rose Drive on Friday. This area is part of the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority system, but it also caused a loss of pressure in the Cobb County Water System, officials said.

BOIL WATER ADVISORY LIFTEDThe Boil Water Advisory issued for portions of south Cobb County has been lifted. Test results obtained by the Cobb County Marietta Water Authority (CCMWA) have returned negative for bacteria and indicate the water is safe to consume. pic.twitter.com/uYPQxj2wF5

— Cobb County, GA (@cobbcountygovt) January 20, 2024

The break affected cities like Powder Springs, Austell, Mableton, and sections of Marietta and Smyrna. The Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority said the burst was most likely weather-related, as pipes can move underground when it’s cold outside.

Officials said the pipe was put back together overnight, but it won’t be re-integrated into the system until next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Cole Blackwell, Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority’s general manager, said this is the first time in about five years that the Water Authority has seen a water main break requiring them to issue a boil water advisory.

They advised residents to boil water or use bottled water for drinking, preparing food or brushing their teeth. People were free to use the water as-is for showering and doing laundry.

Resident Courtney Townsend said the break happened right outside of his home.

“I looked out the window, and I see an ocean in the front yard!” he said. “It was really dominating and pushing into the neighbor’s yard and going up toward their driveways where their cars were. As a matter of fact, one of their mailboxes was already underwater.”

Click here for updates from the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority.

Copyright 2024 WANF. All rights reserved.

Georgia leaders launched the inquiry after allegations of multiple crimes being committed at the location.

MARIETTA, Ga. — A new inquiry has been launched into the United States Postal Service (USPS) - this time over allegations of misconduct at a Marietta post office.

Georgia leaders, including Sens. Rafael Warnock, John Ossoff, and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, are demanding answers about alleged fraud and mail tampering at the USPS location on Lawrence Street.

“Well, I know mistakes happen, but continuously,” said Marietta resident Jennifer Walton. She told 11Alive that since November, she has been having issues getting her packages. She says confirmation shows the items were delivered to her home, yet she has evidence to the contrary.

“It says delivered mail, but it’s not delivered. So we have a Ring camera to monitor it, we have informed delivery to monitor it, and I run to the mailbox every time we receive a package, but it’s not there,” said Walton.

Walton says when she confronts USPS with that information, the responses are inconsistent.

"Yesterday, they said it was incorrectly marked delivered, and it really wasn’t, and today she is not really addressing it; they are just trying to find my package," she said.

Walton isn’t sure if her packages are being stolen, but she says she was recently informed that she got a new mail carrier. As she searches for answers, Sens. Ossoff and Warnock, along with Rep. Barry Loudermilk, have launched a separate inquiry into the Marietta Post office at 257 Lawrence Street for alleged crimes committed there, including mail theft, forgery, document fraud, and check washing.

Despite the claims, some still swear by the Marietta USPS location.

“I drove 25 miles to this post office,” said Hiram resident Meg Hunt-Williams, who says because of issues at her local USPS, she makes the drive to Marietta whenever she needs postal assistance.

“Coming to the Marietta post office is one big blessing because it’s one of the best-organized post offices here in the Atlanta vicinity, and these people know me when I walk in because they know how far I drive,” Hunt-Williams went on to say.

As for Walton, she says she just wants her items. “The rest of my mail seems to appear but when I order something from a retail environment, it’s delivered but not there," she said.

We reached out to Sens. Ossoff and Warnock’s offices, but they were unavailable for comment. We also contacted representatives from USPS, but so far, we have not heard back.

Dr. Jillian Johnson, Principal of A.L. Burruss Elementary School, leaves a kindergarten classroom after checking in as part of her daily routine. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)

Principal Jillian Johnson regularly walks the halls of A.L. Burruss Elementary School in Marietta. The practice is part of her routine – a way to check in on her school family, literally.

Johnson is a parent of two Burruss Beavers: Elizabeth, a third grader, and Caroline, a kindergartner.

She stopped by Caroline’s class earlier this winter to watch her daughter learn to read. Mrs. Lauri Bruton led the lesson.

“[The] beginning of a sentence has to have a…” Bruton asked her class.

“Capital!” the students cheered in unison.

The kindergartners were digging into punctuation, spelling the sentence, “She can snap and skip.”

After sounding out “skip,” Bruton asks the kids how to punctuate the sentence.

“Period!” shouts one student.

“Why?”

“Because [it’s] a telling sentence!”

“It’s a telling sentence! Do you remember that big word we learned? Say it!”

“Declarative!”

Principal Johnson watched quietly from the back of the room with a grin.

A lot of other kindergartners are still learning the alphabet at this age. But not at Burruss.

A few years ago, Johnson and her staff changed how they teach students to read, transitioning from “balanced literacy” to “structured literacy.” The rest of the Marietta school system has done the same.

“We changed every single practice in how we teach children to read,” the Marietta principal noted. “It is a total 180.”

“Our percentage of students reading at or above grade level just continue to climb. And it was stagnant or regressing for years before that.”

Jillian Johnson, principal – A.L. Burruss Elementary School

In balanced literacy, teachers let a child figure things out themselves with context clues.

As Johnson describes it, structured literacy is explicit instruction — the polar opposite.

“[Structured literacy] teach[es] them what the letters mean, and how the letters represent sounds, and how the sounds come together to make words,” she said.

Johnson says the impact of structured literacy at her elementary school has been transformational. Last year, the third graders at Burruss had the second-highest gains in the statewide Georgia Milestones test.

“Our percentage of children reading at or above grade level just continues to climb,” Johnson added. “And it was stagnant–if not regressing–for years before that.”

Third grade is a big year for young readers. Experts call it the year students go from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn. But Johnson says it’s more than just that.

“Their sense of self develops so much,” she said. “It’s really incredible. We’re going through it in my home and then also leading kids through it here at school.”

A.L. Burruss and the Marietta school system inspired state officials.

Last year, the Georgia General General Assembly passed a sweeping piece of legislation – House Bill 538 – to make all public schools teach reading the way they do in Marietta.

Marietta City Schools is just one example of why structured literacy works.

Nationally, the state of Mississippi is the gold standard — largely because of Carey Wright, the former state superintendent. In the world of student literacy, she is held in the same esteem as Michael Jordan in the game of basketball.

“We changed every single practice in how we teach children to read. It is a total 180.”

Jillian Johnson, principal – A.L. Burruss Elementary School

Folks call the way that Wright improved reading scores in the Magnolia State the “Mississippi Miracle,” but the acclaimed educator pushes back on that.

“It is not a miracle,” she said. “It is hard work. And it’s hard work over time.”

As Wright reflected on what Mississippi did well, she said coaching teachers in structured literacy was part of a full-court press.

“We had teachers coming out and saying it was the best professional development they’ve ever had,” she said. “It was like an eye opener for some people to know that… there actually is a very strategic way to teach children how to read. And there’s decades of research behind it.”

Teacher professional development is also a big part of Georgia’s game plan.

The Georgia Department of Education (DOE) is training literacy coaches to help districts across the state implement structured literacy.

The implementation of this statewide coaching model is being overseen by J. Nicholas Philmon, who helped create a similar system for the schools in Marietta.

Ramona Brown is also helping to train literacy coaches across the state as the field implementation coordinator for an organization called Cox Campus, which has partnered with the Georgia DOE.

Earlier this year, she led a workshop in Columbus for dozens of literacy coaches, who will then train teachers at the district level.

Brown said the kind of explicit instruction that structured literacy requires works for all kids, including those with learning challenges like dyslexia.

Structured literacy is about equity, she continued.

If we equip [coaches] with the knowledge that we know benefits all children… that’s how we scale the work and that’s how it’s sustained,” she said. “Once [teachers] get a good grasp of it, they start seeing wins.

State lawmakers are eager to see wins too.

When last year’s big literacy bill was passed, it didn’t have any money attached to it.

This year’s budget puts money towards programs like literacy coaches and tests to track student progress. Republican State Senator Billy Hickman has sponsored legislation that would make it easier to do the latter.

“This is not a marathon,” Hickman said at a press conference about the legislation. “This is a 100-yard dash.”

The District 4 senator and other lawmakers have continually pressed the Georgia DOE for results.

However, education officials caution against expecting immediate improvements in student literacy.

“Folks who want to see immediate gains have to [consider if districts] have the resources that they need to implement with the same intensity that Marietta did,” said Ryan Lee-James, chief academic officer at the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy.

“I don’t mean financial resources,” Lee-James continued. “I mean buy-in and expectations from the school board. Buy-in from the superintendent.”

Principal Jillian Johnson at A.L. Burruss said the same.

“I think that the key is leadership,” she said. “That’s my biggest piece of advice to those who are new on the journey. I really have kind of taken it on as a personal mission … and my staff fully understands the assignment.”

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - Beginning at 10 a.m. on March 19, State Route (SR) 280/South Cobb Drive will undergo a full road closure from Fairground Street SE to US 41/SR 3/Cobb Parkway. This closure, following morning rush hour, aims to facilitate the emergency replacement of a culvert at the location.

Motorists are advised to adhere to posted detour route signage to bypass SR 280/South Cobb Drive. The primary detour route suggests utilizing US 41/SR 3/Cobb Parkway SE, SR 120/South Marietta PKWY SE, and Fairground Street SE. Additionally, a secondary route has been identified: motorists can opt for US 41/SR 3/Cobb Parkway SE, SR 120/South Marietta PKWY SE, and Atlanta Street SE.

To manage traffic flow effectively, Georgia DOT will collaborate with city and county traffic operations teams. Signal timing adjustments will be made to alleviate congestion during peak travel periods.

The closure is anticipated to last around eight weeks, contingent upon weather conditions, with an estimated completion date in mid-May 2024. Real-time travel updates can be accessed via preferred wayfinding apps or by dialing 511GA.

Major Cobb County road shutting down

South Cobb Drive will shut down after Tuesday's morning rush hour and be closed for weeks for road repairs.

The need for the emergency culvert replacement arose on March 9, following a washout triggered by heavy rainfall. The culvert slated for replacement has surpassed its life expectancy.

"This project is sort of an emergency project that's being done to replace an old culvert that was built in the 1940s," GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale explained. "Given the age of this culvert, and the conditions that we've seen lately we, upon inspection of this culvert, noticed that it is just compromised."

Georgia DOT urges motorists to expect delays and assures proactive coordination with city and county officials, Dobbins Air Reserve Base, and Lockheed Martin to minimize travel disruptions.

Every effort has been made to prepare employees ahead of the road closures.

"They told us about it and be prepared. Leave home a little earlier, 15-20 minutes earlier you know, for the traffic, because there are going to be a lot of cars out in the morning," said Tim Davis, who works at Lockheed-Martin.

"We are working directly with those who work at those facilities as well as Cobb Department of Education for their bus traffic. To make sure that those people are getting to where they need to get within this closure," said Dale.

All other motorists will be diverted around the road closures for the next 8 weeks. General motorists should use the detour route, "which is going to be Cobb Parkway, Marietta Parkway and Atlanta Road to get either up and around or over this closure for the time being," Dale explained.

For up-to-date traffic information, utilize 511GA services via phone, website (511ga.org), or the 511 Georgia mobile app before embarking on your journey.