Kell Musicians to Be Honored

The Cobb County Board of Education will take time tonight to recognize musicians back from a national competition in Indianapolis.

The Kell Percussion Ensemble sent two groups to the invitation-only Sandy Feldstein National Percussion Festival this month, .

The school board will include the Kell percussionists at the start of its regular meeting tonight at 7 at the , 514 Glover St., Marietta.

The board also is scheduled to vote on at and elementary schools in Northeast Cobb.

The recommended Keheley contract with of Kennesaw is for $1.02 million, $380,000 over the estimated budget for the project.

But the recommended contract for renovations at Davis and and middle schools, bid out as one project, is more than $400,000 under budget. The low bid came from Cablik Enterprises in Atlanta.

Those projects are part of the school district's third Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, which expires at the end of 2013. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa will begin preliminary discussions about SPLOST IV at tonight's meeting.

The board also will vote tonight on whether to declare more than $20 million in SPLOST II funds to be excess and use the money to buy down the millage rate.

It will be the third consecutive year the school system uses  to help balance the budget; it also will be the last time because the money is almost gone.

The full agenda and the accompanying documents are in the attached PDF.