In 2003, the Cobb County School District began
to explore the concept of providing laptops to teachers and students.
Through the use of funds derived from a Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST),
the School District sought to initiate the Power to Learn Initiative (the
Initiative) wherein each teacher and student, grades 6 thru 12, would be
provided a laptop computer by the School District. The concept was
controversial. A civil law suit was filed against the School District
seeking to stop the Initiative alleging that the voters had not approved the use
of the SPLOST funds for this project. In addition, there were allegations
made that during the course of time that the Initiative was developed and
started implementation, some employees of the School District may have been
involved in violations of Georgia's criminal statutes. The School District
requested that the District Attorney for the Cobb Judicial Circuit conduct an
investigation to determine if any crimes had been committed. After a
period of time wherein numerous documents were examined and statements collect,
and as a result of the many allegations and the concerns that citizens of Cobb
County had for how the project was conceived and created the District Attorney
requested that a Special Grand Jury be empanelled to thoroughly investigate the
matter. If any individual had, in fact, engaged in any criminal activity,
the Grand Jury was authorized to return an indictment setting forth the crime
committed.
On November 4th, 2005 the Special Grand Jury
was empanelled and sworn. During the course of the next 12 months
diligently fulfilled their charge holding 30 full days of interviews and sworn
testimony from 24 witnesses, and reviewing 85,000 documents requiring more than
10,000 hours.
This is the product of their hard work and
dedication to the citizens of Cobb County.
SPECIAL
GRAND JURY
PRESENTMENT
The presentments make reference to Tabs. Those Tabs may be found here.