Cobb School Bell Rings

With a projected enrollment of more than 107,000, Cobb County schools opened their doors for the 2011-12 school year Monday morning.

At , new Principal Denise McGee returns to the school where she began her education career as a counselor 19 years ago. Campbell is expecting around 2,400 students to be enrolled this year.

“I’m really excited to be back here,’’ said McGee, who previously had served as principal at . “I’m working with kids who were with me at the middle school. They know me as a principal and my expectations.’’

McGee replaces Dr. Grant Rivera, who left Campbell to become the new principal at Westlake High School in south Fulton County.

“Given her existing relationships with our students, families and community leaders, Denise will have great success in her transition to Campbell High School,’’ said Rivera.

With McGee’s shift to the high school, Gail Johnson steps in as Campbell Middle’s new principal after serving as assistant principal at Osborne High School. She’s now at a school that this summer officially became Cobb’s first International Baccalaureate Middle School.

Each of the some 1,200 students that attend CMS will participate in the International Baccalaureate Programme, which provides a framework of academic challenge and life skills and consists of the “IB learner profile, fundamental concepts, areas of interaction, and eight school subjects’’ according to the school.

The area's third new principal is Leslie Mansfield at . Mansfield, who replaced the retired Joanne Robblee, was formally the assistant principal at Nicholson Elementary in Marietta.

And while the school bell has yet to ring for The Smyrna Academyof Excellence, organizers of the proposed charter school are preparing for another informational meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 30 at Rev Coffee. See video coverage here of last week's meeting about the school.