The Cobb County School District will be paying a $2,000 bonus to all permanent full-time and part-time employees at the end of April.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced the bonuses at Thursday’s Cobb Board of Education meeting and said the funding comes from the district’s allotment of federal CARES Act money.
Permanent employees include teachers and administrators, paraprofessionals and other staffers who are not hired on a seasonal basis.
The state of Georgia previously said it would be giving similar bonuses to bus drivers, custodians, and cafeteria workers.
The Cobb school district did not indicate in a release issued after the meeting the total cost of the bonuses.
The Cobb school district has given two retention bonuses to school bus drivers and monitors during the current school year to help prevent staff shortages.
The district’s website has nearly 200 open positions posted. The Cobb school district has nearly 18,000 employees and is the largest employer in Cobb County.
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A second candidate in an April 5 special election for a legislative seat in East Cobb said this week he’s opposed to East Cobb Cityhood.
Mitchell Kaye, a former legislator and one of three Republicans in the four-candidate field for Georgia House District 45, issued a statement Wednesday saying that public safety services for the proposed City of East Cobb “continue to bother me.”
Voters in the proposed city will be deciding in a May 24 referendum on whether to create a city, and to approve a charter on how the city would be governed.
When cityhood legislation was filed in March 2021, it proposed planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation services.
But when a financial feasibility study was released in November, it included police and fire services. Cityhood leaders said public safety was an issue that kept coming up when they met with citizens and community groups over the last year.
Kaye said the initial services “offer a real benefit to local residents, but unfortunately the original legislation was hijacked to include an unnecessary public safety component.
“The more I looked into the public safety component, the worse it looked. In my 33 years in East Cobb, I have heard no complaints regarding our excellent police and fire protection,” Kaye said in his statement.
“Regarding our own police force, there will be no benefit, but costs will rise with the duplicative requirement for our own municipal court, municipal judge(s) and a jail.”
East Cobb is the only of four cityhood campaigns in Cobb proposing public safety. Lost Mountain and Vinings referendums also will be on May 24, and a Mableton cityhood bill is still pending in the Georgia legislature.
Early voting is underway for the District 45 special election, which was called in February when former State Rep. Matt Dollar, the East Cobb Cityhood bill sponsor, resigned his seat.
Dustin McCormick, the only Democrat in the special election, has said he is adamantly opposed to cityhood.
The other two Republican candidates, Darryl Wilson and Pamela Ayalon, previously told the MDJ they encourage voters to inform themselves about cityhood issues but didn’t state a personal position. East Cobb News has contacted both seeking further comment.
Wilson replied by saying he doesn’t have a vote on cityhood since he lives outside the proposed boundaries. He also told us this:
“Ultimately, all voices have to be heard and vote on the best way to control the character of your community.
“I believe that is what is about to happen in East Cobb with the referendum.
“The people will decide and I will represent the people.
“If you agree, I really need your vote and all of your neighbors friends in our district with the widest distribution possible.”
Kaye said he supports citizens having the right to vote on a referendum.
But in his statement he said that a friend’s home was destroyed last week by fire (and the man suffered extensive burns), and he noted the extensive response from Cobb Fire.
“They were able to use county-wide departmental resources, resources that a city the size of East Cobb could not,” Kaye said.
“This incident only reinforces my NO position on cityhood. The safety and well being of our community cannot be jeopardized.”
Early voting continues through April 1 for the special election in the current boundaries of District 45. The winner will fill the remainder of Dollar’s term, through the end of this year.
Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, which is different from those who may be voting in the primaries.
McCormick also has qualified for primary in the new District 45. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican, has qualified after serving in District 43 since 1997.
Cooper is a co-sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill has a primary candidate in Cobb GOP activist Carminthia Moore.
None of the special election GOP candidates qualified to run in the new District 45.
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Thomas Flugum, at left, attending the ribbon-cutting for the new Pope High School gymnasium in 2018.
The Cobb County School District announced Thursday that Dr. Thomas Flugum is retiring as the principal of Pope High School.
The news was announced after the Cobb Board of Education held an executive session where personnel matters are discussed.
Flugum’s retirement is effective June 1, according to Keeli Bowen, the Cobb school district’s chief human resources officer. His replacement has not been named, but new principal appointments are typically made in the spring for the following school year.
Flugum has been the principal at Pope since 2017, after arriving at the East Cobb high school in 2010 as a teacher and coach and later serving as an assistant principal.
He is a former Army officer and Cobb police officer who became a teacher and coach at a number of Cobb high schools. He was an assistant football coach at Sprayberry and Lassiter and was head football coach at Wheeler.
In October 2020, Flugum was charged with DUI in Woodstock in a case that is still pending in the Cherokee County court system.
Last year, he and Cobb school district officials came under fire from local Jewish groups after swastika graffiti was found in a boys bathroom at Pope. Flugum’s letter to the school community did not specify that it was an anti-Semitic incident; Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of Temple Kol Emeth later spoke to students on the campus.
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Walton High School tennis courts will be built on Providence Road, next to a new baseball stadium.
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved construction projects for a replacement building for Eastvalley Elementary School and a sports complex near Walton High School.
The contracts recommended by Cobb County School District passed by 7-0 votes. The Eastvalley replacement facility will cost $36.7 million and the campus will be relocated to the former East Cobb Middle School site on Holt Road.
The Walton sports complex costs $6.738 million and will house the school’s baseball and tennis teams.
During a board work session Thursday afternoon, district officials said the Walton complex will have access points on Providence Road and Pine Road and will have 80 parking spaces.
The Walton complex has been delayed several months after residents in the nearby Independence Square subdivision expressed concerns about the baseball bleachers and public address system being located near their homes.
Jennifer Sunderland, who went public with those concerns, told East Cobb News on Wednesday that they have been addressed, “and we are pleased with the new design which moved home plate and concessions so they are not directly behind neighborhood homes.”
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said at the work session that the configuration of the baseball field has been switched 180 degrees, with the outfield fencing being located closest to the homes.
Board member David Banks said he has safety issues about students using a crosswalk at Bill Murdock Road and Pine, which is a three-way stop.
He told by staff that the district is discussing the possibility of having a traffic signal at that location.
The Walton complex is expected to be completed by the end of the year, while the new Eastvalley campus is slated to open for the 2023-24 academic year.
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LaVonya Williams-Tensley, owner of All Things Inspiration, a new Christian bookstore serving the East Cobb area, reached out to us about her business having what she’s calling a “soft opening” on Saturday.
The address is 2745 Sandy Plains Road, Suite 156, in The Corners Shopping Center (where the Queen of Hearts antique store is located), and the opening event lasts from 12-4 p.m. Saturday.
It’s the second such store for Williams-Tensley, who also has a store on Veterans Memorial Highway in Austell with the same name.
All Things Inspirational sells books and Bibbles, Bible study materials, church supplies, gifts, and games, music and DVDS. For more information you can click here or call 786-208-4560.
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The following Cobb food scores for the week of March 21 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
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Several major thoroughfares in the East Cobb area will get resurfaced as part of the initial group of projects funded through the Cobb 2022 SPLOST.
Cobb commissioners on Tuesday approved the spending of $28.2 million to repave 29 roads totalling nearly 43 miles around the county.
They include Johnson Ferry Road between Roswell Road and Post Oak Tritt Road, Sandy Plains Road from Shallowford Road to Alabama Road and all of Robinson Road.
Here are the roads in East Cobb that will be resurfaced; there’s not a specific timetable for each one to be completed:
Delk Road from Powers Ferry Road to Terrell Mill Road, 0.3 miles
Fairfield Drive from Lower Roswell Road to Indian Hills Parkway, 1.3 miles
Johnson Ferry Road from Post Oak Tritt to Roswell Road, 2.5 miles
Little Willeo Road from Johnson Ferry Road to Timber Ridge Road, 1.8 miles
Robinson Road from Roswell Road East to Roswell Road West, 3.2 miles
Timber Ridge Road from Roswell Road to Lower Roswell Road, 1.3 miles
East Piedmont Road from Sandy Plains Road to Allgood Road, 2.1 miles
Maybreeze Road from Ebenezer Road to Shallowford Road, 0.7 miles
North Hembree Road from Hembree Road to Shallowford Road, 0.5 miles
Old Mountain Park Road from Alabama Road to the Fulton County line, 0.5 miles
Sandy Plains Road from Shallowford Road to Alabama Road, 3.1 miles
Trickum Road from Shallowford Road to the Cherokee County line, 2.4 miles
In 2020, Cobb voters extended the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax that collects funds for various county projects, including road maintenance.
The new six-year collection period began in January; here’s more information about what’s on the project list.
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Mindy Seger of the anti-city East Cobb Alliance debates David Birdwell of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood at an ECBA forum in late 2019.
A debate between supporters and opponents of the upcoming East Cobb Cityhood referendum is being organized by the East Cobb Business Association.
The event takes place on Tuesday, April 19 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Olde Towne Athletic Club (4950 Olde Towne Parkway) and is open to the public.
The debate is free but attendance is limited to 275 people and according to the ECBA website, nearly 100 people have already signed up. Registration is required and you can do that by clicking here.
The ECBA sponsored a debate in 2019 between Committee for East Cobb Cityhood and the East Cobb Alliance, which is against cityhood.
Shortly after that debate, cityhood supporters announced they would not be pursuing legislation in 2020.
But a new bill was submitted in the Georgia legislature in March 2021, and it passed and was signed into law, calling for a May 24 referendum.
Earlier this month, the pro-cityhood group held a town hall at Olde Towne and the Alliance conducted public information sessions.
The format of the ECBA debate will be for both sides to answer “the most commonly asked questions” about cityhood and the referendum.
But there won’t be direct questioning of the debate participants by the audience.
Also, the ECBA is saying that campaigning and political signs will not be allowed.
Overflow parking around Olde Towne includes nearby office building lots and the Northside medical building.
Another East Cobb Cityhood forum is being organized by the Rotary Club of East Cobb on May 4 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Pope High School. The moderator will be longtime Atlanta journalist Donna Lowry.
Attendance is limited and citizens wishing to attend must register by clicking here.
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Firefighters from Cobb Fire Station 3 at the 2021 first responders luncheon.
First responders and military veterans will be treated to lunch next Wednesday, March 30, by East Cobb realtor Janice Overbeck.
She’s holding an appreciation luncheon from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Janice Overbeck Real Estate Team offices (2249 Roswell Road).
Police officers, firefighters, EMTs, active and retired military personnel are included in those invited to the luncheon. A food truck sponsored by Capital City Home Loans will serve burgers and hotdogs, along with food from other local business partners.
Attendees can have lunch on the back patio or take it to go. They’re asked to RSVP at 404-585-8881 or email janiceoverbeck@janiceoverbeck.com.
Cobb County Animal Services also will be holding an adoption event. For information click here.
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The long-awaited rebuild of Eastvalley Elementary School could be a major step closer to fruition this week.
The Cobb Board of Education will be asked on Thursday to approve a $36.7 million contract for R.K. Redding Construction, Inc., of Bremen to replace the aging facility on Lower Roswell Road and relocate the school to the former East Cobb Middle School campus on Holt Road.
As we noted last October, the Cobb County School District released renderings of the new campus, which will include 136,110 square feet and 61 classrooms.
According to an agenda item for Thursday’s meetings, construction is expected to be completed by May 2023 and open to students for the 2023-24 academic year.
Eastvalley parents have been pressing the district about overcrowded conditions for years at the school, which was built in the early 1960s to hold around 400 students.
This year Eastvalley has more than 700 students and more than a dozen trailers, whose conditions have been called “deplorable.”
Funding would come from the current Cobb Ed-SPLOST V, as would a new sports complex for Walton High School.
The district also will be asking the school board on Thursday to approve a $6.738 million contract for Bowen and Watson, Inc. of Toccoa to construct a new baseball field and tennis courts on nearly 20 acres at Providence Road and Pine Road.
The agenda item doesn’t include a site plan or provide any details of what has changed. In response to a request from East Cobb News seeking more information, a district spokeswoman issued the following statement:
“Superintendent Ragsdale has very clear on this project as he is on all new construction: hear from the community before shovels hit the ground. All available details will be presented to the Board on Thursday and we are confident this is the best design for Walton and the surrounding community.”
The Cobb school board spent $5.65 million to acquire property for the complex, which was planned after several sports teams were relocated due the construction of the new Walton classroom building that opened in 2017.
The Walton softball and tennis teams have been playing home competitions at Terrell Mill Park since 2014.
The softball team has since moved back to the former site of the baseball team, which is playing home games this season at the East Cobb Baseball complex near Kell High School.
Construction of the Walton sports complex is expected to be completed by December.
The Cobb school board also will be asked Thursday to hire an interim law firm.
The board last year hired Atlanta-based Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough as it faced a special review from its accrediting agency.
But according to an agenda item, the Nelson Mullins legal team that has been serving the Cobb school district has left for Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, a Southern regional law firm with locations in eight cities, including Atlanta.
The district is asking the board to hire Parker Poe Adams starting April 1 and under the same agreement as it has had with Nelson Mullins.
The board is meeting in public at a 1 p.m. work session Thursday and a 7 p.m. business session at the Cobb County School District Central Office (514 Glover St., Marietta).
The agendas for both meetings can be found here; an executive session will take place in between.
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There will be one less item on the general election ballot for Cobb voters in November.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said last week that she is delaying a referendum on the Cobb Mobility SPLOST until at least 2024 after meetings in recent months with community stakeholders.
She had been proposing a one-percent special-purpose local-option sales tax to fund transit and surface transportation projects.
But she and the mayors of Cobb six cities could not come to an agreement on how much money to raise from the tax and how long to levy it. There also wasn’t enough support from the other four commissioners to put a referendum on the November ballot.
“I can’t put this on the ballot myself,” Cupid said in a statement issued by the county. “This is a team effort and these conversations convinced me we can get more support for a transit referendum after putting in more intentional effort and planning over the next few years.”
She said she wanted to put the matter on the ballot this year because federal matching funds were available, but noted in the county release that similar referendums in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties may be proposed in 2024.
The Mobility SPLOST is separate from the Cobb general government SPLOST that funds road projects, facility construction and maintenance and purchase of park land.
Cobb voters in November voted to continue that tax for another six years.
Roughly half of that amount is to go to road projects. Under state law, local governments have the option to collect a special mobility sales tax.
Last fall, Cupid and Cobb commissioners held town halls around the county to gauge public interest in a Mobility SPLOST.
Cobb residents also pay a one-percent sales tax for school construction and maintenance projects in the Cobb and Marietta school districts, and last year also voted to extend that tax for another five years, starting in 2024.
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After several months of delays, the Cobb Board of Commissioners this week approved a site plan change at the North campus of Mt. Bethel Christian Academy for the construction of an athletic field.
Since 2014, Mt. Bethel has operated a high school on Post Oak Tritt Road near Holly Springs Road.
The school was granted a special-land use plan the year before that, stipulating that changes must come back before commissioners. The SLUP included the future construction of an athletic field and related facilities.
In 2019 Mt. Bethel Christian proposed a sports stadium but later withdrew the application after community opposition surfaced.
The new site plan (above) was adopted on the commission’s consent calendar after the private school worked out a new list of stipulations with nearby residents of the Holly Springs subdivision and the East Cobb Civic Association.
Mt. Bethel Christian attorney Kevin Moore filed the new site plan on Tuesday and a stipulation letter on March 9 (you can read here; you can read the zoning staff analysis by clicking here).
The include relocating the parking area, removing an athletic track, creating an 85-foot undisturbed buffer between the field and nearby homes, and requiring the district commissioner (JoAnn Birrell) to approve the maximum elevations for the field.
Other provisions limit the scope of lighting and the hours for a public address and sound system to operate. The district commissioner also would approve a final landscaping plan with community and ECCA reviews.
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Republicans on the ballot include former State Rep. Mitch Kaye and Cobb GOP activists Pamela Alayon and Darryl Willson.
The Democratic candidate is Dustin McCormick, a project management official at McKesson.
Early voting began this week and according to Cobb Elections, 353 people have cast ballots.
Of those, 342 have voted at the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) and 11 at the Cobb Elections office (746 Whitlock Ave., Marietta). Another 40 ballots have been accepted in absentee voting, out of 194 ballots issued.
Early voting continues at both locations March 21-25 and March 28-April 1 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
There also will be early voting next Saturday, March 26, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the same venues.
The deadline to submit an absentee mail application is March 25, and absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on April 5, which is the special election day for in-person voting.
Dollar resigned on Feb. 1 after nearly 20 years in office to take an economic development job with the Georgia technical college system.
Gov. Brian Kemp called for an April 5 special election to be decided by a “jungle” format, meaning candidates from all parties are running against one another.
If the leading candidate does not get a majority of the votes, there will be a May 3 runoff.
The winner will fill out the rest of Dollar’s term, which expires at the end of the year.
Due to redistricting, District 45 will have new boundaries for the May 24 primaries and the November general election.
None of the Republican candidates in the special election qualified for that race, but McCormick has qualified.
His name will be on the May 24 primary ballot, along with State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican, who currently represents District 43, as has Cobb GOP activist Carminthia Moore.
Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, what the current District 45 boundaries look like, and how you can check your registration status.
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Mary Staley Clark, who has served as a judge in Cobb County for 40 years, announced Friday that she is retiring on May 1.
In a release issued by Cobb government, Staley Clark said she is stepping down for family reasons, including getting married this spring.
Gov. Brian Kemp will appoint a successor to fill out the rest of her term, which ends in 2024.
Staley Clark is the third Cobb Superior Court judge to announce retirement this year.
Judge Tain Kell also is stepping down at the end of April to return to private law practice, and Kemp has not announced a successor.
Judge Robert Flournoy is not seeking re-election this year.
Staley Clark has been a Cobb Superior Court judge since 1992 and served as Chief Judge from 2005 to 2007. She also was a judge in Cobb Magistrate Court and Cobb State Court.
Staley Clark helped create the Cobb Mental Health Court and currently presides over the Cobb Drug Treatment Court.
She also is presiding over the current legal dispute between Mt. Bethel Church in East Cobb and the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church.
“It will take time to adjust to not being on the bench every day. Of course, I’ll continue to help as a senior judge, but I am looking forward to getting married this spring and being able to spend more time with my parents and family,” Staley Clark said in the Cobb government release.
Staley Clark earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of West Georgia and a law degree from the University of Georgia.
Before her time as a judge, she was an assistant district attorney in Cobb County. In her statement, she thanked former Cobb District Attorney Tom Charron for hiring the first female prosecutors in the county.
She was recognized by the Cobb County YWCA as its 1994 Woman of Achievement and was the 2014 recipient of the Cobb Schools Foundation Leaders & Legends Award. Staley Clark was awarded the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Woman Award in 2015.
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The following Cobb food scores for the week of March 14 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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Bye bye, Bruno’s: The first Sprayberry Crossing building to be demolished will be the former grocery store.
A date many in the vicinity of the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center have been anticipating for years will soon come to pass.
On April 11, the first phase of the demolition of the blighted retail center begins, starting with the former Bruno’s grocery store.
What has been a community eyesore for more than two decades will be giving way to a mixed use development of senior apartments, townhomes and some retail and restaurant space.
Atlantic Realty Acquisitions LLC got rezoning last June from Cobb commissioners to redevelop Sprayberry Crossing, and existing businesses began relocating at the start of 2022.
The parcels making up the assemblage were sold in December to East Cobb Venture Partners, LLC, a holding company formed last October, for nearly $13 million.
He said the area will be fenced off by the end of March, with openings for independent businesses fronting Sandy Plains Road.
But you won’t be able to cut through the backside of the property between East Piedmont Road and Post Oak Tritt Road.
Glancy said asbestos removal also is continuing through March, and a pest control company has installed around 200 rodent traps for the demolition process.
There also could be some Cobb fire and police training at the old structures.
Construction is expected to begin in August and should take around 18 months, Glancy said, and family members of the Mayes Family Cemetery will have access.
He said he doesn’t know yet whether the public will be invited to watch the demolition begin, “but I know many of us can’t wait and would like to be on site to witness it. I’d bring my own sledgehammer if they’d let me.”
He also posted the fencing map outlined below in red.
Once developed, the new Sprayberry Crossing will have 132 senior apartments and 102 townhomes and retail and restaurant space. The cemetery also will remain intact.
But plans for an anchor 34,000-square-foot Lidl grocery store were scuttled when the developer couldn’t come to a traffic agreement with the Sprayberry Bottle Shop, located across from the intersection of Sandy Plains Road and Kinjac Drive.
That’s where Cobb DOT recommended the main entrance to the new development, since there’s a traffic signal there now.
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Friends of an East Cobb family of six who lost their home in a house fire in Indian Hills on Monday are helping to raise funds for temporary needs and expenses.
Sadie Hixon, a senior at Walton High School, got in touch with East Cobb News to say that the Addess family—four girls and their parents—lost everything when their home was destroyed by fire and smoke.
“All of their furniture, personal belongings, and sentimental items were turned into dust,” said Sadie, a close friend of one of the Addess daughters. “It is unknown what caused the fire, but this family needs help. It is so hard to recover from these kinds of things emotionally and money wise.”
A GoFundMe has been started by Ephraim Silverman, the rabbi at the Chabad of Cobb synagogue, and has raised more than $30,000 in just two days.
The response included 28 personnel, four engines, one truck, one rescue vehicle, an air truck and a specialty unit.
The above photos were taken by Cobb Fire; Sadie has passed along the following photos of the interior of the destroyed home.
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Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
An East Cobb man arrested nearly four years ago on charges that he sexually abused his stepdaughter has been sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.
Marcelino Rebollar, 49, was sentenced on Tuesday by Cobb Superior Court Judge Henry Thompson, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.
The DA’s office said that a Cobb jury last week found Rebollar guilty of two counts of aggravated child molestation and two counts of child molestation.
Rebollar, whose home address is on Freydale Road, was arrested on April 1, 2018, after being accused by his stepdaughter that he molested her from the ages of 10 to 13.
The Cobb DA’s office said the girl confided in her cousin and church pastor, leading to an investigation by police and forensic interviews at the Safepath Children’s Advocacy Center.
During the trial, the DA’s office said, evidence was presented from the victim and expert witnesses, and Rebollar was convicted on all counts.
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The Cobb Board of Education member who has represented the Walton and Wheeler high school clusters since 2019 is not seeking re-election this year.
Charisse Davis
Democrat Charisse Davis, who ousted then-incumbent Republican Scott Sweeney in 2018 in Post 6, did not qualify last week for the newly redrawn seat that takes out East Cobb.
The Georgia legislature approved maps submitted by Cobb Republicans over the objections of their county Democratic colleagues.
In a message she posted Tuesday on her Facebook page, Davis explained that redistricting has moved the Walton and Wheeler areas to Post 5, represented by Republican vice chairman David Banks.
Davis, a former elementary school teacher and currently a youth services librarian in Fulton County, still lives in the new Post 6.
Davis didn’t indicate in her message why she decided not to run again. East Cobb News has left a message seeking comment, but she encouraged voters to support three candidates in particular, all Democrats.
“It has been an honor serving the students of this district, and I look forward to continuing my career in education and supporting other educators who have answered the call to run for school board: Becky Sayler, Post 2; Dr. Catherine Pozniak, Post 4; and Nichelle Davis, Post 6.
“Continue to support our CCSD schools, hold the board accountable, and vote!”
Nichelle Davis is the only candidate who qualified in Post 6, which includes the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area.
Sayler is one of two Democrats vying in the May 24 primary in Post 2, which includes Smyrna and some of South Cobb. Post 2 first-term Democratic incumbent Jaha Howard, who also was drawn into Post 6, is running for Georgia school superintendent.
Post 4 includes the Kell and Sprayberry and some of the Lassiter clusters. Pozniak, also a Democrat, is a Sprayberry graduate who will be challenging three-term Republican incumbent David Chastain in November.
The current Cobb school board has a 4-3 Republican majority, and for the last three years has wrangled along partisan lines on a number of contentious issues.
Howard and Davis have been at the center of those arguments, particularly over the Cobb school district’s senior tax exemption, equity and racial issues and the district’s response to COVID-19.
Davis also signed a petition started in 2020 to advocate changing the name of Wheeler High School, named after a Confederate Civil War general and which opened in 1965, as Cobb schools were preparing to integrate.
Davis and Howard also sparked a special review by the Cobb school district’s accrediting agency last year after complaining that the GOP majority was silencing them.
Before the current school board maps were redrawn, Republican Amy Henry, a parent of four students in the Walton cluster, announced her intent to run for Post 6.
Voters in the East Cobb area of what has been Post 6 will next get to vote for Cobb school board representation in 2024, when Banks’ term expires.
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