Just minutes after being publicly sworn in as a new member of the Cobb Board of Education, John Cristadoro was elected Tuesday to serve as vice chairman.
Cristadoro is a recently elected Republican from Post 5 in East Cobb, succeeding retiring GOP member David Banks.
David Chastain of Post 4 in Northeast Cobb was elected to serve as chairman for 2025.
Their duties include presiding over board meetings and representing the board in an official capacity.
During a special organizational meeting Tuesday, the votes were both 4-3 along party lines, reflecting the Republicans’ 4-3 majority on the board.
The board also set the 2025 meeting schedule (you can read it here), starting with the first work session and voting session of the year on Jan. 16.
Democratic board member Becky Sayler of Post 2 in South Cobb proposed an amendment that would have the work sessions and voting sessions on separate days to invite more public participation.
But that motion and two others she offered failed along the same party lines by 3-4 votes.
She also made a motion for fellow Democrat Tre’ Hutchins to become board chair, but that also defeated by the same 3-4 split.
Republicans have held the majority on the school board for the past decade, and have rotated the leadership roles ever since.
In November, Hutchins was re-elected without opposition to a second term to Post 3 from South Cobb. Republicans Randy Scamihorn and Brad Wheeler were re-elected in November, while Cristadoro defeated Laura Judge, like him a parent in the Walton High School cluster.
Hutchins, Scamihorn, Wheeler and Cristadoro took their official oaths of office Tuesday morning, then repeated the procedure publicly before the meeting.
Cristadoro, who runs a digital media company, was joined by his wife and two children, who attend Walton High School and Dickerson Middle School.
Chastain, a Wheeler High School graduate who is in his third term, will be serving as chairman for the fourth time.
Cristadoro’s vote into leadership as a first-year member is a departure from recent practice.
In 2021, Charisse Davis, a Democrat who represented the Walton and Wheeler clusters, was nominated for vice chair for a third consecutive year, but didn’t have the votes.
Instead, the vice chair role that year went to Banks, who was beginning his fourth term, and who had several public disputes with Davis.
She said she had been told that she was too new to the board for a leadership role. After the 2021 vote, Davis wrote i on social media that “sharing leadership opportunities strengthens our board, and subsequently, the district. I do not believe it best serves the district to recycle leadership opportunities amongst the same couple of people.” Davis did not seek a second term in 2022.
Related:
- Sawyer Road ES media center, library get Peach Bowl makeover
- Brumby, Nicholson, Wheeler teachers named Cobb Tank winners
- No injuries reported in East Cobb school bus crash
- East Cobb schools pace Cobb 2024 CCRPI scores
- Banks recognized in farewell to Cobb school board
- Pope state champion athletes honored by Cobb school district
- Sedalia Park ES, Sprayberry HS earn Cobb STEM certifications
- Cobb superintendent asks critics to ‘take a break’
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