Cobb legislators to hold school board redistricting town hall

Democratic members of the Cobb legislative delegation will be holding a virtual town hall meeting Tuesday to go over proposed redistricting maps for the Cobb Board of Education.

The event, which is organized by State Rep. Erick Allen, the delegation chairman, begins at 6:30 p.m. and can be accessed by clicking here.

The other lawmakers involved are State Rep. Teri Anulewicz and State Rep. David Wilkerson.

Democrats hold a one-member majority in the Cobb delegation, which will redraw lines for the school board as well as the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

(PLEASE NOTE: This process has nothing to do with school attendance zones, which are drawn by school district administrative staff and are done mainly to balance out school capacity or when new schools open.)

Redistricting for elected offices is done every 10 years by legislators after the Census is updated. In November, Georgia lawmakers redrew Congressional and legislative lines.

County legislators are responsible for redrawing the lines of districts for county commissioners and city council members and school board posts.

In December, the Cobb school board voted along party lines, with its Republican majority in favor, of a recommended map designed to keep that razor-thin majority.

The map would reduce the number of school board members representing the East Cobb area from three to two.

The current Post 6, represented by Democrat Charisse Davis, currently includes most of the Walton and Wheeler clusters.

But the Cobb GOP school board map would shift that post into the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area completely, drawing current Post 2 board member Jaha Howard into the same area.

Allen’s map retains most of Post 6 as it looks now.

Like Davis, Howard is a first-term Democrat who’s openly challenged the Republicans on a number of issues, including race, equity and diversity, school discipline and COVID response.

They also prompted a special review of the Cobb school district by its accrediting agency last year.

At a Jan. 6 school board organizational meeting, the GOP majority elected East Cobb Republicans David Chastain and David Banks to serve as chair and vice chair, respectively, for 2022.

It was the latest in a series of contentious public meetings along sharp partisan lines that have roiled the school board over the last three years.

Chastain, who represents the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, has announced his intention to seek re-election this year.

Davis also is up for re-election but hasn’t announced her plans. Amy Henry, a Republican who has four children in the Walton High School cluster, has declared her intent to run for that seat, and has said that “Post 6 should remain largely as-is.”

Howard has declared his intent to run for Georgia school superintendent.

Qualifying starts in March, with a May primary.

The Cobb school board will meet at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday and and include time for public comment.

Agendas for the meetings will be posted at this link on Tuesday.

Related posts:

• Cobb schools not updating COVID cases to start spring semester
• Cobb school board chooses 2022 officers after partisan sparring
• Cobb schools revise COVID-19 protocols after new state order
• Cobb schools report 2.4K students enrolled online for spring
• Cobb schools to begin spring semester in-person
• PHOTOS: Former East Cobb Middle School campus demolished
• East Cobb would lose school board seat in recommended map
• Proposed Cobb school board map aimed at keeping GOP majority
• East Cobb MS earns STEAM certification from Cobb school district
• Cobb schools accrediting agency puts district on improvement plan

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