Cobb school board candidate called up for Army reserve duty

Catherine Pozniak, who is challenging Post 4 incumbent David Chastain for a seat on the Cobb Board of Education, will be away on U.S. Army Reserve duty the next six weeks. Catherine Pozniak, Cobb school board candidate

She announced in a video on her campaign website that she is reporting for duty next week, and will return in mid-September.

She is a military government specialist for the reserve’s Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command and advises on educational issues.

Pozniak, a Democrat who graduated from Sprayberry High School, has been holding “office hours” sessions with voters at various coffee shops in the area, including Mzizi Coffee on Johnson Ferry Road.

Those and other in-person campaign events will be discontinued while she is on reserve duty.

Post 4 includes the Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry clusters; Chastain, a Republican who is completing his second term, is the current school board chairman.

“As a member of the Army Reserve, I proudly join tens of thousands of men and women who stand ready to serve when our country calls,” said Pozniak, who is a captain and is a third-generation member of her family to serve in the military.

“While I am serving, I ask that you continue to engage with our campaign team through our website and social media,” she added.

Pozniak said she’ll still respond to e-mail, though it will be “a little bit slower” and “I will continue to provide virtual updates.”

Pozniak, whose father is a retired Army officer, graduated from Sprayberry in 1997 and attended Daniell Middle School and Kincaid Elementary School.

After teaching on a Lakota reservation in South Dakota, Pozniak was an assistant state superintendent of education for fiscal operations in Louisiana and the head of an educational non-profit in Baton Rouge, La.

She currently is principal at Watershed Advisors, an educational and workforce consultancy. This is her first campaign for public office.

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