Cobb school board candidate profile: David Chastain, Post 4

After easily winning election to the Cobb Board of Education in 2014 and 2018, incumbent Post 4 member David Chastain is facing opposition that has prompted a different campaign approach than in the past.

Typically circumspect and mild-mannered in public, the Republican chairman of the seven-member board has issued newsletters, press releases and other statements that are anything but reserved.

The intensity of his campaign against political newcomer Catherine Pozniak (our profile of her is here), a Democrat, has ramped up as the Nov. 8 general election date approaches.

While he’s sent out his own broadsides against Pozniak on issues that include the Cobb County School District’s accrediting agency, some proxies also have piled on.

Last weekend, State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, a Republican from West Cobb, claimed Pozniak improperly took a senior school tax exemption on a home formerly owned by her late father.

Pozniak denied the charge, saying Chastain “has stooped to mining my father’s obituary and weaponizing the details of his death and his estate to launch personal attacks.”

She previously accused him of campaign finance violations he has rebuked, although he has hired a former Congressional candidate and state ethics chairman to defend him in Pozniak’s complaint that will be decided after the election.

In a Post 4 area (Kell, Sprayberry, Lassiter clusters) that was redrawn by the GOP-dominated Georgia legislature to preserve a Republican seat, Chastain acknowledges there’s a different dynamic this year.

Since his last election, Democrats have become the majority party on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb legislative delegation.

Until recently, she held a sizable campaign finance advantage over Chastain, who recently held a fundraiser at Atlanta Country Club. As of the end of September, both campaigns reported raising around $45,000 each, which is much higher than other recent school board elections in Cobb.

“Voters here have to show up and participate,” Chastain said in a recent interview with East Cobb News, referring to his conservative base. “I’m being attacked for things that have nothing to do with policy. You’re seeing this at the federal and state levels too.

“It’s not like me,” he said when asked about the charged rhetoric from his campaign, including his taking a shot at Harvard, where Pozniak earned a doctorate degree.

“But it’s important to get our message out.”

Chastain’s campaign website can be found by clicking here.

A proposal analyst at Lockheed Martin, Chastain is campaigning on the Cobb school district’s test scores and defending its academic accreditation, and is hailing a high employee retention rate and designation by Forbes magazine of being one of the top employers in Georgia.

Chastain also is a stalwart supporter of retaining the senior exemption in Cobb County for school taxes.

But he’s also frequently referencing what he thinks Democrats have in mind to in their attempts oust him, saying much of Pozniak’s support comes from “outsiders.”

“My opponent isn’t so much about our kids but to fulfill some sort of an agenda, more oriented toward more liberal social reforms and away from academics,” he said.

“It boils down to a power struggle and they want the power.”

Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the board. Chastain is the only GOP member up for election this year; Post 6 will stay in Democratic hands and Post 2 in the Smyrna area is Democratic-leaning.

Those new representatives will replace outgoing members Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard, respectively, Democrats who were at the center of several mostly partisan disputes on the Cobb school board the last four years.

Chastain has twice been chairman in his second term, including in 2019, when he proposed a policy to ban board member comments.

He said it was necessary because some members had become “too political” in some comments that weren’t related to schools. Howard and Davis complained they were being censored, but Chastain defends the policy.

He also defended Superintendent Chris Ragsdale for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic response.

“He’s done a good job,” Chastain said. “We are getting back now close to where we were before and are planning for the future.”

He rattled off some areas of emphasis, including expansion of digital learning, improving Individual Education Program options and increasing school safety.

Pozniak has been critical of the Cobb school district for flagging reading scores at the third-grade level as well as others, and said Chastain is mistaken in asserting that “things are good enough.”

Chastain said it’s at the third-grade level “when you first see who is going to need some help. I think we’re doing as much as we can. COVID was a mess but the resources have come together” for a recovery.

He also took issue with criticisms that he and the Republican majority on the board haven’t been responsive to some parents and students.

“Who are we talking about?” Parents and their children’s educations? Our policies and curriculum are aligned with state standards,” he said, adding that the Cobb school district is “building on success.

“We’re doing well for a school district that’s so diverse,” Chastain said, adding that “there’s this desire on the part of the Democrats to take power.”

A Wheeler High School graduate, Chastain doesn’t think his alma mater needs a name change, as some in that school community and beyond have been advocating due to Joseph Wheeler’s role as a Confederate general in the Civil War.

The board hasn’t taken up the issue since a board majority is required to add meeting agenda items other than those submitted by the chairman and superintendent.

That’s another controversial matter that’s come up in Chastain’s second term, as was a vote last year to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory. A board discussion wasn’t allowed, and the Democratic members abstained, but Chastain said the topic is “still relatively new.

“It’s difficult to define,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure that there’s no curriculum that limits a child’s perspective about their color and ethnicity.”

The Cobb school district has come under fire for some finance and spending issues, including some that were part of a special review by Cognia, the district’s accrediting agency, pertaining to COVID-19 safety measures.

“That became a dumpster fire,” he said of the Cognia review.

Cognia reversed the review findings earlier this year, but a special grand jury recommended procurement changes.

While Pozniak has said the district’s finances and contractual procedures are “opaque” and lack transparency, Chastain said he’s confident that the district’s procurement processes are solid and claims that the district “is a great steward of taxpayer money.”

“Cobb is still the best place to teach, lead and learn in metro Atlanta. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

Related:

• Candidate profile: Catherine Pozniak, Cobb school board Post 4
• Accusations intensify in bitter Cobb school board race
• Candidate profile: JoAnn Birrell, Cobb Commission District 3
• Candidate profile: Christine Triebsch, Cobb Commission District 3
• Cobb early voting estimated wait-time map
• East Cobb Early Voting Guide: 2022 General Election
• Contested Post 4 seat on Cobb school board heats up
• Cobb 2022 general election sample ballot available
• East Cobb News Politics & Elections page

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