Cobb school board candidate: ‘You have to be passionate to do this’

Ever since he was a teenager, John Cristadoro has tried his hand at any number of activities and jobs.

He’s been a veterinarian technician, clerked in a law firm, took acting classes (appearing briefly on the soap opera “General Hospital”), worked as a personal trainer and began his current career in media sales, initially booking advertising sponsorships on Los Angeles Dodgers’ radio games when he lived in California.

He moved to Atlanta more than a decade ago for a radio sales position, then started his own media agency, Alliance Activation, with present clients including Heineken and Baccardi.

Another client, prominent Cobb business leader John Loud, urged Cristadoro to think about doing something entirely different: running for political office.

Specifically, he was being asked to consider a campaign for the Cobb Board of Education.

The 45-year-old Cristadoro moved to East Cobb a dozen years ago, where he and his wife are raising their two children, a son at Dodgen Middle School and a daughter at Walton High School.

Between entrepreneurial life (he’s also involved with two other small businesses) and being a coach for Walton youth sports teams, Cristadoro admits he has a rather full plate.

The son of an Army veteran who graduated from Gilmer County High School in north Georgia, Cristadoro earned a political science degree from the University of New Orleans.

He also served in the U.S. Air Force before settling into a business career.

In a recent interview with East Cobb News, the 45-year-old Louisiana native was also bothered by what he was seeing on the Cobb school board in recent years.

Partisan bickering on racial and equity issues and the Cobb County School District’s response to COVID-19 prompted a special accreditation review that was later withdrawn last spring.

Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the board, and three of the GOP members, including Post 5 incumbent David Banks, are up for re-election in 2024.

Banks, who’s been a controversial figure, told East Cobb News last week that he’s undecided about seeking a fifth term. Laura Judge, a Democratic activist, has filed a declaration of intent form for the Post 5 seat, and said she will announce he decision in several weeks.

Cristadoro said that in recent months, “people came to me and said, ‘John, you need to run.’ ”

One of them was Loud, owner of Loud Security Systems, and a former chairman of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.

“He said this school board [elections] are very big,” Cristadoro said, referending Loud, whom he said is a big fan of Superintendent Chris Ragsdale. “They’ve been on the firing line the last couple years.”

After listening to a number of community and school leaders, including meeting with Republican school board members David Chastain and Randy Scamihorn, Cristadoro announced his candidacy earlier this month in the GOP for the seat in Post 5, which includes the Walton, Wheeler and Pope high school clusters.

“I committed mentally and spoke with people and asked for a lot of support,” Cristadoro said. “I’m not a halfway kind of guy. You’ve got to be passionate to do this.

“What made me move to Cobb County? It wasn’t my company [which is based in the city of Atlanta]. It was the schools. I want to work to protect that.”

He said he’s attempted to talk to Banks, but hasn’t made contact.

“I’m not running against him,” Cristadoro said. “I’m running for the school board.”

Cristadoro said that after giving a campaign “a lot of thought,” what’s prompting him now is a desire to “make sure our classrooms remain excellent.”

Here’s his campaign website. He also has formed a steering committee led by Loud, former Cobb school board member Scott Sweeney, the current chairman of the state education board and various East Cobb civic and community leaders.

‘Not fire and brimstone’

That a political novice has garnered such support for a seat with a longtime incumbent still in office is a reflection of the heightened interest in the control of the school board.

Democrats hold majorities on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb legislative delegation.

Cristadoro describes himself as a solid Republican, but “not a fire and brimstone Republican.”

He was upset by the special review by Cognia, the Cobb school district’s accrediting agency, and said it was “totally unnecessary . . . Accreditation should not be a political football.”

He said complaints that led to the review—especially racial and equity claims—haven’t panned out.

“If you look at the quality of outcomes of the schools,” Cristadoro said, “it’s not true.”

Cristadoro also said he supports Ragsdale, saying the superintendent has “done a great job” handling the COVID-19 response.

He said his priorities would be to ensure the physical and mental safety of students, including more resources for those experiencing mental health issues.

He also said he would “promote the laser focus of our schools’ leadership and teachers’ instruction of all our children.”

When asked about the teaching of critical race theory—which the Cobb school board voted to ban and which is not included in the Georgia education department’s curriculum standards—Cristadoro said the general state-approved measures “have been very successful. The results have been phenomenal. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Cristadoro also supports the continuing Cobb Education SPLOST sales tax referendum for school construction and maintenance.

He also pledged uphold the Cobb senior tax exemption for homeowners aged 62 and over. Although that can be changed only by the Georgia legislature, “I will not support passing a resolution that would alter that exemption.”

Another priority would be to stress entrepreneurial education for students, especially since not every student is college-bound.

“In East Cobb there’s a big push to go to college, and that’s great,” he said. But he added that “here are negative connotations about not going to college” that he doesn’t think are fair.

But he said regardless of their career paths, students need to be “be introduced into fundamental business concepts which will allow them to compete in the world’s economy.”

‘A father who cares’

Given the high stakes involved in the Post 5 race, Cristadoro acknowledged the need for an early start—the 2024 primaries are next May—to gather political and financial support.

His campaign manager, Audrey Neu, is the Cobb Republican Party’s school liaison, and he said a formal campaign committee is being finalized.

He cited a ballpark fundraising figure of around $85,000—Catherine Pozniak, Chastain’s Democratic opponent in Post 4 in 2022, raised around $60,000.

“I know a lot of people and I don’t believe it’s going to be hard to raise money,” Cristadoro said. “I feel very confident I’m going to get a good response.”

He said he keeps hearing in the community that “it’s time for a change” and acknowledged that if he faced Banks in the Republican primary, “it would be tough but I think we would prevail.”

When asked if some might perceive him to be a “Chamber” candidate or one of the local political establishment, Cristadoro responded by saying “I’m my own person. Do I listen to smart people? Absolutely. But no one’s going to tell me what to do.

“I’m interested in listening to people who don’t look, talk or sound like me.”

Cristadoro said he’s going to run “as if I’m running for president.”

He said he wants to stress the “why” behind his candidacy, saying simply that “I’m a father who cares.”

He said a youth football player he coached sent him a hand-written note thanking him for “always having my back.

“I have their backs,” Cristadoro said, stretching the reference to all students in the Cobb district. “That’s the reason we have to do this.

“This is extremely important. Our kids’ futures depend on it.”

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