Cobb school board chairman to hold campaign fundraiser

Cobb Board of Education chairman David Chastain, who is up for re-election in November, is holding a campaign fundraiser later this month in East Cobb. David Chastain, Cobb Board of Education

The fundraiser is Tuesday, Aug. 30, from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Atlanta Country Club (500 Atlanta Country Club Drive; info and RSVP link here).

Chastain is a Republican who is seeking a third term from Post 4, which includes the Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry clusters.

He is being opposed by Democrat Catherine Pozniak, a Sprayberry High School graduate and a former teacher and state education administrator in Louisiana.

Both were unopposed in the May primary election; Chastain received 13,921 votes to 6,105 for Pozniak.

Their contest could determine party control of the seven-member Cobb school board.

Republicans hold a 4-3 edge on a board that has been rife with partisan conflict over the last three-plus years.

On his campaign website and in recent social media postings, Chastain stressed the need “to keep STABILITY and STEADY LEADERSHIP” on the school board.

His priorities include focusing on “age appropriate” education and to “keep politics out of the classroom.” He also vowed that he “will never support removing campus police officers from schools” and supports the senior tax exemption and fiscal budgeting.

But he is trailing in campaign fundraising to first-time candidate Pozniak, according to financial disclosure reports filed for the first half of 2022.

She has $18,357 in cash on hand and has raised $7,505 since January, according to her reports. In all, Pozniak is reporting she has raised nearly $23,000.

Chastain, a Wheeler High School graduate and a proposal analyst at Lockheed-Martin, has collected $5,625 in the first six months of 2022 and has $4,850 on hand.

Chastain’s contributors include Melissa Bottoms, a former Cobb Leadership member and owner of The Retreat, a senior-living residence in Marietta ($1,000); the campaign of fellow Republican board member Randy Scamihorn ($500); Georgia Public Service Commissioner and former Cobb commissioner Stan Wise ($300); and former Cobb Commission Chairman and Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens ($125).

The biggest donors for Pozniak, an educational consultant, include Democrats for Educational Equity, a Washington, D.C. political action committee that contributed $3,000.

She also has a $1,000 donation from Christine Ortiz, a Florida-based “equity-centered” design entrepreneur who attended the Harvard graduate education school—where Pozniak earned her doctorate—and who has created K-12 “microschools.”

Her other $1,000 donors include James Garvey, an attorney and former state board of education member in Louisiana, and Anne Mellen, an Atlanta employment and labor attorney.

Outgoing Democratic board member Charisse Davis chipped in a contribution of $105 to Pozniak’s campaign.

Last week, Pozniak announced she had been called up for six weeks of duty in the U.S. Army Reserve, where she is a captain and adviser on educational issues.

She said she will return to active campaigning by mid-September.

The school board clashes have included the Cobb school senior property tax exemption; racial, diversity and equity issues; the Cobb County School District’s response to COVID-19; and a special review conducted last year by Cognia, the district’s accrediting agency.

Democrats Jaha Howard and Charisse Davis, at the center of many of those controversies and whose 2018 elections reduced what had been a 6-1 GOP majority, are not seeking re-election this year.

Chastain is the only Republican incumbent on the November ballot. Davis, whose Post 6 currently includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters, will be succeeded by Democrat Nichelle Davis, a former classroom teacher, who is unopposed.

That redistricted post’s East Cobb footprint has been reduced to include only areas along Powers Ferry Road.

There is a general election battle for Howard’s Post 2, which takes up the Campbell and Osborne clusters.

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1 thought on “Cobb school board chairman to hold campaign fundraiser”

“Called up to duty to consult on educational issues!!!!”
I am not a conspiracy theorist or a total whacko, but does it not seem interesting that the most qualified candidate with the best chance of beating one of the good ol’ boys and making a real difference gets taken off the board while Chastain campaigns and raises money???? Any chance his contacts through Lockheed-Martin might have influenced her call up right now??
Just sayin’…….

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