For the fourth consecutive year, Cobb Board of Education member David Banks has been voted vice chairman.
The four-term Republican from Post 5 in East Cobb was one of four votes during the board’s annual organizational meeting Wednesday.
Randy Scamihorn, a Republican from Post 1 in North Cobb, was voted chairman, getting his vote and those of the other three GOP members who make up the board’s majority.
Banks and Scamihorn are among the three Republicans whose current terms expire in 2024, along with outgoing GOP chairman Brad Wheeler.
Banks was nominated by Democratic member Tre’ Hutchins, but he cast the only vote in favor and his motion failed.
Banks, who is in the final year of his fourth term, has said he has not decided on whether he will seek re-election, due to age and other issues.
Two parents from the Walton High School cluster—Republican John Cristadoro and Democrat Laura Judge—announced their candidacies for the Post 5 seat last year.
Qualifying for local and state races is in early March, and the Cobb school board elections figure to garner serious attention.
The board has had a 4-3 Republican majority for the last three election cycles. But Banks and Wheeler had close races in 2020.
And the Georgia legislature will be called when it convenes next week to redraw Cobb school board electoral maps that a federal judge threw out in December.
That followed a federal voting rights lawsuit, alleging dilution of minority voting strength.
In 2021, the legislature reapportioned the Cobb school board maps to push Post 6 out of East Cobb and into the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area.
Post 5 was redrawn to include the Walton, Wheeler and Pope clusters, while Post 4 includes Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry.
The legislature has until Jan. 10 to draw new maps for the 2024 elections.
The Cobb school board also approved its 2024 meeting calendar, with its first regular meetings on Jan. 18.
You can find the full schedule by clicking here.
Related:
- Federal judge orders new Cobb school board electoral maps
- Cobb school district announces 2024 commencement schedule
- 7 East Cobb schools recognized as Georgia ‘Literacy Leaders’
- Cobb school district to ask for legislation on book ratings
- Hightower Trail MS student earns $10K college scholarship
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