Cobb school board elects officers for 2023, sets meeting dates

The Cobb Board of Education’s Republican majority elected two of their own members Thursday to serve as officers for 2023.

The board also voted to approve a meeting calendar for the year, and along partisan lines, declined to alter some of the meeting dates.

At the board’s organizational meeting, two new members and outgoing chairman David Chastain were publicly sworn in, after officially taking the oath of office prior to the meeting.

Chastain, of Post 4 in East Cobb (Kell, Lassiter and Sprayberry clusters), showed some emotion when he left his seat to be sworn in by Cobb Superior Court Judge Kelli Hill, joined by his wife Lori.

A Wheeler High School graduate, Chastain was re-elected to a third-term in November in a bitterly contested campaign with Democratic newcomer Catherine Pozniak in a race that preserved the GOP majority.

Board chairs cannot serve two years in a row, but the vice chair position can.

Second-term Republican Brad Wheeler of Post 7 in West Cobb was elected chairman on a 4-3 vote, and for the third consecutive year, GOP member David Banks of Post 5 in East Cobb was elected vice chairman, also by the same 4-3 partisan vote.

The three Democrats all were nominated for vice chairman, but each vote failed 3-4, also along partisan lines. Democrat Tre’ Hutchins of Post 3 in South Cobb was nominated for chairman but that voted failed 3-4.

“It is an honor to serve as the Board Chair of a District that has earned a reputation for delivering a world-class education thanks to Cobb’s dedicated school staff and supportive families and community,” Wheeler said in a statement issued by the Cobb County School District after the meeting.

“I am looking forward to continuing that legacy as we work together to keep schools’ focus on academic excellence, and ensure every Cobb student succeeds.”

The board also voted along the same partisan lines to defeat an amendment to the meeting schedule that would return to a schedule of work sessions and voting meetings on separate days.

Newcomer Becky Sayler of Post 2 in Smyrna offered the amendment, saying she has received feedback from the public, including teachers.

For those six months—May, August, September, October, November and December—she suggested having the separate meeting dates.

Currently, the agenda is posted two days before board meetings. Changing the schedule this way, Sayler argued, “would give us time to have more community engagement and feedback.”

She referenced the a vote by the board in July to approve the hiring of armed guards at schools as part of school safety changes.

The public didn’t know about the proposal until the Tuesday before a Thursday vote, at which there were vocal protests and a recess during the meeting.

“It was a very quick turnaround,” Sayler said, adding that the Cobb County Association of Educators has expressed interest in some of the meeting date changes in addition to others in the public.

“If we decide not to do it, let the people know why,” she said.

Wheeler said that in his experience with both formats, the current schedule “saves the district staff a lot of time . . . I think it works better as is.”

Also sworn in on Thursday was newcomer Democrat Nichelle Davis of Post 6, which previously had included the Walton and Wheeler clusters.

Davis, a former teacher, is in a post that includes the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area after reapportioned maps took effect Jan. 1. She succeeds Charisse Davis (no relation), who did not seek re-election.

The Post 5 boundaries have expanded to include Walton, Wheeler and the Pope clusters and some of the Lassiter cluster.

The school board holds a work session in the afternoon and an evening voting session on the same day once a month.

The board meeting schedule for 2023 is as follows, with work session starting times tentative:

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