Cobb school district to undergo special review by accreditor

Cobb school board member Charisse Davis — *Charisse Davis represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters on the Cobb Board of Education.*

The Cobb County School District will undergo a special review by its accrediting agency at the request of three members of the Cobb Board of Education, who contend the board’s majority and superintendent have ignored their concerns on several academic and governance issues.

In a release issued Thursday night, the district said that Cognia, an Alpharetta-based accreditor, will conduct the special review, which centers on three matters.

In its release, the Cobb school district said that “determinations made through a Special Review Team can negatively impact college acceptance rates, college scholarships, enrollment, funding, and educator recruitment and retention, as occurred in Clayton and DeKalb counties in 2008 and 2011. Impacts can also negatively affect a county’s economy, property values, and bond credit ratings.”

Board members Charisse Davis, Jaha Howard and Tre’ Hutchins—all black Democrats—said they sent a letter in January to the full seven-member board and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale requesting a discussion on “early literacy, educator and employee support, and board governance training,” but never got a reply.

“The continued silencing of board members who would like to not only talk about positives, but also publicly address challenges, continues. The three of us remain concerned that our governing body is not adhering to the leadership standards set forth by Cognia,” read the Jan. 21 letter by the three Democratic members, which the district included in its release.

Specifically, they wanted the board to discuss the following:

enhancing our governance training by bringing in a third party to help us navigate our differences for the sake of our students and staff
specific agenda items related to teacher and staff support and safety improvements during this pandemic
specific agenda items related to the study and expansion of targeted literacy interventions

Davis, Howard and Hutchins said in their letter to Cognia that their initial letter was completely ignored.

“While there are so many great things about CCSD, such as high SAT scores and graduation rates, we are also a district that has work to do,” their letter to Cognia continued. “We are grappling with many of the same challenges as other districts, including closing opportunity gaps for students, keeping staff and students safe, and adjusting to changing demographics. The most recent data from the GaDOE reports that over 45% of our 3rd grade students are reading below.”

The Cobb school district release also included a response by Ragsdale, who sent a lengthy letter to Cognia defending the district’s record on all three issues.

Ragsdale said he was “surprised and disappointed” to have heard about the complaints, which included others from unspecified parties.

“The communication I received from Cognia centered upon allegations of political disagreements and intra-personal behavior within the board of education,” Ragsdale wrote.

“While these are serious concerns, an unscheduled Special Review seems to be a very unusual response, particularly following the extension of our accreditation and the possible adverse effects of a Special Review to the District’s students, faculty, staff, and community. Given this, the District is taking this Special Review very seriously.”

Ragsdale said the district has met board governance training standards, but did not address the Democratic members’ request for a third-party intervention.

Of the literacy issues, Ragsdale said the Cobb school district “has successfully maintained continuity of learning and support for students through a variety of strategically planned, designed and implemented initiatives,” including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He acknowledged that “we know there is room for growth and improvement in all areas, including Board governance. To that end, we have recently appointed a new interim general counsel with deep experience in accreditation and school board governance matters.”

In March, the board dismissed its longtime outside legal counsel and hired the Atlanta law firm of Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough, which had an attorney presiding over the school board’s meetings Thursday for the first time.

The board governance issues figure to loom large in the special review.

Howard and Davis—who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters—have clashed with the board’s four white Republican matters several times in their first two years in office.

In 2019, the board majority voted to ban board member comments during public meetings after Howard made remarks about non-school issues, including local and national politics.

In November, the four Republicans approved a policy change requiring a board majority to approve board member requests to place items on meeting agendas.

Davis and Howard pointed to that as evidence of being silenced. That issue, plus a vote to abolish a newly formed committee to examine school name changes, prompted Howard to accuse his Republican colleagues of “systemic racism.”

Davis and Howard also tried to press Ragsdale for details of a $12 million emergency board purchase of COVID-related safety products, including handwashing machines and UV disinfecting lights.

Hutchins joined the board in January.

In early 2019, Cognia—the successor organization to AdvancedEd and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools—extended the Cobb school district’s accreditation through 2024.

There’s not a timeline for the review, the district release said.

A school board member’s job is listen to and rule on grievances of their constituents and employees, and handle budget decisions. PERIOD. Being a school board member is THANKLESS job. I have no issue having a dedicated, educated, unbiased, empathetic, thoughtful person of any race who has “skin in the game” ( parent, employee of the county, etc.) to run and serve as a a school board member. I have lived in East Cobb for 41 years. I have taught in one South Cobb and 2 East Cobb schools. NEVER before has there been a divisive SQUAD who want to make RACE an issue. I believe they are grandstanding with the hopes of notoriety to springboard into a political career. Shameful Egotists! VOTERS need to wake up and actually vote for a person not a party. Don’t be lazy and vote straight ticket. Your children and grandchildren will thank you!

Unprofessional, immoral, selfish, and derelict in their duty. These people are trying to hurt my children and thousands of others with their self centered political agendas that have nothing to do with education, and are certainly a dis-service to their constituents. To turn Cobb Schools success into Dekalb/Clayton- is unthinkable the damage they are trying to do. They must be voted out NOW! They should be censured and we need Cobb residents to show up to meetings and let them know exactly how we feel about this. And we also need to make sure that Cognia knows that their role is to accredit and not be an ax for political pandering. If they take up this after their prior review, then they should be removed from their education oversight role.

How soon can we vote these 3 out? Threatening our kids education over politics should require an immediate recall for their seats on the board.

Dave Yucius

April 23, 2021 2:52 PM at 2:52 PM

YES ! Censure them now and vote them out ASAP !!!!!
They do not speak for my students, or my tax dollars. Cobb schools are an asset that we cannot let these 3 immoral, un-professionals to hijack and degrade into Clayton or Dekalb.

Imagine being so petty that as a school board member you would risk the school systems accreditation bust because you aren’t allowed to grandstand at meetings. Who votes for these fools?

Elle

April 25, 2021 11:55 AM at 11:55 AM

Other fools vote for them! Shameful. If they get by with this Cobb property values, schools and reputation for
Being
An outstanding
School district
Is obliterated. Wake up people!

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