UPDATED:
You can watch replays of the public comment sessions at the Cobb school board meetings here and here.
Larry Felton Johnson, editor and publisher of the Cobb County Courier was told could record only from a seat near a wall.
ORIGINAL POST:
After the Cobb Board of Education voted last week not to air public comments at its meetings any longer, a local news website is planning to fill in the gap.
Larry Felton Johnson, editor and publisher of the Cobb County Courier, said he will be recording the public comments on his site’s YouTube and Facebook pages, and that “they’ll be available for viewing after the meetings.”
Johnson won’t be streaming the parts of the meetings that will continue to be aired on the Cobb school district outlets, but said that “I’m going to start livestreaming when public comments start, and stop when they are over.”
The school board will entertain public comments at a work session at 1:30 p.m. Thursday and at a voting meeting at 7 p.m., but the district’s livestream will not be airing them.
District officials cited legal and “efficiency” reasons for ending the public comment broadcasts in a party-line vote, but critics said the changes were made to stifle public dissent.
Georgia law requires public school districts to provide public comment periods at its meetings, but they don’t have to air them to the public.
On Monday, Johnson posted a story about how the Georgia Open Meetings Act enables the public to record public meetings.
The Cobb school district has been airing public comments on its livestream channel and local cable outlets for several years, with up to 30 minutes set aside at each public meeting.
But in recent years the criticisms have become more frequent and sharper on a number of issues, and in some instances speakers and audience members have been removed from the meeting room for being disruptive.
The Courier is an independent all-online news outlet started by Felton, who is based in Mableton and whose news service covers the county.
His outlet has covered Cobb school district developments critically and aggressively, especially before a September 2023 board meeting. The district changed the sign-up procedures for public commenters, and chaos broke out, with some saying they were shoved around.
Some citizens had showed up to protest Ragsdale and accused the district of trying to limit critical comments; the episode led to a federal lawsuit whose plaintiffs include one of the protestors, East Cobb resident Jenny Peterson.
In March 2024, the Courier published reports accusing the Cobb school district’s media staff of acting to silence critics and improperly accessing student files.
The stories were based on e-mails and other materials obtained in an open records request by Jennifer Susko, a former Cobb school counselor and a vocal critic of the district.
Since 2021, the district has declined to comment on stories published by the Courier, citing “ongoing concerns with accuracy in reporting.” But the Courier has said the district has never asked for a correction or retraction.
Related:
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- Cobb’s 2025 Teacher of the Year celebrated at Pope HS
- 2025 Milestones test results: East Cobb middle, high schools
- 2025 Milestones test results: East Cobb elementary schools
- Ga. to distribute $6.5M in federal funds to Cobb schools
- Cobb students go back to school: 2025-26 school year begins
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