The Cobb Board of Education member who has represented the Walton and Wheeler high school clusters since 2019 is not seeking re-election this year.
Charisse Davis
Democrat Charisse Davis, who ousted then-incumbent Republican Scott Sweeney in 2018 in Post 6, did not qualify last week for the newly redrawn seat that takes out East Cobb.
The Georgia legislature approved maps submitted by Cobb Republicans over the objections of their county Democratic colleagues.
In a message she posted Tuesday on her Facebook page, Davis explained that redistricting has moved the Walton and Wheeler areas to Post 5, represented by Republican vice chairman David Banks.
Davis, a former elementary school teacher and currently a youth services librarian in Fulton County, still lives in the new Post 6.
Davis didn’t indicate in her message why she decided not to run again. East Cobb News has left a message seeking comment, but she encouraged voters to support three candidates in particular, all Democrats.
“It has been an honor serving the students of this district, and I look forward to continuing my career in education and supporting other educators who have answered the call to run for school board: Becky Sayler, Post 2; Dr. Catherine Pozniak, Post 4; and Nichelle Davis, Post 6.
“Continue to support our CCSD schools, hold the board accountable, and vote!”
Nichelle Davis is the only candidate who qualified in Post 6, which includes the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area.
Sayler is one of two Democrats vying in the May 24 primary in Post 2, which includes Smyrna and some of South Cobb. Post 2 first-term Democratic incumbent Jaha Howard, who also was drawn into Post 6, is running for Georgia school superintendent.
Post 4 includes the Kell and Sprayberry and some of the Lassiter clusters. Pozniak, also a Democrat, is a Sprayberry graduate who will be challenging three-term Republican incumbent David Chastain in November.
The current Cobb school board has a 4-3 Republican majority, and for the last three years has wrangled along partisan lines on a number of contentious issues.
Howard and Davis have been at the center of those arguments, particularly over the Cobb school district’s senior tax exemption, equity and racial issues and the district’s response to COVID-19.
Davis also signed a petition started in 2020 to advocate changing the name of Wheeler High School, named after a Confederate Civil War general and which opened in 1965, as Cobb schools were preparing to integrate.
Davis and Howard also sparked a special review by the Cobb school district’s accrediting agency last year after complaining that the GOP majority was silencing them.
Before the current school board maps were redrawn, Republican Amy Henry, a parent of four students in the Walton cluster, announced her intent to run for Post 6.
Voters in the East Cobb area of what has been Post 6 will next get to vote for Cobb school board representation in 2024, when Banks’ term expires.
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Democrats Charisse Davis of the Cobb school board and Jerica Richardson of the Cobb commission have had the East Cobb portions of their districts removed.
Two first-term Democrats who represent part of East Cobb on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb Board of Education will have different electoral boundaries soon.
The Georgia Senate finalized redistricting bills for both bodies on Wednesday, clearing the way for Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature into law.
The bills were sponsored by Cobb Republicans over the objections of the county’s Democratic-led legislative delegation, and easily passed in the legislature, which has strong GOP majorities.
For a larger view of the new Cobb commissioners map, click here.
Jerica Richardson, who was elected to commission District 2 in 2020, was drawn out of her district in a map that for the next decade will place most of East Cobb in District 3 (in gold on the map at right).
District 2 has included the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area and part of East Cobb. Richardson moved into a new home off Post Oak Tritt Road last year, but will have to move again by the end of the year if she seeks a second term in 2024.
The new District 2 (in pink) will include Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings, some of Marietta and other areas along the I-75 corridor.
The bill’s main sponsor, Republican John Carson of Northeast Cobb, has said that his map will likely keep the commission’s current 3-2 Democratic majority.
But Richardson and other Cobb Democrats have been vocal at Georgia Capitol press conferences in opposing the GOP maps.
“This bill essentially overwrites the vote you made 2 years ago and creates a new map that doesn’t take the community’s input into consideration,” Richardson said on her Facebook page Thursday.
“This is a dangerous precedent, and I plan to continue making my voice heard in order to support this community and its needs.”
District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is nearing the end of her third term this year.
Charisse Davis, who has represented the Walton and Wheeler clusters on the Cobb school board since 2019, also was drawn into a new post that no longer includes East Cobb.
She lives in the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area, which forms the heart of the new Post 6. Davis is up for re-election but has not announced whether she’s seeking re-election.
For a larger view of the new Cobb school board post map, click here.
East Cobb News has left a message with Davis seeking comment.
She noted on her Facebook page recently that the Cobb GOP maps affecting her, Richardson and current 6th District U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath are “ensuring that the east Cobb area will no longer have representation from any of the Black women whose districts currently include east Cobb.”
While East Cobb has been solid terrain for Republicans, Democrats have been making gains in recent elections as the once-conservative county undergoes significant demographic and political change.
Only on the Cobb school board do Republicans have a local majority.
For the last three years, the school board has held a 4-3 GOP edge (after Republicans previously enjoyed a 6-1 advantage), and has been roiled controversies that generally have fallen along partisan lines.
The shifting lines for the school board also reduce East Cobb representation to two members. They are current chairman David Chastain, a Republican who has said he will be seeking another term in 2022 for Post 4, and David Banks, the GOP vice chairman whose Post 5 will now cover most of the Walton and Wheeler areas.
Davis and fellow first-term Democrat Jaha Howard, also of the Smyrna area, have been in the middle of disputes over the senior tax exemption, equity issues, student discipline matters and the Cobb County School District’s COVID-19 response.
The new maps put Davis and Howard, currently of Post 2, together. But he has announced he is running for Georgia School Superintendent this year.
(PLEASE NOTE: The process of redistricting elected school board posts has nothing to do with the boundaries of school attendance zones, which are drawn by school district administrative staff and are done mainly to balance out school capacity.)
McBath, completing her second term, has switched to the 7th district, which includes most of Democratic-leaning Gwinnett County after the legislature redrew the 6th to create a GOP-friendly seat that includes East Cobb, North Fulton, part of Forsyth County and Dawson County.
Part of East Cobb also is included in newly redrawn 11th District, which is represented by Republican Barry Lowdermilk.
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Two of the three black members of the Cobb Board of Education have sent a letter to Superintendent Chris Ragsdale asking for several “action items” to address racial and diversity issues within the Cobb County School District.
Charisse Davis of Post 6, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, and Jaha Howard of Post 2 (Osborne and Campbell) dated the letter on Friday.
On her Facebook page, Davis said Friday afternoon that the other five board members were asked to sign the letter before it was sent to Ragsdale, but “there was no response.”
That includes the other black board member, David Morgan, who is one of three Democrats on the board with Davis and Howard.
The letter (you can read it here) states that “we acknowledge that racial discrimination permeates our courts, housing, employment, healthcare and yes—our schools” and requests the district “commit to the practice of anti-racism” by adopting the following measures, and this is verbatim from the letter:
Provide consistent cultural relevancy and bias training for all employees
Seek nontraditional solutions for increasing teacher diversity in all schools
Examine the discrepancies in disciplinary outcomes by race
Reevaluate the requirements of standardized test scores as criteria for program admittance
Formally speak out against state level policies (such as voucher bills) that redirect public school funding and contribute to inequities.
Davis noted on her Facebook page that “we are weeks into a national conversation on systemic racism in this country and neither the board as a whole nor district leadership has made a statement.”
In response to a message from East Cobb News seeking comment, a district spokeswoman said late Friday afternoon that board member Randy Scamihorn—one of the board’s four Republicans—has requested a resolution condemning racism be included on the board’s agenda for its June 25 meeting.
Davis and Howard have been pressing the district and other board members on diversity issues for several months, including asking for the designation of a chief equity officer.
Some of those comments centered around racial issues that Howard was addressing at the local, state and federal level, and not just related to Cobb schools.
In late May, Davis and Howard held an anti-racism rally in Smyrna in the wake of the recent killings of black citizens George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery by police in Minneapolis, Louisville, and Brunswick, Ga., respectively.
Their names were included in the letter to Ragsdale, their deaths, Davis and Howard wrote, being “symptoms of this much larger issue.”
Earlier this week the Cobb Board of Commissioners passed an anti-racism resolution, but not after clashing during a work session and behind the scenes over revisions. The cities of Smyrna, Marietta and Acworth also have passed anti-racism resolutions in the last two weeks.
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The Cobb Board of Education met for only 20 minutes Tuesday to elect officers for the 2020 calendar year, but most of it was taken up with the explosive charge by one member that the process for doing so isn’t above board.
Jaha Howard
“Something stinks,” second-year board member Jaha Howard said after the board’s Republican majority voted 4-2 for fellow party member Brad Wheeler to serve as chairman.
Another Republican, David Banks of East Cobb, was voted vice chairman in a similar fashion and by a similar vote.
Both votes were conducted without any board discussion at its annual organizational meeting.
Howard, who represents the Campbell and Osborne clusters in South Cobb, nominated his fellow Democrat, Charisse Davis, of the Walton and Wheeler clusters. But they were the only two votes for her in a series of votes strictly along party lines.
The board’s other Democrat, David Morgan, was not in attendance.
The four Republicans are all white males and the three Democrats are black. Davis is the only woman on the seven-member board.
After the votes for Wheeler and Banks prevailed, Howard lashed out, saying “everything is behind closed doors” pertaining to board discussions about officers before the meeting, and that the activity in open session is “vote, hurry and go on.”
He said that in communicating with colleagues before the vote about nominating Davis—also starting her second year on the board—he was troubled to hear familiar concerns about her, including a lack of experience.
Charisse Davis
“These reasons keep coming up,” Howard said.
“What is it? Is it gender bias? Is is racial bias? Is it a political party bias? . . . The public deserves to hear why you’re choosing somebody.”
Shortly after taking the gavel, Wheeler said that for each individual board member, “that’s their call” on how they vote.
“I’ve been in this situation before. It’s who the board majority has confidence in.”
In brief comments, Davis noted that while “the vote is the vote,” this is the fourth consecutive year that either Wheeler or David Chastain, last year’s chairman, has served as chairman.
Howard, who touched off controversy last year that resulted in the board voting to ban members’ public comments, said that “most efforts to have more conversations in the light of day seem to be frowned upon.”
Brad Wheeler
Republican board member Randy Scamihorn said he’s not heard from Howard or Davis about their concerns. He said that his decisions on voting for officers are “personal” and that “I try to to make it for the betterment of the board and school district.”
Wheeler, last year’s board vice-chairman, pledged to work with all board members and said that “I think this position represents our best collectively.”
After the board meeting, Davis wrote on her Facebook page that “seemingly everyone who has expressed an interest in being chair over the years, except Mr. Morgan, has been chosen. This includes newly sworn-in members, women, non-educators, and even a Democrat that served some years ago.
“However, in a district comprised of 62.6% students of color, there has never been a person of color chosen as chair. It’ll happen.”
Wheeler, who represents the Harrison, Hillgrove and McEachern clusters, is one of four board members up for re-election in 2020, along with Banks (Pope and Lassiter), Scamihorn (Allatoona, Kennesaw Mountain and North Cobb) and Morgan (Pebblebrook and South Cobb).
The board also approved its 2020 meeting schedule, and changed those dates from the third Wednesday to the third Thursday of the month, with a few exceptions.
The first regular work session and business meeting for the school board take place on Jan. 16.
The rest of the 2020 school board meeting schedule can be found here.
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The Cobb Board of Education meets Tuesday in its 2020 organizational meeting, at which it will select its chair and vice chair for the year.
Charisse Davis
Charisse Davis of Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters, said she’s interested in becoming chair.
It’s a duty that includes running meetings and representing the board in an official capacity.
“I’ve expressed my interest to serve as chair, a role that many other board members have held, even in their first term,” Davis noted in her January newsletter.
The first-term Democrat, who lives in the Campbell cluster, was nominated for vice chair last year, shortly after taking office. But the board’s four-member Republican majority voted for two of its own members for the leadership roles after multiple votes.
The 2019 chairman was David Chastain, of the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, and the vice chair was Brad Wheeler of West Cobb. Per board rules, officers cannot serve in the same roles in consecutive years.
The board had a 6-1 Republican majority until Davis and Jaha Howard of South Cobb joined in 2019.
During the year, they sparred with Republicans on issues including revisiting the school senior tax exemption and equity and diversity matters in the Cobb County School District. Votes to formally consider them were defeated in party-line votes, as was a proposal by Davis for formalize a process for communicating with the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
Regarding the senior tax exemption issue, Davis has said she wants to examine closing loopholes, not do away with the exemption altogether.
“Right now, the age-based tax exemption, which exempts anyone 62 and over who applies for it from paying school taxes in Cobb (regardless of your income or any other qualifier), amounts to $122.7 million,” Davis wrote in her October newsletter. “That represents 27% of our total residential property tax digest and Cobb’s age-based exemption has more of an impact on our school funding than any other metro district.”
The four GOP members also voted in August to bar board members from making comments at meetings after Howard had spoken out in that forum on non-school matters. Both he and Davis decried the ban as censorship.
Tuesday’s meeting starts at 1 p.m. in the board room at the CCSD Central Office, 514 Glover St., Marietta. Board members also will vote on meeting dates for 2020.
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Charisse Davis was elected in November 2018 to represent Post 6 on the Cobb Board of Education. A Democrat, she narrowly defeated two-term incumbent Republican Scott Sweeney to represent the Walton and Wheeler clusters, as well as a portion of the Campbell cluster, where her two sons attend school.
A former educator in the Atlanta and Fulton County public schools and currently a youth services librarian in the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library System, Davis was sworn in in January.
On Tuesday, Oct. 1, she’s holding a town hall meeting in the cafeteria of Sope Creek Elementary School (3320 Paper Mill Road) from 7-8 p.m.
In her first few months on the board, Davis has suggested, along with Jaha Howard, another first-year Democratic board member, that the district should explore the possibility of making some changes to the Cobb schools senior property tax exemption.
Cobb is the only school district in metro Atlanta whose senior tax exemption comes without any conditions, such as an income threshold.
Davis and Howard also have called for the district to create a cabinet-level position for equity and diversity in the wake of calls by some parents and school staff in the county for Cobb schools to address what they claim are unaddressed and systemic racial biases.
Both of those topics have caused friction on the school board, whose 6-1 Republican majority before Davis’ and Howard’s election was reduced to 4-3.
East Cobb News met with Davis before the school year began to discuss her first few months on the board.
There’s been a learning process that naturally comes with being a newcomer, but most of Post 6 is East Cobb. Davis said her 15-year teaching experience working in very different schools in Atlanta—one a Title I elementary school and another a high-achieving school in Buckhead with an international baccalaureate program—has been helpful as she’s gotten started.
“Just sitting with people, in the beginning it’s all about listening,” she said. “It’s parent to parent, there’s nothing that you can’t discuss in a constructive way. There’s no challenge that anyone in East Cobb is talking about that I can’t understand.”
More than anything, Davis said, “I want them to know there’s someone who’s easy for them to get to.”
Charisse Davis, at right, takes the oath of office with her husband Sean and sons and fellow board members Jaha Howard and David Chastain in January. (ECN photo)
Among the early school year events she’s attended include a gathering of principals and school leadership with the East Cobb County Council of PTAs.
She said what she’s learned from parents everywhere, regardless of a school’s academic reputation or a family’s socioeconomic status, is that they want the same things for their children.
“They’ll say, ‘I don’t want to have my kid in a good school in a district that’s so-so,'” she said. “They want all our schools to be great. We’re all connected. We all benefit from having a strong district.
“What I find is a lot of parents bring up that they want everyone in the district to be doing well. To talk about these issues should never be about pitting some people against others.”
She said one of the most pleasant surprises to her is “seeing how much can be done at the school level” and that a big part of her role as a school board member is facilitating connections between parents and the larger school community, as well as school staff and teachers.
“You hear from families whose experiences are unlike your own,” Davis said. “My job is to help them and connect them, sometimes it’s with people, and sometimes it’s with information.”
Davis said she thinks last year’s election results in Cobb, which included Democrats making other inroads in the county (including Lucy McBath winning the 6th Congressional District) have sparked some broader conversations about local governance, as Cobb political and cultural demographics continue to change.
The Cobb school district enrollment of nearly 112,000 for the current 2019-20 year is 37 percent white, 30 percent black, 22 percent Hispanic, six percent Asian and four percent multi-racial.
“It’s encouraging to see so many more people being engaged,” Davis said. “It’s not just for a presidential election. People are waking up to the fact that these things have been happening, and that there are so many elections that are happening right down the street.”
Touching the senior third rail
At her first meeting in January, Davis was nominated to be the board’s vice chairwoman in what turned out to a series of party-line votes. That vote failed, as Republicans David Chastain (of Post 4 in northeast Cobb) and Brad Wheeler were chosen to be the board’s officers.
“On a seven-member board, we are three votes, Democrats, people of color, younger,” Davis said. “We have a nice little balance that is getting more representative of the county. It would show the great strength of our board to acknowledge that.”
She and Howard, a pediatric dentist who represents the Campbell and Osborne clusters, have spoken together about some issues that have ruffled feathers.
The senior tax exemption, enacted in Cobb by the Georgia legislature in 1973, comes to more than $100 million a year. Davis mapped out the disparities on her own website, illustrating senior tax exemption qualifiers in other metro Atlanta school districts.
At a school board retreat earlier this year, Davis asked that the district study the impact of possible changes to the exemption. She cited a recent change in the senior exemption for Forsyth County schools, where “they had households with kids registered in schools, but were taking the exemption.”
That exemption, in a heavily Republican county, amounted to around a half-million dollars a year. That may seem like small change in Cobb, Georgia’s second-largest school district (behind Gwinnett) and a $1.1 billion budget. The Republican majority on the Cobb board voted down her request for a study to see what such a change might mean in Cobb.
At an East Cobb business breakfast meeting in April, Chastain said adamantly that “we’re not taking away the senior exemption.”
“No one called for getting rid of it. People start with that, and then they’re not listening to anything else,” Davis said. “That’s been frustrating because people have gotten upset, but I don’t think we should get rid of it.”
Davis added that right now, “we don’t have any qualifiers [for exemptions]. Let’s think into the future, let’s plan for the future, because that $100-plus million dollars that we have now, it’s only going to grow.”
“We’re not going to agree all the time, and that’s okay,” Charise Davis said about Cobb school board deliberations. “That’s always been my point. Let’s have the discussion.” (ECN file photo)
Charges of bigotry
In late August, Davis appeared at a Cobb Donuts for Democrats event at which she explained school funding, board procedures and other issues with a Powerpoint presentation.
After showing a slide of a group shot of the board, someone asked if the four Republicans were older white males. Davis said that they were. The Marietta Daily Journal made note in its “Around Town” political column, including a fiery e-mail from Republican State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart of West Cobb, who accused Davis of being “the most bigoted board member ever to sit on the Cobb Board of Education.”
In a response on her Facebook page, Davis explained that she was simply pointing out factual information about the board’s makeup, not making a comment about it.
“I understand that our political environment is highly charged, and it may feel good to attack a school board member for a perceived slight,” she said. “But I know I’m here for kids and I welcome you to engage with me about your ideas on how to support the students of Cobb County.”
She also included a photo of her with her husband Sean, who is white.
The proposal came about for what Chastain said had become overly political comments, sometimes not even about school matters.
At the August board meeting, Howard mentioned President Trump and state and local elected officials whom he accused of not being ethical, as well as immigration raids, the Sterigenics lab closure and gun violence.
That the vote to ban comments was taken during the work session and not a business meeting was unusual, and it sparked cries from Howard—the likely target of the ban—and Davis that they were being silenced, including about some school issues.
“When a couple of us get here and bring up words like ‘equity,’ we’re censoring,” Davis said at the Sept. 19 meeting. “You want to censor members on the board agenda. That’s not okay.”
After several failed amendments by Howard and David Morgan of South Cobb, also a Democrat, the board voted 4-3 along party lines, with the four Republicans in the majority, to impose the comments ban.
‘Let’s have the discussion’
Davis has said from the time of her campaign last year that while test scores in Cobb continue to rise (especially in East Cobb), she wants to address the lingering question of “are we meeting the needs of all our students?”
She said she was encouraged that parents have come to her “after seeing something mentioned on social media and I welcome those conversations that because conversations happen on social media.
“But it would be a shame,” she added, if parents “don’t think they can come” and have offline, one-on-one discussions.
She also commended Superintendent Chris Ragsdale, “who has always been very open about having our questions answered,” and as she has learned more about how Cobb’s largest employer operates (with a work force of more than 18,000), her appreciation for what they do also has grown.
“We’ve got some great, talented people working for this district,” she said.
After a few months on the board, Davis said she’s encouraged that some dialogue she’s felt is long overdue beginning to take place.
“We’re not going to agree all the time, and that’s okay,” Davis said. “That’s always been my point. Let’s have the discussion.”
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Cobb school board members will no longer offer comments at the end of business meetings. At the end of a long and contentious discussion Thursday, they voted themselves into silence.
The 4-3 vote along partisan lines came after more than 90 minutes of often heated debate, including interruptions, seven amendments and accusations of censorship.
The ban does not affect the public comment period held at the beginning of meetings, and that allows remarks from parents, students and others from addressing the board.
The board members’ comment period is typically uncontroversial, with elected officials speaking about school visits, rooting for prep sports teams and noting academic and extracurricular achievements.
Board chairman David Chastain, who represents the Kell and Sprayberry attendance zones, said he has become concerned over political and personal opinions being expressed by board members.
Chastain, part of the four-member Republican board majority, said he’s noticed in recent months that some of the comments have become too partisan, and some aren’t even about school matters at all.
There hasn’t been a board policy regarding comments.
David Morgan, one of three Democrats on the board, said a better solution would be for the board to craft a comments policy.
Charisse Davis
He proposed several amendments to that effect, but they were all defeated, most by the same 4-3 partisan split.
Chastain countered that having a policy would put the chair in an awkward position of having to judge the appropriateness of colleagues’ remarks.
“The chair is supposed to be chairing a meeting, and then becomes an arbiter,” Chastain said. “This chair does not want to be the scorekeeper.”
Charisse Davis, one of two first-year Democrats on the board, said the board didn’t have a problem when members talked about football games and mourning police officers slain in the line of duty.
“When a couple of us get here and bring up words like ‘equity,’ we’re censoring,” said Davis, who represents the Walton, Wheeler and part of the Campbell clusters. “You want to censor members on the board agenda. That’s not okay.”
During their comment time, Davis and Democrat Jaha Howard, the other newcomer, have on occasion discussed calls that the Cobb County School District hire a diversity officer.
A group calling itself Stronger Together also has been demanding cultural training in Cobb schools to address what it calls lingering racial concerns it claims the district isn’t handling well.
Jaha Howard
Howard pressed Chastain for examples of comments that crossed the line, but he didn’t offer any. Howard, who represents the Osborne and Campbell districts, also wanted the other Republicans to explain why they supported a comments ban.
None of them did, and Chastain said there are “all sorts of ways to talk about personal opinions” outside of a board meeting, including the use of the Internet and social media.
“This discussion is nothing but partisan,” Davis said at one point. “Right now, we’re not being heard.”
At last month’s board meeting, Howard made references during the board comment period to the year 1619, when the first slaves arrived in the American colonies from Africa, recent deadly mass shootings and immigration:
“Depending on where you live in Cobb County, you have neighbors and family members that have been a part of ICE raids where someone that you know may have been separated from their families. These kids are coming to our schools, and it would be a horrible mistake to have a disconnect of these realities from our schools.”
Howard also mentioned gun violence “in our own backyard” and cancer concerns stemming from the Sterigenics lab in Smyrna, near where he lives, that is closed for the time being.
“Yes, this is a school board meeting, but we exist in a context, and I’m just highlighting the context that we live in,” he said.
At the end of his remarks, Howard discussed what he called “hypocrisy” over praising leaders “who are anything but respectful, responsible and role models. Who’s going to call them out?
“I’m tired of it, so get used to hearing me calling it out,” he said.
Howard didn’t name names, but said that “we have significant ethical issues at the top of the political food chain with our commander-in-chief and many elected officials here in this county and this state. It needs to be called out.”
At Thursday’s work session, Howard defended what he insists is a need to discuss larger concerns beyond the schools.
“Guess what? Cobb is complicated, and we shouldn’t be running from this. This is cowardice.”
Chastain pushed back, saying “no sir. Public comment isn’t the place for that. That’s not censorship.”
Howard tried to get the board to delay imposing a ban so as not to “make a rushed decision.” His final amendment, somewhat sarcastic in tone, would have allowed for board members who were “good” to offer comments.
Chastain interrupted him, saying it was a “frivolous motion, and you’ve talked this thing to death.”
The motion to ban comments was passed 4-3, with the four Republicans (the others are David Banks of East Cobb, Randy Scamihorn and Brad Wheeler of West Cobb) voting in favor, and the three Democrats voting against.
The only amendment that passed was a measure by Howard to allow Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to offer comments.
Since the ban was effective immediately, only Ragsdale spoke at the end of a brief Thursday night board business meeting.
Among his remarks included thanking the Wheeler culinary arts students for what he said was an excellent pot pie meal for him and the board before the meeting.
“I can attest to that because I had two helpings myself,” Ragsdale said.
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Due to graduation ceremonies next week, the Cobb school board has moved up its May meeting by a week, and is scheduled to act on the fiscal year 2020 budget on Thursday.
Charisse Davis
There will be a work session starting at 2:30 p.m., a public hearing on the budget at 6:30 p.m. and a regular meeting starting at 7 p.m., in which the board is expected to vote on the budget.
The meetings will take place in the board room at the Cobb County School District Central office, 514 Glover St., in Marietta.
He said the proposed raises were made possible by $3,000 raises for teachers that were included in the state education budget. The fiscal year 2020 budget begins on July 1.
Details of the budget proposal can be found in several ways:
Earlier this month the school board held a retreat and spurned a proposal by board member Charisse Davis to create a special committee to examine possible changes to the Cobb schools property tax exemption for seniors.
Cobb is only one of two school districts in the metro Atlanta area to offer the exemption to homeowners 62 and older without any qualifications (such as income levels). School district officials estimate the exemption will amount to nearly $112 million this year.
Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, pointed to a recent vote in Forsyth County to eliminate a senior tax exemption for homeowners who have students living with them but who are not legal guardians. Forsyth schools will gain an additional $500,000 in annual revenue.
But Davis’ proposal just to form a committee was voted down 4-2 (with the board’s four Republicans all voting against), and came just a few days after board chairman David Chastain, who represents the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, adamantly said the senior exemption isn’t being taken away.
Davis, one of three Democrats on the Cobb school board, reiterated after the retreat that in Forsyth, “a Republican school board asked a Republican delegation to put a senior tax change up for a vote, the state legislature overwhelmingly approved it, and then the county’s voters approved it. Imagine that.”
She also drew up a map (bigger version on her website) showing the various school senior tax exemptions in metro Atlanta school systems.
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On Tuesday Charisse Davis, the new Cobb Board of Education member for Post 6, will hold what she’s calling an education discussion meeting with parents at Dickerson Middle School.
The informal meeting lasts from 7-8:30 p.m. and will take place in the auditorium at Dickerson (855 Woodlawn Drive).
Earlier this month, Davis was sworn in for a four-year term after she defeated incumbent Scott Sweeney to represent Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters.
Davis, who had never run for public office before, is a former teacher who is now a librarian in Fulton County. She also was nominated for chair and vice chair in last week’s school board officers’ elections.
Post 6 also includes part of the Campbell High School cluster, where she lives. Her two sons attend Cobb schools in that area.
She is one of two new board members in Cobb. The other is fellow Democrat Jaha Howard, who represents Campbell and Osborne. He also will be in attendance at the Dickerson meeting.
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After four votes, Northeast Cobb Republican David Chastain was elected by a 4-3 vote over Democratic newcomer Charisse Davis, who represents part of East Cobb.
Voting with Chastain were the other Republicans on the board: David Banks of East Cobb, Randy Scamihorn of North Cobb and Brad Wheeler of West Cobb.
Davis defeated Republican incumbent Scott Sweeney in November in the Post 6 election (Walton and Wheeler). She was joined by fellow Democrats David Morgan and Jaha Howard of South Cobb.
Cobb school board policy calls for members to choose a chair and vice chair each year at their organizational meeting in January. Republicans have held a 6-1 majority in recent years, and partisan voting lines have made such a proceeding uneventful.
Chastain and Davis were deadlocked at 3-3, with two votes for Scamihorn, after the first round of voting.
Banks (Pope and Lassiter), who initially nominated Chastain, wanted to retain Wheeler, last year’s chairman, which goes against board policy. He wanted to change the policy but got no support.
The board went into recess for around 20 minutes and after reconvening, Chastain again was nominated for chairman, this time getting the other three Republican votes.
Davis was nominated by Howard, who also is newly elected. He then nominated her for vice chairman, but Wheeler was chosen by a 4-3 partisan vote.
Chastain, who represents the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, served as chairman once before during his first term. He was vice chairman last year.
The board also adopted its meeting calendar for the rest of the year. Work sessions take place at 2 p.m. and regular meetings at 7 p.m. on the same day:
Jan. 17
Feb. 13
March 21
April 24
May 16
June 20
July 18
Aug. 22
Sept. 19
Oct. 24
Nov. 14
Dec. 12
Jan. 16, 2020
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Taking the oath of office: Jaha Howard (L), David Chastain (second L) and Charisse Davis (R), with Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton presiding.
Surrounded by two new members of the Cobb Board of Education, David Chastain was sworn in for his second term Monday night anticipating the next few years to come.
“I feel very good about the last four years,” said Chastain, who represents the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, “and I’m very optimistic about the next four.”
As he spoke, he was looking around a meeting room at the Cobb County School District central office that was packed with well-wishers for the three individuals elected in November.
Many turned out to greet the newcomers, including Charisse Davis of Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters. Also joining the board Monday was Jaha Howard, who represents the Osborne and Campbell clusters.
They were sworn in by Harold Melton, the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court and a 1984 graduate of Wheeler High School.
With the additions of Democrats Davis and Howard, who succeed Republicans, the Cobb school board has a 4-3 Republican majority.
Post 6 also includes a sliver of the Campbell High School area, where Davis lives. She defeated two-term incumbent Scott Sweeney and said she’s been meeting with parents and school groups in East Cobb for the last two months.
“We have a lot of work to do board,” said Davis, a former teacher who’s a librarian in Fulton County. “I want people to know that I’ve been listening to them.”
She’s having another open meeting session at Dickerson Middle School Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. It’s not a formal town hall format, she said, but a chance for parents to discuss their education concerns with her.
Chastain said he recalls that as he first joined the board four years ago, he didn’t quite understand how much of a learning curve it would entail. He said he’s been impressed with his new colleagues thus far.
“We’re a new team and bring our own diversity to the challenges we face,” Chastain said. “They’re engaged already, and as we move forward we be facing them together.”
He said he feels good about where the school district stands in terms the budget. The current fiscal year 2019 budget of $1.2 billion includes additional pay raises for employees.
“Right now we’re looking good,” he said, and felt confident the district could handle any issues that may come if interest rates go up or other financial matters arise.
Changes in the Cobb legislative delegation (now majority Democrat), as well as a new governor also will bear watching.
Getting to know her new constituents and school communities is an admittedly sizable task for Davis, but when asked if she feels overwhelmed, she smiled and said, “I’ve been a teacher.”
The board will meet Tuesday morning to elect a chair and a vice chair for the 2019 calendar year. That starts at 9 at 514 Glover St., Marietta.
“I want people to know that I’ve been listening to them,” said new school board member Charisse Davis. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
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Two of East Cobb’s three representatives on the Cobb Board of Education will take the oath of office Monday in the first of two special-called meetings next week.
David Chastain
David Chastain and Charisse Davis will be sworn in, along with Jaha Howard, in a meeting that starts Monday at 7 p.m. in the board room at the Cobb County School District Central Office (514 Glover St., Marietta).
Chastain, a Republican who represents Post 4 (the Kell and Sprayberry clusters), was re-elected to a second term in November.
Davis is a Democrat who ousted two-term Republican Scott to represent Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters. Howard, a Democrat, also is newly elected in Post 2, which includes the Campbell and Osborne clusters.
There is no other business on the Monday meeting agenda.
Charisse Davis
On Tuesday morning, the newly comprised board will elect officers for the calendar year 2019. Each year they choose a chair and a vice chair, and that meeting will take place in the same place, starting at 9 a.m.
Chastain was the vice chairman in 2018 and previously has served as a chairman.
With the changes to the school board, the partisan split also has changed. Republicans held a 6-1 majority, but this year they hold a 4-3 edge.
After electing officers, the board will go into executive session for a student discipline matter.
The first regular board meeting of 2019 will take place Jan. 17.
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Charisse Davis upset Scott Sweeney to win a seat on the Cobb Board of Education representing the Walton and Wheeler areas. (ECN file)
The all-Republican slate of public office holders in East Cobb is no more. Three Democratic candidates defeated Republican incumbents in the November elections, as Cobb’s changing political demographics reached even the strongest GOP part of the county.
All three races were extremely close in what’s being called part of a Democratic “Blue Wave” that galvanized party voters, especially in metro Atlanta.
For the first time in a long time, Democratic candidates contested every office on this year’s ballot for East Cobb voters. All of the Democrats were females, and most were running for office for the first time.
After winning last year’s bruising 6th Congressional District special election over Jon Ossoff, Republican incumbent Karen Handel was unseated by Marietta Democrat Lucy McBath, a high-profile gun-control candidate.
Handel won most of the East Cobb precincts, but McBath prevailed in north DeKalb precincts and won north Fulton by a nose.
McBath will be the first Democrat to hold that seat since former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was first elected to Congress in 1978. She also will serve in the majority, as Democrats nationwide picked up enough seats to take control of the House.
A recount took place for the State House District 37 seat held by Republican Sam Teasley. But Democrat Mary Frances Williams was declared the winner for the seat that includes some of East Cobb.
The Cobb legislative delegation also will be majority Democratic as several other seats in the county switched from GOP control.
In Cobb Board of Education elections, Democrat Charisse Davis, who lives in the Campbell High School area, upset Republican incumbent Scott Sweeney to win Post 6, which mostly includes the Walton and Wheeler attendance zones.
State Rep. Sharon Cooper
Republicans had held a 6-1 majority on the school board, but their edge will be 4-3 in January. David Chastain, a Republican who represents Kell and Sprayberry, won election to a second term.
Even some Republican incumbents who won had close calls in Cobb. Commissioner JoAnn Birrell was re-elected for a third term in District 3, which includes most of Northeast Cobb. But liberal Democrat Caroline Holko ran strong, as Birrell got only 52 percent of the vote.
Veteran State Rep. Sharon Cooper won by a similar margin to retain State House seat 43 in East Cobb. The chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, Cooper, first elected in 1996, was challenged by first-time candidate Lucia Wakeman.
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Charisse Davis will be the only woman on the Cobb Board of Education. (East Cobb News file photo)
Catching you up on the day after some notable elections results in East Cobb, and starting with one incumbent who was defeated last night.
That’s Republican Scott Sweeney, who was vying for his third term for the Post 6 seat on the Cobb Board of Education that includes the Walton and Wheeler attendance zones.
He was ousted by Charisse Davis, who like many fellow Democratic challengers in local races was running for the first time.
Some additional votes came in from when when we posted early this morning, and Davis received 21,654 votes, or 51.27 percent. Sweeney had 20,580 votes, or 48.734 percent.
As we noted last night/early this morning, Davis’ win closes the GOP majority on the school board to 4-3 come January. She’s a former school teacher and now librarian in Fulton County whose children attend school in the Campbell attendance zone, some of which is in District 6.
Here’s what Davis told her supporters this morning.
As a school district, we have an opportunity to celebrate our successes while facing our issues with the goal of finding solutions. As an educator and mom of two in the district, I am committed to seeing the district become a leader in implementing solutions that can help all of our students achieve. We can, and will, do better to provide access to early learning options, provide transparency to the families in this community, and focus on the students of this district, no matter how they learn.
East Cobb News covered a candidates’ forum between Davis and Sweeney last month during what came to be a competitive election. Both were unopposed in the primaries, but she received more votes than Sweeney, whose sons attend Walton and Dickerson.
On Tuesday, Sweeney won most of the East Cobb precincts, although Davis carried the Terrell Mill precinct handily. He carried a precinct in Vinings, but she enjoyed large margins in all other precincts in the Cumberland-Smyrna area.
We’ve got a table below that breaks it down, and will be adding more reaction.
For now, she breaks the Republican lock on elected officials that represent East Cobb residents. The 6th Congressional District and State House 37th District races are still in too-close-to-call mode.
Republican Cobb school member David Chastain won a second term Tuesday, defeating Democrat Cynthia Parr to keep the Post 4 seat that includes the Kell and Sprayberry districts.
Chastain received 20,592 votes, or 53.61 percent, while Parr got 17,820 votes, or 46.39 percent.
We’ll have more later in the week on reaction from other races, including commissioner JoAnn Birrell’s close re-election, legislative results and where the Georgia governor’s race stands.
What was billed as a meet-and-greet turned into something of a debate. The Cobb school board candidates vying for the Post 6 seat met at Mt. Bethel Elementary School Tuesday night, and offered differing views on how they would tackle challenging issues facing the Cobb County School District.
Organized by the Mt. Bethel PTA, the forum, which took place in the school’s media center, drew a couple dozen citizens. They asked some occasionally pointed questions after the candidates made their opening statements.
Scott Sweeney, a two-term Republican incumbent, said he wants to continue the progress he said the district has made in the eight years he’s served.
His challenger, Democrat Charisse Davis, is a first-time candidate, mom, former teacher and librarian who said voices like hers are needed on the seven-member Cobb school board.
Davis, a proponent of more Pre-K offerings in Cobb schools, said she was prompted to run because she’s heard from parents that the school district, over the last eight years, “is becoming less competitive for some people.”
She said after a school board meeting she talked to one mother who withdrew her child’s enrollment from the district out of frustration. Davis also thinks the board and district could be more transparent.
“They feel like no one is listening to them,” said Davis, whose children attend Teasley Elementary School and Campbell Middle School. She works at the Wolf Creek Branch of the Atlanta-Fulton Library System.
Post 6 includes mostly the Walton and Wheeler clusters. Sweeney, whose sons now attend Walton and Dickerson Middle School, took issue with Davis’ contention, and said Cobb is considered one of the best public school districts in the state and the country.
Sweeney also said transparency isn’t an issue: each Cobb school board meeting is televised and available on a live stream, and discussions conducted in executive session are voted in public meetings.
He also touted the tens of millions of dollars in capital improvements the district has invested during his time in office, including rebuilds of Walton, Wheeler, East Cobb Middle School and Brumby Elementary School, and future improvements scheduled at other Post 6 schools.
Davis noted that the Cobb school board could become all-male in January, since Susan Thayer, the only female currently serving, is not running for re-election. In another East Cobb race, Post 4 incumbent David Chastain is being opposed by Cynthia Parr.
“Representation matters,” Davis said.
“Well, I’m a dad,” said Sweeney, a financial executive with InPrime Legal Services of East Cobb. “The fact that I’m a male doesn’t disqualify me.”
(The Fulton County Board of Education, which also has seven members, is all-female.)
The candidates had different views on the school walkouts that took place at several Cobb schools earlier this year, including at some East Cobb high schools, in response to school shootings.
Davis said the Cobb school district, which didn’t endorse the walkouts and threatened punitive action for unexcused absences, missed a “teaching moment” that took place in other metro school systems.
Students who walked out were typically given a one-day in-school suspension, and later some of them lashed out during the public comment session at a school board meeting.
” ‘Please help us to be safe,’ that’s all they were saying,” Davis said in support of the suspended students.
Sweeney said while he supported students’ free expression rights, sometimes those actions have consequences, and that the school district shouldn’t get involved in political debates.
“The school district isn’t the place for that,” he said.
Both candidates said they oppose arming teachers. Sweeney said Cobb has one of the best-staffed and trained school police forces in the state, with armed officers at every high school and middle school and some elementary schools.
Davis said she thought the district could do better than to be mostly reactive: “What are we doing to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again?”
As for making academic success a more variable thing, Davis said she wants Cobb to create a career and college academy similar to what’s been done in other metro school districts. The pressures some students feel, even at good schools, to live up mainly to test scores can be overwhelming, and make them feel left out.
While schools in East Cobb are among the best in the state, she asked if “we are meeting the needs of all our students?” Test scores alone, she said, is “not what makes a great school. A family feeling is better than any rating.”
Sweeney said he supports the reduction of what he called “the burden of standardized testing.”
Cobb is among those districts in Georgia that has applied to the state for create alternatives to some currently required tests, including the Milestones, which are released during the summer.
Here’s more on the Cobb Metrics program, which was announced earlier this week.
The candidates are scheduled for at least one more forum before the Nov. 6 elections, at an event next Monday in Vinings at the Cochise Club (3795 Cochise Drive), that starts at 6:30 p.m.
(East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
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After last week’s last-minute cancellation of a Cobb school board candidates forum, the Mt. Bethel Elementary School PTA has sent word that it has organized an event with the Post 6 competitors on Tuesday.
That will be held from 6:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. in the media center of Mt. Bethel ES (1210 Johnson Ferry Road).
The candidates are Scott Sweeney, a Republican incumbent from East Cobb who is completing his second term in office, and Democrat Charisse Davis, a first-time candidate from the Smyrna-Vinings area.
The Wheeler PTSA event that was to have taken place Thursday was called off due to a previously scheduled orchestral concert at East Cobb Middle School. Thursday also was Wheeler’s homecoming parade.
Post 6 includes all of the Walton and Wheeler high school attendance zones as well as some of the Campbell area.
The Mt. Bethel ES PTA is calling this a “meet and greet” event and not a formal forum. Light refreshments will be provided.
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No reason has been given by the Wheeler PTSA, which had organized the event.
The candidates are Republican incumbent Scott Sweeney, who told us yesterday he’d been notified via text message, and Democratic challenger Charisse Davis, who’s been informing her supporters of the cancellation as well.
Sweeney also told us there is no other scheduled event for the candidates in that race before the Nov. 6 election.
Post 6 includes the Walton, Wheeler and part of the Campbell attendance zones.
On Thursday the League of Women Voters of Marietta/Cobb is holding a candidates forum for District 3 Cobb Commission candidates and those running for state senate, including District 32 in East Cobb.
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Next week the Wheeler PTSA will be holding a candidates forum for the Cobb school board Post 6 race.
That forum is Thursday, Oct. 4 at 6:30 p.m. at East Cobb Middle School (825 Terrell Mill Road).
The candidates are Republican incumbent Scott Sweeney of East Cobb and Democrat Charisse Davis of Smyrna.
Sweeney, first elected in 2010, is seeking his third term. He is an executive with InPrime Legal, which provides legal services for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Davis is a first-time candidate and has children at Teasley Elementary School and Campbell Middle School.
She is a youth services librarian in the public library system and former school librarian and classroom teacher.
She supports expanding the statewide pre-K program.
Post 6 includes the Wheeler and Walton and part of the Campbell attendance zones. A map can be found here and Post 6 is indicated in pink.
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Davis said the Cobb school district, which didn’t endorse the walkouts and threatened punitive action for unexcused absences, missed a “teaching moment” that took place in other metro school systems.
