The Cobb Board of Education is expected to be presented with proposed reapportionment maps at its December work session on Thursday afternoon.
The board is meeting in public at a 2 p.m. work session and a 7 p.m. business session Thursday at the Cobb County School District Central Office (514 Glover St., Marietta).
There will be public comment periods at the start of both meetings, but speakers must sign up in advance by clicking here.
Each public comment session is limited to 30 minutes, and individual speakers have a maximum of two minutes.
The agendas for both meetings can be found here; the work session technically begins at 1 p.m., but members will convene, go into an executive session and return for a public work session at 2 p.m.
The meetings also will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24.
Another executive session will take place between the public meetings.
The three board business items listed on the work session agenda are all related to reapportionment but don’t have much detailed information.
In August, the board voted along partisan lines to hire Taylor English Duma LLP, a law firm based in the Cumberland area, to redraw the seven school board districts, or posts, following the release of the 2020 census.
(PLEASE NOTE: These boundaries have no bearing on specific school attendance zones, which are drawn administratively by the Cobb County School District staff.)
Reapportionment for elected political subdivisions is required every 10 years. The Cobb legislative delegation will be redrawing the Cobb and Marietta school boards and Cobb Board of Commissioners districts in January, as well as city council wards in the county’s six cities.
Cobb school board chairman Randy Scamihorn, part of the four-member Republican majority, brought the measure to present the legislative delegation with a map proposal. His board business item for Thursday says only that it will be for “Redistricting/Reapportionment Presentation (for potential action).”
Before that, board member Tre’ Hutchins will present a reapportionment item. He is a first-term Democrat from Post 3 in South Cobb.
Charisse Davis, a Democrat from Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters, also will present a board business item labeled “Redistricting/Reapportionment Update.”
Her seat is one of three school board posts that will be up for the 2022 elections.
She’s completing her first term, and currently her post includes part of the Smyrna-Vinings area, where she lives.
Davis has not indicated if she will be seeking re-election. In October, Amy Henry, a parent in the Walton High School cluster, declared her intent to run for Post 6 as a Republican.
Also up for re-election in 2022 is Post 4 Republican David Chastain (Kell and Sprayberry clusters) who has indicated he will be seeking another term.
The board also will be presented with a request to take out $100 million in short-term loans to finance construction projects.
The money would be repaid at the end of 2022 with collections from the school district’s Special Local Option Sales Tax, and the board wouldn’t adopt a formal resolution until January.
Among the major projects slated to begin construction next year is the rebuild of Eastvalley Elementary School on the former campus of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road.
At the work session, the board will receive a presentation about the Cobb Teaching and Learning System online portal.
At the Thursday evening meeting, two state champion sports teams from East Cobb high schools—Walton volleyball and Lassiter softball—will be recognized by the board.
Related posts:
- East Cobb MS earns STEAM certification from Cobb school district
- Cobb schools accrediting agency puts district on improvement plan
- Education SPLOST results by East Cobb precincts
- Cobb schools mask ruling appealed in federal court
- Cobb Education SPLOST VI referendum passes easily
- New Eastvalley ES scheduled to open in August 2023
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