UPDATED:
The school board voted 4-3 along party lines Thursday to submit the map proposed by Scamihorn to the state legislative reapportionment office.
The four Republicans voted in favor and the three Democratic members voted against.
A motion by Davis to keep the current lines failed 3-4, along the same party divide.
Original Report:
A reapportionment map to be proposed by the outgoing Cobb Board of Education chairman on Thursday is designed to maintain the board’s slender Republican majority.
Two others proposed by Democratic members attempt to prevent the GOP from building on that advantage.
The maps are included in the school board’s agenda for its December work session starting at 2 p.m. Thursday (previous ECN post here).
The GOP holds a 4-3 edge on a Cobb school board that has been deeply divided along partisan lines for the last two years, after Republicans held a comfortable 6-1 margin before that.
The proposal by Republican chairman Randy Scamihorn of Post 1 of northwest Cobb (see map at top) was added late Wednesday, and was crafted by Taylor English Duma LLP, a law firm based in the Cumberland area and which was hired to draw a new map for the Cobb legislative delegation to consider in January.
Democrats hold a one-member majority in the Cobb delegation, which also will decide new district lines for the Cobb Board of Commissioners, the six Cobb municipal council districts and Marietta school board boundaries.
The proposed Cobb school board maps are purely advisory.
In Scamihorn’s map, the East Cobb area of Post 6 that includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters would be shifted entirely to Post 5, represented by Post 5 Republican member David Banks, the board’s current vice chairman, who was re-elected in 2020.
That new post would also include the campus of Pope High School and some of the Lassiter High School attendance zone that Banks has represented since 2009.
He won a third term in November by fewer than 3,000 votes.
The new Post 6 that Democrat Charisse Davis has represented since 2019 would move to the Smyrna-Cumberland-Vinings area under the chairman’s proposal.
She lives near Teasley Elementary School, and that post would also include the residence of current board member Jaha Howard, another first-term Democrat who was elected to serve in Post 2, which includes the Campbell and Osborne clusters.
Davis has not made public whether she’s seeking re-election. Amy Henry, a parent of four children in the Walton cluster, has announced her candidacy as a Republican.
But Davis also has proposed a map that would keep some of East Cobb in Post 6 (see below).
That includes most of the Wheeler cluster and some of the Walton cluster; Davis and Howard also would both be drawn into Post 6 and a new board member would come from Post 2.
Howard has declared his intention to run for Georgia school superintendent.
Under Scamihorn’s proposal, the clockwise shift in the new lines would push Post 3 into the McEachern High School cluster. That’s currently in Post 7, where GOP incumbent Brad Wheeler barely won re-election last year.
The realigned Post 7 would include the Hillgrove, Harrison and Kennesaw Mountain high school clusters.
Scamihorn, who was was re-elected last year, would just barely fit into the new Post 1, made up of the Allatoona and North Cobb high school clusters.
Scamihorn’s proposed Post 4 would continue to include the Kell and Sprayberry clusters, and well as part of the Lassiter cluster.
Republican David Chastain, who has held that seat since 2014, has said he will be seeking a third term.
The only other candidate who has announced for Post 4 is Democrat Austin Heller, a Kennesaw State University student.
Davis’ map would keep most of the Kell and Sprayberry clusters in Post 4, and Post 5 would include the Lassiter, Pope and Walton campuses.
Her map would place Chastain and Scamihorn in Post 1, prompting a new board member to come from Post 4.
Post 3 board member Tre’ Hutchins, a Democrat in his first year in office, also has a map proposal that will be discussed Thursday afternoon (see below).
His Post 6 would retain some of the Wheeler and Walton clusters, but it would call for a new board member.
That’s because he’s proposing a Post 2 with Davis and Howard drawn together.
The South Cobb-area post Hutchins represents would include the Pebblebook, South Cobb and McEachern high school clusters.
Related posts:
- Cobb school board to discuss reapportionment, SPLOST loans
- 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
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
