The two new members of the Cobb Board of Education—including one who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters—weren’t bashful about outlining new ideas and initiatives for the Cobb County School District in 2019.
Democrats Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard narrowed the board’s Republican majority to 4-3 when they were sworn in in January, along with re-elected member David Chastain of the Kell and Sprayberry zones, who served as chairman this year.
Those three would ultimately clash in September, when Chastain made a motion to eliminate board member comments at the end of meetings.
Some of Howard’s remarks had strayed from Cobb school business into other political topics, local and national, and during a tense discussion, the Republican majority voted 4-3 to impose the ban.
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That split was evident earlier in the year, when Davis and Howard voiced a desire for the board to consider making some changes, including closing loopholes, in the Cobb school senior tax exemption.
As the board began the budget process, Chastain told an East Cobb audience he was adamant nothing would happen regarding the exemption, eligible for homeowners 62 and older.
School district officials estimate that costs more than $100 million a year. Davis said she doesn’t want to eliminate the exemption, but noted that Cobb is one of only two school districts in metro Atlanta that doesn’t have any conditions to its senior tax exemption.
At a school board retreat in the fall, she and Howard raised the subject again, but it was rejected.
Davis and Howard also have publicly suggested the Cobb school district 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.
In May, the board did come to a consensus on another major matter by voting 7-0 to approve the district’s fiscal year 2020 budget of $1.17 billion, which included teacher and staff pay raises between 8 and 12.6 percent, including bus drivers, cafeteria workers, school nurses, paraprofessionals and counselors.
In 2020, four board members will be up for re-election, including David Banks of Post 4. He’s finishing his third term representing the Pope and Lassiter districts, and has drawn two Republican opponents.
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