by Rebecca Gaunt
It was another heated meeting for the Cobb County school board Thursday as the Republican board majority extended Superintendent Chris Ragsdale’s contract until 2027 in a 4-3 party-line vote, and he used his superintendent remarks to unleash on critics.
During the vote, members of the audience held up signs with photos of Ragsdale and the word “OPPOSED” in all caps.
“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” he told the board.
Shouts of “No confidence!” came from the back of the room, where members of the Cobb Community Care Coalition wore green shirts with “No Confidence in Ragsdale” emblazoned on the front.
Ragsdale paused and Scamihorn banged his gavel for order.
Public commenters then fired on the district over its response to the parking lot shooting at McEachern High School last month. Members of the Coalition also read from Microsoft Teams messages district staff exchanged in a coordinated attempt to block dissenting voices at the September meeting.
Read more here about the messages obtained via open records request: Cobb schools staff acted to silence critics, Teams messages show
Included in the messages read at the podium: Secretary Amanda Chambers messaging Julian (Onan) Coca, director of content and marketing, to warn him 15 people were already in line for public comment.
Coca replied, “Are they all bad guys?”
The messages show that eight members of the staff were involved in moving the line for public comment abruptly to make those waiting, primarily critics of Ragsdale, lose their spots. Chief of Strategy and Accountability John Floresta was one of them. Their actions resulted in physical confrontations and police intervention. Coca warned the staff in advance to prepare for “fireworks.”
Parent Micheal Garza read from messages in which staff admitted to looking into a student’s file for personal information and joked about hitting on students in the public comment…
Read the full article here
