By Rebecca Gaunt
Cobb Democrats joined members of the community Thursday to ask the Cobb County Board of Education to reverse last week’s decision to halt the broadcast of public comment during the monthly board meetings.
At a Marietta press conference held across the street from the district’s central office, state Rep. David Wilkerson (D-Powder Springs) held up two chess pieces and said, “As the school board believes, parents are just pawns. They’re not pawns. They’re not chess pieces. We are not playing chess nor checkers. What we should be doing is advocating for parents.”
Public comment will still take place at the meetings, but unlike the rest of the proceedings, it will no longer be included in the broadcast on CobbEdTV or streamed on the district’s website. There will be no public record kept in the form of recordings or transcripts.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale proposed the change to board policy, a move that he acknowledged had no input from its members, saying it would streamline meetings and protect the district from liability. Despite backlash from the public and opposition from the three Democratic members of the board, the four Republican board members voted to approve the change.
Read more: No more broadcast of public comments after 4-3 vote by Cobb school board – Cobb Courier
The past few years have seen a rise in scorchingly critical comments of Ragsdale and the board’s decisions, from the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic to book removals and financial decisions. Speakers have shared their experiences with antisemitism, Islamaphobia, racism, and special education services. Public comment is where the county’s controversial plans for an event center/basketball arena were blasted to the public, and where the Microsoft Teams messages that showed a coordinated effort by staff to prevent critics from speaking were revealed. In April, nearly the entire department of bus fleet mechanics attended to share their safety concerns, reports of which they said had been ignored by their superiors.
“Now you will also hear that other school boards do not broadcast their communications. This is not other school boards. This is Cobb County,” said state Rep. Terry Cummings (D-Mableton). “A lot of times when people come and speak at these hearings, it’s because they’re not being heard through other means.”
State Rep. Mekyah McQueen (D-Smyrna) called ending the broadcast a calculated move.
“A public school board voted to silence public voices, not by cutting the mic, but by cutting the cameras. That’s not policy. That’s censorship, and it’s a blatant act of disrespect to the residents of Cobb County,” she said.
State Rep. Lisa Campbell (D-Kennesaw) pushed back on the district’s defense that public comment would still be available to bring concerns to the board, calling the lack of public record an “erasure.”
“This is suppression on the highest level,” she said.
Campbell was also critical of the board’s vote to not allow students under 18 to speak at the meetings without a parent present, but with a signed permission slip instead.
Parent Micheal Garza said, “They’ve even allowed employees to take extreme measures like releasing private student information to the media to discourage students from speaking at public comment. The result has been a leadership team that is disconnected from the school that they represent. And now the community has one less pathway to changing bad policy.”
Parent Andrew Cole, who unsuccessfully challenged Brad Wheeler for his Post 7 seat on the board in 2024, said board members need to recognize the importance of communicating with the public.
“If you want to be left alone and work in isolation…you’ve chosen the wrong field,” he said.
“There is a vital effect of having a citizen address their leaders in a public forum because it does put pressure on those leaders to act, to at least reply. And without that, I fear that our runaway majority and superintendent would veer even further off course.”
Parent Tovah Ringland said her concerns went unaddressed until she started speaking at the board meetings four years ago. She addresses special education issues on a regular basis, and has heard from and seen change by school administrators who listened to her on the broadcast and reached out.
“If people who are watching virtually cannot hear, it’s not worth my coming to speak, and changes will stop,” she said.
Wilkerson encouraged parents to record the comments and post them online. He also said he hopes to see statewide legislation regarding school board broadcasts or a requirement that comments be kept in the public record.
Another reason Ragsdale gave for the policy change was to allow parents to speak who don’t wish to be broadcast or fear retribution from the community.
However, a parent in the audience broached the subject of retaliation from the board or school teams for making public comments.
“It’s my reality,” she said.
The parent, who asked not to be identified, said she went to the board when she was unable to get her daughter needed interventions for dyslexia and outside tutoring cost them thousands of dollars.
“The idea that we are now talking about retribution, punitive, retaliatory actions is abhorrent, and everyone here will be working on your behalf to make sure that that does not happen,” said Campbell.
The district has a policy of not cooperating with the Courier’s stories, but John Floresta, the district’s chief strategy and accountability officer, told the Marietta Daily Journal that the decision, “encourages all moms, dads, teachers and taxpayers –not just those who like to be broadcast countywide, to speak to our board.”
Rebecca Gaunt earned a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in education from Oglethorpe University. After teaching elementary school for several years, she returned to writing. She lives in Marietta with her husband, son, two cats, and a dog. In her spare time, she loves to read, binge Netflix and travel.
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