Q&A with Cobb County Post 4 school board Democratic candidate Micheal Garza

By Rebecca Gaunt

Micheal Garza, a local business owner, is running for the Post 4 seat on the Cobb County Board of Education, which includes Sprayberry, Lassiter, and Kell High Schools.

He and Susan McCartney, a retired educator, will face off in the Democratic primary on May 19. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican incumbent David Chastain, who is unopposed for the Republican primary, in the November general election. Chastain has held the position since 2015.

All challenged primary candidates for the board were sent questionnaires by email and their responses will be published in full as submitted. The winner and Chastain will be invited to participate in an interview before the general election.

Early voting begins April 27.

Job: Business Owner / Website Developer

Education: Chemical Engineering, Rice University

Related work/volunteer/community experience: Leader in local, council, and district PTA. Co-Founder of Cobb Community Care Coalition. Past and current board of directors at multiple non-profits and community organizations. Involved in advocacy work in local and state government, including with Moms Demand Action, Fund Georgia’s Future, and Georgia PTA.

Website/contact: https://www.michealforcobb.com 

One of your campaign priorities is strengthening parent-teacher relationships. How?

Over the last several years, we have seen our board and district leadership playing an active role in pushing the culture wars in our schools with the banning of books and the firing of teachers. These actions cause distrust between parents and educators/media specialists and strains those relationships which are crucial to positive educational outcomes for our students. Parents disengage and teachers end up leaving the profession early.

This runs counter to my own experience – I am constantly working within our schools to increase engagement between educators and parents to establish trust necessary for active collaboration. We do that through family engagement events, parent workshops providing insights on lessons their kids are learning in our classrooms, and communications showing the positive impact on the programs we do to enrich the educational experience

As a new board member, I will push to end our district’s participation in these harmful culture wars and set a new tone from the leadership. We will actively encourage welcoming environments in our schools where parental input is sought out rather than silenced and give caregivers a window into the great work that is going on within our classrooms.

But it all starts with having that welcoming environment at the top. I will do what I have done for the last several years – go out into the community, meet residents where they are, and make them feel like their voices are valued in the decisions we make. And that doesn’t just go for Post 4 residents – I will meet with community members across the county because I will be their board member too.

Are you confident in the district’s current safety initiatives, such as purchasing vapor wake k-9sto detect weapons and the agreement with Servius, in light of recent incidents in which weapons were brought onto school campuses in Cobb?

Absolutely not. We are spending over $5 million on the two initiatives with no data on the effectiveness of the vapor wake dogs and on a secretive company that had no previous experience providing services to public schools prior to our contract with them. As a parent, I am particularly concerned with the profiling of our students by a company whose contract did not even come before the board. This spending follows a pattern where our district leadership spends millions on unproven, flashy solutions, similar to the Iggy machines and UV lights.

You mentioned recent incidents of weapons on our campuses, and I’ll bring up the incident at Hillgrove. It took 12 minutes to apprehend the student and all available information points to the dog on campus not playing a role in that detection. 12 minutes is a long time. The Uvalde shooting that killed 19 children and 2 adults lasted four minutes. The Sandy Hook shooting that claimed the lives of 20 children and 6 adults lasted five minutes. We were extremely fortunate that no students or staff were harmed.

I have been a big proponent that we take measures that prevent our children from even gaining access to firearms in the first place. I’ve testified at state legislative hearings and spoken to many lawmakers urging them to pass secure storage legislation requiring gun owners to lock up their firearms, especially when children are in the home. Absent that legislation, we can act in our county by encouraging secure storage workshops at the beginning of the year at all of our Cobb schools. In these workshops, we can educate parents and community members on the dangers of unsecured firearms and even give out free locks through community partnerships.

In taking this step, we will not only reduce instances of gun violence in our schools, but we can reduce the number of deaths by suicide among our youth.

I’d also be in favor of passing a resolution to join 40+ mayors throughout Georgia urging state legislators to act in the face of rising gun violence and make the adding of funding for more counselors a legislative priority. If the state is willing to give millions of dollars to harden schools, I’d much prefer that they earmark that money towards getting students the help they need before they get to the point of thinking about violence.

How do you plan to advocate for the students who are receiving special education services in Cobb?

I am very concerned about what we are doing in our state and our county when it comes to serving our children in special education. We are eliminating or consolidating services and programs throughout the county and doing so in a manner that is disrupting the learning environment for many students.

In my advocacy work, I have engaged with many families over the last several years, and the most prevalent issue raised to me is in how we provide support to students in special education or to students with IEPs. I’ve talked to parents whose children were affected by the loss of Bridge and MID programs. Others who have had poor experiences in IEP meetings or even in having the terms of their IEP met. Some who have received retribution for going above their school’s chain of command in trying to get their child’s accommodations met. And some who have ultimately left the public school system because of the issues they have had.

I understand the issues are complex and that there is a fine line between promoting inclusion of our students and providing that least restrictive environment for those with different learning needs. But in hearing the concerns of these parents, I will raise these questions to our leaders in special education in the district and make sure these discussions happen within the board:

• How are we communicating these changes? Are we giving families time to plan/adjust? Some families are disappointed in the lack of communication from the district when a change is made.
• Are we giving families viable options and a way to give actionable feedback to alleviate their concerns? Some families have told me that they have been told that they should consider a different local school for their child but they are not told what services other schools provide.
• Are we giving transportation options that meet the needs of these students? I have heard from parents whose children can no longer ride the bus because the district consolidated buses and their children do not do well on crowded buses.
• How are we preparing teachers in our general education classes for these students with differing needs? A parent told me of her son moving into a gen ed class, but the teacher had not read or did not understand his IEP enough to know that a particular accommodation made her son much more engaged in the classroom.
• And perhaps the biggest – what is our plan for when we see potential behavioral issues or disruptions from students who cannot handle their new environment? We know from data that students with disabilities are disproportionately punished with exclusionary discipline statewide and especially in Cobb. Many parents struggle with this because they know that once their child is deemed a disruption, that reputation carries with them throughout their entire academic career. It reduces their choice in schools and even the transition options available to them after school. I want to know that we are doing everything we can to minimize the potential for this but, when it happens, are we providing interventions/supports to get our students back on track as opposed to us just pushing them out of the in-school environment?

Which board policies, if any, would you prioritize revisiting and why?

If elected to the school board, voters would be sending a message that they want a different direction for our district and a change in the dynamic of the leadership at the top. They will signal that they want us working together to improve the educational experience for our children and to value the work of our educators in the classroom.

Over the past several years, the board has passed policies counter to that message – policies that have silenced the voices of the families in three of our posts and reduced ways that the community can engage with the board when there are concerns within our schools. In order to have an open district that welcomes community feedback and fosters an environment for collaboration within the board, I would revisit these policies:

The requirement to have four votes to put an item on the agenda. Even though I would be part of a new majority, it is important that every voice in this county is heard. Families in Post 1 or Post 5 or Post 7 deserve to have their concerns heard in board discussions even if we ultimately vote against the item.

Restore the public broadcast of public comment. The community deserves to hear concerns of other community members especially since we already broadcast the rest of the meeting. This is how we heard of the discrimination at Sprayberry graduation and ultimately forced a change in policy that prevents future students from enduring this discrimination.

Allow for board member interaction during meetings. If a community member in my post brings up a concern, we should be allowed to have a short open dialogue with that community member after they are done with their comment. If I have the ability to address it right away, it makes that person feel heard and valued. I’ve seen positive interactions at county commission meetings where this is allowed, and it can certainly work for our school board.

Reduce restrictions on students coming to public comment. We cannot center students in the decisions we make as a board if we are actively trying to deny them of the ability to bring their concerns before the board. In fact, we should be seeking out their feedback.

Reinforce existing book review policies and end the secret process that has resulted in book bans and censorship of discussions in classrooms. I want to end the involvement of outside groups into the content of our libraries and put those decisions back into the hands of our media specialists.

What is the district doing well?

Cobb is known for the outstanding pay that we offer our teachers and in the professional development opportunities we have through Georgia’s Best. I know several teachers at my school that have taken advantage of the program. Many educators I speak with talk about the unmatched pay, including teachers I meet from neighboring districts. I support continuing this investment in our teachers, which is why we have to make smart spending decisions in the face of fiscal uncertainty with the Department of Education and even within our state.

What motivated you to co-found Cobb Community Care Coalition?

I’ve been very active in attending school board meetings in addition to the daily work I do within our schools as a volunteer. While many people see the two minutes of comment we give during meetings, they don’t see the time spent before and after meetings talking with the families that come to meetings in-depth about their issues and concerns.

When those community members come to speak, they often do not get a response from their board member. No action is taken even if multiple people come to speak about the same issue. My co-founders and I were not content to let these concerns go unanswered. So, while a number of things led to the formation of this group, my primary motivation was to show these families that there are people within the community who care about their concerns and that we will help elevate their concerns to the greater community.

I am proud of the work we have done and the wins we have from this work. We helped mobilize support for the students at Sprayberry who were discriminated against during their graduation which led to a change in district policy to prevent future discrimination. We have helped win accommodations for other families with children who have disabilities. And we were part of the effort led by Watching the Funds-Cobb to end the $50 million basketball arena and ensure that funding was spent to improve the classroom environment for our kids.

What else should Post 4 voters know about you?

Out of all the many hats I wear, the one that I find most fulfilling, aside from being a parent, is being involved in PTA. For other PTA parents out there like me, you know that it is less about our own kids, and more about the success of their friends and their classmates.

I have been fortunate to develop deep lasting relationships with the teachers in her school and with other parents who share that same passion for helping our kids. Even in a polarizing time in our country, we leave our political differences at the door. Our focus is on doing what is best for our school and our families.

For those voters who don’t share my party affiliation, I at least want you to know where my heart lies and that is in caring about the academic success and emotional well-being of every child in this county, regardless of where they live. And even if you do not vote for me in the primary or in the November election, I will still work for you and your children to give them the education that they deserve.