Cobb BOE Elects New Chair, Vice Chair

COBB COUNTY, GA — The Cobb County School District Board of Education voted Post 1 Member Randy Scamihorn and Post 5 Member David Banks as the new chair and vice chair, respectively, on Thursday. This is Banks' second consecutive term as vice chair.

This annual vote means members of the Republican majority will lead the board, as Scamihorn and Banks are both Republicans — as well as Post 4 Member David Chastain and Post 7 Member Brad Wheeler, who was the most recent chairman of the board and presided over the nominations.

Chastain and Wheeler supported the nominations, while Democrats Jaha Howard, post 2; Leroy "Tre" Hutchins, post 3; and Charisse Davis, post 6, voted against them.

"I'm looking forward to a great year," Scamihorn said in a news release. "As a school board, we want to do as much as we can for our students and our staff."

Howard nominated Davis as chair and Hutchins and vice chair, but the four Republican school board members rejected those nominations during the meeting. Banks and Scamihorn nominated each other for their respective positions.

Thursday marked the third time in as many years that the board's Republican members — all four of whom are white men — voted to reject the nomination of a Black colleague to serve as chair or vice chair, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. All three Democratic board members are Black.

Last year, Howard nominated Davis, a Black woman, as chair and vice chair, but all four Republican members voted against that nomination. But each of the Republican members have served as chair or vice chair multiple times, the AJC reports.

During Thursday's meeting, Howard and Davis asked Wheeler if board members could discuss why they wanted to become chair, but Wheeler declined.

"I don’t see any need for that," Wheeler said.