Politics & Government
Olens Questions Cobb School Board's Emails
The four board members who voted to bring back the traditional calendar held extensive discussions on their private accounts.
The Cobb County Board of Education is due to discuss a parent’s complaint that sparked a letter to the board from state Attorney General Sam Olens during tonight’s school board meeting at 7 p.m. at the at 514 Glover St.
Parent Tricia Knor sent a complaint to Olens’ office June 27 about emails board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett of Post 7, Vice Chairman Scott Sweeney of Post 6, and members Kathleen Angelucci of Post 4 and Tim Stultz of Post 2 sent to one another using their private accounts.
The email conversations discuss changing the school calendar back to the traditional calendar, board member seating arrangements, other board members and district personnel decisions, among other things.
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Knor’s complaint and the board’s response to it, obtained through an open-records request, are attached to this article.
“After a thorough report of over 1,000 emails produced via multiple Open Records Request(s), I have come to realize potential and numerous Open Meetings violations as they relate to email communication and open governance,” Knor wrote. “It is important to mention that the emails were from personal email accounts, not official Cobb County email addresses, even though the contents of the emails were clearly school board business of public concern.”
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Olens sent a letter about the complaint to the school board’s attorney, Clem Doyle.
Doyle responded in a letter July 14.
“We do not find that the emails between Board members in this case were a ‘meeting’ within the definition of the Act,” Doyle wrote. “We do find that these emails were available to the public and open to public inspection. Going forward, we would submit that a quorum of board members is well advised not to email each other, to ensure compliance with the Open Meetings laws.”
In addition to Knor’s complaint, Cobb parents Mike Sansone and Thom Gray have filed three complaints with Olens' office. Sansone and Gray claim 85 documented instances involving Bartlett, about 145 with Angelucci and 3,500 for Stultz failing to turn over documents requested under Georgia’s Open Records Act.
The school board also plans to talk about the request from the School Council of for the , as well as about reapportionment for board members’ districts.