Education in Atlanta Education in Atlanta

It's the first week after the November 2 election and while the winners relish in their victories, we're also looking ahead to the school board races in 2022. This week we met with Austin Heller who has declared his candidacy for Post 4 in the Cobb County School Board. Heller  Heller, a rising senior at Kennesaw State University, announced this week he’s running for a seat on the Cobb Board of Education in 2022.

To learn more about Heller and his campaign, click here. 

In this episode, our intern, Jahavarius Kendrick, interviewed Heather Tolley-Bauer founder of Watch the Funds Cobb. Watch the Funds Cobb was created as a watchdog group focused on engaging stakeholders to watch how the school district spends taxpayers' dollars. To date, the district has received millions from the federal government to combat the pandemic. To learn more about Watch the Funds, click here. 

In this episode, our intern, Jahavarius Kendrick, interviewed Dr. Morcease Beasley, Superintendent of Clayton County Schools. Beasley was appointed in 2017 after serving as the Chief Schools Improvement Officer in Clayton County Schools. As a Superintendent, Beasley leads one of the nation's top 100 largest school districts and the fifth-largest school system in the state of Georgia with more than 55,000 diverse students, 7,300 employees, a $728 million general budget, and nearly 70 learning sites and educational programs.

It's the first week into the start of the 2021-2022 school year and Charisse Davis spends no time making sure she's advocating for students and families from the Post 6 seat on the  Cobb County School Board. Originally from Florida, Davis attended Spelman College and then spent fifteen years as a teacher and librarian before running (and beating an incumbent) for the Cobb County School Board. 

Clarification: During the interview, Davis mentions the first black woman on the Cobb Board was Peggy Johnson but it was actually Peggy Lawson.