Mike Chapman...if you don't like it...you have a choice...you can move.

Chairman Chapman can run for re-election as Chairman county wide, just like he has always ran. How was he drawn out?

After reading the Woodstock Patch piece, written by a member of this Blue Ribbon Committee, it is clear that this is pure politics and power grabs, and most definitely in response to the BOE striking down the Charter School last year. Power plays and shenanigans as usual. http://woodstock.patch.com/articles/committee-wants-no-changes-to-school-board

Instead of letting all voters have a say, they do believe they 'know best' and are limiting our voting power. I, for one, will be exercising that power when they are up for re-election. I sincerely hope someone runs against Chip Rogers. I would vote for Ronald McDonald at this point!

The Grassroots Conservative group is going to ruin this county....and Chip Rogers is helping to finance them to the tune of over $10,000. He's also made some contributions to Bill Dewrell other group. When can we vote Mr Rogers out of the neighborhood?

In that our delegation is so concerned with choice, am sure they would be willing to suspend HB978/979 and give the voters the opportunity to choose how their elected officials get elected.

It's really very simple - the arrogance and cronyism is with Read and Chapman, along with Dr. P, not the legislators. NEWSFLASH - last time I checked, the school board is supposed to be a representative board of THE PEOPLE, not a puppet board run by the Superintendant, which is unfortunately what has occured for the last two decades. If Janet Read and Mike Chapman have done a good job representing the people and the best interests of Cherokee County children and citizens, then no matter what Post they would fall under, they would be re-elected. However, the reality is, they know they have not done a good job and have not been elected by the people but rather by the Special Interest Groups and CCSD Employees, all made possible by the old way of doing elections (where CCSD employees could vote for all candidates countywide) and the Dr. P political machine could be preserved. However, the "machine politics" are coming to an end, albeit with Read, Chapman, and Dr. P kicking and screaming. The demographics of Cherokee County have changed to where a majority of the county is non-native, more affluent and value education more dearly and want to see progressity and options beyond what Dr. P and his cronies have been able and willing to provide. Our legislators have recognized and it is the people of Cherokee County (like me) who have spoken directly to the legislators strongly recommending the system be changed for the right reasons...(con't below...)

(con't from above)...The old election model was an “incumbent protection plan”. Beating the Dr. P crony incumbents and getting a people focused majority has been difficult because to challenge an incumbent, candidates have had to build an organization that could defeat a county wide campaign. The Dr. P crony incumbents like Read and Chapman have always been able to count on the special interest groups to work for them - the vast numbers of the PTA Leadership (a Dr. P Activist Group) and their mindless members and terrified district teachers and employees that live in every corner of the county. If you think I am crazy, just think back to the charter school vote at Cherokee H.S. Of the 800 people who were there 70% were turned out by “the system” to protect “the system”. We have made headway by having three solid School Board members who are not puppets and who are truly focused on representing the children and citizens of CC - Geist, Usher and Cochran. With a new policy on elections, we now hope to fully move the School Board to a professional board fully representative of the people and free from the totalitarian puppet state it has been held in by Dr. P for the last decade. Amen to our truly conservative legislators who have had the guts to stand up to the elitist left wing of Cherokee County - Dr. P and the RINO Four Members of the School Board!!! And to Mike Chapman, as payback from your June Comments, I prodly say, "IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, YOU CAN MOVE !!! :)

Dont mess with the Tparty. They will get you like they are going to get Janet Read and Mike Chapman. That is all that this is about. Has nothing to do with quality education in Cherokee Cty.

Scott, exactly. Such a joke. Glad to see other people realize this.... unless this is part of their personal agenda as well (to oust true voting power, and ensure that 'choice' loving leaders secure posts on our BOE). This all boils down to the Republican push for privatization of public education, and funneling our local tax dollars to 'other' entities such as for-profit charter management companies and private schools (aka vouchers). But it's all in the name of education, right!? Give me a break.

@Ashley&Scott-I am sorry, but I can't let you define this situation incorrectly. This situation is about ensuring we establish a system that ensures the most important and most "local" group of folks are fully empowered to make the right decisions in the best interests of the children-and that group of people is called, "The Parents." Like it or not, the Parents are the ones who are responsible for their children's education, period. This IS ABOUT CHOICE. For the record, I can assure you that the School Choice "Movement" has never been about a secretive motive to privatize education, or trump one mode of education over another, which continues to be the unsubstantiated battle cry of your "movement," The Personal Agenda Movement. The School Choice movement has always been about supporting an educational environment that provides the widest possible options in order to cover down 100% on the needs of all children and to promote reform through innovative approaches and competition. We are level-headed enough to realize that we need a strong traditional system that will always serve a majority of children but at the same time we need Parents and Children to have options in the alternative public and private educational arenas to ensure children who are not thriving in the traditional system have their needs met. I am a real parent of 5 children who have had a blend of traditional public and private education that has met their needs every step of the way...(con't below)...

(con't from above) and I am fighting and will continue to fight for this same right for all children against those who are fighting first for themselves and shamelessly to protect the government educational monopoly that knowingly accepts mediocrity for a % of children even given the vast amount of resources we have in education to ensure that NEVER HAPPENS. This has everything to do with the quality of education in CCty, and includes ensuring we reempower those that are BOTH primarily responsible for and are footing the bill for education-THE PARENTS. The majority of Georgians and Americans for that matter, believe as I do. All that is gleemed from "The Personal Agenda Movement" is that it is comprised of Special Interests and those from the traditional public educational arena that do not feel comfortable with emplacing the emphasis on children first, and poliltics second. As a Superintendant, Board Member, or PTA Leader, one must have the humility to realize it is about empowering individuals and providing freedom where it can be most successful vs. controlling others through pride and power. As a teacher, one must have humility to realize that you are not and never will be the educational "savior" for every child who walks into your classroom but the best way to ensure that child is fully served is to support access to an all options system. There is more than just one way to skin a cat, it is time for the public educational bureaucracy to realize that and support it.

Well. You do have a lot to say... So you do not believe the teachers in CCSD place their emphasis on the children first? One wonders how would you know that? Please let us know how many children you have or have had in CCSD schools? And how many years they attended?

No, he is more concerned with using our local tax dollars - that are collected for our traditional public schools - and siphoning them off to private entities. This is the true agenda of this 'conservative' movement in Cherokee.

HR 1162 Just passed !!! Thank you Senator Rogers and Team !!! Another huge win for Parents and Children, and CHOICE IN EDUCATION !!!

Another win for the Tea Party. Freedom for For Profit schools to suck off the peoples dime..... And a chance for those special kids to get their own fundamentalist version of science with all it entails.... like Intelligent Design, No global warming, and the earth is 5000 years old.... taught by teachers who cant pass the tests for public schools.

Where is the money going to come from? The schools are already not given all that they should. Come on people of Cherokee county....we will get a chance to vot this down. Local choices for education should be made at the local level. Where is the enabling legislation for this?

I'll be voting with you, Cheryl. I think this is a huge wake up call to traditional public school parents. Our 'leaders' are much more concerned with funding for-profit charter schools than restoring funding to the traditional public schools that educate the VAST majority of children in GA. The money will come from our already anemic county budgets. Time to spread the word so voters are informed of this taxation without representation come November.

The farce that is being purported by Dr. P and the Media is that CCSD is an efficiently spending school district and that "citizens" that are complaining about budget cuts are actual parents who are not teachers or CCSD employees. The bottomline is this-Dr. P has created a huge bureaucracy in the tax revenue heydays of the Pre-Obama economy that he could not sustain. He does not have the guts or the intent to get rid of needless or ineffective staffing that does not contribute to the core of education-classroom instruction. Instead, he justs blames the State Legislature for not giving him the $millions he wants to spend frivolously, just like he tried to blame a budget shortfall on CCA opening, which was ludicrous and unsubstantiated. Education is already the largest part of the State Budget. Our conservative legislators are doing what we conservatives have asked them to do - reform education and get the most bang for the buck spent, and they are doing that via The Special Needs Schoolarship, The Tuition Tax Credit Program, and legislation that puts Parents and Children as the decisionmakers and customers of education and brings results at the lowest cost and where it matters most - with ALL CHILDREN vs. Special Interest Groups such as the Georgia PTA, The GA School Boards Assoc., The GA Superintendant's Assoc., The GAE and PAGE Teacher's Assoc., and the public educational bureacracy. The truth is obvious. Dr. P and his establishment following are exposed, and crumbling.