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 Dr.
Teresa Plenge
The following is a welcome message from Dr. Teresa Plenge,
elected Chairman of the Cobb County Board of Education at the
Wednesday, January 11, 2006 Board Meeting
It is a great honor to be selected as the chair of the Cobb
County School Board. I want to thank you all for your support.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Kathie
Johnstone for all the time she put into the position of Board
Chair, and to say that I look forward to working with all my
fellow Board Members this upcoming year.
As I reflected upon what I wanted to say and what points I
wanted to express as my focus for this year, two themes kept
surfacing:
FOCUS ON OUR STAKEHOLDERS and OPEN GOVERNMENT.
I believe, as public servants, we can never focus too much
on these two areas.
We are charged with the education and well being of over
100,000 valuable students;
We are also charged with setting policy for approximately
18,000 worthy employees; and
We are entrusted with over $750 million in public funds
each year.
That is a great deal of responsibility, and one that should
be shared with all of our stakeholders. By sharing the
responsibility, and entrusting the students, employees,
parents, and taxpayers with the information about how our
schools run, they can ASSIST US in building a smoother
functioning system.
I believe that if we expand our efforts to engage with
stakeholders and find ways to encourage systematic increases
in the number of ways and times we as a Board and as a
District interact with each other, the ideals of local
government will be embodied in their best form.
Our employees, the teachers and staff who have dedicated
their lives to educating children, are incredible ambassadors
to the community. As I have seen in the Cherokee County
Schools where I work, each year Dr. Petruzielo has created a
detailed legislative agenda and sent it out early to all staff
and parents, including a list of the legislators and their
contact information. If the Cobb County School Board does this
too, then we, as an organization, have the ability to expand
our influence with our delegation because we are speaking with
one voice and the administration is encouraging the employees
to join them in this communication.
I also believe that in addition to information output, we
need to find new ways to encourage input from the front line –
the teachers and parents – to the Board and District.
On the issue of Open Government, let me just say, Jack
Abramoff may not be from Cobb County, but we are still feeling
the ripples of that scandal in our Board room. Public trust in
its elected officials has been hurt overall in our country.
Locally, we saw the Georgia media hit local government very
hard on the issues of open records and executive session
secrets last year. State legislation for economic development
was killed and criticized for allowing “backroom deals,” land
purchasing in Forsyth and Gwinnett Counties was questioned;
and we have to recognize that we had our own fair share of
scrutiny too.
I believe we need to do everything we can to assure that
our community feels like we are operating in the full Sunshine
– openly and in full light.
We should consider limiting executive sessions and
increasing the number of public meetings we hold, both as the
full Board and as individual members. For example, we are
planning Board Training after our February 8th Board Work
Session, from 2:00-8:00 to fulfill the 6 hours of Board
Training as required by state law. The public is not only
invited to attend, but they are encouraged to attend and learn
with us. This Training will be followed by a Board Retreat,
tentatively scheduled for February 12th. Some of this retreat
will be held in executive session. Executive sessions are a
necessity and will be allowed as needed or required. However,
I believe the vast majority of the Board’s Business should be
held in public. After all, I believe we are actually
conducting the public’s business as public servants, not
“Board Business.”
I believe our stakeholders should really feel like they are
a part of this process.
I would like to focus on our own communications. I recently
heard someone mention the concept of the “Kroger Rule.” If
something is going on with the School District, every member
of the Board has a right to that information. We should not
have to hear about it at a grocery store when a neighbor comes
up and says, “I can’t believe you all are doing
such-and-such.”
To avoid the Kroger Rule, we will all need to make the
effort to talk to one another; copy each other on more
e-mails; take the time to make a few extra phone calls; and,
Fred, I would ask that you and the staff work on this too. We
need to make sure the information from the District to the
Board increases for the same reason.
So other than just saying this is something nice to do,
what can we do to focus on our stakeholders and be an open
body of government?
First, I would ask that we review Policy 3.9 regarding our
stakeholder and communication policy at our upcoming retreat.
Secondly, using a firm which is certified by the Georgia
School Boards Association to provide Board Training, I would
like to suggest that the topic of the February 8th Training be
“Communication.”
Third, I will work with each of you to continue, over the
year, to bring in new and innovative ideas to keep these two
themes in the forefront.
Thank you.
Dr. Teresa Plenge
January 1, 2006
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