On Tuesday, Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law state Sen. Ed Setzler’s map that redraws the boundaries of the seven posts of the Cobb County Board of Education.
“It is law. Signed by the governor. And will supersede any previous plan,” Setzler, an Acworth Republican, told the MDJ Tuesday.
Setzler said he has provided the data set to the Cobb Board of Elections that allows that body to implement the new map in time for this year’s elections.
Qualifying for four of the seven seats on the school board is in March. The seats up for election are held by Republican board Chairman Randy Scamihorn, and board members David Banks, a Republican, Brad Wheeler, a Republican, and Leroy Tre’ Hutchins, a Democrat.
Setzler’s map replaces the one tossed out by U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross in mid-December. Her decision was in response to a lawsuit brought by Cobb residents and groups such as GALEO and the New Georgia Project. The suit alleged the previous map, passed by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2022, racially gerrymandered the county’s school board districts. The Cobb School District rejected this allegation and appealed Ross’s order to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The federal appeals court recently put a stay on Ross’s decision.