Friday, January 24, 2003

Board of education, districts get new look

The first official Board of Education meeting of 2003 resulted in a new look for the Board table with new officers, members, and districts.

District 2 Board member Katie Reeves was elected president to a two-year term of the Fulton County Board of Education at the pre-board meeting Tuesday, January 14. District 6 Board member Zenda Bowie was elected Vice President and will serve a one-year term.

This is Reeves' first term as president and her fifth year serving on the Board of Education, having joined the board in 1999 and then re-elected in November 2002 to her second term of office.

She is an active member of the Alpharetta community and has served on the Alpharetta Planning Commission for four years. She also has served on the Local School Advisory Committee at Lake Windward Elementary School and has served as the school's PTA legislative chair. She succeeds Linda Bryant, who served three years as Board president.

Bowie, who has served since 1990, is the most senior member of the Fulton County Board of Education. She served as the board's president from 1993 through 1996, and also has served as president of the Georgia School Boards Association.

She is employed as the chief operating officer for the American Lung Association of Georgia and succeeds Board Vice President Ron Jackson.

The January 14 pre-board also marked the first meeting for new board member Liz Hausmann, who was elected in November to represent the newly redrawn District 5.

The seat was created after the U.S. District Court of Atlanta redrew the school board voting districts last May. The new districts are based on the 2000 U.S. Census and create seven districts with nearly equal populations of about 61,000 residents. The new District 5, previously in south Fulton, was created by splitting the former District 2 and then moving District 5 to north Fulton County where much of District 2 was under-represented.

This is Hausmann's first term holding an elected public office, and previously she was chairwoman of the North Fulton Republican Party, a member of the Board of Elections and Registration, and was a president of the State Bridge Crossing Elementary School PTA. She succeeds retiring board member Frank Lambert, who served on the Board for 14 years.

District 3, represented by Gail Dean, also underwent changes due to the U.S. District Court's ruling. The district previously resided entirely in Sandy Springs and is now divided with three-quarters residing in north Fulton (Sandy Springs) and the remaining one-quarter in south Fulton (East Point and Hapeville). Hers is the first Fulton Board seat to be divided among north and south Fulton County.