Cherokee Tribune – Geist releases letter after open records request

n response to an open records request made Nov. 22, Cherokee School Board member Michael Geist on Friday released the letter he wrote in support of fellow board member Kelly Marlow.

Geist penned the letter to members of a review panel appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal to decide whether Marlow should be suspended pending the outcome of her criminal indictment. The panel recommended she not be suspended.

During the hearing on Nov. 14, Marlow’s attorney presented Geist’s letter to the panel as part of his argument her indictment did not impact her ability to do her job. Marlow was indicted on charges she lied when she told police the school superintendent attempted to run her down in June.

The Cherokee Tribune filed a formal open records request with Geist on Nov. 22.

Geist on Nov. 27 asked for a fee of $10 to produce the one-page document. However, he released the letter Friday after deciding that a fee should not be charged.

In the letter, dated Nov. 13, Geist wrote suspending Marlow would not be “in the best long-term interest of the board as a whole.”

Geist wrote in the letter the governor’s panel, consisting of Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, Cobb School Board member Tim Stultz and Forsyth School Board member Ann K. Crow, could watch videos of Cherokee School Board meetings to “confirm first-hand how the board has functioned in recent months.”

Geist wrote that, whether it’s a result of additional experience or of learning from her own mistakes, Marlow had become more effective and professional in recent months.

“In my opinion, interrupting both the growth of Ms. Marlow as an individual and that of the Cherokee County Board of Education as a whole would be a step in the wrong direction and would deprive the voters of the board they elected just as it finally aspires to realize its potential,” Geist wrote.

via Cherokee Tribune – Geist releases letter after open records request.