Community Partnerships Can Improve Education!

Education is the top issue that comes up when I go door-to-door meeting voters.

And, while county commissioners have no direct responsibility in the administration of our public schools, the actions of our county commission do impact school performance.

Schools are impacted by the community around them, and our commissioners play a direct role in developing our communities. Schools in communities that are safe, stable and desirable are more likely to perform better than schools in areas that are less safe, less stable and less desirable.

An example of how community stability impacts neighborhoods is found right here in District 2 of Cobb County where Bob Ott serves as Commissioner. District 2 covers Smyrna-Vinings, the Cumberland Mall area and a portion of East Cobb.

Commissioner Ott along with school and community leaders discovered that poor transient rates were affecting performance of one of their elementary schools. Together, they worked with area apartment complexes to modify “Free-Rent” deals to reduce the number of people moving in and out during the school year. Today, that elementary school which once had a transient rate of 85 percent now has a transient of 45 percent. Almost half!

The difference between the example of District 2 and our district is having a county leader with sufficient interest and vision to bring people together to address education. And, the issue of education though primarily a school board matter, cannot be avoided at the county commission level when hundreds of families are considering leaving the area, home schooling or paying to send their children to private school.

These decisions impact our wallets, our quality of life and our future, not just for residents, but for businesses that base their location and hiring on the quality of area schools and the availability of work-ready employees.

Still, most importantly these decisions impact our kids who we know are smart, capable and full of promise.

Let’s better set them and our public schools up for success through community partnerships.

I have experience in leading partnerships as a manufacturing engineer bringing mechanics, machine operators, quality control and finance staff together to improve machine productivity. I have experience in housing development bringing contractors, builders, and property managers together to build affordable communities. I also have experience facilitating a partnership of nonprofit organizations and churches in the South Cobb area where we together attracted $25,000 in United Way funding to strengthen families.

I am convinced through partnerships we can better address issues of District 4, for these issues are too tough for anyone to tackle alone.

This is why I am humbly yet emphatically asking for you to come to the polls on July 31 and vote Lisa Cupid for Cobb County Commissioner.

Our communities and our future are at stake.