Coming into her initial year as the first-ever elected Cherokee County Board of Education chairwoman, Janet Read has once again been selected to serve with the more than 900 school board members throughout the country on the National School Board Association’s Federal Relations Network.

Read said this is her sixth year being selected and she is the first and only Cherokee school board member to be chosen.

“It’s a great honor,” Read said.

Read said the conference, which will be this year at the Washington Hilton Hotel Jan. 27 to 29, helps cultivate relationships with other board members throughout the state as well as the elected officials who ultimately make decisions about public education.

“It’s a great opportunity to meet with other school board members from Georgia, from both large and small systems, and is basically a way to work with federal legislation that affects us on the state level,” Read said.

Read said at past conferences, she has had the opportunity to speak directly with U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Moultrie) and Johnny Isakson (R-Marietta) and U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) regarding education-related issues.

“I have found it very helpful to be able to work with legislators at the state level,” Read said. “They all do a good job of explaining all sides of certain issues, the ramifications if certain bills do or do not pass and throughout the year, they keep you updated.”

In previous years, Read said she has given updates to the Cherokee BOE at its February meeting regarding the federal legislation information discussed at the conference.

According to the National School Board Association, the Federal Relations Network helps insure the process of determining America’s education agenda includes input from local decision makers.

While in Washington, Read and the other board members will meet with Georgia’s congressional delegation and participate in pre-conference webinar to prepare and organize Georgia’s delegation around issues slated to be discussed during the conference.