DEAR EDITOR:

Regarding Marguerite Cline’s column published Friday: While I respect and appreciate Ms. Cline’s past service to the Cherokee County School System, those contributions do not give her license to take liberty with the facts. In her column, Ms. Cline said that “supposedly … some legislators” threatened “some board members.”

I have attended every meeting that has occurred between multiple members of the delegation and multiple members of the school board since November 2010. No such threats were made. In fact, during my time on the board no legislator has ever even attempted to influence my vote.

Consider this: the only meeting in 2011 to which Ms. Cline could be referring, as it was the only one that included more than one board member and took place prior to the charter vote, occurred early that year.

At that time, Cherokee Charter Academy held approval from the Georgia Charter Commission and a lower court had upheld the Commission’s constitutionality. No one could have predicted that the Georgia Supreme Court would eventually overturn that decision with a 4-3 vote in May.

As far as anyone at that meeting knew, no petition for Cherokee Charter Academy would need approval by our board. There was no reason to issues threats for an event no one saw coming.

Those on the truthful, right side of an issue never need to rely on rumor, conjecture, or untruths to make their case. After all, what does that say about the rest of their arguments?

Michael Geist
Cherokee Board of Education District 3