'Problematic and unacceptable': Emails outline frustration, disagreement over Cognia review

Aug. 19—School accreditor Cognia finished its interviews and evidence gathering in its special review of the Cobb County School District on Wednesday, but emails obtained by the MDJ through open records show the process has been one filled with frustration.

The school district announced it would be the subject of a special review by Cognia in April, after the organization received a letter from the three Democrats on the Cobb school board and about 50 complaints from community and staff. That review was scheduled to take place between Sunday and Wednesday.

Though both the school district and the MDJ have requested copies of the 50 complaints cited by Cognia, neither has received those complaints in what is believed to be a violation of Georgia's Open Records Act.

Emails between school district and Cognia officials show that the district's inability to access the complaints cited, as well as apparent leaks by Cognia, are points of contention.

The district says the special review is also unusual, as it was announced just over a year after Cobb Schools received accreditation renewal for the next five years.

Emails show disagreement over process

As part of the review process, Cognia evaluators conducted 45-minute virtual interviews with Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and all seven Cobb school board members, district officials said.

Cobb Schools officials said four board members — Republicans Randy Scamihorn (chair), David Banks (vice chair), David Chastain and Brad Wheeler participated "through the district process," meaning by meeting at the district's central office for those interviews.

The three Democrats on the board that helped launch the investigation did things differently.

Board member Leroy Tre' Hutchins participated in his interview from his home, citing illness.

District officials say the board's two other Democrats, Charisse Davis and Dr. Jaha Howard, "established their own interview process through Cognia's corporate office."

"As requested by the Cobb Board Chair, the interview process was consistent for all interviewees who participated in the District process. Details relating to those who established their own process through Cognia's corporate office are unknown," district spokeswoman Nan Kiel said.

Davis did not respond to a request for comment, but emails between Cobb Schools Chief Strategy and Accountability Officer John Floresta and Cognia officials obtained by the MDJ through an open records request show that her separate participation is a point of district frustration.

Writing on Friday, Aug. 13, to Andre Harrison, vice president of accreditation services at Cognia, Floresta said Davis had informed the district that she'd received a Zoom link for interviews of board members and also the contact information of Bill Gordon, Cognia's special review team lead. Floresta said Davis told the district she would not participate in the district's process for review interviews and instead "intends to complete the interview process through her own process in a manner which will be inconsistent from the rest of the Cobb School Board."

Floresta said the district had already established, in partnership with Gordon, a "consistent process and timeline for all special review interviews," adding that it was important that the district be able to provide appropriate technical support in processes consistent for all board members. He noted Davis' previous requests to handle her interview outside that process were denied.

The Aug. 13 email from Floresta to Cognia said he "was surprised, to put it mildly, to receive Board Member Davis's email this evening indicating she would not be participating in the District's process. It is the formal request of the District, at the direction of the Cobb County Board of Education Board Chair, that the interview process be consistent, with appropriate technical support for all interviewees. The interview process as designed by Bill Gordon and myself met this criteria."

Floresta also said that by sending Davis the Zoom link, "you have made a consistent process, with appropriate technical support, impossible."

The following day, Harrison responded, saying only, "At the request of a Board Member, it has been Cognia's practice to allow him/her the opportunity to participate in his/her interview via Zoom, telephone, or in person."

Later that morning, Floresta fired back, accusing the accreditation agency of "injecting Cognia into Board Chair directives, local Board business, and local Board disputes."

"As noted last month on a different topic, this action makes contributing to a cooperative special review process incredibly difficult," he said. "If it is not Cognia's practice to support districts who Cognia is reviewing, please let us know. If it is, please correct the action referenced in the email below."

For his part, Howard called the claim that he'd conspired with Cognia "fake news."

"It's unfortunate that the district would say that," he said. "I went through the exact same process."

Howard said the only difference between his virtual interview and the Republican board members' is that he conducted his interview from his own office and not the district's. He acknowledged the original plan had been to conduct the interview at the district office.

Howard said he's even been in a virtual meeting with Banks, Hutchins and Cognia review team members before breaking out into individual virtual meetings to be interviewed separately. The same group then came back together virtually "to wrap up," he said.

"So it's unfortunate that the district would say something so false," Howard said.

Frustrations began earlier, with apparent leak

In earlier emails, Floresta wrote Harrison requesting the 50 community and staff complaints that Cognia said were part of what generated the review. He said the district had been frustrated by its inability to see them.

Meanwhile, Cognia officials told the MDJ the district would have the complaints to share and refused to comply with open records requests. That decision violates Georgia open records law, according to David Hudson, general counsel for the Georgia Press Association.

Cognia claims it is not an agency as the term is defined in Georgia code, and therefore its records are not subject to disclosure.

That claim, Hudson said, shows Cognia spokeswoman Mariama Tyler is mixed up. She cites what can constitute an "agency" under the Open Meetings Act, while the MDJ questions whether documents can be obtained from Cognia. That question is governed by a different piece of code, Hudson said. That code defines public records to include documents "prepared and maintained or received by ... a private person or entity in the performance of a service or function for or on behalf of an agency...."

"Thus," says Hudson, "Cognia documents relating to services provided to the school system are public records."

The MDJ has also filed a complaint regarding Cognia's violation of open records law with Attorney General Chris Carr's office and is awaiting a response.

On June 24, Floresta wrote to Harrison, noting that it was becoming "increasingly difficult to contribute to a cooperative and transparent special review process."

"It is frustrating, at best, to turn on tv last night and watch WSB-TV report with more information than has been made available to the District," he wrote, referring a story detailing a 12-page "Cobb County Public Schools Complaint Summary Report" the station said it was provided. The MDJ was denied access to that report, and Cognia claimed it had not released the document.

In his June email, Floresta again requested unredacted copies of the 50 complaints, "immediately."

"Based on our conversation this morning, I understand you have been directed by your legal team and senior leadership that these copies are now unavailable and not able to be provided to the District. This is problematic and unacceptable," he said. "If summaries of these complaints can be obtained by media, the individual complaints can be made available to the District. In a county with 800,000 citizens, better understanding the presumed unique nature of the approximately 50 complaints cited by Cognia will help us better prepare for the review."

Floresta also requested that any communication and conversation about Cobb's special review be directed through the district and not through "media third-parties."

Five days later and after consultation with Cognia's chief legal officer, Harrison said the organization's position had not changed — Cognia would not produce the complaints to Cobb Schools.

"Releasing complaints that were sent with the expectation of privacy would set a precedent that would have a chilling effect on our work and interfere with our ability to monitor the schools and systems we serve," Harrison said. "As stated previously, Cognia appreciates its long-standing relationship with your system and would like to reaffirm that it is our goal to support you during your continuous improvement journey, even when there are concerns related to your system."

(Cognia has never offered an explanation of how the complaint summary went from their offices to the Atlanta television news station.)

In response, Floresta said Cognia's decision made it "very difficult to effectively manage a staff and lead schools."

"Preparing for a review without knowledge of complaints which contributed to the review interferes with our ability to prepare and 'work with the staff and community we serve,'" he said. "If this dynamic would have a 'chilling effect' on your organization, it is difficult to reconcile Cognia's stated goal of supporting a district with 18,000 employees and 800,000 community members, while willfully applying the same 'effect'. ... Further, verbal willingness by you and Bill to provide the complaints, and your spokeswoman's indication to media that Cognia had already sent the complaints to CCSD, makes this decision particularly problematic."

Cobb Schools pays Cognia $133,200 per year for accreditation services, and it paid an additional $70,000 in the 2019-20 school year, the last year the regular accreditation review took place, according to the district.

CCSD is the second-largest school system in Georgia and the 25th-largest in the nation, with 111 schools and more than 107,000 students. Officials say the county leads many metro-Atlanta school districts in measures including graduation rates (89%), SAT scores, ACT scores and Georgia's accountability scores.

Follow Thomas Hartwell on Twitter at twitter.com/MDJThomas.