The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CANDIDATE PROFILE Scott Sweeney
Veteran business executive focuses on funding challenges, seeking support from Legislature.
Scott Sweeney is finishing his second term on the Cobb County school board and has served in multiple roles including chairman, budget liaison, facilities and technology liaison and other positions. President of the Georgia Education Coalition, he also served on the Geor- gia School Board Association Strategic Planning Commit- tee, Government Operations Council, and Cobb Cham- ber of Commerce Legisla- tive Affairs Committee.
Sweeney earned his bach- elor’s degree in economics from UCLA and is senior business advisor for InPrime Legal. He is a business execu- tive with more than 34 years experience in financial and budget analysis, managing multimilliondollar budgets, developing new business, project leadership, sales, operations and real estate development. He and his family have lived in Cobb County for 22 years.
“A s ide from business development, my primary work role always involved working on big-picture strat- egy. Specifically, what is it going to take for our operations to be successful? How can we ensure that we’re getting the best value when it comes to delivering qual- ity education? ... When discerning matters that come before the board, I use my business acumen and experi- ence, constituent and admin- istration input, and eightyear experience as a school board member when arriv- ing at decisions,” he said.
Key issues are budget, safety, early education and communication with the Legislature. “Uncertainty regarding state revenues is a concern,” he said. “I will continue my ongoing efforts with our local dele- gation to alert them to the funding challenges our district encounters each year,” he said.
He supports Cobb’s safety initiatives, which have armed officers at each middle and high school, school drills, improved entry procedures and the implementation of the high-tech Alert Point system, which allows teachers in each classroom to send alerts to police, schools and state law enforcement.
He will push to continue expanding Early-K, which lets kindergarten students begin school two to three weeks early to build their reading skills.
“The focus is on building reading skills and the pilot program results showed 100 percent of students were on grade level at the end of their first year in school. I will support expanding this program,” he said.
Sweeney supports the district’s testing alternative program, which incorporates a higher concentration on quick response, formative assessments rather than endof-year tests such as the Georgia Milestones tests.
“The real-time data will permit teachers a greater opportunity to focus their instructional efforts to meet individual student instructional needs,” he said.