MARIETTA - The Cobb school board took a step toward the sunshine Wednesday by adopting a number of procedures board members say will allow for greater transparency in governance.

School board attorney Glenn Brock offered the suggestions following last month's Journal reports detailing how the board has voted in closed-door meetings in violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act for years.

Board chairman Dr. John Abraham clamped down voting and discussions in executive session when he took over as chairman at the beginning of the year. It was Abraham who later disclosed to the Journal the extensive secret voting that occurred before he became chairman.

One of the major changes the board approved Wednesday in a vote of 6-1, with Holli Cash opposing, was to openly announce and vote on all hires, reassignments and terminations for any staff member who is a principal or higher rank. Abraham said implicit in this change is that all raises will be announced at the time they are approved as well for those positions.

"I will insist on that. It's just giving the public more information," Abraham said.

In the past, personnel changes were discussed in closed session and then buried in a personnel report, which is legal, but makes it difficult for the public to track such changes.

Cash objected, saying the community and staff had not asked for the change.

"They have not asked for this," Cash said.

Board member Alison Bartlett, however, said she is less than pleased with the way principals and assistant principals are moved around the school system without community feedback. Bartlett said she intends to bring this topic up at the board's retreat this Saturday.

"We are yanking people out of the community before the community knows what's going on," Bartlett said.

Later in the meeting, the board acted on this new procedure, when Chief Human Resources Officer Dr. Donald Dunnigan informed the board that Allison Toller, Sanderson's executive assistant, had turned in her notice.

Sanderson, who said Toller had accepted a job with the Fulton School District as its executive director of communications, praised Toller for her service, noting how he first came to know her when she was a student at Wheeler High School and how she later was a teacher at Lassiter High School when he was principal there.

Toller said her first day with Fulton will likely be August 24.

"It's just a fabulous opportunity. It's an opportunity for me to grow, and a lot of what I have been doing with Jay (Dillon, communications director) and Mr. Sanderson is similar to what I believe I'll be doing in Fulton, and I live in Fulton, so it will be nice," Toller said.

The board also voted 7-0 to begin purchasing property the way the Cobb Commission does; that is, have staff identify a proposed piece of land, lock the seller into a contract to avoid land speculation, and then list the proposal on the public meeting agenda, including the price, owner, closing date and location before the board votes on it. This way, the public has a chance to comment before money changes hands.

A third suggestion the board approved in a 7-0 vote was to have Brock present a monthly legal report to give the public information about the various legal issues facing the district.

Brock had also suggested that the board no longer automatically set an executive session time for every meeting.

"Pre set times for executive session are inconsistent with the concept of open meetings," Brock said.

But Cash argued against this suggestion as well, suggesting the board continue to have set executive sessions at its night meetings, but not at its day meetings, a recommendation the board approved in a 7-0 vote.

Another suggestion of Brock's the board adopted in a 7-0 vote was to release the minutes of executive session after being legally redacted three months after the meeting to show the public what is being discussed.