MARIETTA - The new Marietta school board unanimously elected its former vice chairman, Randy Weiner, as chairman, and member Irene Berens as vice chairwoman at its Tuesday night meeting.

"Very excited about the new board," said Weiner, who was first elected in 2006.

"I think we're going to work very well together. We just all have the same common goals and personalities I guess seem to click. We just all are going to be focused on the best interest of the kids, and it's going to be a good working year," he said.

Weiner is a graduate of Marietta High School, with a degree in finance from Kennesaw State University. He owns a window-cleaning business and holds a real estate license.

There was no name calling associated with the unanimous elections of the chair and vice chair of the Marietta school board.

Compare that to the bitterly divided Cobb school board slated to elect its chair and vice chair this morning. Last year, Cobb school board member Dr. John Abraham said he could not "in good conscience" vote for his colleague, Dr. John Crooks, as chair, even though Crooks had served as vice chair that year. Abraham has since denounced another colleague, threatening board Alison Bartlett with censure. He now tells the MDJ and others that he doesn't trust any of his board colleagues. Superintendent Fred Sanderson is the only one he trusts, Abraham says.

But that kind of rhetoric isn't found at the Marietta school board meetings.

"It's the way it's always been since I've been on the board. It's been an easy transition every year," Weiner said.

Weiner said he wants to focus on teacher quality to ensure the system hires the best teachers available while retaining the superior teachers that already work for the city. Weiner also wants to make sure the system doesn't fall back on its achievement with No Child Left Behind mandates in the area of math.

"I would like for us to really achieve AYP in math and AYP in general but math will be a big challenge this year. The bar will be raised almost 10 percent this year - the annual measurement objective, AMO - and so the bar will be higher in math and that's going to be a big challenge for this system," Weiner said.

Marietta school board attorney Clem Doyle conducted the vote by asking board members to write out a nomination for the position of chair and vice chair on slips of paper. He then collected the papers to see that all board members wrote the names of Weiner for chair and Berens for vice chair. Board member Jill Mutimer then motioned for both members to be elected chair and vice chair, and the board voted 7-0 to approve them.

Mutimer said she nominated Weiner and Berens because she believes they will represent the board well.

"Both are veteran board members with the experience necessary to deal with the demands inherent in these roles," she said.

The board has three new members who have joined, having been elected in the November election.

Logan Weber, a graduate of Marietta High School who works as a trader with an agricultural holding company specializing in commodities, replaced Scott Allen, who did not seek reelection. Stuart Fleming, a graduate of the Walker School who attended the U.S. Air Force Academy before working in strategy and operations at Coca Cola Enterprises, replaced Jeanie Carter, who retired. And Tom Cheater, a global business solutions manager for British Telecom, replaced Tom Smith, who did not seek reelection.

Budget permitting, Cheater said he wants to see an expansion of the performing arts in the school system.

"Student involvement in the performing arts in schools has shown a direct correlation to improved student academic achievement," Cheater said.

"I'd like to look for increased opportunities - especially in the middle and high school grades, for expanded programs for our students. As one example, we have over 150 students participating in our sixth grade orchestra this year, and we want to ensure we have opportunities for these, and other students to optimize their talents as they move into the higher grades," he said.

In other business, Fleming nominated Cheater to be the board's legislative liaison, while Berens nominated Mutimer to be the board's Marietta Schools Foundation liaison in unanimous votes.

"I think it went very, very well, and I'm really excited about working with this group, this group of really dedicated citizens," Superintendent Dr. Emily Lembeck said after the meeting.

Lembeck said while she's aware there is concern over upcoming budget cuts, she doesn't have the information yet to present to the community on what those cuts will be.

"We need to wait until the governor shares a little bit about what he's been holding close to his chest in terms of what the outlook really looks like," Lembeck said.

"I just want to assure the teachers that we'll keep them apprised as we go through the situation and we learn more from the governor, we learn more from the legislature and we make any kind of changes as we go forth," she said.

The board has scheduled a retreat to discuss those issues at the end of the month.