NORTH COBB - The race to replace Dr. John Abraham on the Cobb School board has become increasingly contentious between Kathleen Angelucci and Bill Borden. The two Republicans are the only candidates seeking the seat, so Tuesday's primary will decide the winner.

Borden, a real estate broker in Kennesaw, touts a concept called Shared Governance. Although he couldn't name any other school districts that use the concept, he used the district's recent mass layoffs as an example.

"Had we been communicating with our state delegation, we might have been able to put in place a law that would have allowed us to communicate with those teachers, that because of the budget crisis we cannot over-hire this year, as we have done in many years past, however we want to put you on hold and say, look we're going to continue to pay you until we see how many of you ... however we might be able to put you on hold and keep you in place until we saw how many people were going to file for their pensions, how many people were going to go to other school systems, so we would know exactly how many teachers we would need," Borden said.

Angelucci, who has been a watchdog of the district's central office for several years, takes issue with that.

"This is my belief - that my opponent is in favor of abdicating the board's responsibility of making decisions for the school district. At the end of the day, it boils down to one thing - this school board is elected to govern this school district. And I personally believe they're just trying to bring back the Carver Governance Model. And the constituents didn't want it then and they don't want it now," she said.

"I've been talking about working with legislators. I think some of the current board have alienated some of the legislators in blaming them for the financial woes, throwing out comments like they're stealing from us, and that has only alienated our legislators and they don't want to work with the school board," Angelucci said. "And so that relationship has to be repaired. But bringing in mayors from other cities to help make decisions? I think that is a bad bad road to get on."

Angelucci also said she will be glad to see superintendent Fred Sanderson go. He announced last month that he will retire when his contract expires June 30, 2011.

"He probably, and rightfully so, believes that there are those out there who are not happy with his performance. He has been dishonest with the board. He has not been open with the things that have transpired in the past. Those things, they should have been dealt with, there should have been consequences for those actions and there were not," Angelucci said.

Borden, when asked what grade he would give Sanderson, said, "An A or B, or, if he was in Kindergarten through third grade, a 2."

As for Borden's statement last week that the district's communications department, headed by director Jay Dillon, is funded at half salary, Borden said he meant to say it is "half staffed," which he determined by the news coming out of the district.

"One person is in their communications department," Borden said. "They need another person to be able to communicate with the stakeholders. ... The information is not getting out. There are other issues, and until I'm on the school board I won't be able to determine what those issues are, but there are definitely other issues and we need to get more information out."

Angelucci also criticized that line of reasoning.

"It is indicative of how little he does know about the system. If you'll look at some of the questions that he answers in person, the comments that he makes in person and answers that he may have answered in written form out in the public - there's a huge difference," she said. "I think if somebody asked him about Title 1 funds he wouldn't know a thing about them."

For the fiscal year 2011, which began July 1, Cobb school district has an $819.4 million operating budget. Borden said he would look for ways to maximize revenue for the district.

"We have some of the best teachers in the state and because of our teachers, I think that is something we can sell," he said.

When pressed on what exactly he would sell, Borden said, "The classroom instruction of those teachers. There are services that sell DVDs of those services online, lesson plans, home schoolers can buy them, other school systems can buy them. We have some great teachers that we should be marketing as well."

Borden, whose campaign is being chaired by Mayors Mark Mathews of Kennesaw and Tommy Allegood of Acworth, has taken in $4,360 in campaign contributions as of June 30, and lent himself $2,061. His disclosure reports cash on hand of $2,173.

His donors include Cris Eaton-Welsh and Jeff Duckett, who are city council members in Kennesaw; former school board member Laura Searcy and her husband, Al; and Leonard Goreham, whose wife, Helen, is seeking reelection as a Cobb County Commissioner.

Angelucci reported donations of just over $3,000, plus a $1,300 loan to her campaign from personal funds. She has $605 in cash on hand.