MARIETTA - As reported Wednesday by the Journal, longtime Cobb School Board attorney Glenn Brock announced his resignation on Wednesday at the board's meeting but denied rumors that he was pushed out of the job by anyone at his Marietta law firm.

"First of all, I'm not resigning I'm still going to be working. I'm just not going to serve as a board attorney where I come to all the meetings," Brock said. "I do that for three school boards and it is time for me to take it a little bit easier in that regard. ... No, my partners did not push me. I just think it's the right time."

In a prepared statement he read to the board on Wednesday, Brock said he would be passing the torch to one of the "bright young partners," Clem Doyle, with his Marietta firm of Brock, Clay, Calhoun and Rogers. Doyle also works as the board attorney for Marietta City Schools. Brock claimed his reason for the change is it is time fomove on and focus more on growing his practice and assisting his team of 14 education lawyers.

Brock also mentioned that, since he took over as attorney for the school board in 1989, he has worked with 37 board members and seven superintendents. He admitted later that this turnover rate has at times caused more challenges for him than the other school boards he represents, such as Fulton and Clayton counties.

"Cobb has more political issues," Brock said. "Cobb has had a lot of board turnover. I mentioned that I had worked with 37 board members and seven superintendents. If you look at that same period, Gwinnett has had seven board members and one superintendent. There are challenges that come with that, but county systems change too."

Brock has been involved in several controversies with the board in recent years, especially over repeated board violations of Georgia's Open Meetings laws and high profile lawsuits of which the board has lost.

In 2005, Brock and his attorneys advised the school board to go ahead with spending more than $100 million in special purpose local option sales tax money on laptops for all district middle and high school students. That decision spiraled out of control and cost the district an expensive lawsuit, resulting in then-Superintendent Joe Redden to step down.

In July 2009, Brock admitted that the school board had been voting secretly in executive session since January 2007, a violation of the Georgia Open Meetings Act. At the time, Brock said he took full responsibility for the secret votes, saying: "Mistakes have been made. We're making efforts correcting them."

Also, in July 2009, Brock provided legal advice to Dr. John Crooks and the board, allowing them to place an item on the agenda the day of the meeting regarding a controversial cell tower vote. The decision to place the item on the agenda on the day of the meeting eventually led to a lawsuit against the board for violating state Open Meetings Act by failing to give proper notice of the vote. The court issued a restraining order for any work on the tower, but that became moot when Crooks called for a second vote on the tower. The cell tower issue also led to an unsuccessful effort to recall Crooks.

Another controversy centered on Brock's secretly approved contract in 2007 that provided it would roll over automatically every four years unless the board voted to cancel, which was exposed by the Journal a year later. That contract is worth about $2 million a year in legal fees, much of which is a result of the many special education issues Brock Clay handles for the district. Although the current contract is not set to expire until the end of 2012, Brock wrote the board - after the Journal exposed the secret contract - that it could disregard the contract whenever it wanted, but did ask for six months notice should the board ever want to terminate the contract.

The fact that the legal services contract has not been bid out since Brock took over the account more than 20 years ago has been a source of controversy as well. Several school board members campaigned on unfulfilled promises to bid out the legal work, including both Crooks and Dr. John Abraham in 2006. More recently Kathy Angelucci, who was elected to succeed Abraham on July 20, and Scott Sweeney, the Republican candidate who is vying for Crooks' east Cobb seat, also promised to bid out the legal services once sitting on the board. The controversy surfaced again weeks ago when it was reported that Sanderson had bid out a small audit contract for SPLOST III, but did not bid out the much more costly legal services.

It is not known if Doyle and his Brock Clay partners will work under the old secret contract or void it and work for the board on an hourly basis.

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The board met for its first work session since June on Wednesday and discussed a variety of agenda items.

Wheeler High School parent Starlet Riviere, who has been speaking to the board and its appointed Facilities and Technology committee about Wheeler renovations for the last few months, again asked the board to discuss the need for renovations and possible funding sources at the high school.

"Again, just to remind you that this is a school that is in desperate need - that you all have cited as your most critical need for a renovation," Riviere said. "We don't want this to wait. It needs to be done now. So please, in this discussion I would encourage you to look really hard at all the information, and your past documents, at the building and make the right decision for this community."

In May, SPLOST chief Doug Shepard gave a presentation to Wheeler parents at the school, highlighting a $20 million renovation and rebuilding project. Following the presentation, however, Shepard said that funding was not available to fully support the entire project. Since then, the Wheeler community has been up in arms about the project, demanding the funds be found to complete the entire project, instead of just select projects. Wheeler has $9 million in SPLOST III funds allotted for renovations and was scheduled to use an additional $11 million in SPLOST II money in the undesignated classroom fund. But several issues had arisen regarding the legality of using the funds in SPLOST II for the project.

At the board's meeting on Wednesday, Shepard and an architect from the Norcross-based firm Foreman Seeley Fountain Architecture presented a video overview of the plans for Wheeler for the first time - the same video they had shown the Wheeler parents in May. Shepard then recommended to the board that the district hold the Wheeler project until the money can be found to fully fund it. Board member Dr. John Crooks, who represents Wheeler, then asked that the board put the item on the agenda for its next meeting on Aug. 26, and requested that the board reaffirm full funding to complete the project.

Following the board meeting, Crooks said he asked for the funding for Wheeler because "it's the right thing to do for that community."

"It has always been the right thing to do," Crooks said. "And if the board chooses to do that then the funding is there. ...You do have money if the board is willing to take a risk. It's been my conclusion that SPLOST funds have always been intended to build classrooms and to build permanent teaching facilities. I find it hard to imagine that the public, who gave their money for that purpose would not want to use that money for that purpose."

Riviere said she and the Wheeler parents were thrilled that Crooks added the item to the agenda for the next meeting and that the room would be overflowing with parents at the meeting.

"Yellow and blue will be filling the room," she said.

Also on Wednesday, Dr. Judi Jones, the district's chief accountability and research officer, gave the board an update on its Strategic Plan, which was implemented in December 2009. Jones explained that this was the start of a process in which the board would reevaluate its Strategic Plan each year and make modifications to it for the coming year. Although Jones spoke about the Strategic Plan, she did not touch on the academic aspects of it since she said the district hasn't received all of its scores yet. The board plans to talk about academics at its next work session on Sept. 8.

The board voted on the fate of six former Cobb educators who had recently pleaded their cases in tribunal hearings. In each of the six cases, the board voted unanimously to uphold the tribunal's decision. In the case of Harriett Green, a teacher at Lindley Middle School, board member David Morgan recused himself from the vote, which was 5-0, saying he had previously worked with Green. In the case of Margaret Jones, board member Alison Bartlett recused herself from that vote, which was also 5-0. Dr. John Abraham was on vacation and had alerted board Chairwoman Lynnda Crowder-Eagle he would not be at Wednesday's meeting.