Stultz Ousted from BOE in Runoff Landslide

Smyrna's representative on the Cobb County Board of Education has lost his seat in a landslide.

Tim Stultz, who was the Post 2 representative for the board of education, was soundly defeated by veteran educator and administrator Susan Thayer in Tuesday's runoff election. 

Thayer, who spent 36 years in the education field as a teacher, counselor, principal, and educator, was chosen by 70.45 percent of the 4,301 ballots cast in the Post 2 runoff.

Stultz earned criticism from parents for his stance on the contentious 2011-12 school calendar issue, which saw Cobb County Schools move away from a balanced calendar which featured a shorter summer break and more holidays during the school year to a traditional calendar after one year of what was supposed to be a three-year experiment.

Attempts to revisit the issue in March, 2011 were blocked by Stultz and fellow board member Scott Sweeney, with Sweeney asking that the measure be tabled indefinitely. Stultz later added that it was time to "move forward" on the calendar issue.

On Sept. 26, 2013, the Cobb Board of Education again reversed course and re-established a balanced calendar for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. Stultz again voted against the calendar, joined by Sweeney and Kathleen Angelucci. 

Angelucci announced that she would not seek re-election in January, 2014.

During the May 20 primaries, Lockheed-Martin analyst David Chastain was elected to succeed Angelucci, while Sweeney won a hotly-contest primary against Kevin Nicholas.

During those same elections, Thayer earned 45.13 percent of the vote, which was better than Stultz's 33.75 percent. Thayer did not have enough votes to avoid Tuesday's runoff.

With the runoff election now behind her Thayer will face Democrat Kenya Pierre on the Nov. 4 ballot for Smyrna-Vinings' seat on the Cobb Board of Education.