Last night, the Marietta City School Board held its regular meeting for January. During the December meeting, several members from the group "Fight for Marietta Schools" spoke and made five demands for changes as the district navigated teachers and administration resignations. The board released a statement to the public last night regarding each demand. 

The first of these demands was to hire a Superintendent. The Board says it has partnered with "Finding Leaders" to conduct a statewide and nationwide search for a Superintendent. The next demand was to hire crisis communications and support teachers. The same group, "Finding Leaders," is helping organize focus groups to hear from people within the district. 

The group asked that subcommittees be restructured and that Board member John Lehman resign. The Board responded by suspending subcommittees until a new administration is hired, and Mr. Lehman has no intention of resigning. 

The final request was to promise specific coaches longer contracts than the one-year supplemental deals they operate under. The Board said they would not do this and would continue operating under the same proper procedures that have been in place. 

The Fight for Marietta Schools group has been headed by a local pastor, Ryan Miller, who is also a parent of Marietta City students. He spoke with us about his reaction to the board's response to their demands.

 " A lot of good progress has been made in the last 45 days. The Board of Education here at Marietta has made some movement and made some adjustments based on what the community has asked for. And so I want to begin by expressing my gratitude for some of the changes that are in place. There are still more things I'd like to see happen."

For the last couple of months, Miller has led this fight with the support of many in the community. Recently, five others have come and decided to join Miller. One of the original plans was to vote no on the levy in May if the board did not attempt to make any changes. Miller spoke on where they now stand with that idea.

  " We are fully and unequivocally supporting the levy in May at this point and the reason we made that decision is because the Board of Education made significant movement and we appreciate their movement."

Next, the group will start looking towards the November election, when three school board seats will be available. Miller says they will look to support candidates.

  " Our intention is to run several candidates for the school board in the election in November. There are three board seats that will be available. If anybody would like to run, we would love to have a conversation with them and see if they'd like to be a part of our group that we would back."

School Board meetings are held on the fourth Monday of every month. They are usually held in the district offices unless the district says otherwise and moves it to the High School auditorium.