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Schools

Recovering Bartlett to Miss Meeting

The school board chairwoman says her heart attack was not caused by disease or stress.

The Cobb County Board of Education will have to operate with six members while Chairwoman Alison Bartlett recovers from what she called a “significant” heart attack.

Bartlett said she won’t attend Wednesday’s monthly work session of the school board, but she does plan to watch the meeting live on television while she recuperates at home.

“This is a doctor’s words: I did not have a garden-variety heart attack; I had a freak attack,” she said of the the morning of March 30.

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“There were no signs, at least with today’s technology. What was nice to hear for my family was that it was not stress-related. I juggle the balls.”

As , Bartlett has been part of the majority on many 4-3 votes, most famously on those related to to a traditional calendar that starts two weeks later. Her absence creates the possibility of tie votes.

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In addition to her duties representing the center of the county south of Marietta, including , Bartlett, 48, is a married mother of four and works as a ninth-grade math teacher at in Douglas County.

“I don’t have heart disease,” she said. “I don’t have to change my diet but need to exercise more. There was a tear in the artery walls. … I felt a large chest pain. (I) just got out of the shower, getting ready for work, getting my kids ready for school, and felt like a bomb went off in my heart.”

Her 17-year-old daughter called , and Bartlett said she was directed to chew aspirin. She was rushed to about 6:30 a.m.

Bartlett said she was out of surgery and resting by 9 a.m.

“I am so thankful for 911 response times and the response of the operators,” she said. “It saved the quality of my life because time is muscle. Every few seconds cells are dying in your heart because it’s being deprived of oxygen.”

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