MARIETTA - A judge ruled Tuesday that the efforts to recall Cobb County School Board member Dr. John Crooks can move forward.

Judge Walter Matthews of Rome found that the facts as set forth by east Cobb parent Carrie Nicholas-Welkis are sufficient to constitute a recall.

Matthews' order reads, "The Court finds that the facts set forth in Ground 1 'Intent to Mislead the Public' are sufficient as a matter of law to constitute a justifiable ground for recall."

Nicholas-Welkis' recall petition argues that Crooks intended to mislead the public in calling a vote to put a cell tower at Eastvalley Elementary School without proper public notice.

Crooks said Tuesday he is disappointed with the ruling, but thought the "judge was correct in dismissing three of the four allegations because they were not supported by the facts."

"On the remaining ground, we are concerned that the judge found that a school board member can legally be subject to recall for making a motion to add an item to the board's agenda," he said in a prepared statement. "In this case, that motion was made in an open, public meeting at which the press, the media, and counsel for the board was present, and none raised any objection. If making such a motion can serve as the basis for a recall petition, then elected officials throughout Georgia should be worried. We are reviewing the decision closely and will decide soon whether to appeal."

Nicholas-Welkis said she is pleased with the judge's findings, and that she and the other constituents calling for the recall vote are ready to take action and get the necessary signatures to put it on the ballot.

"At this point it's up to the voters to decide," Nicholas-Welkis said. "It takes a village and we've got a lot of people - there's a lot of people like me out there. We're very driven and we're committed. I think today was absolutely a victory."

From here, the Cobb County Board of Elections has 15 days to certify the initial recall petition that Nicholas-Welkis filed with 119 signatures of registered voters in Crooks' Post 6. Once she receives the new recall petitions from the board of elections, Nicholas-Welkis will have 45 days to gather between 30 percent of the registered voters in the post, a number she estimates to be between 13,000 and 14,000 signatures, or roughly 300 signatures per day.

Despite the recall effort, Crooks said last month that he will not seek re-election when his term expires at the end of the year. Nicholas-Welkis speculated that, if she gets all the necessary signatures, the recall could show up on the ballot in the July primaries.

Crooks was elected to school board post 6 in November of 2006 when he beat out Democrat Beth Farokhi by about 3,500 votes in an election with a turnout of fewer than 25,000 people.

In a hearing last week regarding the recall efforts, Crooks denied purposely misleading the public by not giving proper notice that the cell tower item was placed on the July 23 school board meeting agenda. Crooks did, however, admit to saying that notifying the public of the item "would have probably caused a circus," a quote that was printed in the Marietta Daily Journal on Aug. 14.

Last July, Crooks called for a vote to allow a 150-foot cell tower at Eastvalley Elementary School, a proposal many parents and residents opposed as an unwanted eyesore. Crooks placed the cell tower matter on the board's agenda the day of the July meeting without advance advertising. Several families therefore filed suit against the school district, arguing that the board violated state Open Meetings Act by failing to give proper advance notice on the vote.

Cobb Superior Court issued a temporary restraining order against the board, halting any work from being done on the tower, but then Crooks called for second vote on the tower in October. This time it was advertised on the agenda in advance, and the board approved the tower in a vote of 4-2-1.