MARIETTA — For the second time in his six years serving on the Marietta City Schools Board of Education, Randy Weiner was unanimously elected by his colleagues to be the board chair in 2013.

Tom Cheater was selected to serve as his vice chair during the board’s meeting on Tuesday. This is the first time since being elected to the board in 2009 that he has been elected to the seat.

“I wanted to have an opportunity to serve in a bigger capacity, and vice chair is a good way to get into that role and look at more opportunity and more responsibility,” Cheater said after the meeting.

Cheater also said there are a number of things the board and district will be tackling in 2013.

“Our big challenges are keeping the graduation rates increasing, increasing excellence in education, both potentially with a lower budget, and rolling out the Common Core Standards,” he said.

The board also approved its fiscal year 2013 budget calendar on Tuesday. The schedule will include six meetings kicking off March 26 with a vote on the budget possibly taking place June 18.

“It’s going to be a busy one, but we’re looking forward to it and we’re up to the challenge,” Cheater said.

In other business, the board also appointed the Brett Bittner to serve as the 2013 Marietta Schools Foundation liaison and Tony Fasola the Marietta City Schools Legislative liaison.

During the 30-minute meeting, the commissioners also approved how to disburse funds from a five-year beverage contract with Coca-Cola.

Items that were not approved but placed on the Consent Agenda for the Jan. 15 regular meeting were a vote on how to disperse $211,175 in charter system funds, a $76,479.50 contract with Lockstep Technology Group of Duluth to purchase two back-up computer servers with SPLOST III funds, and a $44,648.64 contract with Dell to purchase 50 laptop computers and eight laptop carts with Marietta Middle School Title I funds.