As Cobb County School District teachers and staff reported for preplanning this week, the district also has sent out sample class schedules at all levels for the online-only start.
The district released the samples at its Cobb Learning Everywhere portal, which also includes sample schedules for Spanish-language instruction and for special education students.
Classes begin on Aug. 17, and unlike the end of the last school year, full school days with grading will be taking place.
Classes will take place on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and Wednesday is an instructional support day. That allows students to catch up on classwork, teachers to do planning and for smaller student-teacher group interactions to take place.
At the middle school and high school levels, the samples are headed by what are called “instructional expectations” that detail learning sessions by subject matter, group instruction and factor in independent work sessions and breaks.
At the elementary school level, there’s a mid-morning “brain break” but not a lunch break. Formal classes on the four instructional days will end at noon, with student independent work sessions going from 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
In middle schools, the school day on the four instructional days will last from 9:30 a.m. to 4:05 p.m., with multiple breaks. The mornings are set aside for student independent work.
High school students will have either a block or traditional schedules, with breaks, including 40 minutes for lunch. Formal classes would go from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., with student independent work wrapping up the day until 3:30 p.m.
More details on special education remote learning schedules can be found here. Those students also will be in classes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with Wednesday as a support day.
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale initially was going to offer in-person and remote options, but announced July 16 the start of the school year would be online-only due to concerns about growing COVID-19 cases in Cobb County.
He said data and public health guidance indicated Cobb was in a “high community spread” for the virus. As of Tuesday there were more than 10,000 confirmed cases in the county and nearly 300 deaths, both among the highest in Georgia.
On Monday teachers and staff reported for three weeks of preplanning ahead the Aug. 17 start of classes. That’s a two-week day from the initially scheduled start of the school year.
A group of Cobb parents demanding face-to-face learning is rounding up signatures. More than 7,000 people have signed on online petition, upset that the choice for in-person classes was taken away.
“Many families require both parents working outside of the home,” the petition states.” Virtual learning is not conducive to this kind of family structure as neither parent would be available to provide instruction.”
The petitioners also cited domestic violence and the needs of already-disadvantaged students with food issues. They also said “we pay hefty taxes for the privilege of being in one of the best school districts in the state of Georgia” and say that parents “cannot provide the quality of instruction and education that the classroom setting does. It is truly detrimental to the children’s education experience and will set them back academically, emotionally, and mentally for the coming years.”
A Facebook group called Let Parents Choose, which has more than 1,700 members, is holding a rally at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Cobb Civic Center to push for in-person classes.
Ragsdale said he didn’t want to have to go online-only, and wants the district to go back to classroom learning at some point, but he didn’t indicated when that might be.
“The sooner we can get out of the high spread the sooner we can return to face-to-face,” he said at the July 16 Cobb school board meeting.
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