Cobb schools classroom return begins Oct. 5; masks required

In a video portion of that presentation, Ragsdale also said the following:

“One critical aspect of our plan is that as parents choose either face-to-face or remote-learning classrooms, students will continue to be taught by their current teachers. Face-to-face and remote-learning students in the same class will receive the same instruction from the same teacher. This will prevent disruptions to existing relationships students have made with teachers and will protect teachers from being asked to do two jobs at the same time.”

Unlike Ragsdale’s original face-to-face learning plans that recommended but did not require mask-wearing, the district said today that masks will be mandatory for staff and students, in school buildings as well as on school buses.

Masks also will be required, “whenever possible, when teachers are teaching.”

Other safety protocols include social distancing when possible, hand sanitizing stations at multiple locations through school facilities, daily cleaning and limiting volunteers and visitors.

As for how breakfasts and lunches will be provided, the district is saying only for now that its food service staff “will will continue making sure our students have nutritious meals.”

The district said more details will be provided about reopening plans on Friday.

The Cobb school district was to have started the school year Aug. 1, but Ragsdale announced in June a delay to Aug. 17 as COVID-19 cases began spiking in the county and across Georgia.

The initial plan was to give parents a choice between classroom and virtual learning.

But in July, he told the Cobb Board of Education that the year would be starting online-only, due to continued high community spread of the virus.

Guidance from public health officials indicated that anything more than an average of 100 cases per 100,000 people is considered high community spread.

During mid-summer, that figure was well over 500 cases per 100,000. As of Wednesday, Cobb was averaging 235 cases per 100,000 over the last two weeks, within the range of what Ragsdale said he was targeting for a classroom return.

Those figures come from the Georgia Department of Public Health, which reported that Cobb County has 17,210 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 395 deaths, both among the highest figures in the state.

Ragsdale’s decision to switch to all-online learning angered some parents who staged rallies before the start of classes.

During the first two weeks of virtual learning, the district’s expanded online learning portal experienced several outages that further frustrated parents.

This week no seriously technology issues have been reported.

Parents will be able to select an online or classroom option starting Monday through Sept. 20.

Related Content

• Cobb schools create status update for online learning portal
• Cobb school district receives devices for online learning
• Georgia teachers’ head: Back to school not a return to normal
• Zoom outage affects Cobb schools at start of second week
• East Cobb parents express frustration with online school start
• Cobb superintendent not giving date on classroom return
• Cobb school district launches virtual instruction portal

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