Marley Dias, author, executive producer, and founder of #1000BlackGirlBooks, is this year’s honorary chair of Library Card Sign-Up Month. This September, Dias will join the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries nationwide in promoting the power of a library card.
As honorary chair, Dias reminds us that signing up for a library card provides access to technology, multimedia content, and educational programming that transforms lives and strengthens communities. “A library card is the ticket you need to travel across the globe. It allows you to experience stories that can connect you to diverse and empowering experiences,” said Dias.
Free library cards are available to Cobb residents, business and property owners as well as to those who work for Cobb County Government or teach in Cobb. Those who live outside Cobb may purchase a library card for a small fee. Find registration requirements at cobbcat.org/librarycard.
Students in Cobb County School District and Marietta City Schools have access to free library resources through Library PASS, an agreement between Cobb County Public Library and the school systems. More information about this program can be found at cobbcat.org/librarypass.
Join us this September, and sign up for a library card!
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The following Cobb food scores for the week of Aug. 23 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Former University of Georgia football star Herschel Walker has announced he will be running for the U.S. Senate in 2022.
A first-time political candidate, Walker said Tuesday he will be seeking the Republican nomination for the seat currently held by Democrat Raphael Warnock.
Walker, who guided the Bulldogs to the college football national championship in 1980 and won a Heisman Trophy, announced earlier this week that he had registered to vote in Georgia after living in Texas for many years.
He played for the Dallas Cowboys and other NFL teams as well as the New Jersey Generals of the U.S. Football League in the 1980s.
That team was owned by former President Donald Trump, who’s maintained a close friendship with Walker and who said several weeks ago that Walker would be “unstoppable, just like he was when he played for the Georgia Bulldogs, and in the NFL. . . . Run, Herschel, Run.”
In an introductory video on his campaign website, Walker said that too many politicians like to divide America, by race as well as in other ways.
“I don’t believe in that garbage,” said Walker, who hailed his small-town roots in Wrightsville, Ga.
“I’m a conservative not because someone told me to be,” he continued. “I’m a conservative because I believe in smaller government, a strong military and making sure all people have the same opportunity to pursue their dreams.
“That’s an America worth fighting for.”
As he spoke, the background featured the voice of Georgia football radio announcer Larry Munson and footage of Walker’s days at UGA.
Among the Republican candidates in the Senate race is Georgia Agriculture Secretary Gary Black.
Walker has name recognition and Trump’s backing, but according to a report in Politico, some Republican leaders in Washington are concerned about his chances in the 2022 general election.
Warnock, the former pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, won a runoff election in January to unseat Republican Kelly Loeffler. She was appointed in Jan. 2020 by Gov. Brian Kemp following the retirement of Johnny Isakson.
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday accepted a $1.9 million grant from the Georgia Public Library Service to help fund the reconstruction of Gritters Library.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell made the motion “with pleasure and with gratitude” toward the Cobb legislative delegation, which helped secure the funding.
GPLS, part of the Georgia Board of Regents, provides state bond funds to local library systems for renovations of public libraries.
The Gritters branch opened at its current location in Shaw Park in 1973 and will be completely rebuilt, with construction expected to begin in December.
The $6.8 million project is part of the 2016 Cobb SPLOST and was originally earmarked for $2.9 million. Initially plans called for a renovation, but the new branch will be built near the existing structure.
An estimated completion time for the new building has not been announced.
Gritters is the last of the library projects remaining in the 2016 SPLOST. That collection period funded the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center that replaced the East Marietta Library.
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David Banks is the only sitting member of the Cobb Board of Education who’s gone through a previous reapportionment process.
The Cobb Board of Education last week voted to hire a high-profile law firm in Cobb County to draw a map of school board posts for reapportionment.
While the board’s three Democrats were in the minority of a 4-3 vote, David Banks of East Cobb, part of the four-member Republican majority, initially said he couldn’t support the hiring of Taylor English Duma LLP, based in the Cumberland area.
Banks, the only sitting board member to go through reapportionment from the 2010 Census, said at a board work session last Thursday that he didn’t think hiring a third party was appropriate and that the maps would be “whatever the legislature decides it looks like.”
But he joined his GOP colleagues later in approving the hiring of Taylor English Duma to draw the board’s political lines based on 2020 Census results.
The board will be asked later to approve a contract for Taylor English Duma after a cost estimate is determined.
(PLEASE NOTE: These lines are for the seven posts, or districts, for elected Cobb school board seats, which are determined by the Georgia General Assembly. They have no bearing on specific school attendance zones, which are drawn administratively by the Cobb County School District staff.)
Board chairman Randy Scamihorn said he wanted Taylor English Duma because of what he said was a bipartisan track record of reapportionment work. He presented no other bidders.
The Democrats objected on other grounds, saying they weren’t given much information beforehand, including how much the mapping work will cost.
They also wanted to consider additional bidders, and didn’t like that former State Rep. Earl Ehrart of West Cobb, a staunch Republican, is the CEO of Taylor English Decisions, a government and economic development consulting arm of Taylor English Duma.
Taylor English Decisions—whose staff includes noted Cobb zoning attorney James Balli and former Cobb County Manager Rob Hosack—is not involved in reapportionment matters.
For a more detailed view, click here. The area in white is the map for Marietta City Schools.
The map forwarded to the Cobb legislative delegation from the school board would only be advisory. While Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the county delegation, the final decision on the map would come from the Republican-dominated legislature.
So how those boundaries may change figures to be a subject of intense scrutiny, given the board’s partisan divide.
Until 2018, the board held a 6-1 Republican majority. That’s when Democrats Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard were elected to seats held by Republicans.
They’ve vocally and openly clashed with the Republicans on a number of issues in their nearly three years on the board.
And both of their seats will be up in the 2022 elections, after the new map takes effect. How Post 6, represented by Davis, may change could prove worth watching.
That post includes most of the Walton and Wheeler clusters, but Davis, who lives in the Campbell High School cluster, edged Republican incumbent Scott Sweeney of East Cobb due to a high turnout in her part of the post.
Also up for election in 2022 will be the seat of Republican David Chastain of Post 4 in Northeast Cobb, which includes the Kell and Sprayberry clusters.
He’s indicating he will seek a fourth term; Howard and Davis have not announced their plans.
Democrats missed a golden chance to swing the majority in their favor with the other three Republicans on the ballot in the 2020 elections. Scamihorn won easily in Post 1 in Northwest Cobb, while Brad Wheeler foiled a Democratic challenger by fewer than 2,000 votes in his West Cobb Post 5.
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The former track sprinter gives a fan a very long head start in a footrace around the outfield warning track.
While Dunn occasionally hasn’t been able to eclipse his slower competitor, the way he crossed the finish line first at Monday’s Braves-Yankees game was truly novel.
It looked as though “The Freeze” was about to be bested, but the fan ran out of gas and stumbled just a few yards away from victory.
The ballpark interlude became national news (Deadspin and Yahoo! Sports accounts) as the fan missed out on more than a chance for a $100 gift card.
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Among the measures Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced last week about COVID-19 protocols was a forthcoming survey for parents to gauge their interest in voluntary testing of their children.
“We believe keeping students in face to face classrooms is critical for both students and families,” the Cobb County School District said in a message issued at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
The message, sent through its ParentVUE portal, indicated that the survey period would last last until 5 p.m. Thursday.
If parents agree, their children would be tested as a means of reducing “the time students are not in a face-to-face classroom.”
Only enrolling parents have access to the survey, which the district said would be part of a “local and state public health” partnership. The single question on the survey asks parents if they would participate in such a testing program for their students.
In addition to maintaining a masks-optional policy, Ragsdale said last week that the district was altering its quarantine protocols regarding close contacts. Students who are quarantining at home for three days can return after that, as long as they are asymptomatic.
That policy took effect Monday, just after the district announced 942 new active COVID-19 cases among students and staff last week, double the previous week’s total.
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The East Cobb Cityhood Committee is hosting our third virtual town hall to provide information to the residents of East Cobb. People who live within the boundary of the proposed new city are invited to attend.
This will be a live session with Brian Johnson, City Manager of Peachtree Corners, hosted by the East Cobb Cityhood Committee. Brian L. Johnson became the City Manager of Peachtree Corners, Georgia on November 21, 2016. As City Manager, he is the Chief Executive Officer of the City and is responsible to the Mayor and City Council for the management of all city departments and of all city affairs.
Please, register in advance to reserve a spot in the virtual town hall. You can submit questions about cityhood during the registration process. There will also be an opportunity to submit questions during the live session.
If you are not available at this date and time, you will be able to view the recording of this webinar. It will be posted shortly after the live session on the website.
That bill, if approved, would call for a November 2022 referendum to establish a City of East Cobb of 55K along mainly the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
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The Heisman Trophy Trust opened applications for the 2021 Heisman High School Scholarship program, presented by Acceptance Insurance. The program honors hundreds of the nation’s most accomplished, community-minded high school senior athletes each year. This year, the college scholarship amounts have been doubled, increasing support for each student-athlete’s education.
“We would like to thank our partners at Acceptance Insurance for sponsoring this tremendous program which extends the Heisman prestige to the nation’s most esteemed high school seniors,” stated Michael Comerford, President of the Heisman Trust. “We are very excited to announce that we have doubled the scholarship amounts this year. We look forward to recognizing the most deserving, community-minded scholar athletes and rewarding them with additional funds to help offset their college tuition.”
The Heisman High School Scholarship program will recognize a winner from each high school in the nation that has student participation in the Program by way of application. The top male and female applicants from each state will be awarded $1,000. Among the top male and female applicants from each state, the twelve (12) most outstanding will be identified as national finalists and win at least $2,000. Of the national finalists, a male and a female winner will be selected as the winner of the $10,000 National Heisman High School Scholarship.
By inviting students from schools across the country to share their stories of leadership and impact, the program aims to inspire all students to harness their potential, push their limits, and use their talents not only to advance their own futures but to improve the communities and world around them. Over the past 27 years, the program has honored more than 600,000 of the nation’s most esteemed high school seniors and provided over a million dollars in college scholarships to students throughout the United States.
“The values we promote at Acceptance Insurance – integrity, excellence, and service – are the values embodied by the students earning this recognition. Helping them realize their visions for stronger communities and greater achievement along with the Heisman Trophy Trust is an honor and a privilege,” says Larry Willeford, President and COO of Acceptance Insurance.
The 2021 application for The Heisman High School Scholarship program presented by Acceptance Insurance is currently open. All high school students graduating as part of the class of 2022 are encouraged to apply. The deadline to submit applications is October 19, 2021. Applicants will have the chance to win a college scholarship valued up to $10,000 and the possibility of attending and being highlighted during the ESPN televised Heisman Trophy Presentation Ceremony.
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A capital outlay grant from the Georgia Public Library Service for nearly $2 million to help fund the reconstruction of the Gritters Library branch in Northeast Cobb will be considered Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
The agency is a part of the Georgia Board of Regents and provides state bond funding for the construction and renovation of public libraries. According to an agenda item, a state grant of $1.9 million has been awarded for the $6.8 million Gritters replacement project.
That’s a project included in the Cobb 2016 SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax). Initially, plans called for $2.9 million in renovations to upgrade technology and to enhance programs and serves and add community meeting rooms at Gritters, which opened at its current location in Shaw Park in 1973.
Tuesday’s agenda item notes that construction on the Gritters project “must begin within 180 days following the grant award, and at least 5 percent of the total cost of the grant must be spent within six months.”
There’s not a timetable for construction that’s indicated on the agenda item; more on the Gritters grant from GPLS can be found here.
Gritters is the last of the library projects remaining in the 2016 SPLOST. That collection period funded the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center that replaced the East Marietta Library, the consolidation of Acworth and Kennesaw branches to form the new North Cobb Regional Library and major renovations to the Switzer, South Cobb Regional and Sibley branches.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta, and will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
You can follow real-time results compiled by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office by clicking here.
Original Post:
As approved last month by the Cobb Board of Education, there’s a referendum coming in November to extend the Cobb Education SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax), which pays for school construction, maintenance and technology costs.
If approved, the Cobb Ed-SPLOST VI would collect an estimated $894 million from 2024-29 for projects in the Cobb County School District and Marietta City Schools.
Among the major items on the Cobb project list is a rebuild of the main Sprayberry High School classroom building.
It’s the only countywide item on the 2021 Cobb ballot, with county, state and federal elections coming in 2022. Municipal elections will take place this year in Cobb’s six cities, including Marietta, where there’s a contest for mayor.
Incumbent Steve “Thunder” Tumlin is being challenged by council member Michelle Cooper Kelly, whose ward includes part of East Marietta.
Late last week Cobb Elections put out some information for voters on registration, absentee ballot procedures, advance voting and more for the November elections. Here are some of those details and deadlines:
Voters must register to vote or update their address by Oct. 4 at MVP.sos.ga.gov.
Absentee ballots will be mailed to voters beginning Oct. 11.
Voted absentee ballots must be received by Cobb Elections staff before 7pm on Nov. 2, 2021.
Ballots can be returned by postal mail, or
hand-delivered to the ballot box inside the Cobb Elections office, or
hand-delivered to any early voting location during voting hours.
In a pilot program, Cobb Elections staff will also accept voted ballots at certain libraries starting on Oct. 25. A schedule or dates, times and locations will be published soon.
Early voting will begin on Oct. 12. A schedule of dates, times and locations will be published no later than Sept. 27.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Join the Cobb Chamber for its first Business After Hours since 2019 on Wednesday, August 25 at the W&A Engineering in Cumberland.
Business After Hours is a networking event that gives members and guests the opportunity to not just trade business cards, but to gather and connect with like-minded professionals and share ideas and solutions. The August Business After Hours event includes beverages, appetizers, tours, networking and the chance to welcome W&A Engineers to Cobb County.
The social is free and begins at 5:00 p.m. The August Business After Hours is sponsored by W&A Engineering. Registration is open until August 25 at www.cobbchamber.org/events.
For more information about Business After Hours contact Jani Dix at jdix@cobbchamber.org or 770-859-2335.
W & A Engineering is also having its ribbon-cutting event Wednesday that starts at 3 p.m. (The Wildwood Center, 2300 Windy Ridge Parkway, Suite 1105) with the following measures in place:
We would like to inform you all that out of an abundance of caution, the Wildwood Center facility is currently asking ALL GUESTS to wear face masks while traveling in the common spaces of the building.
Guests will be required to wear a mask to enter the Wildwood Center building, however, masks will not be required within the main event space. We kindly ask everyone to be respectful of this rule. We are working diligently to ensure everyone is able to come together for a fun and safe event.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Town Center at Cobb is celebrating all of its junior shoppers with the ‘Under the Sea’ Kids Club Event in partnership with Marietta Cobb Museum of Art on Saturday, Aug. 28 from 1-3 p.m. in Center Court. Families can enjoy sea-themed crafts with the museum’s director of education, Allison Frink, alongside mermaid and pirate appearances; a selfie station; retailer and business stations; goody bags for the kids (while supplies last); take-home activities; door prizes; and more!
WHAT: Town Center at Cobb ‘Under the Sea’ Kids Club Event with Marietta Cobb Museum of Art
WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 28 1-3 p.m.
WHERE: Town Center at Cobb in Center Court 400 Ernest Barrett Pkwy NW Kennesaw, GA 30144
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Cobb County government produced a video this week featuring various elected and government officials and others urging the public to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and to wear masks in public.
The message—you can see the whole video below—features Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens, Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady, Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark and State Rep. Erick Allen, chairman of the Cobb legislative delegation.
Some of them issued personal messages, including Broady, who said he has lost three family members to COVID-19.
“I want to keep my family safe and everyone around me,” Broady said.
Said Owens: “Take it from someone who had the virus. You do not want the virus.”
More than 1,100 COVID-19 deaths have taken place in Cobb County since the pandemic was declared in March 2020.
The video comes days after Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid issued a 30-day emergency declaration and urged private businesses and other entities to require indoor mask use.
Cupid cannot issue a broader mandate than that because of an executive order by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp banning local mask mandates.
Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris issued a mask mandate for county buildings that began on Friday.
The Cobb County School District is staying masks-optional despite protests from many parents who held a rally before school board meetings this week.
Cobb’s 14-day average of COVID-19 cases per county is reaching 700, far above the “high community spread” threshold of 100 cases.
Cobb also has a test positivity rate of more than 12 percent, also well above the 5-percent metric public health leaders say is ideal.
They also have been worried about the county’s low vaccination rate.
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health (vaccine dashboard here), only 49 percent of the eligible population is “fully vaccinated” and 56 percent have had at least one dose.
While Cobb’s figures are high for the state, Georgia and many other Southern states are lagging in vaccination rates.
The Georgia DPH also shows vaccination rates by Census tracts (map here). There are at least a dozen tracts in East Cobb with the highest numbers of vaccinated people—between 3,100 and 10,000 per tract.
Other pockets with high rates include Powder Springs, West Cobb, Acworth, Kennesaw and Marietta.
A number of the tracts with the lowest rates—between 2,000 and 3,100 people per tract—are in South Cobb and West Cobb. Some East Cobb tracts also have few vaccinations, including two tracts with fewer than 2,000.
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The annual Corky Kell Classic kicked off Thursday and high school football teams from near and far and battling it out on the gridiron. Kell High School faces McEachern at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Nick Kavadellas, president and CEO of Orasi, a software security innovator, has been involved in the Kell event and foundation and youth sports for many years and strongly believes that sports and business go together.
Not long after Kavadellas founded Orasi in May 2002 he received a call from an old football coach at Sprayberry High School, Johnny Callwell, who was just hired to coach at Kell, inviting Nick to get involved. Kavadellas not only set himself up as a Kell booster immediately, but coached alongside Callwell. He coached for 16 years and is still an active supporter of the school. In fact, believe it or not, Kell wasn’t in the Corky Kell event in the beginning, until Kavadellas pushed to get the school in about 10 years ago.
Along the way Kavadellas became involved in the Georgia Middle School Athletic organization. He was the treasurer and scheduler for 126 schools and is still an active board member. In 2009 Kavadellas focused on the fact that there were no football and cheer programs in the elementary grades. He lobbied and founded the Cobb Football League and remains President of that organization. Kavadellas was awarded 2011 Cobb Volunteer of the Year and estimates that over the last 10 years 10,000 football kids and 8,000 cheerleaders have come thru the Cobb program.
Kavadellas takes his love of the game and coaching to work as well. As founder of a successful tech company, he aligns themes of teamwork, community and sportsmanship with how he runs the company, believing sports mirrors life’s lessons and builds character, lessons and character traits that are applicable in business and life in general. Kavadellas also ensures that Orasi’s philanthropic efforts include the Kell Foundation.
All told, Nick gives more than 500 hours per year of his time to local Atlanta youth programs. “Leadership through stewardship enables good will and good business to work hand in hand, on and off the field. Community sports help everyone,” he says.
Some of his old Kell players end up working for Orasi, too. “We continue to invest in kids that have gone through the programs long after they leave high school. One kid I coached went to Kennesaw State and then we hired him. Now he’s married with a son and I coach his son.”
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East Side ES has reported 84 cases of COVID-19 since the school year began, the most in the Cobb County School District.
The day after the Cobb County School District announced quarantine policy changes and said it would maintain its masks-optional policy, nearly 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the schools.
The district’s weekly Friday update showed 942 new cases, a big jump from 569 cases a week ago. There were 185 cases during the first week of school at the start of August, during which the district “strongly encouraged” mask use and changed some other prootocls.
Since July 1, there have been 1,764 cases among students and staff in the Cobb school district, which has 109,000 students and around 13,000 staff.
The numbers at East Side Elementary School continue to mount, with 35 new cases and 84 in the three weeks since the school year began.
That’s by far the highest total in the 112-school system. East Side fifth-graders have been learning remotely since the middle of last week and were to be allowed to return to campus on Monday.
Walton High School had 33 cases this week, and there were 32 at Sprayberry High School.
Also in East Cobb, there were 15 new cases at Sedalia Park ES, Garrison Mill ES reported 14 new cases, there were 11 at East Cobb MS and Dodgen MS and 10 at Daniell MS.
On Thursday Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced new quarantine provisions for students who are identified as close contacts and whose exposure took place in school.
Those students will have to be quarantined for three days, following a new order from the Georgia Department of Public Health. They can return after those three days, as long as they are asymptomatic, and they must wear a mask on their campus for seven more days after exposure.
The policy also states the following:
“Students who are identified as a close contact where the point of exposure occurred in the school setting and are symptomatic must follow the isolation guidance contained in the close contact letter.”
More health protocols can be found here; Ragsdale also said Thursday that the district’s online learning options will be expanded for the second semester via lottery process.
He said the window for that process will open in October, and those students chosen through the lottery will be notified in November.
That doesn’t address the immediate concerns of parents who cannot switch their children from face-to-face to remote learning. That option was available last year but parents had to make their choice for the current school year in May, when COVID-19 spread was low.
Only 2,000 of the district’s students were enrolled in the Elementary Virtual Program and Cobb Online Academy for the fall semester.
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The old East Cobb Middle School campus will be giving way soon for a rebuild of Eastvalley Elementary School.
As noted earlier this week, the district is planning to demolish the Holt Road buildings, and on Thursday the Cobb Board of Education approved the project by a 7-0 vote.
Marc Smith, the district’s chief technology and operations officer, said the $348,000 project is expected to be finished by Dec. 20.
A bit tongue-in-cheek, board member David Chastain, who attended the school when it was known as East Cobb Junior High School, expressed an interest in getting bricks from the demolition.
“Yes sir, we can make that happen,” Smith told Chastain, who broke out into a grin.
Board member Tre’ Hutchins, who attended East Cobb Middle School in the late 1980s, made the same request.
East Cobb Middle School opened on Holt Road in 1963, and reopened in a new venue on Terrell Mill Road in 2018, next to the relocated campus of Brumby Elementary School.
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Superintendent Chris Ragsdale reading a written statement about COVID-19 changes; but he said he will not mandate masks.
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday night that the Cobb County School District will not issue a mask mandate, although their use is “strongly encouraged.”
His remarks came after a public comment period in which he was emotionally urged by parents to impose a mask mandate, and on the same day that Marietta City Schools said it would begin requiring masks.
Before a Cobb Board of Education meeting there also was a rally organized by parents who want a mask mandate.
Ragsdale said that some areas with mandated masks in schools have no lower COVID-19 figures than those without mandates, and that he wanted to leave it to parents to decide what is best for their families.
Applause broke out in the meeting room when he said that.
There also is not a vaccine mandate in the Cobb school district, and Ragsdale said it’s “not appropriate” to mandate that as well.
Here are more of his remarks:
“Mandatory masking is not without a cost. We recognize that there are negative impacts to school-age children properly wearing a mask during the duration of the school day. The data analysis is obviously very complex during this pandemic.
“We have made a continuous effort to allow families to have a choice, both in the type of instruction, whether it be face to face or virtual, and in the decision about what is best for their families in regards to masks. We have also encouraged vaccinations but believe it’s also a personal choice for each employee, student, and family to make based on their individual situation. At this time, I do not believe it is appropriate to mandate either decision, which would remove the ability for each family to make the best decision for them as a family.
“Some parents who spoke in favor of the mandate also wanted to be able to switch to virtual learning, an option that had not been allowed for the new school year.”
Cobb’s decision runs counter to recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, which is urging indoor mask usage in schools, as well as Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
Among the parents pleading for a mask mandate was Tim Philbin, father of a fifth-grade student at Eastvalley Elementary School.
He said that “our students need in-person learning, and masks are one of the things that can keep them there.”
Ragsdale said that the district’s all-online learning environments will be expanding for a lottery for the second semester. Those are the Elementary Virtual Program (EVP) and Cobb Online Learning Academy (COLA) for middle school and high school students.
He didn’t indicate how many spaces will open, but anticipates the window for applying for the lottery to open in mid- to late October.
A Cobb school district spokeswoman told East Cobb News last week that only around 2,000 of the district’s 109,000 students are in all-online learning this year.
Unlike last year, students learning in a virtual setting are not being taught by in-person classroom teachers.
Ragsdale also said the district would be modifying its quarantine policy regarding close contacts. Students who are quarantining at home for three days can return after that, as long as they are asymptomatic.
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Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid has signed a 30-day emergency declaration in the county due to a sharp surge in COVID-19 cases, citing a “critically low” shortage of hospital beds.
In a release issued by Cobb spokesman Ross Cavitt, Cupid also cited high test positivity rates and low vaccination rates.
She urged those who have not been vaccinated to do so, and encouraged businesses and other non-government entities in Cobb to mandate indoor mask use “for the protection of employees and customers.”
As of Thursday, Cobb has a 14-day average of 670 cases per 100,000 people. The “high community spread” threshold is 100 cases, and that figure has risen sharply in the last month.
That’s because Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp earlier Thursday issued an order preventing local governments from imposing mask mandates and other restrictions on private businesses.
Kemp said on social media that his order “will make sure businesses across our state can’t be punished by local governments for trying to make a living, pay their employees, and save their livelihoods. Georgia is open for business!”
Cobb did not have a mask mandate beyond county buildings last year under former chairman Mike Boyce. Some cities in Georgia, including Atlanta and Savannah, have imposed mandates on non-government entities.
“Public health officials are urging us to do whatever we can to encourage people to get the COVID vaccine and wear masks while near other people,” Cupid said in Cavitt’s release.
“This declaration will open the doors to provide assistance to others in the county who need it and highlight the critical stress this surge has put on our local healthcare facilities.”
Her declaration also activates the county’s Emergency Operations Plan for resources to be funneled to hospitals, state agencies or others with a critical need for equipment and supplies.
You can read the full Cobb emergency declaration by clicking here.
On Thursday, executives from hospitals in Georgia, including Wellstar, discussed how the COVID-19 surge is affecting their operations. You can watch it below.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Near the end of a Thursday work session, members of the Cobb Board of Education tore into one another when one of them tried to add a discussion about COVID-19 protocols to the Thursday night business meeting.
COVID-19 issues were not included on the agenda for either meeting, although most of the citizens who signed up to speak at the work session’s public comment session were there to talk about those topics.
There also was a protest planned for 6:30 p.m., a half-hour before the evening session, on the mask issue.
The arguments blew up when board chairman Randy Scamihorn asked his colleagues to approve the night meeting agenda as amended. At that point, board member Tre’ Hutchins made a motion to add a discussion item about COVID-19 protocols.
Some parents have demanded a mask mandate, and the district recently revised its quarantine protocols with the start of the school year.
Nina Gupta, the Cobb school board attorney and the meeting parliamentarian, said the board could add an agenda item if it’s considered an emergency that’s arisen since the last meeting.
Hutchins, who was attending the meeting via Zoom, said he thought the COVID-19 measures and the district’s rising case totals constituted an emergency.
Cobb school board chairman Randy Scamihorn
“That’s why I’m asking,” said Hutchins, one of three Democrats on the seven-member board.
But Scamihorn immediately said there’s not an emergency, and the district’s protocols have “never been presented as such.”
He denied Hutchins’ request, and board member Jaha Howard, another Democrat, asked: “Are we not in an emergency?”
Scamihorn ruled that he was out of order, then called the question and over objections announced that the vote to deny adding the COVID-19 discussion was 4-3, with the board’s four Republicans in the majority.
Hutchins objected from his remote location that “I made a motion but did not vote.”
Howard, a pediatric dentist who has clashed openly with Scamihorn several times this year, interrupted the chairman, who growled at him: “Dr. Howard, do you have no manners!”
The board then adjourned to an executive session.
Scamihorn also attempted to get his colleagues to approve the hiring of Taylor English, a Cobb law firm, to draw a map of Cobb school board posts to present for reapportionment.
The three Democrats objected, especially when Scamihorn hadn’t provided a cost estimate. So did Republican vice chairman David Banks of East Cobb, who said he didn’t think hiring a third party was appropriate and that the maps would be “whatever the legislature decides it looks like.”
Scamihorn, who said hiring the firm was only to get the process started, decided to table the measure until the evening meeting.
Cobb is one of the few school districts in metro Atlanta without a mask mandate. Earlier Thursday, Marietta City Schools announced a mask mandate starting on Monday.
East Cobb resident Stacy Efrat
But COVID-19 topic came up at the Cobb work session only from members of the public.
East Cobb resident Caryn Sonderman thanked the district for keeping masks optional, saying “you are following the science and the facts.”
Stacy Efrat of East Cobb, whose family has tested positive for COVID-19 and whose children are home in quarantine, bemoaned the lack of academic support for students who cannot be in school.
Unlike last school year, Cobb is not offering simultaneous instruction in classes and for remote students.
“You are encouraging parents to send their kids to school sick,” she said.
Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators may have prefigured the melee at the end of the meeting when she said that in her 20 years associated with the Cobb school district, “I have never seen a debacle like [what] our current school board is.”
She was referring to a lack of respect she said some have shown to others, although she didn’t name names.
Over the last three years, Jackson said, “we have lost so many of the things that have made us great.”
She complained that “nearly half the school board”—a reference to the three Democrats in the minority—has been silenced.
In order for agenda items to be discussed at meetings, members must get a majority of their colleagues to agree.
But the Democrats could not get one of the Republicans to put COVID-19 topics on the agenda.
Instead, the board heard presentations about student outcomes, a tax abatement involving the South Cobb Redevelopment Authority and the demolition of the former East Cobb Middle School campus.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale also has the ability to bring agenda items unilaterally, but he did not mention COVID-19 protocols at the work session.
Board governance issues are among the topics that prompted a special review by Cognia, the board’s accrediting agency, earlier this week. Those results are expected to be released this fall.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
