East Cobb Schools Archives

Cobb schools won’t impose mask mandate; revising quarantine

August 20, 2021 1:57 PMAugust 19, 2021 8:16 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb keeps masks-optional policy — *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.

That policy begins on Monday, Ragsdale said.

Cobb school board erupts over discussing COVID-19 issues

August 19, 2021 7:27 PMAugust 19, 2021 4:49 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb school board COVID-19

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.

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.

You can watch the work session at this link.

Residents express concerns about Walton HS sports complex

August 19, 2021 1:48 PM by Wendy Parker

Walton sports complex — *A deer wanders around a former homesite on Providence Road where new Walton High School tennis courts will be located.*

After several months of trying to get information from the Cobb County School District about the proposed Walton High School sports complex, residents in neighboring subdivisions are airing their concerns publicly.

A construction contract to build tennis courts and a baseball field on nearly 20 acres of land on Providence Road and Pine Road is slated to go before the Cobb Board of Education in September.

Over the summer, the district has been developing a site plan and completing work on relocating the Walton softball team back to an on-campus location.

But residents living near the new baseball field—which is moving from its “Raider Mountain” site at the back of the Walton campus to the new venue—are worried that it’s too close to their homes.

They’ve asked the district to reconfigure the bleachers and concession stands, which they say will be built 50-70 feet from their homes. Resident Jennifer Sunderland, whose home at the end of a cul-de-sac on Mulberry Lane is among them, told East Cobb News earlier this week that she’s been told “flipping” the field is not possible.

But she said she heard Tuesday from James Wilson, a school district consultant who’s been asked to work with neighbors from Independence Square and other subdivisions, that he would try “to make this happen.”

Sunderland is scheduled to address the topic at a public comment session Thursday night before the Cobb school board.

The mother of a Dodgen Middle School student, she said she’s not against the Walton sports complex and is not used to speaking in public.

“But we fear that the current plan will greatly diminish the enjoyment of our properties and negatively affect our property values,” Sunderland said, speaking on behalf of other neighbors whom she said didn’t want to be identified.

“Receipt of our concerns have been acknowledged and neighbors including myself are awaiting detailed answers.”

Access to the baseball field would be on Pine Road, near a former homesite that has been demolished. So have two homesites near the intersection of Providence Road and Pine Road, where the tennis courts would be located.

Those demolitions, as well as the site plan work and the softball relocation project, are all part of an estimated $3 million Walton sports complex project.

But those tasks apparently were undertaken without formal funding approval by the Cobb school board. Initially, the new complex was to have housed tennis and softball facilities. Walton’s teams in those sports have played at Terrell Mill Park since 2014 to make way for a new Walton classroom building.

The district has not explained the decision to switch out the baseball and softball venues, or to proceed with some of the construction project before formal approval.

The Walton softball team is beginning its current season on the road and according to the team’s schedule, will be playing at its new venue at Raider Mountain, where the baseball field once stood, starting Sept. 7.

When East Cobb News asked the district to explain those actions, as well as the concerns of Independence Square residents, a spokeswoman said that “all available details will be provided [Thursday] during the Board meeting.”

She didn’t elaborate; the board has afternoon and evening meetings Thursday, and there is nothing on the agenda for either meeting about the Walton sports complex.

The Cobb school board approved $5.65 million in land purchases for the new Walton sports complex. Site plan renderings show that the part of the land along Bill Murdock Road, across from the main campus, won’t be developed at all.

That was part of a 20-acre tract formerly owned by Thelma McClure, who sold in November 2019 for $3 million after the Cobb school district threatened eminent domain.

In August 2020, the school board approved the purchases of 3.5 acres on Pine Road for $2 million, and 1.2 acres on Providence Road for $650,000 for the sports complex.

Shortly after that, Sunderland said the district notified nearby residents that Wilson, a former Cobb superintendent who runs Education Planners, a Marietta-based school demographics and planning firm, that he would be their contact point.

She said there have been some Zoom calls and some e-mail exchanges since then, but she said until now there’s been no response to their concerns about the baseball field.

Among the requests she said she will be asking Thursday is for the district to delay approving funding for construction “until you have written confirmation from myself that reasonable modifications and accommodations have occurred.”

Mulberry Lane, Walton sports complex — *Homes on Mulberry Lane in Independence Square would be as close as 50 feet from the new Walton baseball field.*

Cobb school district bus drivers, monitors to get $1,200 bonus

August 18, 2021 11:25 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb school bus safety

Submitted information:

Cobb Schools bus drivers and monitors will soon have an extra reason to love their jobs. Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced today that the District is offering a $1,200 retention bonus to all bus drivers and monitors payable in their December payroll. To be eligible for the retention bonus, each driver and monitor must be employed by September 24th.

“Superintendent Ragsdale talks a lot about our Team. Our bus drivers and monitors are the first Team member many of our students and parents see every day. We want to do everything we can to hire the best and keep the best,” said Chief Operations Officer Marc Smith.

Safety-minded professionals interested in joining the Cobb Schools team as a bus driver or monitor should apply here. Specific questions about the bonus should be directed to the Payroll Department.

Video: Cobb Schools Hiring Bus Drivers

East Cobb mom pulls children from schools over mask policy

August 19, 2021 12:46 PMAugust 18, 2021 8:38 AM by Wendy Parker

When Sara Cavorley registered five of her children for in-person learning at public schools in East Cobb last spring, she wasn’t aware at the time she couldn’t change that decision.

As it turns out, she wasn’t alone in expressing frustration about not having an option to go virtual, especially as transmission of COVID-19 has rapidly increased in Cobb County in recent weeks.

When she showed up for meet-and-greet events at Kincaid Elementary School and Sprayberry High School last month, Cavorley also was upset that masks would not be required for students and staff, as they were on campuses last year.

“Nobody was wearing masks,” she said about the orientation events.

Cavorley is among those parents who want the district to reimpose a mandate just three weeks into the school year. The Cobb school district has reported 822 staff and student COVID-19 cases since July 1, and nearly 600 last week alone.

The entire fifth-grade class at East Side Elementary School is learning remotely through the end of this week due to an outbreak at that East Cobb campus.

In speaking to East Cobb News last weekend, a few days after a pro-mandate rally at Cobb County School District headquarters, Cavorley said she was thinking of taking her children out of the schools.

Her oldest son, Leland, 13, is enrolled at Simpson Middle School but continues to learn from home. He’s been getting infusions since the age of two due to a rare form of cancer called AML, and as a result lacks a strong immune system.

“If Leland gets it, we are in trouble,” she said of the virus.

Her oldest son, who attends Sprayberry and is autistic, panicked at the sight of students and staff not wearing masks, she said.

On Monday, Cavorley said she had withdrawn her children to protect Leland from getting COVID-19.

*Leland Cavorley in a virtual learning environment at his home last school year.*

She said she’s undecided about her next move, including the option of home-schooling, since virtual is not an option.

“Children are literally dropping like flies out of school as the numbers soar,” she said. “What is a parent to do, choose between life, or school. It’s a no-brainer, we choose life!”

For the time being, Cavorley said she will be among those attending a rally before a Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday in favor of a mask mandate.

“If everyone wears them, they will make a difference,” Cavorley said.

The rally is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.,. before a 7 p.m. board voting meeting, at which parents are expected to speak about the mask issue.

Last week, around 100 mask mandate advocates were met by counter-protesters at CCSD headquarters in what occasionally became a contentious event.

The school board also meets at 2:30 p.m. for a work session, although there’s nothing on the agenda mentioning the district’s COVID-19 response.

But Cavorley said this isn’t just about masks.

“We want all the protocols from last year,” said, including social-distancing, classroom lunches and plexiglass barriers, and she provided a photo of what took place at Kincaid, where she has two children enrolled.

After struggling to oversee the virtual learning of her six children last year—her oldest, a daughter, is now attending Kennesaw State University—Cavorley was initially glad for them to go back to their schools.

*A Zoom screenshot from Kincaid ES in the 2020-21 school year showing social-distancing protocols in place.*

She and her family bunkered down at home for months, including her husband Sean, a technology executive. While they settled in, she went out do to the shopping, wearing extra protective gear.

“I had to be the one to do it,” said Cavorley, who got some help from her mother, who’s retired from the state public health department.

Her husband boosted the household WiFi capacity to cover seven computers. Two of her children, Makana and Saoirse, were set up the kitchen, her son Seamus was in a home office and two other children, Eliana and Jayden, learned in a basement.

Leland was upstairs in his room, and her husband worked in the master bedroom.

“Everyone stayed put but me,” Cavorley said. “And no one got sick. None of us even had a cold.”

Her four oldest children have been vaccinated (children 12 and under are not eligible for the vaccines).

Cavorley said she can’t understand why the Cobb school district isn’t following recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control recommending universal mask-wearing in schools.

The district has upgraded its protocols to “strongly encourage” masks, but remains one of the few in metro Atlanta not to require them.

“We’re in a mass pandemic,” she said. “We’re trying to protect people as a whole.”

While she “feels for parents who feel their rights are being taken away” with a mask mandate, Cavorley wondered “if they could just see it from a different point of view.”

She said she’s hoping at the very least that parents like her who’ve chosen in-person learning could switch to virtual.

But the district has set up two different learning environments, unlike last year, and hired limited teachers and staff dedicated for the virtual option.

A Cobb school district spokeswoman told East Cobb News last week that around 2,000 of the district’s estimated 109,000 enrolled students were in the full-time virtual options, the elementary virtual program (EVP) and the Cobb Online Learning Academy (COLA).

“We have to get rid of this nasty thing [COVID-19],” Cavorley said. “This saddens me, that parents aren’t being given any good options.”

Former East Cobb MS campus demolition on school board agenda

August 17, 2021 11:48 AMAugust 17, 2021 10:00 AM by Wendy Parker

Former East Cobb MS demolition
Another major step toward the rebuilding of Eastvalley Elementary School will go before the Cobb Board of Education on Thursday.

The board will be asked to spend $348,000 to demolish the former campus of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road.

That’s across the street from Wheeler High School, and where the new Eastvalley campus will be relocated.

That item will be presented to the board at a 2:30 p.m. work session, with action scheduled for a 7 p.m. voting meeting Thursday.

Both meetings will take place at the Cobb County School District central office (514 Glover St., Marietta), and you can read through the agendas by clicking here.

The meetings also will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24.

An executive session will take place between the two public meetings.

The board is being asked to award the East Cobb MS demolition contract to Chaplin and Sons Clearing and Demolition, Inc. of Augusta.

The funding for the demolition and reconstruction of Eastvalley on the Holt Road site comes from Cobb Ed-SPLOST V.

According to the agenda item, the estimated time for completion of the demolition project is December. There isn’t a timeline that’s been announced for Eastvalley, which has been located on Lower Roswell Road since the early 1960s.

East Cobb Middle School opened on Holt Road in 1963, and opened in a new venue on Terrell Mill Road in 2018, next to the relocated campus of Brumby Elementary School.

Eastvalley parents have been complaining to the board about the conditions of trailers that are being used to accommodate the over-capacity enrollment of around 700, more than double what the main school building holds.

An architect for the Eastvalley rebuild project was approved by the Cobb Board of Education in February 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, at a cost of $1.6 million. The project is expected to cost $31.6 million.

Cobb participation down sharply in Georgia Milestones tests

August 16, 2021 12:46 PM by Wendy Parker

Submitted information from the Cobb County School District:

In Spring 2021, Cobb’s fourth-graders sat down to take the Georgia Milestones for the first time. If 2020 had been a typical year, those students would have already taken the state assessment in third grade. However, due to the COVID-19, the Georgia Milestones was not administered in 2020, and even with the opportunity to test reinstated student participation in 2021 lagged below the number of students who took Milestones in 2019.

More than 95% of Cobb students enrolled in grades 3–8 and in EOC courses took one or more Milestones tests in the years before the pandemic. In 2020-2021, approximately 68% of Cobb students enrolled in those grades and courses took a Milestones test. The difference in participation rates, among other factors related to COVID-19, makes a comparison between school years ill-advised according to the Georgia Department of Education.

This was primarily due to conditions created by the pandemic. The State Board of Education approved Superintendent Woods’ proposal to temporarily lower the EOC course grade weight to .01%, which may have also contributed to the lower participation rate.

Guidance issued by State School Superintendent Richard Woods made clear, in line with federal guidance, that school districts could not require virtual students to come into the building solely for the purpose of taking Georgia Milestones if they were uncomfortable doing so due to the pandemic. The Georgia Department of Education applied to the U.S. Department of Education (USED) for a waiver of high-stakes testing requirements for the 2020-2021 school year, but USED denied Georgia’s request for a waiver.

As was the case across Georgia, student participation at Cobb schools varied widely, and no Cobb school had an overall participation rate of 95% or higher. Thirty Cobb schools posted participation rates between 85-94%, followed by 43 schools with 70-85% participation.

As a result, the Georgia Department of Education is encouraging educators, parents, and communities to remember that the Georgia Milestones tests were designed to measure the performance of students in a typical educational environment, so results should be interpreted in the context of the pandemic and associated learning disruptions, along with varying access to instruction. The scores were released along with participation data since some students did not participate in testing last year due to the pandemic.

“Georgia Milestones was designed to measure instruction during a typical school year, and 2020-2021 was anything but,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “Rolling quarantines, rising case counts, and shifting instructional models impacted the educational experience for students throughout the state.”

Despite the wide-ranging challenges of 2020 and 2021, Cobb students demonstrated their ability to lead the way. More Cobb students (73.8%) scored in levels 2–4 than their metro Atlanta (69.2%) and Georgia (68.2%) peers. 

Cobb students scored higher than students in the 12 other school districts located in metro Atlanta and Georgia students overall, both in all subjects and in the percent of students reading on grade level. 

The student participation rate on the Georgia Milestones may have dropped, but Cobb educators do not rely solely on end-of-year assessments. Cobb teachers conduct formative assessments throughout the school year to determine what students know so they can tailor instruction to meet the learning needs of each student. Those assessments occur for every student in the District, regardless of whether they are learning in-person or virtually.

So, Cobb teachers did not have to wait for the results from Georgia Milestones to know where students needed learning support. To help students with any learning loss they experienced due to the pandemic, Cobb Schools expanded summer enrichment opportunities through programs like Summer Learning Quest and the Summer Enrichment Academy. Cobb educators will continue to monitor student progress this year so they can respond promptly to student needs and adjust instruction as necessary.

To assist Cobb families during digital learning, the District provided over $10 million in digital devices. Cobb also dispatched 27 buses equipped with wifi to help students stay connected. The Cobb Schools Food & Nutrition Services helped fuel student success by providing students with 3.5 million meal kits.

District leaders also recognized the importance of providing options that support safe, high-quality learning environments for all 110,000 of our students, their families, and our staff. For most Cobb families, that meant a return to in-person learning.

Starting in Fall 2020, Cobb families had the opportunity to choose the learning environment that worked best for their student. Families were given more options in Spring 2021 to choose whether their student would be best served by in-person or virtual learning. All students and families were also able to choose the classroom that was best for their student and family for the 2020-2021 school year.

An example of the wild fluctuations in testing: The six high schools in East Cobb had vastly different participation rates, with Sprayberry, Kell and Wheeler testing at 79 percent of their student bodies or higher, while Walton, Pope and Lassiter students tested at 28 percent or lower.

Here’s a summary report from the Georgia Department of Education describing the Milestones date; we’ll look at more school-by-school breakdowns in East Cobb in a separate post.

Cobb schools report 587 COVID-19 cases; 46 at East Side ES

August 13, 2021 1:47 PMAugust 13, 2021 1:14 PM by Wendy Parker

A total of 587 new COVID-19 cases were reported this week by the Cobb County School District, including a district-high 46 cases at East Side Elementary School in East Cobb.

That’s where all 5th graders were moved into virtual learning mode starting Thursday through next Friday after an outbreak.

The district’s weekly COVID case update, issued every Friday, includes school-by-school breakdowns.

Last week, as a new school year began, there were 185 cases among staff and students. Since July 1, there have been 822 cumulative cases, including 50 reported before classes began.

Several other schools had double-digit figures this week, including Walton and Wheeler (13 each) and Sprayberry (12) high schools in East Cobb.

When acknowledging the East Side outbreak earlier this week, a district spokeswoman did not explain how the outbreak occurred there, and why the switch to remote instruction was limited only to the 5th grade.

Cobb is among a handful of school districts in metro Atlanta that has a masks-optional policy. Another is Marietta City Schools, which said this week it would increase contact tracing procedures.

Last week Cobb updated protocols specifying quarantine policies that include a mandated 10-day mask-wearing period for asymptomatic staff and students who are exposed.

However, the district has not responded to increasing calls for a mask mandate, which is what is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.

On Thursday, nearly 100 people favoring a school mandate protested in front of Cobb school district headquarters in Marietta, and they were met by counter-protestors.

Earlier this week, Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, urged indoor mask usage in the county, including schools, as transmission metrics continued to climb well past the high community spread level.

On Friday, she issued an even more urgent message, as the 14-day average of cases per 100,000 people approached 500 (100 cases per 100,000 is considered high community spread) and as hospitals were reporting a shortage of critical beds.

“I leave you with the facts of our current state of affairs and implore that each of you make your individual decisions not just for your individual rights, but for the good of our community,” Memark said. “Make sure your facts are from reputable sources and not social media sites. Wear your mask in public and get vaccinated. These are two of the only weapons that we have against this pandemic, but remain two of the strongest.”

The Georgia Department of Public Health also compiles a weekly update called the School Aged COVID-19 Surveillance Report.

5th graders at East Side ES to learn remotely until Aug. 23

August 11, 2021 1:15 PM by Wendy Parker

East Side ES 5th grade remote learning

Fifth-grade students at East Side Elementary School in East Cobb were sent home early on Wednesday and ordered to learn remotely until Aug. 23 due to a COVID-19 outbreak.

In a message sent to the parents of fifth-graders at 9:35 a.m. Wednesday, East Side said the “ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and high positive case numbers” prompted the decision.

Fifth-grade students were to be picked up by 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, and can return to campus on Monday, Aug. 23, according to the message.

“During this time of quarantine, live instruction will occur following your 5th grade student’s normal daily schedule,” the message said. “At this time, ONLY 5th grade classes are moving to remote learning.”

The message did not indicate why only 5th grade classes are affected, nor did it indicate how many COVID-19 cases and close contacts have been determined.

Nor did a Cobb school district spokeswoman, who provided East Cobb News only with the following message:

“Based on our District protocols, fifth-graders at East Side Elementary School will learn virtually August 12-20. When providing high-quality instruction in a classroom is not possible, due to the number of students or staff in quarantine, we look forward to each student receiving a high quality virtual experience through Cobb teachers and the Cobb Teaching and Learning System (CTLS).”

The East Side developments come a week after the district revised its protocols last week to “strongly encourage” mask use, and requires masks for 10 days for asymptomatic people who have been allowed to return to school after being exposed to the virus.

During the first week of classes, Cobb reported 185 COVID-19 cases, including three at East Side.

Cobb remains one of the few school districts in metro Atlanta without a mask mandate.

Some parents have scheduled a rally at Cobb school district headquarters Thursday afternoon demanding a mask mandate.

Transmission rates of COVID-19 in Cobb County have risen rapidly over the last month, well past the “high community spread” threshold of a 14-day average of 100 cases per 100,000 people.

Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, told Cobb commissioners Tuesday that figure is approaching 500 cases per 100,000, both PCR and Antigen tests combined.

Cobb school parents to hold pro-mask mandate rally Thursday

August 11, 2021 12:42 PMAugust 11, 2021 9:32 AM by Wendy Parker

Parents demanding that the Cobb County School District issue a mask mandate will be holding a rally Thursday afternoon.

That’s scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the district’s central office (514 Glover St., off Fairground St. in Marietta), and is scheduled to last for two hours.

Attendees are asked to wear masks, practice social-distancing and to bring water and signs.

One of the organizers is parent Shannon Mathers Deisen of East Cobb, and among the messages at the rally will be urging the district to follow recent guidance by the Centers for Disease Control and the American Association of Pediatricians recommending indoor mask usage in schools.

Cobb is one of several school districts in metro Atlanta that have a masks-optional policy (along with Marietta, Paulding, Cherokee and Forsyth).

Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Janet Memark also has been encouraging indoor mask use, including at schools, and her agency issued a separate message last week saying that while it is “committed to being a trusted resource for planning, mitigation, case identification, and contact tracing” the final decision on masking policy rests with local school districts, per state law.

Cobb revised its protocols last week to “strongly encourage” mask use, and requires masks for 10 days for asymptomatic people who have been allowed to return to school after being exposed to the virus.

Cobb students and staff were under a mask mandate for all of the 2020-21 school year, and a group of parents sued the district because of it.

They dropped their suit after superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced in the spring that the mask policy would be optional for 2021-22.

That’s when the COVID-19 transmission rate was considered low (below a 14-day average of 100 cases per 100,000 people.

As Cobb students began their school year last week, that figure had soared to more than 300, and is approaching a 14-day average of 500 cases per 100,000 people, PCR and Antigen tests combined.

A Cobb school district spokeswoman told East Cobb News this week that all but around 2,000 of the district’s estimated enrollment of 109,000 students were signed up for in-person instruction.

Parents had until the late spring to choose virtual or in-person learning options, and are not allowed to change them during the school year.

Back-to-School tips from Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission

August 7, 2021 11:59 AMAugust 7, 2021 7:53 AM by Wendy Parker

Submitted information:

As summer draws to a close and children start heading back to school, family life can get hectic. It’s important to remember – and share with your children – some key tips that will help keep them safe and healthy throughout the school year.

Transportation Safety

Whether children walk, ride their bicycle or take the bus to school, it is extremely important that they take proper safety precautions. Here are some tips to make sure your child safely travels to school:

Walkers

Review your family’s walking safety rules and practice walking to school with your child. Walk on the sidewalk, if one is available; when on a street with no sidewalk, walk facing the traffic. Before you cross the street, stop and look left, right and left again to see if cars are coming. Make eye contact with drivers before crossing and always cross streets at crosswalks or intersections. Stay alert and avoid distracted walking.

Bike Riders

Teach your child the rules of the road and practice riding the bike route to school with your child.
Ride on the right side of the road, with traffic, and in a single file;

Come to a complete stop before crossing the street; walk bikes across the street

Stay alert and avoid distracted riding

Make sure your child always wears a properly fitted helmet and bright clothing.

Bus Riders

Teach your children school bus safety rules and practice with them. Go to the bus stop with your child to teach them the proper way to get on and off the bus. Teach your children to stand 6 feet (or three giant steps) away from the curb. If your child must cross the street in front of the bus, teach him or her to walk on the side of the road until they are 10 feet ahead of the bus; your child and the bus driver should always be able to see each other. Here are some injury facts on bus safety.

Driving Your Child to School

Stay alert and avoid distracted driving. Obey school zone speed limits and follow your school’s drop-off procedure. Make eye contact with children who are crossing the street. Never pass a bus loading or unloading children. The area 10 feet around a school bus is the most dangerous for children; stop far enough back to allow them to safely enter and exit the bus.

Teen Drivers

Car crashes are the No. 1 cause of death for teens. Fortunately, there is something we can do.
Teens crash because they are inexperienced; practice with new drivers every week, before and after they get their license. Set a good example; drive the way you want your teen to drive. Sign the New Driver Deal, an agreement that helps define expectations for parents and teens.

For additional information please see:
School Safety – National Safety Council (nsc.org)

Cobb schools report 185 new COVID-19 cases in first week

August 11, 2021 12:22 PMAugust 6, 2021 1:03 PM by Wendy Parker

As first week of the 2021-22 school year in the Cobb County School District comes to a close, the district is reporting 185 new cases of COVID-19.

As it did last year, the district is updating those figures every Friday at this link, which includes a cumulative figure of 235 cases since July 1.

The numbers are not broken down between students and staff.

The school-by-school numbers include a district-high of seven cases each at Sprayberry High School, Hillgrove High School and Lost Mountain Middle School.

On Wednesday, the district revised its quarantine and other COVID-19 protocols.

Among the provisions is to allow staff or students who are identified as a “close contact” and who are asymptomatic to return to school within 24 hours if they remain asymptomatic and wear a mask on campus for 10 days following exposure.

The Cobb school district’s COVID-19 figures don’t include how many people are quarantined or how many are identified as close contacts.

The district also said it would be “strongly encouraging” but not mandating indoor mask use for everyone, as it did last year.

Cobb, Marietta, Cherokee, Paulding and Forsyth are the only school districts in metro Atlanta that do not have overall mask requirements.

That policy runs counter to recent Centers for Disease Control guidance recommending “universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.”

On Thursday, Cobb and Douglas Public Health released a message saying while it is “committed to being a trusted resource for planning, mitigation, case identification, and contact tracing” that according to a state public health order issued Monday “all schools have local, final authority over their COVID-19 policies and quarantine protocols within certain parameters.”

The CDPH message also linked to the CDC guidance and stated that “each school system has their own unique challenges to meet the needs of students and faculty and we respect their authority to make the final decisions.”

Here’s the case breakdown for schools in East Cobb:

Elementary: Addison 2; Bells Ferry 0; Blackwell 2; Davis 0; East Side 3; Eastvalley 4; Garrison Mill 2; Keheley 1; Kincaid 2; Mt. Bethel 1; Mountain View 2; Murdock 5; Nicholson 0; Powers Ferry 0; Rocky Mount 1; Sedalia Park 0; Sope Creek 0; Timber Ridge 1; Tritt 0.
Middle: Daniell 1; Dickerson 1; Dodgen 4; East Cobb 1; Hightower Trail 3; Mabry 0; McClekskey 0; Simpson 0.
High: Kell 3; Lassiter 5; Pope 3; Sprayberry 7; Walton 4; Wheeler 3.

Cobb schools revise quarantine policy; masks ‘strongly encouraged’

August 4, 2021 2:01 PM by Wendy Parker

Three days into a new academic year, the Cobb County School District has gotten more specific about its quarantine policy.

Before classes resumed on Monday, the original guidance released July 20 required quarantine for “any student or staff member who is identified as a close contact” according to Centers for Disease Control and Cobb and Douglas Public Health guidelines.

Those individuals were to receive a “close contact” letter outlining further instructions.

The new policy, released by the district with little further explanation, says the following:

“Students or staff who are identified as a close contact and are asymptomatic are able to return to class or work the next day if the student or staff member remains asymptomatic and wears a mask while on school district property for ten days after exposure. Students or staff who are identified as a close contact and are symptomatic must follow directions contained in the close contact letter.”

The new guidance issued Wednesday continues the Cobb school district’s masks-optional policy for staff and students outside of quarantine provisions, but said that mask use is “strongly encouraged.”

The changes also come a week after the CDC issued new guidance regarding indoor mask use in general, and “recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.”

Cobb is one of the few school districts in metro Atlanta, along with Marietta City Schools, that does not have a mask mandate.

The transmission of COVID-19 in Cobb County in recent days has surpassed the “high community threshold,” a 14 day average of 100 cases per 100,000 people. That figure is now more than 300, and late last week Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark urged citizens to mask in public and get vaccinated.

The new Cobb policy also limits volunteers on school campuses, and parents and guardians are not allowed to eat lunch in the cafeteria with their children, topics not included in the initial guidelines:

“Non-staff volunteers will be limited in their ability to enter the school and volunteer in roles that involve any degree of proximity to students during the instructional day. At the discretion of the principal, volunteers are allowed to enter the school and work in an isolated location away from students and staff. Volunteers are still welcome on campus for afterschool activities and special school events. Additionally, and until further notice, no parents/guardians will be permitted to eat lunch with their child in the school cafeteria.”

The Cobb school district said as it did last year, it will post weekly updates of COVID-19 cases every Friday at this link.

Cobb Chamber seeks businesses for Partners in Education program

August 2, 2021 4:58 PMAugust 2, 2021 11:52 AM by Wendy Parker

Submitted information:

As the school year begins in Cobb County, the Cobb Chamber’s Partners In Education program is looking for businesses to become partners and serve local schools.

The Partners in Education Program is a collective effort of the Cobb Chamber, the Cobb County Public School District and Marietta City Schools that matches businesses and organizations with schools to provide extra funding, unique services and volunteer support. The vision behind the Partners in Education program is to enrich the learning experience of Cobb’s children so that all develop a strong academic foundation, skills and core values that will benefit them in their community life and in a career.

“The Chamber’s Partners in Education program has a long history of connecting businesses with local schools, sourcing Cobb’s schools with much needed resources,” said Sharon Mason. “As partners, businesses can make a positive impact on students by donating supplies and other items and volunteering at the school. These partnerships help schools and students to flourish.”

Participation in the program provides opportunities for businesses to:

Heighten awareness of present and future job needs.

Understand the quality and needs of the public school systems, whose health is vital to the community’s economic well-being.

Be recognized as a community involved company, which adds to public relations efforts.

Improve the education of future employees and customers.

Any business in Cobb County and the surrounding area is eligible to participate as a Partner in Education. Businesses that are also members of the Cobb Chamber receive a special badge and category in the Chamber’s membership directory to help promote their business as a key contributor to the education community.

For more information about Partners in Education, contact Twana Roots at troots@cobbchamber.org or Caroline Knowles at cknowles@cobbchamber.org.

Cobb schools: No changes to mask, public health policies

July 28, 2021 5:52 PM by Wendy Parker

The day after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control revised indoor mask guidance, including for schools, the Cobb County School District said it is sticking to its announced public health protocols.

Those protocols include a masks-optional policy, making Cobb one of six school districts in metro Atlanta with such a policy.

Cobb schools return for the 2021-22 year on Monday, and the masks-optional policy applies to all activities, including school buses and extracurricular activities.

On Tuesday, the CDC encouraged indoor mask usage, even for vaccinated people and school students, due a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant, and amid questions about the effectiveness of vaccines.

That decision was a quick reversal of CDC guidance issued July 9 saying that “fully vaccinated” people could go maskless indoors.

Tuesday’s new CDC guidance “recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.”

Gwinnett County Public Schools, the largest school district in Georgia, immediately announced Tuesday it was switching from a masks-optional policy to reimpose a mask mandate.

In recent days the transmission of the COVID-19 virus in Cobb County has risen above what’s considered “high community spread,” to a 14-day average of 190 cases per 100,000.

“High spread” is defined as 100 cases per 100,000 or higher, and until recently that figure had dropped into the 30s in Cobb County.

On Wednesday, a Cobb school district spokeswoman told East Cobb News that nothing about its public health protocols for the coming year has changed, issuing this statement:

“Recognizing that Cobb families want to be able to choose the learning environment that best supports the needs of their family, it was important to Superintendent Ragsdale that all Cobb families were given a choice between face-to-face and virtual classrooms for the upcoming school year. Establishing a registration process, and deadlines, has allowed our online learning staff to navigate those challenges while ensuring our face-to-face teachers remain focused on their face-to-face students.

She also linked to the public health protocols, which were released on July 20 (our previous post here), and which she said “continue to be our most up-to-date guidance.”

When asked to specifically clarify the masks-optional policy, the spokeswoman said “the most updated health protocols are linked in the statement.”

Cobb is the second-largest school district in Georgia, with nearly 112,000 students. While Gwinnett’s new mask mandate allows parents to change how their children will learn—either in-person or virtual—Cobb’s is not that flexible.

Cobb schools are offering in-person and virtual learning options for the new school year, but parents won’t be able to change like they did last year. And they had to make their decisions last spring, when case figures were lower and a mask mandate was still in place.

This spring Superintendent Chris Ragsdale outlined two separate academic environments that won’t be interchangeable for the 2021-22 school year.

Teachers have been hired exclusively for the virtual option, while teachers on campuses will be working only with “face-to-face” students.

That’s been the subject of concern and complaints from some parents in social media forums and elsewhere.

One of them is Nicole Russo, the mother of a rising 4th grader at Sedalia Park Elementary School in East Cobb.

She said that when the separate learning environments were announced, cases were down and a mask mandate was still in place.

But that was also the time parents had to choose one option or the other, with no ability to switch.

“This is what parents based this tough decision on,” Russo told East Cobb News. “Since then, Cobb County has changed their mask policy. However, Cobb is not allowing parents to change their virtual option choice. Cases are growing exponentially, and Cobb is well above the high transmission threshold.

“It is baffling that Cobb County schools are not following the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics advice of mask mandates. It is unthinkable that given the current COVID transmission rate and Cobb County’s change in safety protocols, they are not allowing the parents to make a safe choice for their kids.”

Russo said she chose in-person learning for her daughter, who “will be masked, but we all know that masks are not nearly as effective if they are not universally worn.”

Cobb, Marietta, Paulding, Cherokee, Forsyth and Fulton schools are the only school districts with masks-optional policies in metro Atlanta.

Cobb had a mask mandate last year, and the district was sued by a group of parents. That suit was dropped when Ragsdale announced in May masks would be optional starting with the summer sessions.

When asked by East Cobb News if the Cobb masks-optional policy could be changed, and what factors might prompt such a change, the district spokeswoman did not respond.

EPiCS Ignite! to offer free coding workshop for 3rd-6th graders

July 26, 2021 2:57 PM by Wendy Parker

EPiCS Ignite! coding workshop

Submitted information:

Cobb residents Natalie Ajemian, a rising Junior at Wheeler Magnet, and Elly Kang, a rising Junior at the Marist School, co-founded EPiCS Ignite! with the goals of sharing computer science resources and holding events so they can help to bridge the educational digital divide. They’re holding a free online coding workshop and project competition for rising 3rd – 6th graders on Saturday, August 7, and Sunday, August, 8 (from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. each day). Students from various local high schools will be teaching at the event. For more information and registration, go to www.epics-ignite.weebly.com.

EPiCS Ignite! coding workshop

East Cobb PTAs recognized at Georgia PTA convention

July 21, 2021 2:15 PMJuly 21, 2021 9:02 AM by Wendy Parker

Several PTA organizations at East Cobb public schools were recently recognized at the Georgia PTA Convention Leadership Training and Awards banquet.

The PTAs include those at Lassiter High School, Hightower Trail Middle School, Kincaid ES, Sope Creek ES, Davis ES, Mountain View ES and Timber Ridge ES.

Individually, Lassiter principal Chris Richie was honored with the Outstanding Principal Award, and Molly Henson of the Kincaid PTA was presented with the Birney Butler Outstanding Educator Award.

Tammy Andress, the co-president of the East Cobb County Council of PTAs, announced the recognitions at the July 15 Cobb Board of Education meeting.

She encouraged school board members to “embrace and invite PTAs back into your schools” with a new academic year beginning, and as COVID-19 restrictions are easing.

You can learn more about the ECCC PTA by clicking here; the organization represents six clusters of schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

East Cobb PTAs recognized

Cobb schools release public health protocols for 2021-22

July 20, 2021 4:39 PM by Wendy Parker

Public health protocols released Tuesday by the Cobb County School District include a masks-optional policy for all activities and self-isolation requirements for anyone testing positive for COVID-19.

The protocols also state that any student or staff member who “is identified as a close contact will be required to quarantine” in accordance with Cobb and Douglas Public Health and Georgia Department of Public Health guidelines.

The last update for that by CDPH was in December, and that can be found here.

Georgia DPH guidelines about quarantine (read them here) were last revised in May.

(You can read through all the Cobb public health protocols by clicking here.)

Cobb superintendent Chris Ragsdale last week reiterated a masks-optional policy he announced in May, but it was unclear what the extent of that measure would be.

In the guidelines issued Tuesday, the Cobb school district said face coverings that were required for in-person learning for most of the last school year will be “optional for students and staff in school buildings, on school buses, and at extracurricular activities.”

At a Cobb Board of Education meeting last week, parents and students spoke on both sides of the mask issue.

Some other metro Atlanta school districts are continuing mask mandates from last year, but Cobb and Marietta schools are allowing for a choice.

The Cobb policy allows students and staff who wish to wear masks to continue to do so.

The new protocols come out less than two weeks before the start of a new school year.

The Cobb school district said that contract/tracing team members at schools will contact the parents/guardians of students who are identified as a close contact. Parents and guardians also will be contacted via e-mail “if a positive COVID-19 case is identified in their student’s classroom, school bus, or athletic team.”

The district said it will continue to provide weekly updates on COVID-19 cases in the district as it did during the 2020-21 school year.

The Cobb policies call for social distancing indoors “when appropriate and feasible” and will provide hand sanitizer in all classrooms, common areas and school buses.

High-touch surfaces will be cleaned daily and buses will be cleaned and disinfected after both morning and afternoon runs.

In a release, the Cobb school district acknowledged that “students, staff members, or parents may have additional health questions which are unique to you. As a student, please direct those questions to your school nurse. As a staff member, please direct those questions to your supervisor. As a parent, please direct those questions to your local school.”

More details: CCSD COVID-19 information page.

In the Layne Sports holding Back 2 School Bags ‘N Swag event

July 19, 2021 12:48 PMJuly 19, 2021 8:40 AM by Wendy Parker

Former Wheeler High School basketball star D.A. Layne and his In The Layne Sports is holding the 3rd annual Back 2 School Bags ‘N Swag Giveaway right before the start of the school year.

The date is Saturday, July 31, from 2-6 p.m. at Terrell Mill Park (480 Terrell Mill Road), and there will be free food, prizes, games, music and other events.

Admission is also free, and all children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

More information is included in the flyer below, and the link to register can be found by clicking here.

Back 2 School Bags 'N Swag

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!

KSU student launches campaign for Cobb school board Post 4

July 17, 2021 1:57 PMJuly 17, 2021 11:55 AM by Wendy Parker

Austin Heller, Cobb school board candidate

Austin Heller, a rising senior at Kennesaw State University, announced this week he’s running for a seat on the Cobb Board of Education in 2022.

Heller, a political science major who is 20 years old, is running as a Democrat for the Post 4 seat held by Republican incumbent David Chastain.

That post includes the Kell and Sprayberry clusters and also covers the KSU campus area. Heller is a graduate of the Hardaway School in Columbus, and initially majored in elementary education at KSU. He also is a senior resident assistant for housing and as a member of the school’s Civic Engagement team he encourages students “on their right to vote and community engagement opportunities.”

Heller, who made his announcement after the Cobb school board meeting Thursday, said he’s running because “I see a desperate need for our county and our Board to lead with empathy and pass equitable policies that uplift all our students.”

He referenced his youth as a “military brat” for being exposed to different cultures and said “I believe our community deserves to be fully represented as we are all important to creating a Cobb that we are proud of.”

He said he is running on a platform of “empathy, equity, and advocacy,” and mentioned the three Democrats on the board—Jaha Howard, Charisse Davis and Tre’ Hutchins—for doing “amazing” work for Cobb school students.

” I would be honored and humbled to join them on the Board fighting for Cobb families,” Heller said.

Heller said he opposes the Cobb school board’s recent vote to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory in the Cobb County School District. That was a 4-3 vote on party lines, with Chastain voting in favor and the three Democrats against.

“Honest and comprehensive history is crucial to understanding where we are today,” Heller said in his campaign announcement. “I believe in our trained educators to have hard conversations with our students in safe spaces inside the classroom. I also know and understand how important it is to see yourself represented in and out of the classroom. Every student in our county matters and I am ready to help them be the most successful and healthy individuals they can be.”

Heller doesn’t have a campaign website for now but his e-mail address is: austin4cobb@outlook.com. He also is on Instagram and Twitter.

Chastain, a systems engineer at Lockheed-Martin, has indicated he will be seeking a third term. In his most recent filings with Cobb Elections in May, he filed a personal financial disclosure report.

He won re-election in 2018 over Democrat Cynthia Parr with 53 percent of the vote.

Another East Cobb seat on the school board, held by Davis in Post 6, also will be up in 2022. That includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters.

Post 2 in the Smyrna area also will be on the ballot next year. Howard, like Davis, will be completing his first term.

Before those elections, however, all seven posts on the Cobb school board will be redrawn by the county legislative delegation in reapporionment.

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