This week’s COVID-19 case count in the Cobb County School District is a slight drop from the week of March 19, as the rate of new infections continues to fall.
The district announced in its weekly update on Friday that there were 147 new confirmed cases, nine fewer than a week ago.
It’s the fourth straight week the case totals have been less than 200. The district does not break down the numbers for students and staff.
The district lists the number of active cases by school as well as cumulative totals since July 1, 2020.
Overall, there have been 4,501 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Cobb school district since that date.
This week there were fewer than 10 cases reported at schools with new active cases. They include the following at East Cobb schools:
Bells Ferry ES: 1
East Side ES: 1
Eastvalley ES: 1
Keheley ES: 1
Mt. Bethel ES: 6
Murdock ES: 1
Powers Ferry ES: 2
Sope Creek ES: 2
Timber Ridge ES: 1
Tritt ES: 1
Dickerson MS: 3
Dodgen MS: 1
East Cobb MS: 1
Hightower Trail MS: 1
McCleskey MS: 1
Lassiter HS: 1
Pope HS: 4
Walton HS: 5
In the nearly nine months the district has been compiling COVID data, Walton has the most cumulative cases with 130. Pope has 104, Lassiter 102 and Kell 101.
Dickerson has the most overall cases at the middle school level with 74, and McCleskey has 68.
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A former home site on Pine Road will be the new home for Walton HS softball and tennis teams. (ECN file)
We’ve been getting occasional questions from readers in recent weeks about the status of upcoming projects for a new Eastvalley Elementary School campus and a new softball and tennis complex at Walton High School.
We checked with the Cobb County School District, whose spokeswoman told us this week that “we do not have projected timelines for either of those projects.”
They’re both slated to be built with funding from the current Cobb Education V SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax). That’s a projected $797 million that’s being collected through the end of 2023.
Some of the initial projects underway with SPLOST V revenues are replacement projects for Harmony Leland Elementary School and King Springs Elementary School in Mableton and the new Susan Todd Pearson Middle School in Smyrna.
Eastvalley Elementary School will be relocated to the former campus of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road, across from Wheeler High School.
An architect for the Eastvalley project was approved by the Cobb Board of Education last February, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, at a cost of $1.6 million. The project is expected to cost $31.6 million.
At the same time, the school board approved spending $5.6 million to acquire property near the Walton High School campus for new facilities for the Raiders’ softball and tennis teams.
The land acquisitions come to more than 18 acres on Bill Murdock Road, Pine Road and Providence Road, and don’t include the cost of construction.
Walton’s softball and tennis teams were displaced in 2014 for the school’s new main campus building, and they have been playing home competitions since then at Terrell Mill Park.
The school board threatened a taking by eminent domain of 15 acres on Pine Road in November 2019 after gender equity issues arose under the federal Title IX law. While the Walton baseball team has been playing on campus, the softball team was not.
A district spokeswoman said this week that “all details about the ED-SPLOST VI referendum will be available once the District has listened to the community and staff to determine needs in each of our schools.”
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At last week’s Cobb Board of Education meeting the retirement of three principals at East Cobb schools was announced, effective at the end of the current school year.
They are Susan Hallmark of Addison Elementary School, Lynn Hamblett of Murdock Elementary School and Laura Montgomery of Hightower Trail Middle School.
The retirements of Hallmark and Hamblett are effective June 1; Montgomery’s retirement begins on July 1.
They’re the among the first principals in the district to announce their retirements.
Their replacements have not yet been determined; when there are staffing changes at the principal level or above, the school board makes final decisions on those moves.
The district said last week that 98 percent of employees have renewed their contracts for the 2021-22 school year. A virtual hiring fair is ongoing now as the district seeks to fill more than 750 teaching slots in a hybrid learning program that will include expanded online options.
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A mixed system of in-person and virtual learning options for the 2021-22 Cobb County School District’s academic year includes an “exclusive” virtual program and a five-days-a-week instructional calendar for both.
The Cobb Board of Education heard more details Thursday from district officials, including Superintendent Chris Ragsdale, who said “virtual is here to stay” and not just in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that has prompted online instruction for the last year.
More details will be provided Monday at the district’s Cobb Learning Everywhere vertical. Also starting Monday, registration for grades 6-12 will get underway and lasts through April 1.
Ragsdale and Chief Academic Officer Jennifer Lawson presented grade-level plans that include an “exclusive” online learning environment for grades 6-12.
For students from pre-kindergarten through 5th grade, there will be local school-based online learning. Ragsdale said many of those options will be “school by school specific,” with no singular district-wide program.
The plans also call for some online elementary learners from several schools in a geographic cluster to be taught by a singular teacher. That model is designed for semester and year-long enrollment.
Registration for PreK-5 starts April 19 and continues through May 1.
High school learners will have a block schedule and supplemental classes. Those high school and middle school students in the virtual option will be enrolled through the Cobb Online Learning Academy.
Most online learners will be taught by full-time teachers certified in online teaching. For online high school students who wish to be enrolled through their home high school, they can learn independently through the district’s Cobb Virtual Academy.
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The school board voted Saturday to hire the Atlanta law firm of Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough to represent the Cobb County School District on an interim basis.
The vote was 6-1 with board member Jaha Howard against, saying he wanted more time to process the recommendation from Supertintendent Chris Ragsdale.
Howard made a motion to delay the decision, but it failed 1-6.
Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough provides legal services to the Atlanta and Fulton school systems and will start work with Cobb immediately.
ORIGINAL REPORT:
After voting to terminate its association with its longtime law firm, the Cobb Board of Education on Thursday announced it would hold a special called meeting on Saturday to consider recommendations for interim legal counsel.
By a 4-3 party line vote, the board voted to end its association with Gregory, Doyle, Calhoun & Rogers of Marietta, but did not explain why.
During its Thursday work session, board member Jaha Howard asked whether the matter could be discussed publicly, but was told it would be done in executive session.
After that executive session, the board held a voting session, with Howard, Charisse Davis and Tre’ Hutchins, the board’s Democratic minority, opposing the measure to seek new legal counsel.
There was no further discussion during that meeting.
A late addition to the board’s meeting agenda indicated only that “the Cobb County School District requires legal counsel with resources allowing it to consistently, reliably, and timely respond to the District’s complex legal needs. The increasingly complex legal environment requires solutions incorporating policy guidance, governance training, intergovernmental cooperation, and external accreditation services.”
On Saturday at 10 a.m., the board will hold a special called meeting, for which Superintendent Chris Ragsdale “is directed to identify law firms possessing the expertise, size, experience, and capacity to immediately and competently serve as interim general counsel for the Cobb County School District.”
The agenda item also states that the board has a year to identify a permanent legal counsel, and that Gregory, Doyle, Calhoun & Rogers will provide assistance during the transition.
Partner Clem Doyle is present at board meetings and executive sessions, serving as a parliamentarian and conducting public comment sessions.
He also did not speak about the decision to change legal services on Thursday.
The decision comes as the Cobb school district is the subject of a preliminary investigation by the Cobb District Attorney’s office into school equipment and technology purchases, and as a citizens’ financial watchdog group has been scrutinizing and publicly critical of some of that spending, including for COVID-19-related safety supplies.
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Amy Henry was a leader pushing for in-person learning in Cobb schools last fall.
An East Cobb woman who has four children in public schools said the Cobb County School District’s student mask mandate should be dropped after teachers get vaccinated.
Amy Henry, who has two children at Walton High School and two others in grade school, said at a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday that “we’re putting on a show and denying our children in the process” by requiring students who attend classes in person to wear masks at all times.
“They need to have a normal childhood,” Henry said. “We’re teaching them that they’re dirty. We’re creating a fearful environment that for these kids cannot be normal.”
While several school districts in metro Atlanta make masks optional for students, Cobb is among those that requires mask-wearing for students, teachers and staff on campuses.
Henry said “there’s no data that says kids are spreading” the COVID-19 virus.
Teachers in the Cobb school district are eligible to get vaccinated through Cobb and Douglas Public Health. Optional vaccinations took place on Wednesday and more are scheduled for next week and two dates in April.
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale initially planned to “encourage” but not require mask use at the start of the school year. But after ordering schools to start all-online, Ragsdale said masks would be required when students returned to campus in October.
They have been mandatory ever since, although efforts by Cobb school board members Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard to make them part of the student dress code were unsuccessful.
Henry was a leader of a group called “Let Parents Choose” that advocated for in-person schooling. After the all-virtual decision was made, she enrolled her younger children in private schools, and they now attend Sope Creek Elementary School.
She told East Cobb Newsin an August interview that she initially supported measures such as mask-wearing, “but at some point we have to ask what kind of damage we’re doing to kids in the long run.”
On Thursday, Henry told board members she still hasn’t been able to visit her kindergartener’s classroom due to COVID-19 restrictions.
This is a virus, she said, “with a 99.97 percent survival rate.” She suggested that those parents and students who have concerns over the virus can choose the virtual option.
Board members don’t respond to public commenters. Later in the work session, Ragsdale said no decision had been made about whether masks will be required for next year.
He was asked by Davis during a discussion about virtual learning options. Ragsdale said the Cobb school district will “continue to follow the guidance” of Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
“At this point in time, we’re not able to say either way,” he said.
For the spring semester, around 66 percent of the Cobb County School District’s 107,000 students chose in-person learning.
In January, after the deaths of three teachers due to COVID-19, several teachers and parents pleaded with the Cobb school district to return to all-virtual. They also scolded Ragsdale and board members David Banks and David Chastain of East Cobb for not wearing masks.
Another parent who spoke at Thursday’s work session, John Hanson, told board members that students “should have a choice to wear a mask just like everyone in this room has a choice.”
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The Cobb County School District said late Wednesday afternoon that Thursday classes will be remote due to impending severe weather.
The district said in a release at 6:20 p.m. that the decision was made “to protect students and staff who would be traveling to school during the worst weather conditions.”
The National Weather Service in Atlanta issued an advisory Wednesday afternoon indicated that a severe thunderstorm system making its way through Mississippi and Alabama was expected to reach Georgia overnight, and in metro Atlanta in particular between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. Thursday.
“We often talk about the safety of Cobb students and staff being our highest priority. Avoiding the dangers associated with severe weather when students are riding buses and staff are driving to work is an example of that priority,” the district statement said.
The severe weather advisory includes the possibility of tornadoes, high winds and hail as well as flooding.
There have been tornado warnings in most of Alabama and Mississippi on Wednesday, and reports of hail.
A tornado warning was in effect late Wednesday afternoon in Birmingham and central Alabama, and a confirmed tornado in Chilton County, Ala., near Montgomery.
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The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday will hear a presentation by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale about virtual learning options for the 2021-22 school year.
He’s also expected to provide an update on the district’s purchase of aqueous ozone hand sanitizing machines as a COVID-19 safety measure.
Those items are included on the agenda for the school board work session that starts at 1 p.m. Thursday. An executive session is to follow, and voting meeting starts at 7 p.m.
What had to be worked out, among other things, is how teachers would teach. This year they’ve been required to teach students in-person and remote simultaneously.
Ragsdale said at the time that “we are learning from mistakes” and “seeing the impacts” a dual learning system has had on students and teachers.
“We recognize the extreme level of difficulty for all team members this school year,” Ragsdale said then.
For the spring semester, around 66 percent of the Cobb County School District’s 107,000 students chose in-person learning.
An Indiana company called 30e is the manufacturer of the hand sanitizing machines that are being installed in elementary schools, after a proof-of-concept at three schools in the fall semester.
Those were part of a $12 million purchase of COVID-19 safety products that included special UV lights at elementary schools.
But earlier this month the district announced it was cancelling that contract, with Kennesaw-based ProTek Life, after a malfunction at a school.
The safety spending was opposed to two school board members and a parents’ watchdog group, Watching the Funds Cobb, called it into question.
Board members have brought agenda items about a recovery plan for academic gaps caused by COVID-related changes and updates from the Georgia legislature, which will soon finalize its state budget.
The Cobb school district gets nearly half of its $1.2 billion annual budget from the state.
Among the action items on the school board’s agenda Thursday is a request for $2.389 million for HVAC modifications at Addison Elementary School in East Cobb.
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The Cobb County School District announced Monday it’s holding a virtual job fair in late March to fill more than 750 new certified teaching positions.
The hiring fair takes place from March 23-25, and registration is underway now through March 21.
The district said in a release that the fair “puts teachers face to face with school administrators in a relaxed and personal setting.”
Amanda Shaw, the district’s assistant director of employment, said that “all schools will be attending the Hiring Fair, so, it’s an ideal time for potential teachers to
make a great first impression on principals.”
Nearly 98 percent of current teachers with contracts have chosen to re-up for the 2021-22 school year.
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Cobb COVID cases by date of onset. To view more data, click here.
The Cobb County School District said Friday there were 132 confirmed new cases of COVID-19, a little higher than last week but still reflecting a steep decline in recent weeks.
The district’s weekly update showed a total of 4,132 cumulative cases since last July 1. Last week’s 106 cases among students and staff were the fewest since November.
For the second week in a row all schools reporting cases had 10 or less. The most this week were 8 each at Wheeler High School and Still Elementary School.
Of the 11 schools in the district, 51 did not report any new cases this week.
The district’s data does not break down numbers of cases between students and staff, nor does it indicate how many other people may be out due to quarantine for possible exposure to the virus.
The falling numbers in the Cobb school district are in line with similar trends in Cobb County and much of Georgia.
There were 120 new cases reported in Cobb Friday in the date of report category, with a 7-day rolling average of 81.1. That’s the lowest since late October.
In the date of onset category (in the chart above), Cobb’s 7-day moving average as of Feb. 26—the last day before a current 14-day window—was 98.6 cases, the lowest that figure has been since late October.
Cobb’s community spread metric also is dropping close to what it had been in the late fall, after last summer’s surge and before a winter surge.
As of Friday, the 14-day average of cases per 100,000 in Cobb was 179 for PCR tests, the first time it’s been under 200 since October.
Combined with Antigen tests, Cobb’s overall community spread is now in the 300-350 range, according to Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
In a message sent out Friday, she said that “we continue to have a growing problem with the UK and the South African variants in Georgia. If these variants take hold before we have enough people vaccinated, we may suffer another tremendous surge and more loss of life. Continued preventive measures like wearing masks, physical distancing and washing hands still need to be taken during this time.”
She also referenced remarks made by President Joe Biden of having a goal of Americans returning to “normalcy” by July 4.
“How beautifully fitting would it be for our country to celebrate its independence in this way? To meet that goal, we all need to work together,” Memark said. “Please get vaccinated with whatever vaccine that you can and protect each other by not gathering without masks or socially distancing if you aren’t vaccinated. We look forward to the day when we can all be together again.”
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We are the Structural Nucleic Acid Anticancer Research Society (STARS), and we are a group of Cobb County high school students who enjoy performing research for crystallography. In fact, in the summer of 2019, our founder and president, Susanna Huang, presented a 20-minute presentation at the American Crystallographic Association about her research in selenium-modified DNA crystals. Also, in the spring semester of 2020, our team placed 2nd at the national US Crystal Growing Competition for the crystal quality category.
Recently, we were inspired to host our own 2021 Cobb County Crystal Growing Competition. The crystal growing season has started already and will end on April 11th. Due to the pandemic, many extracurricular activities have been cancelled. Unfortunately, because of this and because of social distancing measures, many students are often deprived of scientific and hands-on activities at home or in school.
Through this virtualcompetition, we hope to provide students K-12 a fun STEM experience and an exciting contest to compete in while staying protected in their homes. Since salt is a safe, relatively common, and easily accessible household product, we settled on centering the competition on growing crystals of salt. Through this competition, we hope to help students better understand the scientific theories of crystallography. Though they are only growing inorganic salt crystals, the general methodology of experimentation and research is very similar to that of growing organic crystals (which is important for x-ray crystallography and curing diseases like cancer). Please find the playlist of introduction videos that we prepared for competitors that discusses and explains basic crystallization topics (e.g. What is a single crystal, saturated vs unsaturated solution, how to maintain a crystal solution, etc.): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUhmxDvClcLkFkqB10LrKn4OdcFNn2QXl Through our competition, we hope to spur the creativity and scientific thinking of students.
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The Cobb County School District on Monday said the school calendar will change for two days next week and the week after so teachers and other district employees can receive their first COVID-19 vaccinations, and in similar fashion in April for second doses.
In a release, the district said the instructional support days that had been scheduled for Wednesday, March 17 and Wednesday, March 24 will be switched to Friday, March 19 and Friday, March 26, respectively.
Teachers and staff who elect to get shots are scheduled to receive drive-up vaccinations from Cobb and Douglas Public Health at Jim Miller Park on March 19 -20 and March 26-27.
In April, instructional support days slated for Wednesday, April 14 and Wednesday, April 21 will be moved to Friday, April 16 and Friday, April 23, respectively.
Second doses are scheduled for April 16, 17, 23 and 24.
During the current 2020-21 school year, the Cobb school district had designated Wednesday as a non-instructional day, allowing for one-on-one interactions, small group sessions and related activities.
On Monday, public school teachers and staff in Georgia became eligible to receive vaccines through the state’s public health system. The current Tier 1A+ includes health care workers, first responders, people ages 65 and older and their caregivers.
The Cobb school district release said staffers are able to use their employee login ID to sign up for a vaccine and must show their badges when arriving at Jim Miller Park.
“The choice to take the COVID-19 vaccination will remain just that, a choice,” the district statement said.
The vaccinations will be given by public health personnel and nurses trained by Cobb and Douglas Public Health to administer the COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna.
“Our nurses have provided ongoing education and support to our school community, and we are hopeful that widespread vaccinations will help to bring an end to this pandemic that has brought so many challenges to our lives over the last year,” Melanie Bales, the Cobb schools nursing supervisor, said in the district release.
Three Cobb teachers died of COVID-19 between Christmas and mid-January, prompting teachers, parents and others to demand the district switch to an all-online learning format.
At an emotional Cobb Board of Education meeting in January—the day two of those teachers died—speakers implored the board to go all-virtual, and chided Superintendent Chris Ragsdale and board members David Banks and David Chastain of East Cobb for not wearing face masks at the meeting.
That made national news, but the board did not respond. The district is continuing with both in-person and virtual options through the school year and will be offering a choice for the 2021-22 school year.
For the spring semester, roughly two-thirds of the district’s 107,000 students signed up for in-person learning.
Last week, 106 new COVID-cases were reported in the Cobb school district, the lowest figure since November.
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The district is reporting 106 new cases among teachers and staff, the same number as the week of Nov. 20, when case totals in Cobb and Georgia began their late fall and early winter surge.
That was a month after Cobb students who chose in-person learning returned to their classrooms.
The 106 new cases bring to 4,066 the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in the district since it began reporting them last July 1.
There were 7 new cases this week at Kell High School, the most of any school in the 112-school district, and Walton High School’s 3 new cases bring its overall total to 105, the most in the district.
There also are 50 schools this week that did not report any new cases. The figures do not break down between students and staff.
After an online-only end to the fall semester, the spring semester started in frazzled fashion in January, and during that period 3 Cobb schools teachers died from COVID-19, setting off emotional protests and calls for a return to virtual learning.
After 470 new cases were reported the week of Jan. 15—the highest for any week this school year—those numbers steadily began to drop. By Feb. 15, the new case total had fallen to 232, and was 229 last week.
The district announced last week it was making plans to distribute vaccines to teachers and staff.
In Cobb County, the rate of new COVID-cases has been declining sharply. According to Thursday’s Georgia Department of Public Health daily status report, the 7-day moving average of cases according to date of onset in the county is 160, the lowest since early November.
That’s for both PCR and antigen tests, and that combined 7-day moving average stood at 801 in early January.
The rate of community spread of the virus in Cobb also has dropped sharply, with a 14-day average of 234 PCR cases per 100,000. That number had been higher than 1,000 in January.
A two-week average of 100 cases per 100,000 is considered high community spread.
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East Cobb parent Mindy Seger is organizing a second bus driver appreciation drive to raise funds for PPE supplies for drivers in the Cobb County School District.
She was prompted into action when learning that not all of the district’s estimated 1,100 bus drivers and monitors have enough masks and other safety supplies in response to COVID-19.
The second driver appreciation event will take place at the Freeman Poole Senior Center (4025 S. Hurt Road, Smyrna) on Saturday, March 13 from 2-4 p.m.
That’s where the initial PPE pickup event took place last month. Seger and her fellow volunteers raised enough in donations and supplies for 100 bags to give away, but nearly 200 people showed up.
Seger said she wants to give away 500 bags at the next event “but that will take huge community support.” Here’s how you can help:
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Cobb schools had been installing UV disinfecting light systems on elementary campuses.
The Cobb County School District said Wednesday it was cancelling a contract for ultraviolet light (UV) disinfecting lights in elementary schools after those lights at a school malfunctioned last month.
In a message to the “Cobb Schools Team,” the district said that it was discontinuing its contract with Cobb-based ProTek Life after the UV light system at Argyle Elementary School in Smyrna failed on Feb. 22.
The UV lights were designed to disinfect classrooms overnight as part of COVID-19 safety measures. They were to have a “fail-safe” element that would prevent the activity from taking place if a student or teacher entered a classroom.
The Cleanz254 lights disinfect classrooms daily after the school day is over. The process takes an hour overnight, and the vendor claims it kills 99.99 percent of all microbes in a classroom.
But the district said in its message that “it appears timing hardware and motion detectors did not work as described” and the UV lights went on in two offices at Argyle during the school day on Feb. 22.
“Although no students were present, one adult was present” and other UV lights “flickered on and off throughout the building in appeared to be attempts to turn on,” the district said, adding that no one appeared to be hurt during the incidents.
The message said an investigation into the problems began and while the problem was limited to one school, “the District’s high expectation and safety requirements were not met despite ProTek Life’s Assurances.
“We have determined ProTek’s hardware does not meet the safety requirement described in and required by our RFP process,” said the district’s message, which added that CCSD would be asking for a repayment under the terms of its contract.
The district expanded the UV lights contract to all 67 elementary schools after what Superintendent Chris Ragsdale called a successful proof-of-concept at three schools in the fall.
Only a few schools have had the UV lights installed thus far, including Murdock ES and Sope Creek ES in East Cobb.
The contract with ProTek Life was part of a $12 million request by Ragsdale in December with other vendors that included high-tech hand sanitizers.
The board voted to approve the contract, but some board members objected, saying they hadn’t seen any evidence that the products worked, and thought it was not the best use of funds.
One of those objecting members, Jaha Howard, was prevented from asking further questions of Ragsdale during the board meeting.
No information about the $12 million spending request, with the funds to come from the district’s reserve, was ever included on the board’s meeting agenda.
After that, a citizens group called “Watching the Funds—Cobb” organized to question and scrutinize school district spending, and was critical of the $12 million purchase.
The group also has questioned the district’s contract with AlertPoint, a Kennesaw company that manufactures an emergency alert system that’s been installed in all Cobb schools starting in 2017.
On Feb. 2, an alert went off throughout all Cobb school campuses that led to a brief Code Red, which the district said is being investigated as a deliberate cyber attack.
Recent news reports in metro Atlanta and south Florida said that Tony Hunter, a former AlertPoint employee, was indicted in Fort Lauderdale in January for alleged bid-rigging for a technology contract in his position as the information officer for Broward County schools.
A contract for school equipment there was won by David Allen, head of the Kennesaw-based EDCO, an education technology provider.
Allen, who also was the ProTek president and was the founder of AlertPoint, died of COVID-19 last month.
Hunter started work for AlertPoint in 2019 after leaving Florida. He has pleaded not guilty to the Florida charges and is out on bail, according to news reports.
The TV station also cited unnamed sources who said that Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady is conducting an initial investigation into the Cobb school contracts after meeting with “whistleblowers.”
In its message on Wednesday, the Cobb school district said in announcing the ProTek contract cancellation that “we do not believe even a single failure to meet the high health and safety standard established in our RFP process is acceptable.
“Nothing is more important than the health and safety our our students and staff.”
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L-R: Teachers Dana Evans of Walton HS and Shannon Ventresca, East Cobb MS.
Submitted information:
Three more Cobb Schools science teachers will join the elite group of NASA Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors following an announcement by The SETI Institute. The Cobb teachers are the only educators selected from Georgia. The 2021 Class of NASA Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors (AAAs) includes 30 educators from 10 states.
Cobb Schools 2021 NASA Ambassadors:
• Shannon Ventresca, East Cobb Middle School
• Tami McIntire, Palmer Middle School
• Dana Evans, Walton High School
“We are so excited to continue our partnership with SETI and NASA for cycle 9 of the Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors Program. The selection of Shannon, Tami, and Dana to fly on SOFIA is just more evidence of why Cobb is the best place to Teach, Lead and Learn,” said Cobb Schools Science Supervisor Christian Cali, who joined Cobb’s 2019 NASA Ambassadors on part of their flight mission.
The professional development program for science teachers is designed to improve science teaching and increase student learning and STEM engagement. This year’s expanded AAA program includes not only high school teachers but also middle school and community college teachers.
“Over its history, our NASA-funded AAA program has impacted tens of thousands of high school students through the immersive and inspirational experience of their teachers,” said Bill Diamond, CEO of the SETI Institute. “This powerful STEM program will allow the SETI Institute to help bring NASA science into classrooms across the country.”
Last year, three Cobb teachers were also selected as NASA Ambassadors:
• Doug LaVigne, Kell High School
• Heather Guiendon, Walton High School
• Starrissa Winters, Wheeler High School
Kennesaw Mountain High School’s Berkil Alexander and Philip Matthews both sported NASA flight jackets in 2019, as did Hillgrove High School’s Nikki Bisesi and Wheeler High School’s Season Stalcup.
Due to the challenges over the past 12 months, the 2020 Class, also referred to as Cycle 8, has not completed its mission as Ambassadors yet.
AAA teachers receive training in astrophysics and planetary science. Their training includes a week-long STEM immersion experience at a NASA astronomy research facility such as the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). After their training, the AAAs teach a physical science curriculum module created by the SETI Institute that connects curriculum concepts to NASA- and SOFIA-enabled research. WestEd education consultants assess the impact of the specialized curriculum module on student STEM learning and engagement. Past evaluations of the AAA program have shown statistically significant improvements in performance and STEM engagement among students whose teachers participated in the program.
“We are grateful that NASA will be funding the AAA program through 2025 and are especially excited to be adding middle school and community college teachers and their students,” said Dr. Dana Backman, AAA program lead. “These teachers will use their professional development and SOFIA experiences to convey real-world content to their students that illuminate the value of scientific research and the wide variety of STEM career paths available to them.”
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The day after Gov. Brian Kemp announced plans to vaccinate school teachers in Georgia against COVID-19, the Cobb County School District said Friday it had briefed staff members with more details.
In a news release, the district said it would be working with Cobb and Douglas Public Health to implement a vaccination program, and that staffers will be eligible for vaccines starting March 8.
That program includes the creation of mass vaccination sites for district staff once vaccine supplies are sufficient.
Three educators in the Cobb school district, including a paraprofessional at Sedalia Park Elementary School, have died since December due to COVID-19.
Those deaths led to emotional calls by some teachers and parents to go to all-remote learning.
School nurses, police officers and school staff 65 and older already have been able to get vaccinated through other providers.
Starting March 8, school employees can book an appointment for a vaccine at any public health agency in the state. But they’ll have to vie with others already on the eligible list for those vaccines, including people over 65, health care workers and first responders.
Cobb and Douglas Public Health has not been booking new appointments for the last three weeks due a shortage of vaccine supplies, and has said it may not get an increase until March or April.
The Cobb school district’s message to staff indicated that “as soon as vaccine supply is in hand, we will quickly schedule our mass vaccination drive-through events for Cobb educators. Specific dates, times, and locations will be made available once vaccine supply is in hand. At this time, only full-time and part-time school staff are eligible.”
Those appointments will be booked online and eligible individuals will be required to have an appointment to get a vaccine. The district said the vaccines are not mandatory.
Timber Ridge Elementary School teacher Laurie Weiner, who is older than 65, has received both doses of the vaccine. In the district’s release, she said that “I am appreciative of the seamless sign-up and procedures taken through the process. . . . Timber Ridge has implemented suggested guidelines as well. I feel more secure teaching my students since I have received both vaccinations.”
COVID-19 case rates in the Cobb school district continued their fall this week after staff and students returned from winter break.
The district announced in its weekly update on Friday that there were 229 new confirmed cases of the virus, the lowest weekly figure since before the Thanksgiving holidays.
On Feb. 12, before last week’s winter break, that figure was 232 new cases, which aren’t broken down between students and staff.
Kell High School in East Cobb was the only school in the 112-campus district to report double-figures in new cases, with 11 this week. There were nine new cases at Pope High School.
Since the district began compiling figures last July 1, there have been 3,960 cases reported. The district recently began indicating cumulative cases per school, and Walton High School and North Cobb High School have the most, at 102 cases each.
There have been 94 cases at Lassiter High School, 9 each at Pope and Kennesaw Mountain High School.
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The Cobb County School District said Wednesday that its emergency alert system that was set off on Feb. 2, prompting a brief Code Red lockdown at all schools, was not a false alarm but a deliberate cyber attack.
The district said in a news release that what’s being investigated as a cyber crime by the Cobb Police Department is continuing.
Spokeswoman Nan Kiel said in the release that the district can’t reveal more details, but “we have been given permission to share the Technology Based Crimes Unit’s conclusion that the false alarm signal occurred through a targeted, external attack of CCSD’s AlertPoint system.”
AlertPoint is an emergency alert system which allows each employee within a school—including administrators, teachers and other staffers—to activate a device should an emergency occur. This includes fires, active shooters and other intruders, physical altercations and medical emergencies.
When an AlertPoint device is activated, alert information is relayed via computer and mobile devices to school-level administrators and security personnel, as well as at the school district office, within seconds.
The location and identity of the person sending the alert also is transmitted. When a “Code Red” alert is triggered, flashing lights, beeping sounds and voice messages ring out, and the intercom system indicates a lockdown situation is underway.
The AlertPoint system is patterned after existing school fire emergency procedures.
After the Feb. 2 incident in which AlertPoint was triggered at all 112 schools, the district said the cause was a systemwide malfunction and that no students or staff were threatened.
On Wednesday, however, the district said it immediately asked for police assistance in investigating the matter as a possible cyber attack.
“Fairly quickly, it appeared that the false alarm signal (1) was intentionally triggered rather than a malfunction, and (2) was uniquely limited to the AlertPoint system in CCSD,” according to the statement, which said the district then contacted police,
“We do not yet know the motives of those attacking the District’s AlertPoint system,” Wednesday’s district statement said, which did not indicate possible suspects.
“However, it appears the crime was committed to disrupt education across the District, create district-wide chaos, and produce anxiety in the District’s students, parents, and staff. This was not a ‘prank,’ nor will it be treated like one.”
Kiel said that anyone with information related to the cyber attack is asked to contact the Cobb County Police Department’s Tip Line at 770-499-4111 or the CCSD Police Department’s Tip Line at 470-689-0298.
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Wheeler High School students and others who are organizing to change the school name are having a virtual town hall meeting next week.
The Facebook group Joseph Wheeler Name Change said the town hall will take place next Tuesday, Feb. 23, starting at 8 p.m.
Students, parents, staff and the school community are invited to attend, and can register by clicking here.
The group was formed after a petition was created last summer to change the name of Wheeler. The school, which opened in 1965, was named after Joseph Wheeler, a Confederate Civil War general.
Students have been speaking during the public comment period before the Cobb Board of Education in recent months (see video clip below), but said school board leadership has not responded to their requests to meet, or to have the issue placed on meeting agendas for discussion.
School board member Charisse Davis of Post 6, which includes the Wheeler cluster, signed that online petition.
In December, the board’s four-member Republican majority voted along partisan lines to require a majority vote for members other than the chair to add agenda items.
“We fully value the time and work they put into serving the community but that does not mean we aren’t willing to hold them accountable in instances such as this,” the group said in a recent post.
“Not only do we want the board to hear what we have to say, we truly want to hear what they have to say as well. Ignorance is NOT the answer to building a better community nor a better Cobb.”
The group has said having the school named after Wheeler “does not reflect the values of our students today.”
They’ve said their research shows that the Cobb school board named the then-new high school on Holt Road at a time when the school district was beginning racial integration.
During its early years, Wheeler was a nearly all-white school, but as the area began to diversify, it’s become a majority-minority school.
According to the Georgia Department of Education, Wheeler had an enrollment of 2,038 students in October, with 861 black students, 478 Hispanic students and 308 students of Asian descent.
The Joseph Wheeler Name Change group, which said last fall it wanted to spark a “community dialogue” about the issue, said next week’s town hall will be open to anyone regardless of their point of view, and that the event was designed to have a “constructive conversation.”
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2019 Winners (Left to Right: Eric Rogers, Aditi Madhusudan (Second Place), Michael Goldberg, Joe Fried, Sherrod Crum (First Place) and Tanner Freise (Third Place).
Submitted information and photo:
Twelve years ago, the personal injury law firm of Fried Goldberg in Atlanta, Georgia started the Scales of Justice Scholarship to provide scholarships to three high school seniors from the metro Atlanta area to help offset the costs of going to college. “At the time, we had middle school and younger children but could see how hard it was for high school kids to get into college and how stressful it was to pay for it,” said founding partner Joe Fried.
The scholarship is for high school seniors who are attending high school in Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, Clayton, or DeKalb county and has traditionally been based on an essay contest addressing a current legal issue with the top three applicants receiving awards ranging from $1,000 to $500. This year, applicants will submit a video entry, and the first-place winner will receive $2500 and the second and third place winners $1000 each.
“We decided to bring the contest into the 21st century by taking video entries instead of essay contests. I think kids nowadays express themselves through videos and social media more than anything else, and we wanted to tap into that trend. We also increased the amount of the scholarships as the price of everything has definitely gone up over the past 12 years,” explained Fried.
Over the years, the winners have been seniors attending colleges ranging from Harvard to Kennesaw State. “It is always amazing to see the quality of the entries and to see where the winners will be going to college. We have had the first-place winner attend college at a local school and had them go to the biggest and most prestigious colleges in the country. It goes to show you how smart people are from all walks of life,” commented partner Michael Goldberg.
To apply for the scholarship, applicants should go to www.friedgoldberg.com/scholarship. The deadline for applications is March 19, 2021.
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!
