Cobb schools make calendar changes for teacher vaccinations

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.