Cobb schools: No changes to mask, public health policies

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.