Cobb schools seeking $8.1M from county in CARES Act funding

The Cobb County School District will be asking the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Monday for federal COVID-19-related funding to enhance distance learning options.

The district will make its presentation at a commission work session at 9 a.m. Monday. You can watch here on Cobb TV, the county’s public access channel, or tune in Channel 23 on Comcast cable.

The CCSD is seeking $8.125 million for “digital content acquisition, open education resources, and its own in-house content development.

“These costs will cover curriculum content development for every core subject, professional learning, translation, support and maintenance, and allow schools that currently spend their own discretionary funds on curriculum to instead spend those funds on other resources,” according to the proposal.

The work session agenda item explains the details, and the matter is up for commission action on Tuesday.

The Cobb school broke down the proposed costs here in Tuesday’s agenda item. The Tuesday meeting, which starts at 9 a.m., also can be seen online at the above link and on TV.

Cobb schools are in the process of offering parents the option of having their students go back to the classroom or continue a remote option that was undertaken when schools closed in March due to COVID.

Students who stay at home will be offered a separate curriculum, along with dedicated teachers who will instruct only via online.

The start of classes is being delayed two weeks in Cobb, to Aug. 17, to continue preparations and as concerns grow over a rising number of COVID cases in the county.

The Cobb school district is facing a deficit in the vicinity of $60 million for fiscal year 2021, which began on July 1. The district will be presenting its proposed budget next week to the Cobb Board of Education. The FY 2020 budget was $1.1 billion.

The district is currently operating on a special spending resolution this month while the school board formulates a budget delayed by the delay in the legislative session.

Initially state budget reductions were projected to be around 14 percent, which would have left Cobb schools with an $80 million deficit, but the final cuts were around 10 percent.

The Cobb school district has received $16 million in federal CARES Act spending through the Georgia Department of Education.

The Cobb commission received $132 million in CARES Act funding, and has spent $50 million to assist small businesses and another $1 million for low-income renters affected by COVID closures.

The online content the Cobb school district wants to acquire would expand the district’s CTLS online learning portal (Cobb Teaching and Learning System) that’s also accessible for parents.

The curriculum content proposed includes open education resources for both classroom and remote environments, as well as “curated content” reviewed and approved by credentialed educators, and licensed content.

The agenda item said the Cobb school district’s proposal is “a complete content solution” that would cost “a fraction” of a similar acquisition recently by the Chicago Public Schools, which is spending $253 million over five years.