The Cobb County School District resumed public reporting of new COVID-19 cases this week after not doing so to start the spring semester.
But changes are underway to alter the present reporting system, and in Friday’s update only the district-wide total number of cases—1,856— were disclosed in its weekly notification report.
That’s for the past week, Jan. 14-21, and is a single-week high during the current school year.
The totals no longer include a school-by-school breakdown, as has been done for most of the past two years.
There also was no information provided on COVID case numbers reported before that. The spring semester in Cobb began on Jan. 5.
Until Friday, district’s notification report page had not been updated since Dec. 17, 2021, the last day of the fall semester.
At the time, there were 6,709 cumulative cases reported among students and staff since July 1, 2021.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday night that as the Omicron variant subsides, reporting those figures will be done differently.
During a Cobb Board of Education meeting, he said that the district will continue to report positive cases to Cobb and Douglas Public Health (his remarks start around the 45-minute mark of the video at at this link.)
“Most organizations have encouraged case counts not be the primary emphasis,” said Ragsdale, reading from prepared remarks, and citing the CDC and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House COVID-19 adviser.
“We are taking the guidance to not focus on case counts,” Ragsdale said. Changing school district protocols is a “multi-step process that will result in no numbers being seen on a web page after the Omicron variant goes through. We will still report, as required, to DPH.”
On Jan. 6. Ragsdale said the district was changing some COVID protocols, including eliminating most contract-tracing, after a new state public health order was issued for schools.
On Thursday, Ragsdale later discussed mental health issues affecting youth, as well as learning loss caused by COVID-19 disruptions, saying some mitigation efforts have been “damaging to students.”
“The bottom line is that we are having school,” he said, “and we are trying to get back to normal as quickly as possible. Because we know a normal school day for our students is what’s going to benefit them most.”
He added that parents should keep their kids home if they are sick, but “otherwise, they need to be in school, where teaching and learning are going to be going on every day.”
Board memberJaha Howard tried to question Ragsdale at that point, but chairman David Chastain told him that “if you have any questions, you can call the superintendent. We’re going to move forward with the agenda.”
Howard voted against adopting the Thursday night business meeting agenda at a Thursday afternoon work session because it contained no specific COVID-related items.
The superintendent made the COVID remarks during dedicated time for him to speak on a variety topics and that typically aren’t published on the agenda.
Howard has attempted to question Ragsdale at previous board meetings about COVID and other issues, without much success.
After a brief interchange with Howard, Chastain repeated his comments, and the board began acting on other agenda items.
Related posts:
- Most Cobb high school graduations return to KSU for 2022
- Cobb schools not updating COVID cases to start spring semester
- Cobb school board chooses 2022 officers after partisan sparring
- Cobb schools revise COVID-19 protocols after new state order
- Cobb schools report 2.4K students enrolled online for spring
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I’m glad someone is calling out what the other members are trying to brush under the rug. During the surge at the beginning of the school year, the board was notable quiet. And then when the peak subsided, Ragsdale couldn’t keep quiet as he doubled down against science on methodologies to prevent disease spread. This is similar in that they are playing an idiot’s game of ‘no news must mean good news’ and not reporting the COVID numbers for the district.
I, for one, would love to see these people out of office. If it is such an intrusion on their time to respond to their constituents’ inquiries or address their concerns then they should find another position for themselves.
Of course Chastain is not going to allow any open discussion, he knows Ragsdale does not want any open discussion, because then there would be a public record of how little he knows, understands, or cares about most of these critical issues. Same reason he never gives a media interview, same reason responses to inquiries….when they are given….come from unnamed spokespersons.
New Year, new officers, nothing else new, it’s like watching a bad rerun of Johnny Carson!