EDITOR’S NOTE: The haunting silence of the Cobb school board

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Cobb school board

On the darkest day in the Cobb County School District since the COVID-19 pandemic began, neither the superintendent nor the school board had much to say about it.

As the board was in session twice Thursday for their monthly meetings, two teachers in the school district died of COVID-19.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale did mention them by name during the meetings: Dana Johnson, a first-grade teacher at Kemp Elementary School and Cynthia Lindsey, a paraprofessional at Sedalia Park Elementary School here in East Cobb.

The perfunctory “thoughts and prayers” from Ragsdale were all that were even referenced about their deaths and the district’s ongoing pandemic response.

With classes being all-virtual this week, I figured Ragsdale would provide an update. Are case numbers easing off? Is there ample staffing available for in-person learning? What about the schools that closed early last week?

It was his decision to shut down in-person learning this week due to increasing COVID cases in the schools and teachers absent due to quarantine. It has been his decision to offer parents a choice of face-to-face or remote instruction.

During these months of uncertainty, he’s explained his thinking about these matters in some detail. While not everyone has been happy with the decisions, he’s been above-board in laying out the difficult task of reopening, establishing safety protocols and providing dual learning environments.

This week, with concerns about the safety of students and staff rising along with a case count that’s higher than ever, there was nothing on the board agenda to discuss the COVID response.

Even though Dr. Janet Memark, the director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health who’s advised Ragsdale, continues to urge students and adults to stay home as much as possible.

At both school board meetings, teachers and their advocates urged that all-remote learning continue. They were mourning the loss of their colleagues, and emotions were also rising high.

Face-to-face learning resumes on Monday, and with tensions and case numbers growing, Ragsdale had nothing to say about it.

At a Thursday afternoon work session, school board member Jaha Howard wanted Ragsdale to comment on the COVID-19 situation in the schools, but board chairman Randy Scamihorn put a halt to the inquiry.

“Would you be open to a dialogue?” Howard asked Ragsdale. “There are a lot of concerns out there [from the public] and we’re about to move on.”

“That’s it,” Scamihorn said.

Scamihorn had more than the power of the gavel at his disposal. The Cobb Board of Education, at least at its public meetings, has chosen to censor itself.

In 2019, before the pandemic, the board’s Republican majority voted to ban public comments from board members at their own meetings.

It was a contentious time marked by the additions of Howard and Charisse Davis, first-term Democrats whose elections in 2018 trimmed a 6-1 GOP advantage on the school board to 4-3.

Howard in particular has ruffled feathers, sometimes eagerly so, making regular accusations about racial disparities in the district, and he has used his comment time at board meetings to denounce Republican elected officials elsewhere.

His grandstanding can be over the top, but the attempt to silence him and Davis was absurd. Partisan bickering since then has grown even worse, and members of both parties are to blame. There’s no spirit of compromise at all, even with the serious business of navigating a pandemic.

So on Thursday, we saw one board member cutting off another who wanted ask the superintendent about the most important subject in the second-largest school district in Georgia.

Board members can put items on the agenda, but a policy change pushed through last month by Scamihorn on a party-line vote now requires the approval of a board majority.

Given the deep partisan divide, anything that Howard, Davis and newly elected Democratic board member Tre’ Hutchins want to bring up needs at least one Republican vote. There’s no budging going on in the slightest.

With anxiety heightening and parents wondering how their children might be learning in the coming weeks, the public was owed much more than petty parliamentary maneuvers.

The policy to muzzle unwanted speakers and topics also stifled any comments from elected representatives to the Cobb school district about a very sad, grim day.

At the end of the public comment period Thursday night, Scamihorn thanked the speakers for being “informative and succinct,” but to paraphrase him, that was it.

On Friday, Davis offered some school-related public health guidance on her Facebook page “in the absence of ANY COVID-related discussions or presentations from the superintendent at our board meeting. . . . These are difficult times, but like many of our teachers tell their students: we can do hard things.”

While Cobb County government and public health leaders carved out dedicated time this week to help frazzled citizens navigate the COVID-19 vaccine process, the Cobb school board and superintendent offered nothing of reassurance on the one day of the month they have to come before the public.

Their silence was as damning as it was haunting.

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19 thoughts on “EDITOR’S NOTE: The haunting silence of the Cobb school board”

  1. I assume that many of you are just fine with Publix, Walmart, Kohl’s, restaurants, etc. being open to the public (versus contactless only).

    I also assume no one in the comments has any clue how many of those workers has died from COVID. My guess is more than 3.

    But God forbid we ask teachers to teach in school, which science tells us is not a significant contributer to the spread of COVID, but which is the primary place where students actually learn.

  2. It is shocking that two people on this comment thread blamed pneumonia on the deaths of these teachers. The level of ignorance required to be unable to understand that pneumonia is a result of COVID makes me wonder how these people survive on a daily basis. I mean I fear they may forget to breathe.
    This school board and administration needs to perform a serious self assessment and rethink what their job duties are. Because right now the safety of their students and teachers does not appear to be a priority.

  3. What those that are not in the school system do not realize is this is how the board handles EVERYTHING. No discussion, no feedback, but plenty of assumptions based on -emotion alone-. The board is an emotion, partisan driven robot with no intellectual capabilities.

  5. JUST DISGRACEFUL! For the 1st time in my over 30 years of living in Cobb County, I am ashamed of the board’s lack of transparency, support, empathy, responsibility and general disregard for HUMAN LIVES! You are putting our educators and our students at risk unnecessarily! ALL of the lives lost were 100% preventable! Absolutely shameful! At 1st it was “we want the number of cases below 200 per 100,000 ppl before we’ll even offer a face to face option” and now they are QUADRUPLE that! You’re praising face to face learning while clearly dismissing scientific facts! This is ABSURD!

  6. It is easy to make such an “unemotional” assertion when you are not being directly impacted by such an immoral decision. Learning gaps can be closed when the school environment is safe, and right now, schools are not as safe as the general public is being led to believe…they are not in any shape, form, nor fashion.

    The deceased cannot be brought back once they are dead…and unfortunately, 3 Cobb educators have died for naught. Folks have a right to be emotional when that these educators have died senselessly…due to piss poor leadership. Being emotionless does not alter the fact that in the proverbial sense “they have blood on their hands.”

    • First of all, there is no evidence at all that they got COVID at school. Secondly, these teachers both had pneumonia. Had they not had that, they would have likely fallen into the 99.7% of people that survive COVID without any other condition.

      • They had Covid pneumonia! Covid causes pneumonia and lung damage in some patients. It can also cause organ failure. They wouldn’t have had pneumonia if they hadn’t had Covid! Your lack of knowledge is part of the problem.

      • Don’t bother the emotional leftists with facts, Jeff. They have “their truth” and that’s all they need in order to know that they are good and caring and that you are evil and uncaring.

      • I had to read this a few times to determine if you were serious! If you were, the pneumonia was a direct result of Covid! And while many people do not die, the lives of the 420K people in the US or 2.15 M in the world that have died (in under a yr) are important enough to take notice!!!! SMH with the stupidity!

  7. I would disagree with the assertion that Ragsdale has been explaining his thought process “in some detail,” unless you are using “some” to mean “miniscule.” He has consistently refused to give a matrix for opening and closing like Fulton or other districts, and even when he did give a threshold for opening v. closing of 200 cases per 100K people over a 2-week period, he ignored it a week after high schools returned when the cases crossed that mark. Since then, his described thought process has been, “I meant it then but I don’t mean it now,” and, “We are committed to offering both types of instruction no matter what the numbers are.” That is not transparency in any form.

  8. Every HVAC or AC system in every Cobb school needs a minimum of MERV 14 filters and UV lighting installed in every classroom to clean the air. Facemasks worn by all occupants and visitors to the room. Costly and inconvenient? You bet. But worth every penny. C19 is an airborne disease. More ways to clean hands, toothless mask policies and denial of the problem is negligence and disingenuous to those teaching our kids in the schools.

  9. The public and staff deserve a better board of education for Cobb County than this. Leaders lead by example and these folks are sending our children the message that their teachers do not matter! Your students are watching- Show respect, give people empathy and be human. Disgusting!

  10. I don’t agree with the superintendent much, but in this case he’s right. Making an emotional decision because some people are scared is a great way to ensure you’re doing the wrong thing. Get the kids back in school and leave them there. Every day they sit at home is a lost day of real learning. This can not and should not continue.

    • It sounds so self centered.. Students can get unlimited chances to learn whatever they need to once this virus is contained, unless they die before that time. People who have died from this horrible virus don’t get another chance to draw another breath, let alone learn something !!! No matter how small the number of deaths, because it is so random, its too frightening. Every life is worth MUCH more than even an entire year of postponed instruction. That can be recouped; a life lost cannot!

    • It is easy to make such an “unemotional” assertion when you are not being directly impacted by such an immoral decision. Learning gaps can be closed when the school environment is safe, and right now, schools are not as safe as the general public is being led to believe…they are not in any shape, form, nor fashion.

      The deceased cannot be brought back once they are dead…and unfortunately, 3 Cobb educators have died for naught. Folks have a right to be emotional when that these educators have died senselessly…due to piss poor leadership. Being emotionless does not alter the fact that in the proverbial sense “they have blood on their hands.”

    • Would you like to join us at one of our schools, and teach children as you remind them constantly to stay six feet a part? There are now three positions available, do if you’re qualified to teach, please apply.

  11. Is is a sad and awful time that our elected school officials can’t see the necessity of safety for our children and our teachers. Isn’t that priority one? What is the problem? Why is it so hard for these officials to get it? The politics must STOP. Our children and teachers are people. They deserve better. If virtual learning support is that which is needed, get it. Do what ever is necessary to keep our children and teachers safe.
    DO THE RIGHT THING…STAY VIRTUAL.
    #cobbcounty #CCSD

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