The following East Cobb food scores for the week of Jan. 10 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A special subcommittee of the House Governmental Affairs will hear HB 841 at 1 p.m. in Room 406 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building (18 Capitol Square, SW, Atlanta).
It’s a hybrid hearing that also will be live-streamed at this link; the meeting is for hearing purposes only, and will deal only with the East Cobb legislation, according to the agenda item.
The bill, HB 841, was filed at the end of the 2021 legislative session by two East Cobb Republican House members, Matt Dollar and Sharon Cooper.
Under state law, cityhood bills must be considered over two years in the same legislative cycle, meaning they are introduced in the first year and considered in the second year.
The hearing by the special subcommittee is the first step in that process; the bill would eventually have to be voted out of the Governmental Affairs Committee to reach the full house floor. The Senate also would act along similar lines if the bill is approved in the House and then “crosses over.”
The full legislature must vote to approve the bill, which calls for an incorporation referendum in November 2022 to be decided by voters in the proposed city boundaries.
The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood hasn’t publicized the subcommittee hearing, but a group opposed to cityhood, the East Cobb Alliance, sent out an e-mail alert Tuesday afternoon urging those interested in speaking against the bill to show up in person.
“You do not need any long-winded speech to oppose,” the e-mail read. “You can just appear, sit down, and say ‘I oppose this legislation as I oppose a new city being jammed down my throat by a handful of people who keep pushing their agenda to add government to my life!’
“Or, say whatever you want in your words.”
This is the second East Cobb cityhood bill filed since 2019, when Dollar first submitted legislation that was later abandoned by its initial supporters.
Community opposition included local and state lawmakers, among them State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, who would need to sponsor the current bill. State law requires cityhood bills to have local sponsors in both chambers.
Cooper didn’t support the first bill but appeared with Dollar on a cityhood virtual town hall last year.
Current supporters said their reasons for backing cityhood now is to preserve the suburban feel of the community, with planning and zoning and code enforcement among the proposed services.
After a financial feasibility study was released in November, the cityhood group said it was adding police and fire services, which had been part of the initial cityhood campaign.
However, any services ultimately would be decided by the city council, should a cityhood referendum pass. State law mandates a minimum of three services for new cities.
The proposed charter that’s included in HB 841 also calls for a different governing structure, with six city council members coming from three districts (two members from each district), and with the council then selecting a mayor.
The current bill includes much smaller boundaries than the 2019 legislation, with around 55,000 in a city centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
The special subcommittee conducting Wednesday’s hearing includes State Rep. Mary Frances Williams, a Democrat from Marietta whose District 37 includes some of Northeast Cobb, but not the proposed East Cobb city area.
Three other cityhood bills in Cobb—for Lost Mountain, Vinings and Mableton—will undergo a similar process—but no committee hearings have been immediately assigned.
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Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will conduct a virtual town hall Thursday to discuss the county’s response to the latest COVID-19 surge.
She will be joined Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark and WellStar’s Medical Director of Infectious Disease, Dr. Danny Branstetter starting at 6:30 p.m.
The town hall will be live-streamed on the county’s YouTube and Facebook pages. Citizens can ask questions during the meeting or in advance by e-mailing: [email protected].
On Tuesday, Memark briefed the Cobb Board of Commissioners about skyrocketing COVID-19 metrics, including a current 14-day average of 2,657 cases per 100,000 people.
That’s far above the “high” transmission threshold of 100/100K, and Memark attributed that to the fast-moving Omicron variant.
While many of the symptoms of that variant are milder than previous versions of the virus, she said local hospitalization capacity is being strained.
Cupid, who declared a state of emergency through Jan. 22, defended the county’s decision to limit attendance at county-run aquatic centers for high school swimming meets.
Commissioners have received a high volume of e-mails complaining that family members aren’t being allowed inside to watch the competition.
“We do feel for the parents who have been impacted,” she said during a virtual meeting, in which she was masked but was the only commissioner in attendance in the board’s public meeting room.
“We’re hoping to get through this and reduce that very high number. We can share numbers with you, but the most compelling are the experiences we are seeing and feeling in real time.
“People are still experiencing impacts . . . long COVID due to the Omicron variant. These are not conditions that we want anyone to experience. We’ve also got to think about our health care infrastructure.”
(You can watch Memark’s presentation by clicking here; it’s at the beginning of the meeting.)
Memark outlined extra testing efforts, including additional sites for the public to get tested. She also urged those unvaccinated to do so, including booster shots.
Cobb’s “fully vaccinated” population is only 58 percent, with 64 percent having had at least an initial dose and only 20 percent boosted.
More testing and vaccination information from Cobb and Douglas Public Health by clicking here.
Cupid said more information about 60,000 at-home test kits ordered last week by the Cobb Emergency Management Agency will be coming later this week. There will be a distribution event from 8-10 a.m. Monday at Jim Miller Park.
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The Cobb government/Cobb NAACP celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday next Monday will be held in a virtual setting due to the COVID-19 surge.
The county announced that the service will still begin at 10 a.m., as initially scheduled, but will be available for online viewing only on CobbTV, the county’s Facebook page and on YouTube.
The celebration includes the introducing the 2022 Living the Dream Award honorees, who are community members who demonstrate leadership and commitment to making Cobb more diverse and inclusive.
MLK Day is a day of service, and the Cobb organizers are encouraging volunteers to find opportunities via Americorps or Hands-on Atlanta.
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After Cobb commissioners got an e-mail deluge from high school swimmers and their parents over the weekend about capacity limits at aquatic centers, Chairwoman Lisa Cupid isn’t budging from restrictions designed to combat a COVID-19 surge.
Cupid issued a statement Monday saying that capacity limits at indoor county facilities include the county-run aquatic centers, and that they are necessary.
“As the mother of student-athletes, I understand the frustration from not being able to watch your children compete,” Cupid said in the statement.
“However, public health leaders have impressed upon me now is not the time to have large groups gathering together in confined spaces during this record COVID surge. Our local hospitals are nearing a breaking point, and our staff has been severely impacted due to rising cases in the county.”
Charles Barry, a junior swimmer at Walton High School, began an online petition drive over the weekend to protest the capacity limits, and his campaign is approaching nearly 2,000 signatures.
Cobb high school swimming meets regularly take place at two county-owned aquatic centers that are rented by the Cobb County School District for those events.
The restrictions were to limit total capacity to 100 people, but increases were allowed for meets over the weekend.
According to county spokesman Ross Cavitt, the largest, Mountain View, was limited to 160 people, and a maximum of 125 people were allowed at the Central Aquatic Center in Marietta.
Cupid declared a state of emergency on Dec. 22 to run through Jan. 21. That includes a mask mandate at indoor county facilities and social-distancing limits, but Cavitt said the aquatic center capacity restrictions “are not directly tied to the emergency declaration.”
In a message Sunday to East Cobb News, Barry said that “multiple people are in full support of removing the capacity limits and think that they are ridiculous and put swimmers at a disadvantage.”
He said the swim teams only found out on Thursday about the limits, which he said don’t affect practices but are “dramatically affecting meets.
“The meets are limited in capacity which causes people to sit outside in the freezing cold during meets, or separate the meets by boys and girls, or even have coaches cut the amount of swimmers,” Barry said.
He added that Walton’s combined boys and girls team includes around 100 swimmers. “It is absurd that they are limiting this because it is causing our meets to not run normally and not run how they should be.”
The Cobb County varsity and junior varsity swimming championships will be contested Jan. 20-21 at the Mountain View and Central aquatic centers.
Cupid said in her statement that the county parks director “has been in contact with Cobb school athletic directors who assured him they will be able to continue holding swim meets with the social distancing requirements in place.”
In the same statement, Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris said that “while it’s a difficult time for everyone . . . proper social distancing and reducing the number of people inside confined facilities at these events will enable us to keep the facilities’ doors open.”
A parent signing the petition complained her son, a senior swimmer, “was already cheated out a normal junior year season with all the mandates and no spectators in 2020-2021 and now he is being cheated out of having a complete normal senior season.
“He is a team captain and being a full team is what drives these kids’ spirit. Let these kids finish their season strong!”
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The 2022 session of the Georgia General Assembly began on Monday, with local reapportionment and cityhood bills of particular interest for the the Cobb delegation.
Outgoing State Rep. Matt Dollar is sponsoring the East Cobb cityhood bill, along with State Rep. Sharon Cooper.
The proposed City of East Cobb is one of four cityhood bills that have been introduced by Cobb lawmakers, along with Vinings, Lost Mountain and Mableton.
The Cobb delegation also will redraw lines for the four district seats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and all seven posts on the Cobb Board of Education.
The initial East Cobb cityhood bill introduced in 2019 was abandoned by a committee pushing for incorporation after opposition surfaced from the community and Cobb elected officials.
State Rep. Matt Dollar has the support of State Rep. Sharon Cooper as a co-sponsor for the current bill, but it also will need the sponsorship of State. Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick.
She has not commented publicly on the bill; in 2019 she said she could not support it because of negative feedback from citizens.
In 2021 the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood held several virtual meetings and said it will be continuing to meet with individual civic groups as the legislative session continues.
The city would have a population of 55,000, centered by the Johnson Ferry Road corridor, and is proposing police and fire, planning and zoning and code enforcement services.
If the bill passes the full legislature, there will be a referendum in November for voters living in the proposed city limits to decide whether a City of East Cobb will be created.
The reapportionment wheels have already been cranked up for redrawing Cobb school board posts.
The board has a 4-3 Republican majority, and in December voted along party lines to recommend a map that would maintain that advantage.
Cobb school board member Charisse Davis
It would redraw the current Post 6, which includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters, into the Smyrna-Vinings-Cumberland area, and reduce East Cobb representation to Post 5 and part of Post 4.
Post 6 Democratic incumbent and current Post 2 Democratic incumbent Jaha Howard would be put together in the school board’s recommended map.
But the Cobb delegation has a two-member Democratic advantage, and a draft map that’s been circulating since then would keep Post 6 very similar to what it is now, and keep Davis and Howard in separate posts.
She vocally opposed the school board’s recommended map, as has Amy Henry, a parent of four students in the Wheeler cluster who has announced her candidacy as Republican for Post 6 later this year.
Davis has not announced whether she’s seeking re-election; Howard has declared an intent to run for Georgia school superintendent.
Cobb lawmakers also will be redrawing lines for the four county commission districts. Currently there are three Democrats (including chairwoman Lisa Cupid, who was elected countywide) and two Republicans.
Both of the GOP incumbents are up for re-election in 2022, including JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in Northeast Cobb.
In a November special session, the legislature redrew Congressional and legislative lines that will take effect after the 2022 elections (you can view the adopted maps here).
Links to East Cobb-area lawmakers are included below. You can see what legislation they’re sponsoring, how they vote, see maps of their districts and find contact and information.
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After running a bakery in their native Brazil for more than 20 years, Ubiracy and Raul Goncalves wanted to open something similar, but on a different scale, when they emigrated to the United States six years ago.
In São Paulo, they had a staff that extended beyond their immediate family. When they moved to the metro Atlanta area and settled on an East Cobb location last year, they went looking for a physical space ideal for the new concept:
A European-style coffee house with homemade baked goods, aimed at luring pedestrian traffic.
“We didn’t want to necessarily have a Brazilian bakery,” said their daughter, Clara Goncalves, who along with her sister Ester helps out at the Vanilla Café e Gelato, which opened last week at The Avenue East Cobb.
It’s located in Suite 1010 (in the original Olea Oliva space), near the East Cobb mural. Indoors are five tables—room for 10-12 people, and two more outdoor tables near the entrance.
As she did in Brazil, Ubiracy makes all the baked goods—cakes, brownies, pastries, cookies and more—some of them from traditional Brazilian recipes. Ester Goncalves, her other daughter, took a course in gelato-making in Brazil and oversees that part of the operation.
The coffee comes from Bellwood, an Atlanta-based roaster, and there’s also a premium on locally-sourced food ingredients.
The aim, Clara says, is to entice customers to linger after shopping or a meal nearby.
“This area calls for a different kind of a coffee shop,” she says.
There aren’t many indie coffee shops in the East Cobb area—Mzizi Coffee Roasters, on Johnson Ferry Road near Shallowford Road—is an exception.
Vanilla Café opens as The Avenue East Cobb will soon be overhauled with more restaurants and events.
It’s part of a reimagined “socially magnetic” and “modern gathering place” undertaken by North American Properties, which is managing the retail center after developing Avalon in Alpharetta and renovating Colony Square and Atlantic Station in Atlanta.
Vanilla Café is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday and from 12-6 p.m. on Sunday.
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The Marietta History Center is offering free admission Saturday, Jan. 15, in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The center is conducting Diverse Cobb programming that includes the “Lemon Street Chroncles,” a new oral history DVD about the Lemon Street High School.
It was Cobb County’s only all-black high school until 1967, when segregation in public schools in Cobb and Marietta ended.
The DVD, created by alumnus Tim Penn, includes interviews with other graduates and will be screened several times on Saturday.
Also featured at the museum is “Marietta 1899: Color Captured in Black & White.” It’s a special exhibit of the work of New York photographer James Shaw, who visited Marietta in 1899. The exhibit includes images of the Marietta Square, the Marietta National Cemetery, Kennesaw Avenue, Kennesaw Mountain and rural Cobb County.
Shaw’s visit included the Federal Memorial Day celebration, with many of those in attendance being African-American.
“A truer version of life as it was, undiluted by the whitewashing of history,” the exhibit states. “While bias of a white perspective remains, Shaw chose to include the activities of both races, thus presenting multiple shades of color in black and white photography.”
That exhibit also will be featured at the museum. from May 19-28.
The Marietta Museum of History will have free admission from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. next Saturday. Screenings of the “Lemon Street Chronicles,” which lasts an hour and a half, are at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.
The museum is located at 1 Depot Street, Marietta. For more information click here.
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The 2022 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival will feature in-person and virtual screenings and events.
Formal screenings of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival start in February, and will include in-person and virtual events.
But the festival is getting an early start by showing a series of free short films each Wednesday.
The Shorts Program began on Wednesday, Jan. 5, and a new short will be available for streaming every Wednesday through Jan. 26. More information can be found by clicking here.
Tickets go on sale for the festival on Feb. 9, and the screenings will take place Feb. 16-27 at select theaters in metro Atlanta. Georgia residents also will be able to watch via remote streaming during the festival dates.
This year’s festival includes 40 feature films and 15 shorts in narrative, documentary, human rights and other categories.
The venues include the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center, the Midtown Art Cinema and the Plaza Theater in Atlanta. A preview show takes place on Feb. 2.
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State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, at left, meets with Tricia Pridemore, the chairwoman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, at the Rotary Club of East Cobb’s breakfast meeting on Wednesday.
Pridemore, a Republican of Marietta, was elected to the PSC in 2018 and was voted chairwoman in 2021.
She spoke to the Rotary Club about connectivity, clean energy and the future of energy initiatives in Georgia, among other topics.
Kirkpatrick, a Republican from East Cobb, represents District 32 in the Georgia State Senate and is a Rotary Club member.
The Rotary Club of East Cobb meets every Wednesday for breakfast at the Indian Hills Country Club, and is involved in numerous community projects.
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Next Monday, Jan. 17, would have been the 100th birthday for actress Betty White, who died on New Year’s Eve.
She was an ardent animal lover, and the Cobb Animal Services Department is holding a fundraiser on her birthday in her honor.
It’s called the Betty White Challenge, and those wishing to participate are asked to donate $5 in her name and/or sign up to volunteer at a local animal shelter.
“This gesture will make a world of difference to the shelter pets and the fellow employees and volunteers at the shelter,” said a Cobb Animal Services social media posting this week.
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The deadline to sign up is Monday, Jan. 10, for the 20-day program, which includes training, credentialing and job placement. The training is free to eligible applicants.
Classes will take place Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., starting of Feb. 21 and ending March 18.
The Cobb classes will be held at the Construction Ready offices located at 1940 The Exchange SE, Suite 200, Marietta. For more information and to register, please click here.
Construction Ready says that “the need for skilleed workers has continued through the pandemic,” with several thousand construction job openings existing currently in Cobb County.
Partial funding for the program comes from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund, a part of the federal CARES Act. CEFGA received $3.3. million to expand Construction Ready, and the GEER funding also supports broadband and connectivity extensions, mental health services, workforce training, childcare, and tech innovation.
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Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
COVID-19 testing sites, including one at East Cobb UMC, have been overwhelmed since December.
Cobb County government said late Friday it plans to distribute more than 60,000 COVID-19 at-home testing kits paid for with federal CARES Act funding, and could spend more to purchase more tests.
A release sent out by county spokesman Ross Cavitt said that Cobb commissioners will be asked Tuesday to ratify a decision by the Cobb Emergency Management Agency to spend $816,480 in CARES Act funds for the tests, which cost $13.50 each (agenda item here).
He said that “the goal is to target segments of the community where people have had difficulty accessing testing” and that the aim is to have distribution events in each of the four Cobb commission districts, “along with help from nonprofits, churches, and other groups to get these COVID self-test kits to those in the county who need them the most.”
Commissioners will be meeting in a virtual setting next week, including their Tuesday morning business meeting. That meeting, which starts at 9 a.m., will begin with a COVID-19 update from Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, who switched the meetings to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 spike, has declared a state of emergency in the county through Jan. 22.
Earlier this week, Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Leonard halted jury trials through Jan. 21 due to rising COVID-19 transmission.
Cavitt said that county leaders want to receive the kits and hold a distribution event on the Martin Luther King holiday on Jan. 16.
“County and Public Health officials are working with the Cobb County NAACP chapter to finalize details of the event,” Cavitt said.
In the release, Cupid was quoted as saying that “we have the resources to be able to help many of our residents who have told us getting tested for COVID has been a challenge. So it makes sense to use these federal relief funds to help distribute test kits to help contain the spread of COVID in Cobb.”
Cavitt said the Cobb Emergency Management Agency will store the kits “while a plan to distribute them across the county comes into focus.”
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners will hold its first meetings of 2022 via teleconference and online due to a dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases.
Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said in a release Thursday that a Monday agenda work session at 9 a.m., a Tuesday regular business meeting at 9 a.m. and a Tuesday work session at 1:30 p.m. will be livestreamed.
The public also will be able to participate in public comment sessions during the Tuesday business meeting by virtual means.
Public comment slots for the Tuesday 9 a.m. commissioners meeting are available by clicking here; other speaking spots also are available for public hearings on selected agenda items for that same meeting.
You can sign up to speak at a public hearing at this link until 5 p.m. Monday.
The Monday agenda work session covers items to be taken up at the Tuesday business meeting. The agenda work session can be seen on the county’s YouTube channel starting at 9 a.m.
The Tuesday business meeting and Tuesday afternoon work session can be seen on the YouTube channel as well as CobbTV, the county’s cable outlet.
The agenda for the agenda work session and business meeting can be found by clicking here; the meeting will lead off with an update on COVID-19 by Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
The Tuesday afternoon work session (agenda here) will feature results of public feedback for a potential potential Mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum and for departmental budget presentations for the fiscal year 2023-24 cycle.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The following East Cobb food scores for the week of Jan. 3 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
For the third year in a row, the vice chairman of the Cobb school board is David Banks, whom one of his colleagues said is “an embarrassment to this county.”
The first Cobb Board of Education meeting of 2022 went just like quite a few of their public gatherings last year, and included votes and arguments along predictable partisan lines.
The chairman and vice chairman for the new calendar year both come from posts in East Cobb.
David Chastain, of Post 4 (Kell and Sprayberry clusters) will be the chairman, and David Banks, of Post 5 (Pope and Lassiter clusters) will serve as vice chairman.
They’re part of the four-member Republican majority, and were elected in 4-3 party line votes.
Each year the board holds a special meeting in January to elect new officers, with the proviso that the chair cannot serve two consecutive years.
That policy doesn’t apply to the vice chair, and it was the nomination of Banks to that position for the third consecutive year that sparked charged rhetoric during the brief meeting.
Banks, who is serving his fourth term, came under fire in 2021 for sending an e-mail on his official school board account discouraging recipients from getting the COVID-19 vaccines. and publicly said he doesn’t wear masks because he thinks they don’t work.
Democratic member Jaha Howard, who nominated fellow Democrat Tre’ Hutchins for both leadership posts, said Banks’ statement on masks is “contrary to our policy.”
He also said Banks has some “concerning behavioral issues that have been discussed behind the scenes and for some reason he’s continuing to be nominated.
“He’s also done several things that have been an embarrassment to this county. I’m very concerned that he would be nominated at all, let alone having potentially four votes.”
Howard, who represents Post 2 in Smyrna, attended some of the same public schools in southwest Atlanta as Banks, whom he referred to as his “classmate, whom I do love as child of God. But I do have very significant concerns about his leadership.”
Outgoing board chairman Randy Scamihorn said Howard’s comments were inappropriate, and ordered his microphone to be cut.
“Do you feel powerful doing that?” retorted Howard.
Howard laid out a laundry list of issues he’s referenced during his time on the board for supporting Hutchins, saying that Tre’ “encourages leaders to look beneath the shiny surface of our academic and discipline data in order to get even better as a district . . . believes that our schools should not be named after confederate generals . . . believes it’s bad to sympathize with the January 6th insurrection” among other things.
Howard also said Hutchins “would not take weeks to return phone calls from other board members . . . demonstrates a love for the entire county . . . believes in listening to experts when making decisions, especially during a pandemic.”
Banks, who did not respond to Howard’s remarks, was elected 4-3.
In an October 2020 candidate profile with East Cobb News, he said that he thinks the biggest long-term issue facing the Cobb school district is “white flight” and accused Howard and Charisse Davis, a Democrat who represents Post 6 (Walton and Wheeler clusters) of “trying to make race an issue where it has never been before.”
Davis said she couldn’t support Chastain, who is in his third term, because “I do not feel he is the leader we need now.”
He was chairman in 2019, the first year on the school board for Davis and Howard, and proposed a policy change to ban board member comments during public meetings. The newcomers alleged the measure was aimed at censoring them, but Chastain said it was needed to prevent board members from having to judge the appropriateness of colleagues’ remarks.
“This chair does not want to be the scorekeeper,” he said at the time.
After Chastain was elected on Thursday, Scamihorn didn’t turn over the gavel, as school board attorney Suzanne Wilcox had suggested.
Instead, Scamihorn presided as Cobb superintendent Chris Ragsdale provided an update to COVID-19 protocols and did not permit board discussion.
The school board on Thursday also approved the 2022 meeting schedule by a 5-2 vote, with Davis and Howard opposed.
Chastain, who is up for re-election this year along with Davis and Howard, will preside starting with the first public school board meetings on Jan. 20.
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The day after the spring semester began in the Cobb County School District, superintendent Chris Ragsdale said revised measures for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and employee quarantine will be implemented.
Speaking at the end of a Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale said he had received “hot off the presses” a letter Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sent to all public school districts in the state.
That letter included provisions to conduct more COVID-19 testing at schools, allow for optional contact tracing of cases at schools and to extend quarantine provisions for employees that currently have been for students.
The latter permits students identified as close contacts and who were exposed in a school setting to return to school right away if they are asymptomatic and wear masks for seven days.
The new guidance, which comes in the form of a new order from the Georgia Department of Public Health, also would permit teachers, administrators and support staff, regardless of vaccination status or point of exposure, to return to school immediately if they are asymptomatic and wear masks for seven days.
“It will greatly assist us in maintaining all our classrooms being open,” said Ragsdale, who informed parents Sunday that Cobb schools would begin the spring semester in face-to-face settings.
Several other metro Atlanta school districts are beginning classes this week online.
The revised Cobb school district protocols can be found by clicking here. The changes go into effect immediately.
Cobb and Marietta schools both resumed on Wednesday in-person and also do not have mask mandates.
Regarding the new contract tracing changes, Cobb has chosen not to contact-trace all suspected COVID-19 cases: “We continue to encourage families to make health decisions which are best for their families and to not send students to school sick.”
Ragsdale said during the Thursday meeting, which was called to elect 2022 school officers and meeting schedules, that contract-tracing duties has been “the biggest lift on staff resources . . . to have that accomplished and in a timely manner.”
He said there’s been considerable communication from parents about contact-tracing that occurs after a student’s quarantine period is over.
“This is a great option for some school districts,” Ragsdale said, referring to the new optional provision. “We will be choosing not to contact-trace all cases. There can be a situation where we do need to contact-trace, in some of those cases.”
More testing along the lines of “test to stay” provisions are included in the new protocols, and Ragsdale said he’s hopeful further resources will be coming from the state for schools to conduct those tests.
Ragsdale’s remarks came at the end of the meeting, but before he spoke, outgoing board chairman Randy Scamihorn said there would be no discussion of the new protocols among board members.
After Ragsdale was finished, the half-hour meeting was adjourned.
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Some changes afoot at The Avenue East Cobb include the closing of the Bed, Bath and Beyond store and the K Squared Artisan Boutique.
The BB & B closing is part of a multi-store paring down by the national household wares chain, including a store near Perimeter Mall.
The Avenue East Cobb store will be open until the end of February, and there’s a 20 percent off sale for everything in stock, plus other sales.
K Squared Artisan Boutique, which sells, jewelry and handcrafted gifts made by local artists, announced Wednesday that it’s closing this month.
“It’s the end of a dream, but the beginning of new ones. We had a great run, but we have decided to close K Squared this month,” read a social media announcement.
K Squared, which was started by Katy Colvin and Kesha Darji, former jewelry business owners, is holding a store closing sale next week (Jan. 10-16) with 50 percent discounts, and all displays will be on sale.
“Can’t thank all the great artists and customers who supported us through this journey!,” they said Wednesday. “We met so many incredible people and are proud of what we created. Please keep in touch and stop by K Squared one last time!”
Another store has opened nearby at The Avenue, in the former Olea Oliva space, and that we’ll be featuring soon in a separate post.
It’s called Vanilla Cafe e Gelato, and it’s in Suite 1010 (near the East Cobb mural). We’re talking to the owners and will be featuring them soon.
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As the spring semester began with in-person instruction Wednesday in the Cobb County School District, a small fraction of students were taking their classes online.
Of the district’s estimated 107,000 enrollment, around 2,400 are signed up for virtual classes across all grade levels (elementary, middle and high), according to a district spokeswoman.
That’s around 2 percent of the district’s student body.
“When given the choice last fall, about 98 percent of Cobb families chose in-person learning for the second semester of the 2021-2022 school year,” the spokeswoman said.
COVID-19 cases are rising more sharply than ever during the pandemic, which was declared 22 months ago, and school officials are bracing for high numbers reported as classes resume.
Cobb and Marietta also don’t have mask mandates. Gwinnett, which does, also is starting back in-person, while Atlanta, Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton and other school districts are starting at least this week remotely.
Cobb said said an additional 830 students signed up to go online via a lottery system announced by the district in October, after a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases at the start of the school year.
The district hasn’t said how many lottery slots were made available.
Students learning online are enrolled in the Elementary Virtual Program (K-Grade 5) or the Cobb Online Learning Academy (Grades 6-12).
The elementary students are enrolled in their current schools but are getting their instruction from what the district calls a “certified” EVP teacher for the full spring semester, which ends in May.
Students in middle school and high school who were awarded online lottery slots were pulled from their home schools and will be enrolled in COLA.
Aside from a Sunday night message to parents, the Cobb school district hasn’t elaborated on its reasons for returning to face-to-face classes.
When asked if there has been any update about that since Sunday, the spokeswoman told East Cobb News that the district “remains committed to providing our students with an internationally competitive education, ensuring a safe instructional environment, and prioritizing our community’s overwhelming preference for in-person learning. We ask for our community’s continued support in helping to keep our schools safe by not sending students to school sick and following the most updated CCSD protocols for COVID-19.”
She also was asked about staffing levels (teachers, administrators and support staff) to handle an in-person student return and how shortages will be handled with COVID-19 transmission rates so high.
“Our schools are open. Our buses are running. Our teachers are teaching, and our students are learning in the second largest school district in Georgia,” she said. “As in the prior semester, we remain committed to balancing the importance of in-person learning and the frequent changes associated with COVID-19.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The flyer for the original event, which included a welcome from Cobb GOP chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs.
The Cobb Republican Party has cancelled a candlelight prayer vigil scheduled at its Marietta headquarters for Thursday.
That’s the first anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump as members of Congress were certifying results of the 2020 presidential election.
In a brief statement, the Cobb GOP said it was calling off the vigil, which was to have included a livestream of a press conference held by Trump, “due to the mischaracterization of the event . . . “and the ensuing concerns of safety of those in attendance.”
Earlier this week press reports revealed that the Cobb GOP had scheduled a “Celebrate Freedom” event to start at 5 p.m. Thursday at its Roswell Street offices that included a prayer vigil to commemorate the Jan. 6 events.
Trump also has cancelled his press conference.
A woman protestor was shot and killed during the siege, and four others, all police officers responding to the rampage, later died, including some by suicide.
The Cobb GOP statement Wednesday also said those who were planning to attend the Thursday event were “encouraged to pray for those families who suffered the loss of a loved one, along with the pre-trial prisoners held in DC prisons in inhumane conditions in thoughtful prayer.”
The party also took down a social media posting on Tuesday from chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs, who said the intent of the event was to “acknowledge the Americans who lost their lives and to pray for those who have been denied justice.”
They were, she said in reference to those arrested for the attacks, being denied their Constitutional rights as criminal defendants.
“To those who have cast quick judgement concerning this event, under no uncertain terms are we condoning any form of violence nor the glorification of what happened at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
Her message concluded by saying that “it is unfortunate that so many have issues with prayer. Everyone should be concerned when our Constitutional rights are being abused.”
Former Cobb GOP chairman Jason Shepherd was critical of the event, saying it was sending the “wrong message” as the party is struggling to believe in certain “core values” and “principles” or “are we simply following one person?”
In a social media posting, State Rep. Teri Anulewicz, a Cobb Democrat, referred to the Cobb GOP event as an “homage to treason.”
The Cobb COP statement Wednesday ended by saying that “it is our fervent hope that all those who committed unlawful acts against our Nation’s Capital are brought to swift justice.”
The vigil was to have taken place several hours after a memorial service to late former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson in Atlanta.
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