The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday will hear a presentation by Superintendent Chris Ragsdale about virtual learning options for the 2021-22 school year.
He’s also expected to provide an update on the district’s purchase of aqueous ozone hand sanitizing machines as a COVID-19 safety measure.
Those items are included on the agenda for the school board work session that starts at 1 p.m. Thursday. An executive session is to follow, and voting meeting starts at 7 p.m.
You can view the agendas by clicking here.
Last month Ragsdale said there would be virtual learning options as there are for the current school year, and “that is emphatic and definite.”
What had to be worked out, among other things, is how teachers would teach. This year they’ve been required to teach students in-person and remote simultaneously.
Ragsdale said at the time that “we are learning from mistakes” and “seeing the impacts” a dual learning system has had on students and teachers.
“We recognize the extreme level of difficulty for all team members this school year,” Ragsdale said then.
For the spring semester, around 66 percent of the Cobb County School District’s 107,000 students chose in-person learning.
An Indiana company called 30e is the manufacturer of the hand sanitizing machines that are being installed in elementary schools, after a proof-of-concept at three schools in the fall semester.
Those were part of a $12 million purchase of COVID-19 safety products that included special UV lights at elementary schools.
But earlier this month the district announced it was cancelling that contract, with Kennesaw-based ProTek Life, after a malfunction at a school.
The safety spending was opposed to two school board members and a parents’ watchdog group, Watching the Funds Cobb, called it into question.
Board members have brought agenda items about a recovery plan for academic gaps caused by COVID-related changes and updates from the Georgia legislature, which will soon finalize its state budget.
The Cobb school district gets nearly half of its $1.2 billion annual budget from the state.
Among the action items on the school board’s agenda Thursday is a request for $2.389 million for HVAC modifications at Addison Elementary School in East Cobb.
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