Students at four Cobb County schools will learn from home the rest of the week, but officials would not confirm if the classroom closures are related to an increase in COVID-19 cases.
Nickajack Elementary, Barber and Lindley middle and Hillgrove High schools have closed classrooms to in-person learning and transitioned to remote-only learning through Friday, the Cobb County School District confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Monday is the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, so both remote and face-to-face classes will resume Tuesday, Jan. 19.
District spokeswoman Nan Kiel said the system will make the decision to close schools on an individual basis, and each decision is based on the needs of students and staff at each school. Kiel said contrary to posts made by social media users, the district will continue providing in-person and remote learning options for students and their parents.
“Cobb schools continues to partner with the Cobb & Douglas Public Health Department to make decisions concerning our district’s response to the pandemic,” the spokeswoman said. “Whether face-to-face or in fully remote classrooms, Cobb teachers will continue to teach, and students will continue to learn, from everywhere.”
In letters sent by the district to parents and staff of the four affected schools, no information about COVID-19 cases or how many students and staff are in quarantine is provided. The letters do say that educators will continue to report to school and teach from their classrooms.
When asked why the four schools were moving to remote learning, Kiel said the district’s COVID-19 numbers are updated each Friday and “there are many facets to these decisions with the process being guided by DPH (Department of Public Health) recommendations.”
As of Friday, Jan. 8, each of the four schools had fewer than 5 active COVID-19 cases, according to the district’s website. The number of cumulative cases reported at the schools since the district began offering in-person learning Oct. 5 are six at Nickajack, 16 at Barber, 11 at Lindley and 31 at Hillgrove.
The district, as of Friday, had 1,921 cases that have been reported in the system since July 1. That’s up from 1,570 cases reported Dec. 18, the last day of the district’s first semester. The district, which finished the first semester with remote learning due to the uptick in cases in the community, updates its website each Friday.
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