On Tuesday evening, Superintendent Ragsdale joined with a group of metro-area Superintendents to ask Governor Brian Kemp to move Georgia’s educators into the 1A group for access to the vaccine. 

Superintendent Ragsdale also thanked the Cobb Team for their continued efforts to provide our students with the best education possible during these unprecedented times, “We all know the importance of face-to-face instruction for our students, but I know that educators cannot keep giving without having access to the necessary tools for remaining safe during instruction.  We also know that there are two doses of the vaccine required for the optimal efficacy of protection against the virus, which lengthens the amount of time to acquire that optimal protection." 

He explained that the metro-area Superintendents have been having an ongoing dialogue with the Governor's office and would continue pressing for more support for our schools. "I, along with other superintendents, have been advocating for our employees with decision-makers for some time now.  The letter was simply a culmination of our efforts to get access to the vaccine for educators.  We all understand the most extreme hurdle for us to overcome is the quantity of vaccine available to be administered.  We also understand that this is a nationwide hurdle, and not a local hurdle limited to Georgia or Cobb County… We hope the access for educators to the vaccine as well as the quantity of vaccine available will come quickly.”   

The Superintendent went on to praise our partners at the Cobb Douglas Board of Health. “I am so very appreciative for the partnership with our Cobb and Douglas Board of Health.  We continue to work with them on a daily basis to navigate this pandemic.” He continued by promising the community that Cobb Schools would continue to offer choice for as long as it was feasible, “We are going to continue with our school by school strategy on going all virtual either by classroom, grade level, or school.  This strategy will also continue to take into account the number of staff and student quarantines within each school.”

 You can see the full version of the metro-Superintendent’s letter attached.