Vote Becky Sayler

Democratic Candidate

Cobb County School Board, Post 2

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Children deserve a competitive education that nurtures their creativity, compassion, and curiosity.  

Parents deserve clear and consistent communication from their school district.  

Teachers and staff members deserve to be treated like professionals.

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Public Comment, October 2021

Cobb County School Board Meeting
The Need for Robust Instruction During Quarantine

Good evening. My name is Becky Sayler.  I’m concerned about the health and education of my children and all the children impacted by your policies and plans.

The Board of Health recommends that school interventions to mitigate COVID should include vaccination, universal mask use, ventilation, testing, quarantining, and cleaning/disinfection.  There has been no push or offering this year for teacher or student vaccinations. Masks are said to be strongly encouraged but aren’t by some leaders in this room. There have been no changes to ventilation other than parent-funded air purifiers at my children’s schools. The quarantine policy is so lax that the person I spoke to at the Georgia Department of Public Health laughed when I told him the details. And though our janitors and teachers do a wonderful job cleaning, they still need to ask for sanitation supplies from parents.

We are not keeping kids or teachers safe.  So, failing that, I beg the superintendent and the board to make a plan for robust instruction during quarantine.

Our 3rd grader missed 29 out of the first 39 days of school due to quarantine.  His teachers provided work and were very responsive to emails.  However, he missed out on great in-person instruction of our Cobb County teachers.  I am not asking for them to teach remote and in-person like they did last year – that was an extraordinary demand. But there should be some department or instructional team that works with children when they are in quarantine.

When it became clear our son would miss a lot of school, I contacted the Hospital homebound coordinator.  She explained COVID related absences do not qualify for hospital homebound instruction.

Tutor ATL is probably great for middle and high schoolers, but for elementary students who don't type very quickly, the chat interface does not work well.  There is an audio option, but for a shy child it was hard to talk with a random disembodied voice.

Vaccines for children under 12 are coming soon but are not here yet.  We are likely to be in this cycle of exposures and illnesses for a while, especially if we continue ignoring public health guidelines.  Please come up with a plan to help children in quarantine continue learning from home. It’s the least you can do in the absence of actually preventing the spread of the disease in your schools.

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