11 Metro Atlanta Superintendents Pen Letter To Kemp Over Vaccines

ATLANTA, GA — Eleven metro Atlanta superintendents sent a letter to Gov. Brian Kemp Tuesday, pushing him to consider moving teachers and education staff into the highest priority category for COVID-19 vaccinations.

WSB-TV's Chris Jose first tweeted a photo of the letter just after 6 p.m. Tuesday, which was signed by superintendents from Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Forsyth, Clayton and Rockdale counties as well as Atlanta Public Schools, Marietta City Schools, City Schools of Decatur and Buford City Schools. In the letter, they asked the governor to switch teachers and education staff from Phase 1B to Phase 1A, which is the current phase of Georgia's vaccine rollout.

"We come to you as a united group to ask for your help in affirming that teachers are valued in Georgia. Like you, we know the challenges and difficulties of leading during a pandemic, and we remain hopeful that the COVID-19 vaccination will soon begin to positively impact the lives and futures of many within our state," the letter reads. "With the deepest respect but also the strongest sense of urgency, we ask you to move our teachers and education staff into the 1A category."

#BREAKING Superintendents from 11 metro Atlanta school districts including @apsupdate @CobbSchools @MariettaCitySch @DeKalbSchools @FultonCoSchools @GwinnettSchools call on @GovKemp to move teachers/staff to 1A Covid vaccination group. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/TuOnubAqEw
— Chris Jose (@ChrisJoseWSB) January 26, 2021

WSB-TV reported that Kemp was scheduled to have a conference call with the superintendents Wednesday at noon, but Patch has not been able to confirm the details of this call.

Cody Hall, director of communications for Kemp, said in an email that Georgia is not receiving enough vaccine supply at this time to provide priority vaccination to the state's teachers and education staff.

“This is a simple math problem the superintendents who signed this letter should certainly understand. As the governor and Dr. [Kathleen] Toomey [commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health] have said multiple times: Georgia is not currently receiving enough vaccine supply to provide priority vaccination to over 400,000 teachers and school staff," Hall said in the email. "Additional vaccine does not appear out of thin air and the data is clear. With a weekly allocation of 146,000 doses, the current 1A plus population still accounts for over 2 million high-risk Georgians.

"Georgia has currently reported over 741,000 vaccinations. These superintendents should explain which currently eligible population should be, in their view, sent to the back of the line for vaccination. Seniors? Health care workers? First responders and law enforcement? The governor has repeatedly stated — as recently as [Tuesday]— that as soon as Georgia begins to receive increased vaccine supply, teachers and school staff will absolutely be included in any expanded criteria.”

Chris Ragsdale, superintendent of Cobb County School District, said in a press release Wednesday that metro Atlanta superintendents have had an ongoing dialogue with the governor's office and will continue to push for more school support.

"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," Ragsdale said in the release. "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.”