Marietta, CDC Study Finds Educators Play Role In COVID-19 Spread

MARIETTA, GA — Educators play a key role in COVID-19 transmission in schools, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study on Marietta City Schools.

Marietta City Schools was one of three districts in the country that partnered with the CDC to study how the virus is spread in schools to help improve the safety of in-person learning.

The study released Monday followed nine clusters of COVID-19 cases from Dec. 1, 2020 to Jan. 22, 2021 — or 24 in-person school days — involving 13 educators and 32 students at six elementary schools. About 2,600 students and 700 staff members attended elementary school in person in those 24 school days.

At the same time, the 7-day moving average number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in Cobb County increased almost 300 percent, the report said, rising from 152 cases to 577 cases.

Key findings from the study include:

• Two of the nine clusters involved possible educator-to-educator transmission during in-person meetings or lunches, followed by educator-to-student transmission in the classroom. This resulted in about half of school-associated cases, or 15 out of 31 cases.
• A total of 69 household members of those who contracted COVID-19 from the schools were tested. Eighteen people, or 26 percent, received positive COVID-19 tests.
• All nine clusters involved "less than ideal physical distancing," and five involved "inadequate mask use by students" in specific instances.

Public health investigators found several COVID-19 mitigation challenges, noting that distancing greater than six feet was not possible because of the high number of in-person students and classroom layouts. While plastic dividers were placed on desks in between students, they still sat less than three feet apart, the report said.

"To ensure safer in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, schools should implement multicomponent mitigation strategies, including efforts to prevent infection among educators, and promoting consistent, correct mask use and physical distancing wherever possible, especially during mealtime when masks are not being worn," the report reads.

Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, said this study "sadly confirms" the GAE's stance on reopening schools for in-person instruction.

"The study showed that unless the CDC guidelines and mitigation strategies are followed and enforced to the letter, the incidence of spread among all categories — child to child, child to educator, educator to educator, and all categories to family members, will definitely still occur," Morgan said. "Marietta City’s attempt to follow the mitigation strategies illustrates just how difficult they are to follow without the resources necessary to implement and enforce with fidelity."

Superintendent Grant Rivera said the district made adjustments based on the data. These changes included limiting the use of classroom rugs for grades K-2, reducing small groups of about four students to smaller groups of two or three, and putting more space between desks, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

The district also told employees to limit direct in-person contact, such as not eating lunch together indoors and moving staff meetings online.

"These findings suggest that educators can play an important role in in-school transmission and that in-school transmission can occur when physical distancing and mask compliance are not optimal," the CDC report reads.

Additionally, the Marietta City Schools board approved a new partnership between the district and Peachtree Immediate Care at its Feb. 9 meeting, which established a drive-thru COVID-19 testing facility for district students, staff and their families. PCR and rapid antigen tests are available at the facility.