How much longer will Durham Public Schools require indoor masks?
Durham Public Schools students and teachers will continue to wear masks indoors and on school buses, but the school board voted Thursday to relax the mandate for outdoor activities beginning Wednesday, March 16.
Masking will no longer be required when outside for recess, lunch, or other outdoor school activities.
But some members of the board, which voted unanimously to keep the indoor mandate while dropping the outdoor requirements, remain cautious.
“I just want us to be considering mitigation strategies and how we would contact trace,” so any future cases don’t affect entire schools, board Chair Bettina Umstead said.
Umstead said she also agreed with board member Natalie Beyer about establishing metrics to fully re-institute mask-wearing if cases rise.
As for athletic events, high school venues will be allowed up to 75% of their capacity. Middle schools will be allowed up to 150 spectators depending on their capacity standards, according to a DPS news release.
All spectators must continue to wear masks at athletic events. Coaches, managers and staff must try to maintain physical distancing.
The move comes after Gov. Roy Cooper encouraged school boards and municipalities across the state to lift mask mandates and make them optional in schools, in late February.
Around the same time, Cooper also vetoed a bill, which some have called the “Free the Smiles” bill, that would have let parents decide whether their children wear face coverings in school.
Board member Mike Lee said he is not ready to drop the indoor mandate but is prepared to revisit it if numbers are down in two weeks when DPS students return from spring break.
“After everybody comes back and things settle, we see who’s sick and who’s not,” Lee said. “Because, remember, the at-home tests have reduced people reporting if they’ve tested ... So I just want to make sure we have some time after a large event — spring break — that our numbers are down.”
Students will be on spring break from March 27-31.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 2:29 PM.