Durham schools will make masks ‘recommended’ for students, staff in mid-April
Durham Public Schools students and teachers must continue to wear masks inside schools until April 11, when they will become “recommended.”
School members initially considered ending the mask mandate on April 4 but said they would like to see COVID-19 case numbers after students, teachers and staff return from spring break, which is March 27-31.
Board members voted 4-2 to keep the mandate until April 11. Vice Chair Jovonia Lewis and Frederick Ravin III voted no. Board member Mike Lee was absent.
The board will meet next on April 7, and members said they could reassess the decision as needed before the mandate is officially dropped on April 11.
Some board members said they wanted to ensure teachers and staff have time to make the necessary accommodations in their classrooms as they have been taking safety precautions during the pandemic.
Since March 11, masks have been optional outside during recess, lunch or other outdoor school activities. Durham Public Schools students and teachers will continue to wear masks on school buses.
“I remain in the same place that I was two weeks ago, which is to say the trends are holding and we’re now in the low CDC category,” said board member Matt Sears. “I am comfortable shifting to the optional phase when we return from spring break.”
Sears attended the meeting virtually after reporting he tested positive for COVID-19.
Nearly all North Carolina school 115 districts have voted to make masks optional, The News & Observer reported. That includes Chapel Hill-Carrboro, which will make masks optional indoors in early April.
Durham and Hertford County schools have been the only two that have not lifted mask mandates, even though Gov. Roy Cooper and other health officials have encouraged school districts and municipalities to make them optional statewide.
“We need to make our decision based on the same things we’ve been basing them on: safety, science and the metrics,” Lewis said. “If it’s time to move on, it’s time to move on. Not because everyone else has done it, but because of what the science tells us.
“I have been looking at the science, calling and talking with other districts and our school community. … I am ready for us to consider having masks to be optional,” Lewis said.
A motion Thursday to lift the mask mandate on April 4 failed 3-3 with Lewis, Ravin and Sears voting for the earlier date and chair Bettina Umstead, Natalie Beyer and Alexandra Valladares voting against it.
Lee’s absence marked the second time in eight years he had missed a meeting while serving on the Durham school board. He previously said he would reconsider lifting the mandate depending on COVID-19 case data after DPS students return from spring break.
“After everybody comes back and things settle, we see who’s sick and who’s not,” Lee said earlier this month. “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.”
The city of Durham and Durham County ended their mask mandates in early March, nearly two weeks after Cooper’s recommendation.
Currently, 239,179 people — or 65% of the county’s population — have been vaccinated with at least one dose among its more than 300,000 residents, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Seventy-one percent have received two doses of Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or one dose of Johnson & Johnson.
Vaccines remain free and widely available for people 5 years and older. A vaccine has not been approved yet for children under 5.
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 8:33 PM.