Johnston County schools vote to require masks, changing course after less than 2 weeks
The Johnston County Board of Education narrowly voted Tuesday to require masks in elementary and secondary schools, reversing course less than two weeks after making face coverings optional.
School board members voted 4-3 on Tuesday to make masks mandatory for K-12 students in Johnston County public schools.
Tuesday’s vote marked a quick reversal for the school board from its July 29 vote to make masking in schools optional. That initial decision came hours after Gov. Roy Cooper had urged indoor masking, even among the vaccinated, in counties with high or substantial spread, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The school board was similarly split back then, voting 4-3 at the time.
The board members who voted in favor of requiring face coverings on Tuesday expressed frustration at having to return to a mask mandate but said they were more worried about disruptions to in-person instruction as a result of positive coronavirus tests.
“The best opportunity we have of trying to accomplish that — and I don’t know that we will based on what the data and the way it’s going — the best chance we have of delivering that with the least amount of disruption is to mandate masks and hope that we get back,” said board member Kay Carroll.
Vice-Chair Teri Sessoms pointed out that the positivity rate in Johnston County had climbed above 14%, reaching a level not seen since December, when the school board voted to have all students return to remote learning for at least a month.
Nine schools across the Triangle already have reported COVID-19 clusters, including Smithfield-Selma High School in Johnston County, The News & Observer reported.
North Carolina’s StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit (K-12) call for universal masking indoors in all grades. But while Gov. Roy Cooper has recommended that the state’s 115 districts require the masks, he has left the decision to local school boards.
Under current public health guidelines, board member Lyn Andrews said the price of allowing students to go maskless would be too high if even just one of them tests positive.
In response to Andrews’ questions, David Pearce, the county’s assistant superintendent of auxiliary and administrative services, said a positive test from a student not wearing a mask would require any students who were within six feet of them to quarantine at home.
But at the same time, students within six feet of a classmate who tested positive but who wore a mask would not be considered close contacts, and would not have to quarantine.
“So my choice, my parents’ choice of not having me wear a mask, could send, potentially, three students home for 10 days, who wore a mask,” Andrews said.
Speaking to parents in the audience, Andrews said, “I hate the mask as much as anybody does. But if it keeps kids in school, now, those kids get to stay.”
The first day of school on a traditional calendar is Aug. 23.
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 8:37 PM.
