GOP Wake school board members backed mandatory masks. Now, they may face discipline
The Wake County Republican Party plans to censure two school board members who supported requiring that face masks be worn in schools — highlighting the political divide over the issue.
Last week, the Wake County school board unanimously approved continuing to require face masks, rejecting calls from some parents to make them optional. Now the Wake County Republican Party’s Executive Committee has scheduled a Monday night special meeting to consider a censure motion against the school board’s two GOP members: Karen Carter and Roxie Cash.
“As I’m sure you are aware, the recent School Board vote concerning the mask requirement for the upcoming school year was extremely controversial,” Mark Cavaliero, first vice chair of the Wake GOP, wrote in an email Thursday to both school board members. “Many of our party members are disappointed and angry, and are calling for us to issue a formal censure on the matter.”
Both Carter and Cash said they were disappointed by the potential public reprimand but stood by their vote on masking.
“I’m here for the students of our district, the families of our district,” Carter said in an interview. “I want to make sure that in-person continues. With the health guidance that we’ve gotten from the ABC Science Collaborative, Wake Public Health and CDC, they’re all recommending masks.
“I’m here to consider all that and not just to be doing what a party tells me what I ought to do.”
Cavaliero and Alan Swain, chair of the Wake County Republican Party, did not respond to an email requesting comment. The Wake GOP also did not respond to an email and voice mail requesting comment.
GOP opposes mandatory face masks
Statewide, 61 school districts are requiring face coverings and 53 have made them optional. The last North Carolina district, Pitt County, will decide Monday.
Republicans at the local, state and national level have opposed requiring students and school employees to wear face masks.
All but one of the North Carolina districts that have made masks optional are in counties won by Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
On Friday, Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, sent a letter to school boards asking them to reconsider their decision not to require masks.
Locally, the Wake County Republican Party had unsuccessfully backed a petition “to end the mask mandate.”
“Parents who wish to send their children to school unmasked should do so if they choose, without discrimination or penalty to the child by WCPSS,” according to the petition.
Carter said she recognizes that not all families are happy with the mask decision.
GOP endorsed both board members
School board elections in Wake are non-partisan. This means candidates don’t run in political party primaries.
But both the Wake County Republican Party and the Wake County Democratic Party have historically endorsed school board candidates.
Last fall, the Wake GOP had endorsed Carter and Cash. The other seven members of the nine-person school board are all registered Democrats.
“I’m being told we don’t want politics to play a role in this decision,” Cash said in an interview. “The fact that they’re upset with me because I’m a Republican and I didn’t vote the way they wanted is confusing.”
Masks ‘keep kids in school’
Both Carter and Cash cited county health COVID-19 quarantine requirements for their decision to require masking. Without a mask requirement, Cash said any students exposed to a classmate who tested positive for COVID-19 would be required to quarantine at home for 14 days.
“It was pretty clear that if masks were not mandated, they’d be going home 14 days and that would mean most of the class if not the whole class,” Cash said.
But with universal masking, some Wake students may have to quarantine for only five days or not at all, under updated guidelines.
Carter said reducing how many students are quarantined will give students more of an opportunity to receive in-person instruction and to participate in extracurricular activities. She noted how Superintendent Cathy Moore has agreed to her request for a quarterly review of the mask mandate and to provide more clear masks for school employees so that students can better see their faces.
“In short, my actions and votes are guided by what is best for our students, never by what a political party or special interest group demands,” Carter said in a statement. “I will continue to prioritize the health and safety of our students, teachers, and staff in order to continue full time, in-person learning.”
Censure motion expected
“We understand the complexities of dealing with COVID policy, and would like to provide you with the opportunity to explain your thought process leading to your decision,” Cavaliero wrote in the email to Carter and Cash.
Cavaliero invited both board members to attend Monday’s meeting or to submit written statements. He said that after the executive committee discusses the matter, ”we expect a motion to be made to censure.”
Both board members said they’d submit written statements because of scheduling conflicts.
Carter said she will be meeting with constituents as part of a previously scheduled meeting. Cash, a pharmacist, said she will be working at WakeMed North at its in-person pharmacy.
Both board members seemed resigned to being censured.
“My constituency is from independents to Democrats to Republicans,” Cash said. “I feel comfortable in representing all of them. I still feel comfortable with my vote because I want to keep kids in school.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 2:01 PM.
