Cooper wants school districts to mandate masks

Dare BOE among those asked to reverse course

With state officials asking school districts that chose optional mask wearing for the coming school year to instead mandate universal school masking, the question is whether that will have an impact on policy in Dare County.

On Aug. 5, the Dare County Board of Education voted, by a 6-1 margin, to let parents decide whether their children wear masks in school, although they will be required on school buses. That vote followed the release of a survey by the Dare County Schools (DCS) showing that a solid majority, about 60% of parents and school staff, supported the parents’ option proposal.

In voting for the optional masking, however, the board rejected the recommendations of DCS Superintendent John Farrelly and Dare County Department of Health and Human Services Director Sheila Davies to adopt universal masking.

But with COVID cases surging dramatically at the national, state and local level, Governor Roy Cooper announced on Aug 13 that he, NC Department of Health and Human Services Director Mandy Cohen and State Health Director Dr. Betsey Tilson have sent letters to school boards that did not opt for universal masking asking them to reverse course.

Noting the increasing rates of COVID infections and hospitalizations for children in North Carolina, the letter stated that, “Because children under 12 cannot yet get a vaccine and the percent of children 12-18 years old who are vaccinated is low, all students, teachers and staff in grades K-12 should wear masks in schools regardless of vaccination status… As you know, several school districts which had decided to make face coverings optional wisely have reversed course. Please join them and others by adopting strong health protocols.”

On Aug. 11, the News & Observer reported that “school districts representing 59% of the state’s 1.5 million public school students are mandating mask usage in schools.”

In an interview with the Voice, Dare County Board of Education Chairperson Mary Ellon Balance said that the Aug. 13 letter had been shared with the other six members of the board.

Asked how it might impact the board’s thinking, she stated that at this point, “I don’t know [that] anybody’s ready to jump on the bandwagon on one thing or another or this issue,” although she mentioned the possibility of polling the board on the subject. The school year starts on Aug. 23.

“I promise you that I’ve had many sleepless nights over the past two week,” Ballance added, discussing the difficulty of making decisions about a public health crisis that triggers so much emotion and passion on all sides.

“Everybody’s worked up in a sort of frenzy over this—and rightfully so,” she said, adding that given COVID’s emergence as a once-in-a-century pandemic, “Nobody in my lifetime has ever dealt with anything like this.”