Starting Monday, Cherokee County Schools students were longer be required to don masks at school – at least for the time being.
The school board voted 5-1 in favor of making masks optional at a special called meeting Thursday evening. Dr. Jeff Martin, the board’s vice chair, was the sole vote in favor. The measure comes as cases continue to decline in both the school district and in Cherokee County compared to Sept. 2, when Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Jeana Conley implemented the mandate after polling the board.
Thursday’s vote came after a similar motion did not pass at the board’s Oct. 7 regular meeting. Lead school nurse Heather Watson said Cherokee County Health Director David Badger wanted to see the county at a 5 percent positivity rate before the board relaxed the mask mandate, while the most recent data showed an 8.5 percent positivity rate. Badger also recommended Nov. 1 as a date to relax mask requirements.
“When they do the numbers, they’re like a week behind, so last week’s positivity rate was 8.5 percent,” Watson said. “For this week, we’ll get those numbers on Tuesday and (Badger) seemed to think that it as going to be closer to the 5 percent mark, which is what he was OK with recommending for us to take masks off.”
At the height if the Delta variant’s reign in Cherokee County, positivity rates approached 25 percent.
“I went back and looked at the health department numbers, from Oct. 7, the last time we met, there were nine active positives and 81 pending cases,” board member Jeff Tatham said. “Today that number is down to 40 active, so it’s only gotten better. It’s gotten quite a lot better.”
The district’s COVID-19 data from Oct. 19 showed 54 students in quarantine and 13 positive. Numbers have continually fallen over the past several reports from the district. The district’s situation mirrors that of the county, with no deaths reported last week and daily positive cases remaining in the single digits from Oct. 14-22.
Under state law, the board is required to vote on its mask policy once a month. Thursday’s vote followed a discussion in a closed session that was encouraged by board attorney Dean Shatley.
In addition to the mask decision, the board voted to table the acceptance of a $144,000 grant supporting personnel for a state-funded COVID-19 testing program aimed at detecting asymptomatic cases through pool testing. The testing would be only be done on students whose parents consent.
“Basically what that does is catch cases that are asymptomatic, or don’t have symptoms,” Watson said. “For parents that opt in, their child would be tested one day a week. Then if we have a positive in the school, the lab person comes back a second day and rapid tests everyone in the pool to determine which one was positive.”
The grant would provide a new position and bring an existing position in the district up to full time. It would also come at no cost to county schools.
Martin expressed concerns about the number of quarantines that could be generated through the program.
“This will create more havoc with quarantine and issues like that,” he said. “Again, my final thing is, the school board needs to stay out of health-care issues, if possible.”
However, Conley expressed some concerns about leaving $144,000 on the table.
“I’m just not comfortable signing that or letting it go without your blessing,” she said.
The board also approved the district’s annual flu shot program, which in years’ past has offered vaccines to local students with parental consent. Permission forms will soon be distributed in schools.