Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
At the regularly scheduled Swain County Board of Education meeting Monday, the school board decided to change the district’s previously approved policy of making masks optional to make masks mandatory for everyone while indoors at the start of the school year, since COVID-19 cases have spiked in the past few weeks.
Swain County Health Director Alison Cochran spoke before the board Monday, again stressing the importance of masks with the Delta variant of COVID-19 and in light of the numbers of the cases in Swain County increasing.
“We have 58 current cases, and since July 29 we've had one death and 78 new positives in the county. Current active cases of 18 or younger: from 0-4 we have one case, 5-17 we have five cases, age 18 years we have two cases,” Cochran said.
The school board's main concern is keeping the students safe and in the classroom, they agreed. Making masks mandatory also reduced how many students would have to quarantine if one person tests positive.
“If no one is wearing masks in a classroom, and one child becomes positive of Covid, everyone within six feet of that student would need to be quarantined, which could mean the entire class is quarantined,” Cochran said. “It’s important for kids to be in the classroom, and I think the safest way to do that is with masks. If everyone is wearing masks properly and someone becomes infected, everyone asymptomatic would not have to quarantine.”
After much discussion from the board, school board member Kim Carpenter made the motion to make masks mandatory while inside the school building for students, faculty and staff, which was seconded by school board member Cody White.
“While inside the building everyone must wear a mask, including faculty and staff. We can revisit this at a future meeting if the numbers begin decreasing, but right now with them on the rise, we feel this is the safest way to return to school,” Carpenter said.
The board then discussed at length about how to handle masks when it comes to sporting events and practices.
“Right now, we don’t have any guidance from the CDC or NCHSAA about masks at sporting events,” Superintendent Mark Sale said.
White made a motion to make masks required indoors with appropriate mask breaks throughout the day, with students allowed outdoor time, where they can remove masks at a safe distance of six feet apart. He added that masks will be required for athletes when not on the playing field or court, and masks will be strongly recommended to sporting event spectators. The board approved the motion.
It has been and still is a requirement for school transportation to require masks at all times.
The board went on to discuss new camera systems within the school that would monitor every inch of the building and people coming and going inside to improve school safety.
In personnel decisions, the board accepted the resignations of Eric Cantrell and Jeff Helpman and approved the employment of Timothy Cochran, Chris McMahan, Anna Rowland, Dakota Mancuso, and renewed the employment of Matthew Huett.
The next school board meeting will be Monday, August 23 at 6 p.m.