Greene County Board of Education maintains mask mandate

The Greene County School Board met on September 28, 2021, at the Greene County Tech Center. The public comment section outlined the lack of sports at Greene Early College and parents' concerns with the current mask mandate. Before public comments started Chairman Patricia Adams asked if everyone could keep their comments/statements to three minutes.

“According to the CDC and the DHHS there were 66 active cases of Covid-19 in a population of 21,258,” said Greene County parent Tanya Bishop. “You said as long as we have active cases, we must follow current guidance. I encourage you to follow common sense.”

Bishop advocated for the board to either get rid of the mandate or at least make it optional. The board then informed her she reached her three-minute time limit. Another person in attendance yielded his time to let her finish. The board allowed her to continue. Once she reached the second three-minute threshold the board informed her it was time to end her comments. She continued to read what she had prepared before being escorted back to her seat by the police.

Once all the public comments concluded the board opened up for the board members to discuss.

“I believe it should be optional and parents should make the decision,” said Brandon Johnson, board member. “Because they know what’s best for their family. One size doesn’t fit all.”

There was no other discussion after this comment was made. The board then moved on to the school update given by the administration.

“A quick update between the first day of school August 23 and Friday, September 24th,” said Superintendent Dr. Patrick Miller. “There have been 127 lab-confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 amongst Greene County Schools students and staff. Those 127 positive cases yielded 385 quarantine. The mitigation strategies we have employed have worked well enough for the schools to remain open as of this moment; we have not had to close the school due to COVID. As you know many other districts around the state have not been as fortunate.”

He then added, “The Wall Street Journal published a timely article on Friday afternoon citing two studies published by [the] CDC that suggests face mask requirements in schools reduce the spread of COVID-19 among children.”

According to CDC, the level of community transmission in Greene County and all of North Carolina is still identified as high.

“Joy Brock, the director of Greene County Department of Public Health, strongly recommends that this board renew the mask requirement for at least another 30 days,” said Miller. “Her recommendation aligns with that of North Carolina DHHS and CDC. Therefore that is also my recommendation to you.”

The school board voted and the motion to keep the mask mandate passed with only one school board member dissenting, Brandon Johnson. The board of education will reevaluate it at the next school board meeting. That meeting is scheduled for October 25 at 6:00 p.m. at the Tech Center.

Vice-Chairman Joe Smith then added and addressed the public, “You know our main goal, none of us likes these things but we are wearing them. But we have got to keep our schools open. That’s our main goal is to keep our schools open. So, sometimes we have to do things that we don’t really want to do.”