By Jared Putnam
Staff Writer
It's a matter of keeping kids in the classroom.
That was the Clay County Board of Education's point of emphasis as they reversed their decision from just weeks earlier and unanimously voted to make face masks mandatory for school staff and students indoors during a special called meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 18.
Superintendent Dale Cole noted that quarantine procedures are directly impacted by face masks. Once there's a positive COVID-19 test, school nurses and the health department take over and must enforce quarantine protocols. One key exception to the quarantine rules is that if both the student potentially exposed and the one with COVID-19 were both wearing masks appropriately, the potentially-exposed student does not need to quarantine unless they become symptomatic.
"I think for me the biggest thing is the whole quarantine," board member Kelly Crawford said. "If masks aren't required, here we might have to possibly quarantine a whole class. Last year we ran into an issue with some kids being quarantined three or four times, so I think that's a big area for me that I'm concerned about, is losing more instruction time for those kids."
Board Vice-Chairperson Robert Caldwell agreed and put forward the motion to require face masks for now, but he also asked that the board revisit the issue again in a special meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
The board had unanimously voted to make face masks optional during their monthly meeting on July 26, following a recommendation by Superintendent Dale Cole. At the time, Clay County had only 10 active positive cases of COVID-19.
However, Cole also qualified his recommendation at the time by adding, "The board can and should elect at any time to change its decision to make the schools safer in reaction to COVID spread as needed."
As of Monday, the Delta variant-driven surge had risen to 86 known active cases inside the county. Area hospitals like Union General Hospital in Blairsville, Ga., have been caring for record numbers of COVID-19 inpatients in recent weeks. In Hiawassee, Ga., Towns County Elementary School was forced to temporarily close last week due to an outbreak of the virus.
Board Chairperson Dr. Jason Shook said he understands the frustrations of wearing a mask all day, but noted that educators already face an educational gap to overcome from last year.
"If our goal is to minimize our time out of school and maximize the time they have for in-person instruction, in the safest way possible and give them a sound, basic education, unless the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services changes their guidelines, which that's what we have to go off of, then I think masking has to be required on the front end," Shook said.
The board received public comment from several individuals, most of whom were in favor of a face mask mandate.
The board also voted to continue to provide a remote instruction option for the remainder of the semester. As of the Aug. 18 meeting, the school system had received a total of 44 requests for virtual learning.
As of Monday, Clay County Schools had 17 students and two staff members who were positive for COVID-19, and 50 students and four staff members in quarantine due to possible exposure.
The board held its regular monthly meeting on Monday. Notes from that meeting:
• Theresa Waldroup delivered a report on Clay County Communities for Students.
• Hayesville High School Principal Stacey Overlin discussed new classes available to students, including creative writing, teacher cadets — a "grow your own teachers" type of program that also can be beneficial to other socially-focused careers, Appalachian studies, lifetime wellness, economics and personal finance and AP computer science.
• The board voted to move foreclosures to a different law firm due to a lack of communication from the current firm.
• The board voted to extend the deadline for requests for remote instruction until 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 27.