CMS board to vote on mask requirement Friday. Here’s what to know.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education will meet Friday morning to decide whether students and staff will continue to be required to wear masks.

The special-called meeting is open to the public but the board is not holding a public comment hearing. Continuing mask mandates has become a polarizing issue across the district, state and country as COVID-19 cases increase among unvaccinated people.

Local districts have run the gamut on face covering requirements but most decided, before recent CDC guidance was issued, to make masks optional.

Anson County Schools voted to require all students in all grades K-12 and staff to wear masks while on campus. The Caldwell County Schools Board of Education voted to make masks optional for its students. Union County also voted earlier this summer to make masks optional for the upcoming school year.

Here’s where Charlotte-area school districts stand on masks for students and staff

It’s expected that CMS Superintendent Earnest Winston will make a recommendation on mask use for the 2021-22 school year, and the board will discuss. The first day of school is Aug. 25.

The meeting will be held at 9 a.m., at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center located at 600 East 4^th Street. The public can tune in on CMS Board of Education Facebook, CMS Facebook and the CMS YouTube Channel.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and health officials last week strongly encouraged masks be worn in schools to slow the spread of the virus. Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued new guidance saying masks should again be used in indoor settings, even if a person has been vaccinated against the coronavirus — a move many local health leaders said they agree with in light of Delta variant outbreaks.

Soon after Cooper urged the use of masks in schools, CMS officials said they would study the optional guidance.

Mask use in CMS

All students and staff who have participated in Camp CMS have been required to wear masks this summer. That’s helped keep cases low during summer school, data show.

For the week of July 19-23, there were 19 new COVID-19 student cases among the 18,900 who were attending Camp CMS in-person. Of the 19,106 staff members and teachers working at Camp CMS, there were eight new cases of staff members who tested positive, according to the district.

Cooper has asked school districts to require masks indoors for all students and staff in elementary and middle schools. Any other unvaccinated students or personnel at all schools should wear masks as well, the governor said.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, in its updated school guidance also said that schools should require that students in K-8 wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

“Studies have shown that masks can slow the spread of this virus among those who are unvaccinated — that hasn’t changed. We know masks work,” Cooper said during a press conference last week. “The health, safety and ability of our students to learn in person depends on school leaders following this guidance.”