Lenoir County’s Board of Education called a special meeting for this evening at 6 to discuss the school district’s masking policy, one week after deciding to keep masks optional as COVID-19 cases were mounting throughout Eastern North Carolina.
At their regularly scheduled meeting last Monday, the board decided to keep their December policy, which makes masking optional for students and staff, and sets up criteria to reconsider requiring masks if over 1% of the school population has COVID-19, or if community spread in the county is higher than substantial.
At the time of that decision, the school reported 31 new COVID-19 cases or 0.329% of the population. The spring semester began the next day for early college, and two days later for traditional schools.
Today, the school reported 157 new cases, 1.67% of the population. The meeting will be in person with limited seating and streamed on the school district’s YouTube.