Updated: 10:25 PM EDT Jul 27, 2021
WXII12.com Web Staff
In a 6-2 vote Tuesday night, Guilford County Board of Education approved universal mask requirements inside GCS buildings for the 2021-2022 school year.Click on the video player for more headlines from WXII 12 News.Board members also voted in favor of implementing mandatory COVID-19 testing for students and staff who are not fully vaccinated who also participate in athletic and high-risk extracurricular activities.Guilford County Schools also approved collecting and maintaining vaccination status for all district employees, student athletes and coaches, and students who participate in high-risk extracurricular activities. “We had to make a decision to ensure that schools remain open that is our job, we don’t want another situation where students are sitting home experiencing months and months of remote learning,” said Superintendent Dr. Sharon Contreras after the meeting. Dr. Iulia Vann with the Guilford County Health Department spoke and took questions about COVID-19 cases during the school board meeting. Vann says she cases are rising and will continue to rise. She said two months ago, less than 1% of the new infections were with the delta variant and as of right now she is seeing approximately 85% of the new infections with the new variant. “Why is that important, it is 66% more infectious then the alpha variant that we were seeing in the spring which was 66% more infectious then the previous variant which started the pandemic” Dr. Iulia Vann who is the Guilford County Public Health Director. Board members asked questions of Dr. Vann and school officials. Two board members who voted against approving the recommendations were Board members Anita Sharpe and Linda Welborn. Welborn said she has heard from concerned parents. “One of the big questions is and we are talking about all these variants coming down the pike. Are we going to mask our children indefinitely kinda deal, you know. So you know they want to hear where there is going to be some point where we say, we don’t have to mask children in school,” said Welborn, who is a School Board Member representing District 4. The Universal mask requirements will be reviewed at the end of each academic quarter which is every 10 weeks.