Robbinsville – The Graham County Board of Education on Tuesday warily voted to return to voluntary masks on school properties (except on buses, where masks are still mandatory), but is prepared to return to the table later in February if any school has a COVID-19 positive test rate of 10 percent or higher.
The board is required to look at its masking policy once a month and had reinstated mandatory masking at its January meeting, although school officials admit that almost no one followed the requirement at sports events.
School board members say they hate wearing masks themselves and were hesitant to add another month of mandatory masks. After voting unanimously to voluntary masks, several school board members removed their own masks during the meeting.
Even with the mask mandate in place, classes came close to closing at Robbinsville Elementary School with staff reporting sick and associated quarantines of people who came in close contact with positive cases, Elementary School Principal Jaime Hooper said.
Just over nine percent of Robbinsville Elementary School’s 540 students were absent due to COVID-19 earlier this week, along with two staff members, compared to 25-30 percent of students and 10-15 percent of staff a few weeks ago.
At Robbinsville Middle School, nine children were out with COVID and another 15 were in quarantine, but no staff were out.
At the high school, seven staff were out and four were in quarantine, seven students were out with COVID and 24 were in quarantine.
While student absenteeism is a concern, a bigger concern has been when teachers are sick and a lack of substitute teachers to fill in. Classroom staffing was “critically thin” at some points during the month, Superintendent Angie Knight said.
Most of the COVID-19 cases at the schools have been contracted out in the community rather than on school grounds, school officials said.
Robbinsville High postponed its Winter Formal event from January to Feb. 5 in hopes that the mask mandate would be lifted by that time, Robbinsville High School Principal David Matheson said.
COVID-19 weaved its way through much of the School Board’s agenda on Tuesday. In planning for the annual Junior Trip to Washington D.C. and New York this March 30-April 3, just 14 Robbinsville High School students will be participating. Many dropped out because of New York’s vaccine mandate, Matheson said.
Other news and notes
* Graham County Schools teachers and instructional support staff can expect to get $1,000 bonuses. The state Legislature voted to provide funding for the bonuses, of which Graham County will receive $85,083.
“The state budget is very education-friendly,” Knight said.
But there’s a caveat: that money will only go to state-funded teaching positions. The school board decided to dip into other funds to provide bonuses to positions that are paid from federal and local funds.
“To be equitable, we’re having to make up the difference out of other line items,” Knight said.
The state also set aside $86,463 for COVID-19 testing support staff, money that will go to pay two nurse helpers.
Those positions have been invaluable with contact tracing and student care, Hooper said.
“It’s not an 8 to 3 job,” Knight said.
Hooper added that at one point, both school nurses had COVID-19 in January.
* The board approved the 2022-23 school calendar. The first day of school will be Aug. 22. Spring break will be April 10-14.
* A problem with the boilers shutting off resulted in classrooms so cold that school had to be cancelled on Friday, Jan. 28, Hooper said. Temperatures in some classrooms dipped to 34 degrees Fahrenheit, she said.
The problem is that the boiler shuts off unpredictably and takes hours to restore heat to the classrooms.
To prevent it from happening again, the school’s maintenance worker checks the system at 3 a.m. on school days to allow enough time to restart the system if it shuts off.