- April 25, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Following a failed motion to repeal the school district's face covering policy, the Volusia County School Board voted 4-1 at its meeting on Tuesday, May 11, to advertise amendments that would make masks optional in time for summer school.
School Board member Jamie Haynes was the sole vote against, having made the motion to repeal the policy instead. Since that morning's workshop, she had expressed that while she favored masks being optional in schools, she did not wish to have a district policy in place.
"I know you made it optional, but I still feel it should have been repealed, and it should have been parental choice," Haynes said. "So that's where I stand on it."
Haynes initially abstained from the voice vote, unbeknownst to the rest of the board, but during the board members' final comments, she said she wished to clear up the record that she did not vote for or against advertising the amendments. However, because it was a board action item, and Haynes had no conflicts of interest, she was instructed she needed to cast a vote. She voted against.
The decision to pursue an optional mask mandate led to brief jeers from the audience, shaming the school board as many parents and students asked the board to do away with the policy in its entirety, effective immediately.
Board Chair Linda Cuthbert said it had been a difficult meeting and workshop.
"Decisions like this are not easy to be made, but we're also representatives of all of our students, all of our staff, and people in the audience," Cuthbert said. "We have to be ever-cognizant of everyone's welfare."
School Board member Ruben Colon said they have done what the governor and the state's education commissioner have asked districts to do: Work with the local health departments.
"At the time when [the governor] rescinded everybody's mandate, he didn't include schools," Colon said. "He chose to do that. The commissioner and the governor could have stricken every mask mandate with the stroke of a pen, and they did not...leaving us once again in the middle."
Colon said he is hopeful that COVID-19 conditions will improve as more people get vaccinated, especially now that Pfizer is able to be administered to children ages 12-15. But, Colon said, if this doesn't happen, the mask issue will likely resurface.
