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Wood County BOE mandates masks in schools

By Tyler Bennett 3 min read

WILLIAMSTOWN -- The Wood County Schools Board of Education narrowly approved action to enforce a mask policy after just eight school days into the new school year.

In a special meeting at Williamstown High School on Monday evening, the school board voted 3-2 in favor of following the proposed face-covering protocol for Wood County Schools established by the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department's recommendation.

Board members Judy Johnson, Ron Tice, and Rick Olcott voted in favor of the updated mask policy with Justin Raber and Debbie Hendershot opposed.

The proposal calls for masks to be worn by students, staff members, and visitors for all indoor activities, as well as spectators at indoor extra-curricular events.

Masks will also be required for all students, staff, and visitors while indoors or on a bus when the county is orange or red on the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources COVID color map.

The requirement will remain in place until Wood County is gold or better on the map for five consecutive days. Masks may also be required at individual school sites if school spread is evident. Similar to school day closings due to the weather, the mask requirement status will be on display on the district's website.

This isn't the first time the board has voted on its mask policy, as the board narrowly approved of making masks optional before the 2021-2022 school year began.

Originally in favor of making masks optional during the last voting, Olcott was once again a deciding factor at Monday's meeting He said hundreds of students and teachers have been quarantined after only eight school days, in addition to Wood County being red on the color map for 11 straight days now.

"At the time we voted on that week, we had a string of about three red days or so when we talked about. We are up to 11 straight days red, and increasingly so we're up to almost 60 cases per 100,000 and about 10 percent positive," Olcott said. "This is not a healthy pace."

Thirty-five people spoke during the public comment period at Monday's meeting, split nearly evenly between those supporting and those opposing the mask requirement.

In Belpre, Superintendent Jeff Greenley said there were two confirmed cases Monday at the elementary school and one positive case at the high school., along with a number of CDC probable cases.

"At this time, we are not implementing a requirement that all students wear a facial covering, but I cannot emphasize enough how strongly we recommend that students wear them," he said in a statement released Monday.

"Under the current guidelines we have received from the Department of Health, students do not have to quarantine if they have been vaccinated or if they are wearing a facial covering (unless they show symptoms)," he stated. "Of the 31 students we quarantined, the vast majority, likely 26 of the 31 students, would not have had to quarantine if they were wearing a facial covering at the time of exposure."

Tyler Bennett can be reached at tbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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