The Orange County Schools Board of Education adopted new COVID-19 mitigation measures for employees on Monday, including required surveillance testing, reporting of vaccination status and weekly coronavirus testing for those who are unvaccinated.
The board, which held a virtual, specially-called meeting to consider these health protocols, unanimously passed seven of the nine measures requested by district leadership. The other two measures, one which required vaccinations for students to participate in athletics and certain extracurriculars and another that required staff to be vaccinated within 30 days of the federal government’s full approval of the COVID-19 vaccines, were rejected.
As classes begin, Orange County employees will now undergo required surveillance testing for the coronavirus, no matter one’s vaccination status. Additionally, all work-related travel to other states is suspended for employees and all in-state field trips or extracurricular events outside of Orange County will be reviewed by Superintendent Monique Felder.
Felder said during Monday’s board meeting that having a safe and health return to in-person instruction for all students is “mission critical” for district staff. She presented all the health measures recommended by the ABC Science Collaborative, the state Department of Health and Human Services and the Orange County Health Department as the best options to mitigate COVID-19’s spread.
“As superintendent of Orange County Schools, who is entrusted with the safety of more than 7,000 students and 1,000 employees,” said Felder, “I cannot and will not ever make any recommendation other than what our medical and healthcare professionals, who are well-versed in COVID-19, stated is the absolute safest way to return to in-person learning and extracurricular activities given the surging delta variant.”
One of the measures rejected by the board included requiring vaccinations for eligible students, coaches and staff who are involved in athletics, club sports, cheerleading, marching band, chorus and theater.
According to the ABC Science Collaborative, and what was proposed by Orange County Schools district leadership, the safest option for athletics and other high-risk extracurriculars is requiring vaccinations and masking among those who participate. Data studied by the collective of health experts found athletics are the leading cause of transmission of cases within high school settings, with 50 to 75 percent of transmissions occurring during athletics.
Instead of the vaccine requirement, the Orange County Schools board approved required twice-weekly testing for all students involved.
Board member Carrie Doyle said she voted against the requirements for students in the listed extracurriculars because the vaccines do not yet have full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She said while the change may soon come from the vaccines being given emergency-use approval, she believes it would be more challenging to justify.
“I wouldn’t want to unnecessarily create ill-will in our community,” Doyle said Monday night. “If our full approval is that imminent, I would really rather not mandate it for students under emergency-use authorization and I would have more comfort level mandating it for adults, which many employers have done.”
Board member Bonnie Hauser pointed to the district’s universal masking policy for indoors and outdoors, which was adopted last week, as a step that could additionally mitigate spread.
“It was not the move I had intended to take,” said Hauser, “but I’m glad we took it and I think it will make a big difference.”
The Orange County Schools Board of Education is set to meet again next Monday, August 23, which is also the first day of classes in the 2021-22 academic year.
Photo via Matherly Collins/The Daily Tar Heel.
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