LIVE VIDEO: Dare County Board of Education special meeting as COVID cases rise

[Photo courtesy North Carolina Department of Public Instruction]

The Dare County Board of Education has called a special meeting for this evening to review local COVID-19 data since the start of the school year Monday.

The meeting will be held at First Flight High School at 5 p.m. and broadcast live on YouTube. In an email to parents, school superintendent John Farrelly said the meeting will also include discussion of local implementation procedures of the StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit.

A public comment period will not be held during the meeting, but the board will review written comments that were submitted ahead of a Wednesday deadline.

The Dare Board of Education voted earlier this month not to require masks for students, staff and visitors at the start of the school year, against the recommendation of the state health department’s  toolkit.

At the Aug. 5 meeting, school board members also voted:

  • Not to adopt vaccination-promoting strategies in the NCDHHS toolkit.
  • Not monitor/deploy the daily health screening attestation (text) system that was in place last school year.
  • To maintain temperature check stations at all school entrances and monitor temperature checks of students, staff, and visitors entering the building.
  • Not enforce social distancing on school buses, but did note that all students who ride school buses must wear a cloth face covering per the CDC.
  • Not adopt on-site COVID-19 testing strategies and programs that are in the NCDHHS toolkit.
  • Not collect staff and student vaccination data.

Dare County is experiencing high levels of COVID-19 spread, with the with more than 300 positive tests over the past week.

The school district as of Wednesday listed 78 active cases among Dare County students and staff with 399 quarantined.

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Kari Pugh is digital director for OBXToday.com, Beach 104, 99.1 The Sound, 94.5 WCMS and News Talk 92.3 WZPR. Reach her at kpugh@jammediallc.com