Masks will be optional for all Carroll ISD students and staff starting on June 1.
During the student services portion of the board of trustees’ regular meeting on Monday, May 3, the COVID-19 response team provided an updated recommendation to the district to make masks optional after the 2020-2021 school year wraps up later this month. The response team also recommended that the 6-foot social distancing requirement be reduced to 3 feet if both parties wear masks and clarifying students can remove their masks while seated or participating in physical education. Close-contact tracing and quarantining would continue under current Tarrant County Public Health guidelines.
According to a district survey previously sent out to the district, over half of parent and staff respondents stated they wanted the current mask mandate to be maintained, while less than 35% were in support of changing it. With STAAR and AP testing upcoming for students, CISD Superintendent Dr. Lane Ledbetter says there was no logistical way to change the policy sooner than June 1.
“All of those students would need time to transition back to virtual learning,” Dr. Ledbetter explains at the meeting. “We have 18 days left in our school year. We don’t feel like that’s fair to our teachers, we don’t feel like that’s fair to our students. It’s not just something that we can change tomorrow.”
The board approved of the updated mask policy 5-0. The policy may change again if COVID-19 cases increase over the summer.