HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The Cabell County Board of Education voted Tuesday to require masks for all students until Feb. 1, 2022.
The county was using the state’s color-coded map to determine whether masks would be required the following week. School Superintendent Ryan Saxe said Cabell County’s color has changed several times recently creating confusion. He said putting the mandate in place until February will help parents.
“Bringing consistency to our families is very important,” Saxe told MetroNews Tuesday.
Cabell County went without masks last week but returned to masks on Monday when the color changed. Saxe said there are more students out of school on quarantine this week because there were no masks last week.
“Even though our positivity rate was only increasing by a small amount, the number of quarantine was changing quite extensively,” he said.
There were 180 students on quarantine across the district Monday.
Saxe said the county has plans for vaccination clinics for its workers and students in the coming days.
“Starting this Friday, we’re offering the third booster to all of our employees and they can bring their children with them to get the vaccine if they are five years or older,” he said. “Starting next week, we’ll be hosting vaccination clinics at all of our middle schools across Cabell County.”
The school system is working with the Cabell-Huntington Health Department and the school system’s health officer to help set policy, Saxe said.
“They’ll help guide us when we get closer to February 1st as to what we need to do based upon community spread and where this virus really is after the holidays,” he said.