- April 19, 2024
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Since school started less than a month ago, the number of positive COVID-19 cases among Flagler County school students have dwarfed the total from all of last year.
As of Sept. 1, there have been 705 students and 74 employees in the school district who tested positive, according to data listed on the Flagler Schools website.
Last school year, a total of 376 students and 182 employees tested positive.
During a five-day period alone from Aug. 27 to Aug. 31, 261 students and 16 employees tested positive for the virus.
The Delta variant is the reason for the dramatic countywide spike in numbers, said Department of Health-Flagler Health Officer Bob Snyder.
“The Delta variant is insidious,” Snyder said. “Both vaccinated and unvaccinated people can carry and transmit a viral load of 1,000 times more than any previous mutation.”
One day after the Volusia County School Board voted 3-2 to make masks mandatory for students, with a medical opt-out only, Flagler School Board Chair Trevor Tucker said the board will likely discuss the issue at its agenda workshop on Sept. 7.
Its next full board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 21.
At the county’s last regular board meeting on Aug. 17, Vice Chair Colleen Conklin made a motion to install a student mask mandate with a parent opt-out clause that was defeated.
In a Sept. 1 Facebook post, Conklin compared numbers from other school districts to Flagler. Broward County, with an enrollment of about 260,000 students, had 418 students test positive since the start of school on Aug. 18. Flagler County, which had a student population of 13,300 on Sept. 1, has had 705 positive tests for students since Aug. 4.
Broward has had a mask mandate since the start of school.
“The data is clear,” Conklin said in her post. “Masking can help mitigate against the spread. Please encourage your child to wear a mask in school. Especially in crowded and dense areas like the school bus, hallways, and other areas.”
Snyder said he is a proponent of universal masking in schools.
“Various studies show wearing facial coverings are 80% effective and safe,” he said.
But Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran announced the DOE will withhold the monthly school board member salaries to Broward and Alachua counties for issuing mask mandates without a non-medical opt-out for parents, violating an order by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper ruled against the mask mandate ban, but the state is appealing.
Tucker said he would like to see the case move faster through the courts so local school boards can know if they have the authority to issue mask mandates.
He said he plans on discussing the issue with Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt and board attorney Kristy Gavin.
“We want students to be in class, not out sick,” he said.
