BEAUMONT, Texas — The Beaumont school board has voted to require masks on campuses Monday during an emergency meeting.
The mask mandate passed with a vote of 4 – 2 with board members Joe Evans and Kevin Reece voting no. One board member, Woodrow Reece II, was absent.
The only agenda item set for discussion during the meeting was a "COVID-19 Mitigation Resolution" and specifically mentions the "consideration of face coverings" according to the meeting notice released Monday morning by the district.
The agenda item noted the closure this week of King Middle School due to a rise in COVID cases among staff and students.
“We basically looked at the percentage of our staff who had tested positive with the percentage of students we have here,” Cliff Claflin, executive director of Green Dot Public Schools Southeast Texas, said. ‘We were in the red range in terms of that, and as we also overlaid on top of that. We also had health related absences as well, where we had staff absent who might be taking care of someone with COVID-19.”
Claflin believes a mask mandate will only help to slow the spread of the virus among students who are not eligible for the vaccine, he said.
The notice also mentioned that hospitalizations in Jefferson County reached an all-time high over the weekend.
"The current impact of the COVID-19 Delta Variant on Beaumont is an unforeseen and unavoidable emergency of urgent public necessity, due to the highly transmittable nature of the variant among adults and children and escalating number of positive cases among students and staff at Beaumont ISD threatening public health," the notice read.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
From a BISD meeting notice...
An emergency meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Beaumont Independent School District will be held on August 23, 2021, beginning at 12:00 p.m. In accordance with guidance from the Texas Governor and Attorney General dated March 16, 2020 regarding suspension of open meeting laws, Beaumont ISD’s board meeting will convene via videoconference available to the public at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83208458132?pwd=cVk4ZUlEdWZyangvdmVMQUVTVm42UT09.
Following the meeting, the public will be provided access to a recording of the meeting upon request.
The subjects to be discussed or considered or upon which any formal action may be taken are as follows:
1. Consider COVID-19 Mitigation Resolution including consideration of face coverings.
An emergency or urgent public necessity exists that requires immediate action of the Board or an imminent threat to public health and safety or a reasonably unforeseeable situation exists, as follows:
• The current impact of the COVID-19 Delta Variant on Beaumont is an unforeseen and unavoidable emergency of urgent public necessity, due to the highly transmittable nature of the variant among adults and children and escalating number of positive cases among students and staff at Beaumont ISD threatening public health.
o Yesterday, the positive cases of COVID-19 among Beaumont ISD staff necessitated the closure of a campus due to inability to effectively operate.
o COVID-19 hospitalizations in Jefferson County, Texas reached an all-time high on Saturday, August 21, 2021.
• The Board of Trustees has a substantial public interest in protecting the health and safety of its students, staff, and community and therefore desires to ensure that the school district is utilizing all measures available to protect the health and safety of students, staff, and community in light of the immediate impact the Delta Variant is having on the Beaumont community and schools.
If, during the course of the meeting, discussion of any item on the agenda should be held in a closed meeting, the board will conduct a closed meeting in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code, Chapter 551, Subchapters D and E or Texas Government Code section 418.183(f). Before any closed meeting is convened, the presiding officer will publicly identify the section or sections of the Act authorizing the closed meeting. All final votes, actions, or decisions will be taken in open meeting. See Board Policy BEC(LEGAL).
This notice was posted in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act on August 23, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.