Mask mandate in Charleston County School District schools expected to be lifted, meeting scheduled Monday afternoon

Charleston, South Carolina – Students, teachers and administrative staff in schools within the Charleston County School District are among the few in the area that are still mandated to wear face masks and face coverings. However, the mask mandate is expected to be lifted as soon as Monday afternoon.

According to multiple reports, the Charleston County School District Board of Trustees is set to take up their mask policy at Monday’s board meeting set to take place at 4 p.m.

Many expect the mask mandate to be lifted following the declining trend of new Covid-19 cases in South Carolina compared to last mandate.

At the beginning of January, the board voted to extended the mask mandate until March 14, but at the committee of the whole meeting a few weeks ago, six of the eight board members voted to bring up the mask policy at Monday’s meeting.

According to the district’s website, the mask mandate is intended to be in effect when DHEC rates COVID-19 disease activity in Charleston as “Medium” or “High”. DHEC’s latest data rates Charleston County as having “Medium” recent disease activity.

As we already reported several times, most of the school districts in the are lifted the mask mandate in the last few weeks including Dorchester District 4, Dorchester District 2 and Berkeley County. Charleston County SD and Colleton County Schools are among the few that still require everyone to wear face masks while in school.

In the last couple of weeks, the declining trend of new Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant is evident across the country. That led CDC to update their mask guidance on Friday loosening the indoors mask policy for most of the Americans.

Monday’s board meeting agenda also shows the board is set to discuss the superintendent search after former superintendent Dr. Gerrita Postlewait resigned in December.