TYLER, Texas — The number of COVID-19 cases are rising in school districts across East Texas.
The increase in cases is leading Chapel Hill administrators to take action to limit the spread.
“We feel like that right now, this is in the best interest of our community in our district to keep our children and our staff safe," said Superintendent of Chapel Hill, Lamond Dean. "We decided in a 7-to-0 vote to go towards a mass temporary mass mandate for our district to see if we can slow down the spread of COVID in our district.”
Chapel Hill began seeing an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases last week.
"Right now we have about a 900% increase in COVID positive as compared to this same time last year, we saw that number rise drastically from last Friday, our COVID positives on our campus was 12 students," said Dean.
After evaluating the numbers and trying to avoid shutting down schools, he believed that instituting a mask mandate was the best decision.
Dean says this wasn't an easy decision, as some parents still oppose sending their children to school wearing a mask.
“I think any decision you make is mixed," Dean said. "You have some favorable evaluations from parents in our community, and you have some that feel like masks are not the route for us to go. Although I respect every opinion that happens, that comes through our community, I know that ultimately my job as superintendent is to do what's in the best interest of our 3,500 students that we have."
Dean says it's too early to determine when Chapel Hill ISD will lift its mask mandate. He says it will depend on whether the infection rate drops in Smith County and around the state.