Mask requirements in local school districts is seemingly always a hot-button topic and it was no different Tuesday night in Palmerton Area School District when directors voted 6-3 to stay with a mask-optional stance in the district’s health and safety plan.

The vote comes in the midst of a record number of positive cases for both Carbon County and the students and staff in the district.

Before the vote, Superintendent Dr. Jodi Frankelli presented an update on numbers across the district. To date in January, the district has seen 124 positive COVID-19 cases among students and staff, making it already the highest single month since the outset of the pandemic.

“Masking someone up isn’t the answer,” Director Earl Paules said. “Put it in the parents’ hands. They are the bosses. Masks don’t mean anything. With this new variant, the vaccines don’t even mean anything anymore. Where are we with this whole thing?”

Joining Paules in voting to stay with the current health and safety plan, which calls for masks to be optional, were Stacey Connell, Tammy Recker, Erin Snyder, Sherry Haas and Danielle Paules.

Voting against the health and safety plan were Audrey Larvey, Brandon Mazepa and Doris Zellers.

“I have some concerns based on the numbers and based on the fact that our medical experts are recommending masks,” Larvey said. “I would like to see a mask mandate at least for the next three to four weeks. I don’t tell my plumber or dentist what to do. If my doctor is telling me to wear a mask, I’m going to listen to my doctor.”

St. Luke’s University Health Network has advised districts to put mask mandates in place as positive COVID-19 cases continue to soar.

Mazepa said Tuesday night he is concerned about the number of students and staff who are not in the buildings.

“If there are 31 employees out and 95 students out this month, who is educating our students and who is being taught?” he said. “I truly believe if we went to a mask mandate for a few weeks, those numbers could go down and those kids could be in school.”

The number of positive COVID-19 cases within the district has gone up with each passing month, mirroring what is happening in Carbon County and surrounding areas.

In the entire 2020-21 school year, the district reported 75 positive cases among students and staff. By the end of September in the current school year, it already had 73 cases. It followed that up with 56 in October, 31 in November and 72 in December.

“I think we already missed the boat for a mask mandate,” Haas said. “We knew people were going to get together for the holidays. We anticipated an increase in positive cases in January.”

Zellers voted no on keeping the current health and safety plan the way it is, saying the district’s current approach isn’t working.

“We gave the parents the privilege back to make the decision about masks and look at where our numbers are,” she said. “What we are doing isn’t working. We have to find a way to keep our kids in school. That is our job.”

Like many area districts, Palmerton moved to a mask optional stance just a few days after the state Supreme Court vacated the order from the Department of Health requiring masks inside of school buildings.

Frankelli said the state requires districts to review their health and safety plans every six months, at a minimum.

“We have reviewed ours much more often than that and there is language in there that allows superintendents and school boards to make changes in between the six-month review periods,” she said.