Panther Valley School District will mandate masks for at least the next two weeks.

When students returned on Monday, masks were optional. But school board members voted 7-1 during a meeting Monday night to make them mandatory through Sept. 15.

“I’m not a fan of masks, but our numbers are up and I would prefer to be proactive,” said board member Renee DeMelfi.

School administrators made the recommendation to the board to mandate masks, citing a recent uptick in cases. Even before the school year began, there were positive cases among high school and intermediate school students. More students were in quarantine across all three buildings.

Superintendent David McAndrew Jr. said a mask mandate will reduce the number of students who need to be quarantined going forward.

Under CDC guidelines, students who are masked do not have to be quarantined if they are exposed to a student who tests positive for COVID-19.

“We can teach kids when they’re here, we can’t teach them when we’re not here,” McAndrew said.

McAndrew suggested masking through the end of the month, but most school board members were in favor of revisiting masks during their regular meeting on Sept. 15.

The only board member voting against mandatory masking was Keith Krapf. He said masking should be an individual decision.

“I don’t think we should be masking anybody. It’s their preference, their choice,” Krapf said.

President Danny Matika said he is against masks, but decided to listen to administrators who asked the board to mandate them.

All three building principals spoke in favor of masking.

Intermediate School Principal Lisa Mace, the district’s pandemic response coordinator, said quarantines will be more disruptive than last year, when Panther Valley teachers taught online and in-person classes. This year the district’s online courses are taught through Carbon-Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21.

High school Principal Patricia Ebbert said the first day was spent dealing with COVID-19 cases, informing families about quarantines and getting students lined up to study at home.

“I was really feeling positive at graduation that we were turning the corner, and this year we would flourish, but from the get go we’ve had these obstacles in our way,” she said.

Elementary Principal Robert Palazzo pointed out that quarantines are up to 20 days, and it is important to limit them because of the academic progress that students missed during the 2020-21 school year.

“For us to make the academic progress we need, we need all our kids in school.” Palazzo said.

The only members of the public in attendance were Krapf’s family. His wife, Angela, said students will still expose each other to the virus regardless of a mask mandate, particularly during lunch periods. The principals said that during lunch they are trying to distance students as much as possible.

“The masks are not the fix all. You’re still going to have cases because these kids are right next to each other in certain circumstances,” Angela Krapf said.