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Cooper Signs Bill Requiring Monthly Review Of School Face Mask Policies

(FILE) Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Interim Superintendent Tricia McManus observes an elementary classroom in January 2021. KERI BROWN/WFDD

Governor Roy Cooper has signed a bill requiring that school boards vote monthly on face mask policies.

The provision is part of a wide-ranging coronavirus bill focusing on K-12 school policies.

The legislation states that each public school unit must adopt a policy this school year on the use of face coverings by students and employees and vote at least monthly on whether to modify it.   

Cooper and state health officials have already strongly encouraged local school districts to approve indoor face mask mandates this fall. An overwhelming majority of the state's 115 districts have approved such measures.

The bill also allows both public and charter schools to switch to remote learning due to COVID-19 conditions.

Other sections of the legislation address the waiver of CPR instruction as a graduation requirement if COVID prevented instruction and restore some driving rights for teenagers.

A compromise version of the legislation received near-unanimous support, and Cooper signed the bill without comment.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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