The San Marcos CISD board of trustees voted to mandate students, faculty and staff wear masks to begin the 2021-22 school year.
A special meeting of the school board was posted earlier this week with only this item on the agenda.
After a lengthy public comment period, the board met in closed session for more than an hour before returning to vote.
The motion to take action was made by trustee Miguel Arredondo and seconded by trustee Mayra Mejia.
A clause was added to the vote that the board would, barring any other new developments, take up the mandate again and reconsider it in January 2022.
The only board member to vote against the mandate was trustee Kathy Hanson.
“I just heard yesterday that Hays [CISD] doesn’t have a mask mandate, so I’m in favor of going with the superintendent’s recommendation that we highly suggest everybody that comes to our school wears a mask,” Hanson said.
“I don’t want to penalize students or staff in any form or isolate them, and that is my concern.”
The board will meet again for their regularly scheduled meeting Monday, Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. in the Criminal Justice Classroom at San Marcos High School.
