Johnston County school board members hope to do away with mask mandate in January

Johnston County students and staff are required to keep their masks on for now, but school board members are hopeful that will change in January.

The district's mask mandate remains, but at Tuesday's meeting multiple board members said they want to lift it in January.

A lengthy conversation unfolded before the board voted 4 to 3 to keep the mask mandate.

"We need to see those smiles again," said Chairman Todd Sutton, who is against the mandate. "Sooner or later we have to takes these masks off."

"The vaccine will help us get masks off," said Kay Carroll, a school board member who voted in favor of the mandate. "It will make us safer. It will save lives. We've lost lives ... because we made an issue of something that’s a health situation and didn’t need to be made an issue of."

Johnston County’s school board meets again Jan. 11.

Johnston County educators can also expect a raise starting next year after the board signed off on an average 4.9% salary bump for all public school teachers.

On Jan. 1, the minimum hourly pay will increase to $13 an hour, then it will increase to $15 an hour on July 1.

Employees will also get additional bonuses over the next seven months.