To counter the threat of rising cases, CSISD’s strategy is to strongly recommend masking. But at press conferences, members of the county have asked for CSISD to enforce a mask mandate. 

CSISD Superintendent Mike Martindale sent an email to faculty and staff on Aug. 25 about the school district’s COVID situation. He noted that in the second week of school, CSISD had “already far exceeded our number of COVID-19 cases through the same time period as last year, and I am concerned with this trend.” 

He encouraged masking to keep students and staff healthy. “We want to keep our campuses open as long as we have the staff available to safely operate the building,” Martindale wrote. “If we do have to close, lost instruction time will have to be made up by adding days to the calendar for that respective campus.” He echoed these sentiments in a video released on Aug 30.

This graph, featured in the video, shows that the number of cases reported in the first two weeks of this school year is significantly higher than the first two weeks of last year.

In a school board press conference on Aug 23, Bryan ISD Superintendent Christie Whitbeck said the reason schools might close would likely be because there’s not enough substitutes in Brazos County. 

Governor Greg Abbott had signed an executive order on May 18 barring school districts from requiring masks in school, resulting in, as Martindale put it in the video, “ever-changing litigation”. Some school districts, like Austin and Dallas, have defied the order, resulting in the governor’s backlash or appellate court cases. CSISD continues to keep masks optional. 

To reach the author, contact Medha Sarin at medhasarin1@gmail.com or on Instagram, or contact The Roar on Instagram or Twitter. Find CSISD’s COVID dashboard here. Read Sarin’s article about the importance of getting vaccinated for COVID here.