Updated at 5:15 p.m.
Cabarrus County Board Chair Rob Walter says the recommendation to return to remote learning comes from health officials but the superintendent has not made a public recommendation.
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The Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Cabarrus County school boards have called special meetings today to vote on changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CMS board meets electronically at 4 p.m. to consider granting Superintendent Earnest Winston authority to move individual schools into remote learning as needed. The meeting will stream on the board's Facebook page.
That meeting comes one day after the district reported a rising number of student and staff cases. Since CMS began publicly reporting on cases in October, 184 employees and 74 students have tested positive. Seventy-six of 176 schools have had cases in the past two weeks.
The Cabarrus board meets at 6 p.m. to consider a recommendation to stop in-person classes and return to full-remote instruction. Board Chair Rob Walter said the recommendation comes from the Cabarrus Health Alliance, based on community spread data, and has been endorsed by the superintendent.
The Cabarrus meeting will stream on YouTube.
Cabarrus County Schools reported13 employee cases and 26 student cases last week.
COVID-19 is spreading across North Carolina. On Monday Gov. Roy Cooper tightened some restrictions — including extending the mask requirement to private schools — and warned that residents are "in danger" as Thanksgiving approaches.
Cabarrus County is in the orange "substantial spread" category on a new color-coded county rating system, with 438 cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days and a positivity rate of 9.5%. Mecklenburg is rated yellow, for "significant spread," with 393.8 cases per 100,000 residents and 7.6% positivity.
