DALTON, Ga. — When Dalton Public Schools students return to school for the 2020-21 academic year, masks will be mandated inside the system’s buildings, with some exceptions.

The Dalton Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to direct Superintendent Tim Scott to devise a mask mandate. Scott will bring exact language to the board for a vote at the board’s Aug. 10 meeting. The school year is expected to begin on Aug. 31.

It’s critical to educate children on the importance of wearing masks during the pandemic, said Tulley Johnson, treasurer of the school board. If students receive that guidance, they’ll buy into wearing masks more readily, he said.

Parents play a crucial role, said board member Jody McClurg. “Parents, start wearing masks with your kids, so it’s not as foreign to them when they get to school.”

“If we mandate (masks), we’ll get more compliance,” said Sam Sanders, a member of the school board. “We have professionals in classrooms” who can both enforce the mandate as well as decide when masks can be removed based on circumstances.

The mask mandate will include reasonable exceptions, such as when a social distance of 6 feet or greater can be observed, or during lunch (since it’s impossible to eat with a mask on), Scott said. Principals and teachers “can use discretion,” he said.

The system already has roughly 15,000 cloth masks to provide students if they lose their masks, but students will be accountable for keeping their masks, he said. “We’ll still need more, (because) 15,000 won’t last the year.” The system has about 7,900 students.

The system also has 6,000 disposable masks, and “we’re waiting on 9,000 washable masks to arrive,” said Rusty Lount, director of operations. However, even those additions likely won’t sustain the system through the year, so more masks will need to be procured at some point.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Covering mouths and noses with filtering materials serves two purposes: personal protection against inhalation of harmful pathogens and particulates, and source control to prevent exposing others to infectious microbes that may be expelled during respiration. At this critical juncture when COVID-19 is resurging, broad adoption of cloth face coverings is a civic duty, a small sacrifice reliant on a highly effective low-tech solution that can help turn the tide favorably in national and global efforts against COVID-19.”

The City of Dalton and Whitfield County already require masks inside their buildings, with certain exceptions, as does the University System of Georgia, which includes Dalton State College. Numerous businesses, including Apple, Best Buy, CVS, Kohl’s, Kroger, Lowe’s, Starbucks, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart, either already require masks in their stores or have mask mandates set to begin soon.

“We’re striving to do our part to slow the spread” of COVID-19 in Dalton, said Matt Evans, chairman of the school board. “Our community is in high spread right now.”