Orange County school board votes for increased fan participation at athletic events

On Monday, school board members voted to allow each venue to operate at up to 50 percent capacity -- depending on the size of the venue. Guests will still be required to be physically distanced and wear masks.

School board members also voted to continue without concessional sales.

Before Monday's vote, Orange County parents pushed to allow more spectators at sporting events. Previous COVID-19 protocols within the school district allowed only two fans per athlete.

"It is difficult for us to come up with two spectators for our families but I recognize that it is a global pandemic, and I'm willing to make that as a small sacrifice for us to make for our family in order to encourage the health of our community," said parent Elizabeth Raines.

Parent Jeff Young said the current spectator limit kept his child's grandmother from seeing her play the sport she loves most -- volleyball.

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"We feel like spectators should definitely be allowed in Orange County schools," said Young. "It's hard to stomach when we have 55,000 people in Keenan [Memorial] Stadium and even school districts [like] Chapel Hill-Carrboro School District within this county has unlimited spectators. For this county to limit us, it doesn't seem fair in the big picture."

During Sept. 13's board meeting, Orange County Schools staff had asked for a two-week pause for football, basketball, wrestling and competitive cheerleading. Staff asked for the pause while it worked on new protocols for high-risk sports, including vaccination statuses and testing capabilities.

"You have to balance the safety of the kids, but you have to think about their physical and mental health. You have to take some changes. It's impossible to be 100 percent safe. If you want to do that, the best thing to do is sit at home all the time and that's not practical," said Karthik Raghunathan.

The new spectator rules will go into effect starting on Tuesday.