As the debate about masks in schools rages on, there are dozens of cases of COVID-19 in Warren County School District’s buildings and more than 250 quarantined students.

According to Superintendent Amy Stewart, as of Friday, there had been “40 positive cases so far, spread out over all of the schools.”

She said the district is focused on doing what it can to keep schools open and maintain in-person education.

The statewide mask mandate took effect on Tuesday.

A local group has lobbied the school board to ignore that order.

At an emergency meeting, the board voted on two different motions that would have addressed the order from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Gov. Tom Wolf. Both motions failed.

So far, all of the district’s buildings remain open, but the many quarantined students are not in them.