As the Bexley City Schools kicks off the 2022-23 school year Aug. 18, the district will maintain the COVID-19 coronavirus protocols and mask-optional policy implemented before spring break last school year.
“This means we will not require the wearing of masks during or outside of the school day, with the exception that individuals with confirmed cases of COVID should remain out of school for five days and may return on day six if fever-free, symptoms have improved and the individual wears a mask (through) day 10 while indoors or outdoors in a crowd,” Superintendent Jason Fine said at the board of education’s Aug. 10 meeting.
The district will provide masks to students and staff upon request and also will provide test kits to students and staff who are symptomatic, Fine said.
“Families will be encouraged to contact their principal or nurse should their students need additional support,” he said.
The district will not maintain a database to track COVID cases as it did at the start of the pandemic, but will work with county health officials to do so, Fine said.
“We remain in close working partnership with Franklin County Public Health, and their current guidance is that all contact tracing will be conducted through their offices and not by the district,” he said. “As with all communicable diseases, the district will notify families who may have been exposed, and we’ll continue to do so in partnership with Franklin County Public Health, as it is required by law.”
Since the COVID pandemic continues to evolve, the district may revisit the mask policy in the future, if necessary, board President Victoria Powers said.
“One thing we’ve learned for sure is that it doesn’t mean that that’s necessarily where we’re going to stay at,” Powers said. “Our hope that we don’t have to do anything more limiting.”
Board member Marguerethe Jaede said the district should ensure that adequate support is available for both students and teachers so that learning isn’t disrupted if a COVID outbreak occurs in a classroom.
Fine said the district administrators are maintaining communications with building principals on planning efforts, and the district will work with Franklin County Public Health to monitor cases.
“We want to assess where we’ve been, not just last year, but the year before, I think, when we were in different modalities. We want to process as a team, what it is that we need to do so that we are proactive and not reactive, if and when staff is out, students are out, whether that’s one student or 20 students from a classroom,” he said.“We’ll continue to work closely with Franklin County Public Health. Any time we see a cluster or an outbreak, we’ll work with Franklin County Public Health and they’ll advise us on some things.”
The district also will maintain the same COVID policies as last spring in regard to athletics and student activities, Fine said.
Harley Williams, the district’s director of staff and student operations, athletics director Eli Goldberger and school nurses “will work very closely with coaches as we have cases unfold in instructing those families as to what the expectation is, when the return date is, and then what the expectation is for those who are on that squad,” Fine said.
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