Local educators are given pause amid last week’s advisory by federal experts that all people, including those fully vaccinated, should wear face coverings within school buildings.
In general, public K-12 buildings in our area required most everyone to mask up indoors last school year. Then the CDC, which leads the way on the U.S. government’s COVID-19 policy, found that for vaccinated people, a face covering in most situations is no longer required.
“We have all longed for this moment,” as Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC director, said at the time, “when we can get back to a sense of normalcy.”
Schools reacted with relaxed policies for summer classes and hopes for the coming academic year. Now they reap the whirlwind as the health agency reacts to a new crisis: low vaccination rates, high infection trends, increased hospitalizations, and tragic stress on all involved. Released on July 26, the guidelines are meant to try to keep the Delta variant from spreading freely. Walensky followed up on the new advisory on Saturday, saying the CDC won’t apply its authority to any U.S.-wide vaccine rule.
“To clarify: There will be nationwide mandate,” she said.
As before, the CDC has no power to tell educators what they must do, only what they should do. That, at least, gives leaders like Jay Albright of Mid-Buchanan R-V time to figure the situation out. The first day of classes to be held in person in Faucett is Monday, Aug. 23. The next Board of Education meeting is Monday, Aug. 16. Within the next four weeks, a direction will be decided. The hope is that a mask-optional policy can be sustained with families encouraged to get vaccines for all eligible children (ages 12 and up) and adults. That may not be possible.
“We’ll look and we’ll keep an eye on the numbers and just see how COVID-19 is impacting our local region,” Albright said. “And then at the 16th (board meeting) have a more in-depth conversation about any considerations of changing our current masking procedures, if you will. Right now, our plan is to make them optional … As we moved into summer school, we made masks optional and students did really, really well. Obviously, cases have started to re-surge.”
Dr. Doug Van Zyl, St. Joseph School District superintendent, reflected similar thinking in July. Calls to several other area education agencies produced similar takes, although some are not yet prepared to discuss their thinking in detail.
“We’re still a month away from the start of school,” Van Zyl said. “And so, things can change during that time. Right now, our current policy is for us to continue to be ‘mask optional.’ But that’s something we’ll have to revisit, probably in the first part of August, because families and parents want to know where we’re going to be with that.”
