With the start of school just days away, the Washington County and Johnson City school systems have no plans to change their policies on masks despite new guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
On Tuesday, the CDC issued new guidance recommending that fully vaccinated people wear a mask in public indoor areas in places where there is high COVID-19 transmission. The CDC has determined that transmission in all Northeast Tennessee counties is either substantial or high.
The agency also recommended that all teachers, staff, students and visitors wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status.
Greg Wallace, the safety supervisor with Johnson City Schools, said there have been numerous discussions internally and with other districts about the new CDC guidelines.
He added that the system does not yet plan on updating its guidance for the upcoming school year, but he stressed that everyone who wants to wear a mask to school should feel comfortable doing so.
“We in no way want people to think masks are being discouraged or are not welcome,” Wallace said.
Keeping kids in school
The system announced Monday that face masks for students, faculty, staff and visitors would be voluntary, but they would be required on buses. Signage will be placed at all school facilities reminding people that the CDC recommends unvaccinated people continue wearing masks.
Students in the Johnson City Schools system wears a mask during an in-person class in this file photo.
Wallace said the system can be flexible about its policies, and it wants to make decisions on a “site-specific” basis, meaning the officials won’t have to disrupt any more students than necessary if COVID-19 cases do crop up.
“I think the one universal agreement is that kids need to be in school, so how do we facilitate that safely,” Wallace said.
Last year, Wallace said, the system had to quarantine many students who never became sick. Wallace is hopeful that the system’s overall vaccination rate and better testing procedures will make it easier to limit the impact on students.
Wallace estimated that a majority of teachers have been vaccinated, but the number of students is unclear.
The school system received a grant in July that allowed it to hire four additional nurses and contract with the company Mako to test symptomatic students, staff and faculty. With permission from students’ parents, kids can now be tested for COVID-19 at school and return within 24 to 48 hours if the test comes back negative.
Wallace said the CDC’s recommendations aren’t always applicable to all school systems. He said officials feel their current strategies will allow them to open schools safely in a way that’s unique to Johnson City Schools.
Johnson City Schools Safety Supervisor Greg Wallace speaks during a board of education meeting on Monday, May 3.
“If that changes, we can change,” Wallace said. “Rather than start out with a super-restrictive policy, we wanted to try to do what we think we can do safely and go from there.”
Wallace expects school board members will discuss the new CDC guidelines during their meeting on Monday. The first day of school is Aug. 4.
What is the county doing?
Jerry Boyd, Washington County’s director of schools, said Wednesday wearing masks will remain optional for both students and staff when his system begins its new school year on Monday. He said that policy was reaffirmed by members of the county’s Board of Education when they met in a workshop earlier this week.
“If a student or staff member feels the need to wear a mask as an extra layer of protection, they can certainly do so,” he said, noting that the wearing of masks on school buses and on school grounds has been designated as optional — not mandatory — in a COVID-19 protocol released by the school system last week.
Boyd also said that COVID-19 vaccinations also remain optional for both school system employees and students.
Jerry S. Boyd is director of Washington County’s new director of schools.
“The guidance of the CDC on the national level is not being dismissed, but we are focused on the local and regional level,” Boyd said. “We are monitoring the local data and there is a possibility we could make changes as we move forward.”
‘Hard decisions’
Niswonger Children’s Hospital’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patricia Chambers said Wednesday that this is not where officials wanted to be as schools prepare to welcome students back.
Chambers, who also works as an emergency pediatric physician at Niswonger, said that while children typically do better when infected with the virus, children can still have long-term effects. She added that some children in the region have died due to the virus.
Chambers said guidance for parents and their children depends on how old the child is, as those under 12 years old are not yet eligible to receive the vaccine. For those under 12, Chambers encouraged mask wearing and social distancing, noting that parents should keep their children home if they are sick. For those over 12, vaccination is the best way to stay safe.
Ballad CEO Alan Levine said the best thing the health system can do is point people and officials to the CDC’s guidance on masking in schools, and that “ultimately they have to make these decisions based on what’s best for the students.”
“Those are hard decisions to make, and we don’t want to make it harder for them,” Levine said.
