BIG HORN — Sheridan County School District 1 Board of Trustees may consider lifting the COVID-19 mask order and instituting new quarantine rules at its monthly meeting Tuesday.
“The part that really bothers me about (the mask requirement) are kids are missing school, they still have to be quarantined (even without contracting COVID-19,” Trustee Clint Krumm said at a board work session Nov. 9, noting he wants as many students in school as possible.
This consideration comes after two lengthy discussions with Superintendent Pete Kilbride, Krumm and parents representing both sides of the district — Big Horn and Tongue River schools — who oppose the mask requirement in schools, as well as a staff survey conducted by Kilbride that assessed where everyone stood on the mask requirements.
SCSD1 board trustees approved the mask requirement with a 4-1 vote Sept. 1 that went into effect Sept. 7.The district’s COVID-19 plan calls for both parties exposed to the virus to be quarantined for at least 10 days, and two people both masked do not have to quarantine if they do not exhibit COVID-19 symptoms after a close contact.
Kilbride also recommended, during the Sept. 1 meeting, the mask requirement be lifted immediately if the school district was able to get a change in quarantine rules, allowing for a close contact to remain in school if one of the parties was wearing a mask.
While quarantine rules haven’t changed per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and the recommendations from state and local health officials, a few school districts throughout the state enacted its own versions of quarantine rules, effectively removing mask requirements within their districts.
“Goshen County now has four options to return to school (after COVID-19 close contacts),” Krumm said. “Everybody got excited seeing these options for quarantines.”
Krumm said with multiple quarantine options, it makes tracking students difficult for school nurses. Instead, he suggested creating a streamlined set of quarantine rules that remain easy to track for school staff tasked with maintaining records on sick or exposed students.
A staff survey showed 48.6% of 105 faculty members who responded voted to lift the mask requirement, while 51.4% of staff voted to maintain the current mask requirements.
“I was surprised that ‘Keep the mask’ (option) for certified staff, 31 certified said keep it and 37 said lift it,” Kilbride said. “It was not what I was expecting. I thought completely opposite. I thought certified would be the ones that would tip the scale toward keeping the mask mandate in place.”
Krumm will lead the charge in drafting potential quarantine regulations ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. Kilbride cautioned the board that CDC guidelines still require significant quarantines for unmasked people exposed to COVID-19, which might result in more students missing in-person classes than they are currently.
“It is hard, and it seems like it’s being successful in other (schools),” Kilbride said. “Please don’t get me wrong; our number of quarantines will go up. We have to accept that fact.”
Kilbride said recent quarantine numbers remained steady, with the small number of quarantines occurring almost exclusively due to out-of-school contacts.
While it remains an item on the board agenda, board members must have adequate time to review the draft quarantine rules and consider the implications of removing the mask requirement.
The board meeting will occur in the Big Horn High School auditorium starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
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SCSD1 board may vote on lifting mask requirement Tuesday - The Sheridan Press
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