The Fox C-6 School District is expected to reverse course and again require students, staff and visitors to wear masks inside district buildings, after changing its mask-wearing policy late last week, making them optional.
Fox officials have not announced when the change will go into effect, but Superintendent Paul Fregeau recently said the district’s policy requires masks to be worn if both of the Health Department’s major indicators – the number of new COVID-19 cases and the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests – are in either the orange or red levels, the two highest levels on the agency’s four-color warning system.
The Jefferson Health Department announced today (Nov. 3) that the county’s percentage of positive COVID-19 tests has risen again, putting it in the orange level.
During the week of Oct. 24-30, the county’s positivity rate rose to about 9.1 percent, putting it back in the orange level. During the prior week, the positivity rate was about 7.7 percent, which was in the yellow level, or the second lowest level on the warning system.
The district, which started the school year Aug. 25 requiring masks be worn, changed its policy on Oct. 29, making masks optional after the county had fallen to the yellow level for the positivity rate.
At the time, though, the Health Department said the county was still in the red level, the highest level on the system, because the number of new COVID-19 cases in the county put it in the red level, which indicates high transmission of the virus in the community.
The Health Department said that if the two indicators are different colors on the warning system, the agency uses the higher color level, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.
Previously, Fox school officials said the district’s mitigation plan required people to wear a mask inside a district building if Jefferson County is in the red or orange level of the county’s COVID Color Guidance Indicator.
“On Oct. 29, we (Fox officials) lifted the mask requirement due to the COVID-19 Color Guidance Indicator reflecting that Jefferson County no longer had a positivity status in the red or orange level,” Fregeau said during Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting. “We will continue to monitor all indicators each week, and if all are orange or red, we will have to make a similar decision in the other direction.”
The Health Department also announced today that the county is still in the red level when measuring the total number of cases per 100,000 people in a seven-day period, which was at 154.7 from Oct. 24-30, a slight increase from the prior week.
According to the district’s website today, 33 students or staff members had COVID-19, and 84 students or staff members were quarantined from school because of possible contact with the virus. In addition, 125 students or staff members were following modified-quarantine rules, which allows someone possibly exposed to the virus to remain in school if they wear a mask and show no symptoms, the district reported.
