Fox C-6 School District officials recommend students and staff members wear face masks during summer school, but masks will not be required unless a designated number of positive COVID-19 cases occur in a school building.
Board of Education members decided Tuesday (June 1) to make masks optional for summer school and other extended school year programs.
The Fox district’s summer school program begins Thursday (June 3) and runs through June 30. The early childhood special education summer program runs from June 7-July 1.
Board members also decided that if any building has a 2 percent positivity rate or higher, the district will require masks to be worn in that building. Also, students and staff will be required to wear a mask while traveling in buses.
“This has been a divisive topic from the beginning, and I strongly believe the reason we were able to stay in school the entire (2020-2021 school) year is because of the mitigating factors we had in place and our students, parents and staff adhering to these protocols,” Superintendent Nisha Patel said. “As we move to making it optional, we will monitor the buildings closely, and having the 2 percent positivity rate as an indicator to revert back to making masks mandatory, is a viable option. My hope is that more and more individuals get immunized by the start of fall.”
The school board voted 5-1 Tuesday to make the masks optional this summer, with Carole Yount casting the lone no vote. The seven-member board is missing one member following the resignation of Bob Gruenewald on May 19.
Yount said she would have loved voting yes to make mask-wearing optional, but she believes the district was able to keep COVID-19 cases down during the 2020-2021 school year by following guidelines recommended by Patel, the Jefferson County Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and wanted to continue following that advice.
“Dr. Patel, I felt, was not in favor of eliminating the mask, and I felt one more month would make our kids a little safer,” Yount said. “It is not that I want them to wear masks because I know everyone is getting tired of it. I just felt like it would be better for our kids to wear them through summer school, and when school starts (in the fall), I am hoping we will start with no masks.”
Board president Judy Smith, on the other hand, said she wanted Fox to follow other districts that have made masks optional for summer school program.
On May 20, the Festus R-6 School District announced that masks would be optional during its summer school program.
“I think parents have been waiting for it, and I think kids have been waiting for it,” Smith said about no longer making mask wearing mandatory at school. “I would like to have some type of guideline that says if we get a certain percentage of cases that we can go back to masks. I feel like it is time to try it out.”
In a letter to Fox district families, Patel wrote that the district continue to practice mitigation measures, such as keeping students and staff socially distanced when possible and regularly sanitizing classrooms, high-traffic areas and high-touch areas.
Patel also said that if a positive case is confirmed, anyone who was close to that person will have to quarantine for 10 days, unless both the positive case and the close contact were wearing masks.
In Tuesday’s meeting, she said if quarantined students and staff members may return after seven days if they test negative and have no symptoms.
“We will continue to practice our mitigating factors as much as possible and encourage mask-wearing, especially if not immunized,” Patel said. “I feel that with that and our opportunity for more outdoor activities we will do our best to continue to keep students in school and learning.”
