Board of Education Resolution by KTLO News on Scribd
Students and staff in Mountain Home Public Schools will be required to wear masks when indoors and under specific circumstances as the 2021-2022 school year begins.
At its regular monthly meeting Thursday night, the Mountain Home School Board approved the resolution by a 5-0 margin, with two members absent.
Recommended and developed by the district’s Ready for Learning committee, the mask requirement is based on current data from the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) for COVID-19 infection rate. Click HERE to view the current map.
When ACHI data reflects the district is extreme or high spread, masks are required indoors for all students, staff and visitors when six feet of social distance cannot be maintained, regardless of vaccination status. This also includes all school-sponsored transportation. Extreme spread is defined as 100 or more cases in a 14-day period per 10,000 people. Severe is 50 to 99 per 10,000.
Superintendent Dr. Jake Long told the board with infection rates at their highest levels ever, it was necessary to take action to protect students.
When the data for the school district changes, the mask policy will follow. If the infection rate drops to moderate, which is 30 to 49 infections for a 14-day period per 10,000 people, the mask requirements will change to recommendations only. When the district’s rate drope to 29 infections per 10,000, the masks are purely optional.
Long says the policy has the ability to make accommodations for almost every student.
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The Arkansas Department of Health’s rules for quarantining also play a large part in the decision to utilize masking, according to Long.
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The first school to open for the 2021-2022 school year was in the eastern Arkansas city of Marion. When the school started classes in the last week of July, the district had an outbreak in which approximately 60 students and staff tested positive for COVID-19 and the ensuing quarantine protocol resulted in more than 900 students and faculty forced to miss school for 10 days.
Long says anything that helps keeps students in the classroom is something that should be considered.
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The resolution also covers other areas related to COVID-19. Students who become sick at school must be fever free, without medications, for 24 hours before returning to school. Parents and guardians will also be required to pick up a sick child within 30 minutes of being notified by the school, to decrease exposure to illness for other students.
When a student or employee is quarantined, the district will provide the student or staff member with a return date. All students should complete make-up work in accordance with their teacher’s make-up work policy.
Another change will be limited access to facilities from the public. All front office doors at each school will be locked and parents or visitors will only be allowed to enter the office one at a time. Those waiting outside are asked to maintain six feet of social distance and to wear masks, if the school is in a mask policy at that time. Those unable to wear a mask due to health-related reasons, should contact the school in advance of the visit to inform the front office.
Carryover measures from last school year include temperature checks as students enter the building daily, assigned seating in classrooms and buses, as well as closed water fountains. The district will continue to provide water bottle stations and parents may send their children to school with bottled water.
If anyone in a child’s household is required to quarantine, parents should contact the school district before bringing the student to school.
2021 Safe Start to School Considerations by KTLO News on Scribd
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