Ark City students take part in class during October 2020. (Photo courtesy USD 470 Facebook page)
Ark City and Winfield public schools will take different approaches when it comes to mask requirements for the start of school.
The USD 470 Ark City Board of Education decided Monday night to make mask-wearing optional for the start of the fall semester. An hour later, the Winfield USD 465 school board approved a universal mask mandate for the start of school.
Ark City’s first full day of classes is Aug. 19. Winfield’s first day is Aug. 23.
In a video posted to USD 465’s Facebook page Tuesday, Winfield Superintendent Nathan Reed said the mandate includes students, staff and anyone visiting school facilities.
“Starting August 16th, this is for anyone that is coming into our buildings, staff, students, parents, visitors, spectators for indoor events,” Reed said. “There is no capacity limits at this time.
“This was done in an effort to provide another layer of support for insuring the safety and health of our students and staff based upon the data that we are seeing locally with the surge in COVID Delta variant cases.”
Since, July 2, Cowley County has added 257 new virus cases, according to data from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
From Wednesday through Monday, Cowley County added 86 new cases in that span alone.
Reed also said all school districts must enforce mask-wearing on all buses and school-owned vehicles, via a federal mandate.
“So anytime a student or staff member is on a bus, they must be masked or we face penalty up to losing federal funds,” Reed shared.
Reed acknowledged the mandates are not ideal, but said his main focus is keeping students in the classroom.
“This isn’t the greatest news to share, but we are excited that the school year is getting ready to kick off,” he said. “We’re excited to see everybody. These are little hiccups in the road but we’re going to make the best of it, and I know we’ll all rise to the occasion and do what we can to make it the best school year we can.”
Monday night, USD 470 Superintendent Ron Ballard told the school board that much like last year, the district will need to be prepared to change protocol if necessary.
Tuesday, Reed said the same.
“This will be an ongoing review, if this is necessary — the mask-wearing — or any other health protocols,” he said. “It will look similar to last year. We’ll encourage handwashing and distancing when we can, but we want to keep kids healthy and we want to keep kids in school, and bottom line, that’s what this is about.”
