Ark City BOE Votes To Extend Mask Requirement; No Changes For Winfield Schools

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The Ark City USD 470 Board of Education voted Monday night to extend its current mask requirement through Sept. 27.

Winfield USD 465, which reversed its mask mandate to a recommendation on Sept. 17, also had its regularly-scheduled BOE meeting Monday evening. No changes in regards to COVID protocols were made.

According to USD 470 Director of Communications Alisha Call Tuesday, the decision to continue masking was made based on several factors, including the goal to keep students in school and that children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for the vaccine and that a significant portion of eligible students remain unvaccinated.

“Based on CDCs contact tracing guidance, if an unmasked student tests positive, nearby students must quarantine, even if they were wearing masks,” Call said. “However, if both the positive case and the contacts are masked, the contacts may stay in school. USD 470 will apply this to staff members who might be close contacts, too.”

Call said since a mask mandate went into effect on Sept. 1, the number of students missing school has declined.

“Our recent mask requirement has significantly reduced the number of students missing school due to ‘close contact’ quarantine,” she said.

The district said that based on CDC’s contact tracing guidance, if an unmasked student tests positive, nearby students must quarantine, even if they were wearing masks. However, if both the positive case and the contacts are masked, the contacts may stay in school. 

Call also said the board took into account that the CDC, KDHE, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all recommend a mask requirement for student and staff safety, and as a way to help schools remain open.

“In addition to these factors, the district currently lacks the personnel to adequately maintain a test-to-stay model without masking,” Call said. “The board will revisit the issue on Sept. 27.

“In the meantime, the district will continue to work toward hiring additional nurses and/or health aides and prepare gating criteria with the goal of reducing the need for widespread masking.”

More on the district’s COVID protocols can be read here.

Cowley County added 31 new cases of the virus from Friday though Monday, according to Monday’s Kansas Department of Health and Environment report.

Cowley County has totaled 4,897 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Friday, Cowley County Public Health Officer Thomas Langer said local school districts are continuing to experience the effects of viral spread.

“All districts report larger than normal absence rates due to the need to quarantine students that are exposed in classrooms,” Langer stated in his weekly COVID update via the City-Cowley County Health Department’s Facebook page.  “The Health Department is working with the districts to help find solutions that include testing prior to return to the classrooms. The health and safety of the children in our community is our highest priority, we want them to be in school in person to benefit from classroom learning, we all must work together to make sure that the school year is successful.

“Please do not send a sick child to school and if anyone in the family becomes ill remember that every family member must quarantine if they are not vaccinated or have natural immunity from a previously documented case of COVID-19.

“It should also be mentioned that the same caution must be taken if you have a child in daycare.”

Langer said Friday that there have been 957 new cases of the virus since March 31, 2021 and that 871 of those cases — or 91 percent — are among the non-vaccinated.

The COVID-related death toll in Cowley County remained at 117 as of Friday.