The Jefferson City School District could possibly get rid of its mask requirement when in "green" status.
District officials asked the Board of Education on Thursday to vote to make masks optional while in "green" status, which means the number of active cases in the school environment are equal to 2 percent or less of the total school population.
The district started the school year with the protocols of "yellow" status - meaning the number of active cases is equal to 2.1-5 percent of the school population - but the district is waiting until it has more data to determine which status it is actually in.
"I requested that we had over a month's worth of data in order to make sure that we have adequate information to make an informed decision," said Chad Sooter, JC Schools director of health services.
Sooter said he will review the district's COVID-19 numbers around Oct. 1 to determine which status the district and buildings are in. The board voted to re-evaluate the re-entry plan at around that time. Superintendent Larry Linthacum said the district anticipates being in green status.
Once the rubric is activated, individual classrooms, grades, school buildings, school categories (elementary, middle or high) or the entire district can be moved into "green," "yellow" or red" status at any time based on community trends or the number of active cases in the school environment.
At the open forum portion of the meeting, nine residents expressed concerns about masks or asked the board to get rid of the district's mask requirement. Two people spoke in support of the mask requirement.
The district currently requires masks when a distance of 3 feet from others cannot be maintained, such as when entering the building and during passing periods in the halls. This approach was recommended by the Cole County Health Department.
According to the district's COVID-19 tracker on its website, there are 16 active cases among students and two among staff as of Thursday. There have been 52 cumulative cases since August, including 31 among students and 21 among staff, according to the tracker.
At the meeting Thursday, Sooter said there have been 13 active cases in the school environment among students and one among staff in the last seven days. Fifty students are currently quarantined due to COVID-19 exposure outside of school; four students are quarantined due to exposure in school. There are currently no staff members who are quarantined, he said.
"If you compare that to this same week in September of 2020, we had a total of 48 people quarantined at the same time, so we're still within limits of where we were last year," Sooter said.
In the last seven days, 14 students have tested positive for COVID-19 due to being exposed to the virus in their household. No close contacts in the last seven days have tested positive from being exposed at school, Sooter said.