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Fayette BOE votes to suspend mask mandate

Justin Addison, Editor/Publisher
Posted 3/23/21

The Fayette public school will suspend its district-wide mask mandate beginning on March 29. Following a lengthy discussion, the school board on Wednesday, March 17 voted unanimously to lift the …

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Fayette BOE votes to suspend mask mandate

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The Fayette public school will suspend its district-wide mask mandate beginning on March 29. Following a lengthy discussion, the school board on Wednesday, March 17 voted unanimously to lift the mandate which has been in place since November, and adjusted the district’s re-entry plan with regard to the ongoing pandemic.

Beginning on Monday, March 29, students of the district will no longer be required to wear masks to school. School teachers and staff will still be required to wear masks.

The board chose to keep the mandate in place until March 29 to allow time for more teachers to become vaccinated. At the time of Wednesday’s meeting, 61% of district staff had been vaccinated, although all were given the option. Superintendent Jill Wiseman reported that the school had no positive cases in February and none in March up to the time of the board meeting.

The board’s action did not eliminate the mask mandate. Should the district have 25 or more persons in quarantine, the mandate will once again be put into effect until the district returns to Green level of its re-entry plan.

Fayette adopted the mask mandate on November 18 during a time when the district was closed to in-person learning following an outbreak of COVID-19. Mass quarantines led to teacher and substitute shortages. Previous to the mandate, only teachers, administration, and staff were required to wear masks on school grounds. Missouri Governor Mike Parson on November 12, 2020, put forth new guidelines formed by Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Service and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) that if both individuals at school – the person diagnosed with COVID-19, and the person exposed to the positive case – were correctly wearing masks, the individual exposed would not need to quarantine.

The measure effectively acted as a loophole to keep Missouri schools open in a time when many districts across the nation, predominately in urban areas, remain shuttered. 

Since the mandate was put in place, the school district estimates that 66 students—36 in December and 30 in January—did not have to be placed on quarantine because they were property wearing masks while in proximity to those who had tested positive. Dr. Kevin Frazer, the county’s health director, and Howard County Public Health Director Marsha Broadus both have supported the mask mandate.

During the time the mandate was in place, positive cases have dropped dramatically, at school and county-wide. As of Tuesday morning, only five positive cases were listed in the entire county, at least four of which are students are at Central Methodist University.

Although the mandate is largely credited with keeping the school open, it has not been without its difficulties. High school principal Patrick Tray reported to the board in February that discipline issues related to mask-wearing among high school students has been a major issue for teachers and administration. 

Board members opened Wednesday’s meeting with comments from local chiropractor Aaron Cunningham, who plans to move to Fayette with his wife and five children. He advocated that the district lift the mask mandate in light of lower county-wide cases.

“I am in complete support of removing the mask mandate based off of the current Covid numbers,” Cunningham said. He also suggested the board make adjustments to the re-entry plan. Around a dozen parents also attended the meeting.

Cunningham attended the recent meeting of the board’s wellness committee. Board member Aaron Bentley explained the recommendations of the committee to suspend the mandate and to make the change to the re-entry plan.

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