By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board expressed its intent to continue to require masks in schools even if the governor's mask mandate is allowed to expire Wednesday.
Senate Bill 40, which has been signed by the governor, puts the responsibility for making decisions on face masks, requiring different learning options and school closings due to COVID in the hands of local school boards.
"We will continue to monitor numbers," Superintendent Ron Wilson said. "As vaccines become more and more relevant in our community and numbers continue to stay low, there might be a possibility we might recommend doing away with masks.
"Right now, we feel like it is a safety measure to have in place. We want to continue it for a little while longer and see where everything falls."
The board did not take a vote on the mask requirement, but agreed through consensus to continue to require masks in the district.
The school district will continue to do contact tracing for any positive COVID cases. However, the district is changing its policy on quarantines for close contacts.
If someone in the school is identified as a close contact to another student or staff member who is COVID positive, the student's parent or guardian will be notified the student has been a close contact. The family will be given the option to quarantine the student if the student does not have COVID symptoms.
This does not apply to students or staff who have be exposed to someone who is COVID-positive outside of school.
Wilson said he is recommending the change in the quarantine policy contingent on the school keeping in place mitigation efforts, including the wearing of masks.
He said he has discussed the quarantine change with the members of the local school COVID task force, which is made up of other local school leaders and medical professionals, and they agree with the new policy.
The new policy will be enacted after the Easter break.
Wilson said the change in the quarantine policy is another step toward returning to normal.
Wilson reported more than 200 staff members will be vaccinated for the second time Thursday.
"It is going to be a big hurdle that we have crossed," Wilson said. "We really feel good about that."
He noted some staff members have chosen to not be vaccinated at this time. The district is not requiring staff to take a COVID vaccine.
Wilson said COVID numbers related to the district look good. The district had no COVID positive cases reported as of Monday.
The district had six people in quarantine for possible exposore.