With both the incidence and positivity rates both on the decline across Kentucky, the time for mask mandates inside of schools could be coming to a close.
But not just yet in west Kentucky, at least until a couple of hurdles are significantly cleared and left in the rear-view mirror.
During Thursday night’s Christian County Public Schools board meeting, District Superintendent Chris Bentzel gave a positive coronavirus report on the 17 governed campuses — something that hasn’t been experienced as of late.
Its COVID-19 dashboard updated at 2 p.m. Thursday afternoon, the district had four active cases among staff members (including three at Crofton), 17 active student cases (including three at Freedom), and only 48 in close-contact quarantine (including 26 from Freedom).
District-wide attendance, Bentzel said, was recently marked between 91-to-93 percent, which he called a good, good place to be.
The approaching holidays, however, could cause spikes in cases — much like they did in 2020. With Halloween and Thanksgiving both near, Bentzel noted that another four weeks of a district-wide mask mandate made logical sense, before watching the data and shifting to optional masking right before Christmas.
Bentzel also noted that, as things stand now, close-contact quarantines must occur if masked students are within three feet, but expand to six feet without masks per guidance from public health officials at the local, regional, state and national levels.
Doubling the safe distancing requirement, more often than not, doubles the number of those needing to quarantine — and Bentzel added that specifically creates bigger hiccups in attendance and hybrid learning models in the classroom.
From the beginning of this school year until Thursday night, Bentzel said the district had experienced 770 active cases of COVID-19 among faculty, staff and students. That’s a 167-person increase in caseload compared to the same time in 2020 — when the board not only was meeting via Zoom, but school began with a non-traditional model.
The difference now involves a combination of masking and vaccinations for those 12 and older, which wasn’t available at the start of the 2020-21 school year.
Following Thanksgiving break, Bentzel said he and local medical officials will be looking at two key trends before recommending optional masking: a 7-to-14-day shift from an orange or better incidence rate in the county, and a 7-to-14 day continued downward trend of positivity rate.
If those correlations bottom out following in-person holidays, Bentzel believes the time will arrive.
No action or considerable dialogue came against Bentzel’s recommendation, though one parent did spend three minutes early in Thursday’s meeting discussing the need for mask mandates to end in the school system.
District 4 board member Mike Walker somewhat agreed with the parent, and asked what recourse the board could take, and if districts faced any consequences for not levying mask mandates now with the Governor’s office and Kentucky Department of Education neutered by the Kentucky General Assembly.
CCPS attorney Jack Lackey Jr. noted it was the board’s decision.
A district workshop discussion will take place on November 5. Thanksgiving Break is set for November 24-26.
Full parent discussion:
