Sikeston R-6, other local schools issue temporary mask mandates

SIKESTON — Recent surges in positive COVID-19 cases have caused some local school districts to reinstate temporary mask mandates in an effort to decrease the number of cases and quarantines among teachers and students.

On Friday, the Sikeston R-6 School District alerted parents the district would implement at two-week mask requirement before considering a building closure after the district’s average daily attendance rate was at 80.24%, a high number of classrooms were without substitutes and one school building had over 5% student-and-staff-positivity rate.

“The top priorities of the Sikeston R-6 School district are to provide a quality education and to care for the safety and well being of all of our students and staff,” the district message from Superintendent Dr. Tony Robinson said on Friday. “There is much debate on what that looks like during this stressful and ever-changing climate of COVID and public education. What is not debatable is the number of students and staff out due to being positive or because they are quarantined.”

The message by the R-6 superintendent said all students, staff and visitors regardless of vaccination or recent positive status, are required to wear a mask properly in district buildings Sept. 13-24. Masks are not required at outdoor district events.

According to the Sikeston R-6 School District’s COVID-19 operational plan, in regard to building masking and closure plan, if 5% of building staff and students are positive, it’s highly recommended to close for 15 calendar days; if 10% of building staff and students are positive, the district will strongly consider closing the building for 15 calendar days.

The district’s closure plan states the following: if attendance drops below 80% as a district and/or if there are unfilled teaching positions, the district personnel would begin assessing the need for  closure of the district for 15 calendar days.

According to R-6 district data on Tuesday, 402 students and staff in the R-6 district were quarantined. Of those, 399 were students. There were 112 students and staff who had tested positive, and of those, 105 were students. One building (middle school) had 7.3% of students and staff who tested positive, and the districtwide attendance rate was 87.14%.

Scott County R-4 “Kelly” School District in Benton, Missouri, had an emergency school board meeting on Friday and voted to accept Superintendent Dr. Bradley Kolwyck’s recommendation to impose a 10-day mask mandate after Friday’s data revealed the district had over 46% of the students quarantined with either a positive case or close contact.

“The mandate can be lifted when the total student population data of quarantined students are below 15% and positive cases in the district are below 5%,” Kolwyck said in the letter. “If the data trend back above the 15% and ears. 5% thresholds, the district could reimpose the mask mandate to protect students and staff and maintain open schools throughout the remainder of the year.”

Kolwyck said he will send mask mandate updates every 10 days. The mandate allows the school to use the following protocol for contact tracing via the Scott County Health Department and mitigate quarantined students without symptoms. For example, if a student, teacher or staff member wearing a mask (mandate) were exposed (less than 6 feet) to a positive COVID case, they will not be considered a close contact so long as they are asymptomatic.

Kolwyck requested feedback from parents on Thursday via a survey and said the results were clear.

“The school community and district agree; we want to keep our students in class and the school doors open for as along as possible,” Kolwyck said in the letter.”We appreciate your support to keep our students in school and operating as normal as possible. This means for the district to continue to weigh all options and make tough decisions in order for our students to have the best educational operations as possible, including extracurricular activities.

The Bell City School District returned to in-classroom learning on Monday after going to virtual learning on Sept. 3.

On Sept. 2, Bell City Superintendent Matt Asher informed parents the district would go to virtual learning starting Sept. 3 after 10 confirmed positive cases in its elementary school and 37 other elementary students quarantined because of the close contact guidelines. There were also three junior high/high school students who were quarantined and zero positive cases.

Students returned to school on Monday.

“Hopefully, like last year, this break will allow for students to get healthy and mitigate the spread of the virus,” Asher said via the district’s official Facebook.

Upon students return, Asher said the number of students who are positive or quarantined drastically dropped over the course of the past seven days.

“We still have students being affected, however, that percentage of students is down from 23% to 4% of the total enrollment,” the superintendent said in a Facebook post to parents.

The District will take some proactive measures to help mitigate the spread of the virus, he said. All Bell City faculty and staff will be required to wear a mask. Additionally, the district will resume its practice of temperature checks before students enter the buildings as a means to avoid unnecessary student contact with sick students.

According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services COVID-19 data for school districts (which can lag), the following school districts had the following number of positive cases in the past 14 days: Bell City, 1-10; Chaffee, 17; Charleston, 15; Kelso C-7 (New Hamburg), zero; New Madrid County R-1, 33-plus; Oran, 1-10; Kelly, 1-10; Richland, 1-10; Scott Central, 1-10; Scott County R-4 “Kelly,” 1-10; Sikeston R-6, 78; and East Prairie, 19.

Several schools continue to make adjustments as their case numbers fluctuate while local health departments continue to enforce and reiterate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines.

On Sept. 9, the Mississippi County Health Department made a statement regarding quarantine guidelines in the Charleston R-1 School District.

“We understand there is some confusion for parents regarding the Mississippi County Health Departments quarantine guidelines and Charleston R-1 School districts quarantine guidelines. We would like to state that the Mississippi County Health Department is following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) which is supported by the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). We stand firm and recommend only CDC guidelines,” the health department said.

As a reminder, the quarantine recommendations are as follows:

— Fully vaccinated close contacts should be referred for COVID-19 testing. If asymptomatic, fully vaccinated close contacts do not need to quarantine at home following an exposure (they can continue to attend school in-person and participate in other activities). In addition to correctly wearing masks in school, they should wear a mask in other indoor public settings for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result.

— Close contacts who are not fully vaccinated should be referred for COVID-19 testing. Regardless of test result, they should quarantine at home for 14 days after exposure. Options to shorten quarantine provide acceptable alternatives of a 10-day quarantine or a 7-day quarantine combined with testing and a negative test result. Due to the Delta variant being more contagious than the original COVID-19 virus, the Mississippi County Health Department recommends the 10-day quarantine which does not require a negative test result and allows for return to school on day 11 -14 of quarantine if student is wearing a mask.

“Like you, the Health Department is concerned about the health and safety of our kids as they return to school. We know that in-person learning is important for our children, and we believe that following expert advice from public health professionals at the CDC is the best way to make sure students have a safe and healthy environment to learn in,” the health department said.

In the East Prairie R-2 School District, which started the new school year with a 15-day mask mandate, if 10% of the school district’s student population is quarantined or tests positive, a mandatory mask mandate will be implemented for all students and school employees regardless of vaccination status, according to the district’s website.