Columbus-area school district changes COVID mask policy from mandated to optional
Citing a decline in the number of COVID-19 cases, the Troup County School System is changing its mask policy from mandatory to optional.
The district announced in a news release Tuesday that beginning Oct. 18, wearing masks in its buildings will be optional but highly recommended. A federal order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires masks to be worn on school buses.
“At the beginning of August, we promised to monitor the COVID-19 positive numbers closely and re-evaluate our current limitations and restrictions,” TCSS superintendent Brian Shumate said in the news release. “The numbers have steadily declined since early September. Without knowing the reasons for the substantial decrease, we hope this is a return to normal.”
Masks will be required at a TCSS school when its COVID cases are more than 1% of student enrollment, Shumate said.
“Once that threshold is reached,” he said, “that particular school will return to required masks until cases decline to the half-percent mark. . . . If multiple schools across the county have reached their one percent threshold and we reach a critical mass, all schools will return to the mask requirement.”
In total, TCSS has 12,200 students and 1,698 employees.
Other districts
TCSS is the first Columbus-area school district to announce a change to its mask policy from mandatory to optional this school year.
The L-E asked superintendents in other local school districts whether and how they would make such a change to their mask policy.
The COVID infection rate in the Muscogee County School District has been below 1% the entire school year. The most recent coronavirus report from MCSD showed a sixth straight week of declining cases, with 0.09% of students and 0.2 % of school-based employees reporting positive COVID tests from Oct. 4-8.
MCSD superintendent David Lewis told the L-E that he has been consulting with his medical panel of local health experts throughout the pandemic for advice about coronavirus mitigation strategies.
Asked whether MCSD is considering changing its mandatory mask policy, Lewis said, “If there is a point at which they (the medical panel) feel like it’s the right thing to do, then we will certainly do that.”
For the Harris County School District to make masks optional, superintendent Roger Couch told the L-E in an email, the rate of COVID infections in the combined staff and student population must be half of 1% for “a steady” amount of time. He didn’t specify how long that must be.
“Discussions and decisions would be made by our school board with guidance from the Georgia Department of Education and our board attorney,” he said.
HCSD’s most recent COVID report says the district has 5,505 students and 787 employees. So half of 1% of that combined population amounts to a coronavirus case threshold of 31. HCSD received reports of 36 COVID cases (25 students, 11 employees) from Sept. 28-Oct. 4.
The rate of COVID infections in the Chattahoochee County School District has been less than 1% “for several weeks now,” superintendent Kristie Brooks told the L-E in an email.
“I have no plans to make a recommendation to the board of education to revise our procedures,” she said. “This is subject to change as consistent improvements are noted.”
In Phenix City Schools, the infection rate has been less than 1% of the combined student and employee population the whole school year and was 0.14% the week ending Oct. 8, according to the most recent report on its website.
PCS Superintendent Randy Wilkes told the L-E in an email, “We have discussed metrics for a change and continue to monitor. “
The superintendents in Russell and Lee counties didn’t reply before publication.
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 5:33 PM.
