Albany County School District ends mask mandate
Face coverings will be “strongly recommended” when students return from winter break in January, but no longer required. The county has a 52 percent vaccination rate and transmission remains high.
The Albany County School Board voted Wednesday to let its face mask requirement for students, employees and visitors expire.
While those on school property are still required to mask up through December 17, students and teachers returning from winter break on January 3 will simply be “strongly recommended” to wear masks.
The district has not seen the metrics it established earlier this year for sunsetting the mask policy — a 70 percent vaccination rate or three straight weeks of low community transmission — but other developments, such as the approval of vaccines for most children, have made district leadership more comfortable with the idea of relaxing mask requirements.
“We’re having decreased cases and, of course, vaccinations are now readily available,” Superintendent Jubal Yennie told the board. “With the board’s approval, we’ll allow the expiration of the current face mask requirements at the end of next week. During that time we are going to rewrite decision guides as well as take a look at what other guidelines the Department of Health has on testing.”
The superintendent’s memo explaining the decision states that school administration will alter its quarantine and testing procedures in addition to relaxing the mask requirement.
“Lessening this mitigation strategy does not signal the end of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the memo states. “The Wyoming Department of Health is anticipating further guidance from the CDC, which would permit a testing strategy to mitigate the risk of people who come in close contact with a known exposure.”
The board also approved the implementation of rapid testing for individuals on school grounds who come into close contact with a positive case of COVID-19.
“This test is a nasal swab, and returns results in about 20 minutes,” according to a district news release. “School nurses are trained on administering the test. Schools will need to collect one-time consent forms from parents prior to conducting the test.”
The decision to expire the mask mandate had broad support from the board, with only one member, Trustee Nate Martin, voting against.
Martin questioned what the change would mean for immunocompromised children, some of whom cannot be vaccinated and many of whom are at greater risk of worse outcomes if they catch COVID-19.
“There are students who are going to be at high risk of severe impacts from contracting COVID who — for reasons not under their control or not under the control of their parents — are not going to be vaccinated,” Martin said. “And I’m wondering: what about those kids? Masks were the protection we were affording them and now we’re taking that away.”
Yennie answered that remote learning is available.
“That becomes one of those issues when we make that move to long-term living with this pandemic … more like flu and cold season, but we’re not there yet,” he said. “The district still has the opportunity for students to work remotely. That is an option. We think that many of the folks you’re talking about have probably already taken that option.”
Martin also asked if the district could promote vaccination by hosting clinics at the schools; Yennie said that was unlikely.
“Our county health officer and our county health department doesn’t believe they need additional assistance from the schools,” he said. “That’s the only response I have. And we certainly need to work with them if we’re going to do anything regarding that.”
While Martin was the only trustee to vote against the end of the mask mandate, others voiced concern about the future of the pandemic in Albany County.
“I am dismayed to see that our community vaccination rate is low,” Trustee Emily Siegel Stanton said. “It represents a vulnerability in our community that we could have a large outbreak … but I no longer want to put on the shoulders of our educators and our kids the burden of a community that is under-vaccinated.”
The latest figures from the Wyoming Department of Health show that Albany County’s population is 52.2 percent vaccinated. Albany County adolescents, meanwhile, are 55.9 percent vaccinated. Albany County has at least 33 active cases. And 40 residents of Albany County have died of the virus.
The county is experiencing a high level of transmission, according to the CDC, which recommends that everyone, vaccinated or not, wear a mask in indoor settings.