Masks mandated at Indian Creek Middle School

Students and staff at Indian Creek Middle School will be required to wear masks starting today due to an increasing number of students testing positive for COVID-19.

The mandate comes after Indian Creek put a threshold in place, calling for an indoor mask mandate at schools where more than 4% of the student body is out due to testing positive for the virus. By the end of the day Tuesday, 6.88% of students had tested positive at the middle school.

During the winter peak of the pandemic, about 1.5% of students were absent due to COVID-19, said Tim Edsell, superintendent.

The Indian Creek school board voted 3-1 to approve the threshold. Board member Thomas Burgett voted no.

“If I were to make an assumption as to why we were never above 1.5% last year, it’s because we had masks on,” Edsell said. “I understand masks have become controversial; we’re all tired of that. The purpose of what we as a leadership team are presenting to you as a board is to try and have a protocol when we’re above 4% to try and reduce the rate so students can stay in school and have teachers teaching so we don’t have to go remote.”

Masks will remain mandated until there are at least five consecutive school days with less than 4% of students out due to positive tests, according to district documents.

The guidance loosely follows similar advice from the Johnson County Health Department which, prior to Wednesday, was for schools to require masks if at least 2% of students were out due to positive tests. Clark-Pleasant, Franklin and Center Grove schools have followed that guidance, while Greenwood schools mandated masks at all of its buildings. Edinburgh schools continues to have a mask optional policy.

Indian Creek schools went with the 4% threshold because it has fewer students, and a small number of absences can account for a larger percentage of students than it would at a larger district, Edsell said.

Indian Creek High School was just shy of the 4% threshold, but with seven students returning from quarantine, the percentage dipped to 2.84%, according to district data.

The most important thing is to prevent an interrupted learning experience, said Sean Zachery, principal of Indian Creek Middle School.

“Professionals on the staff are struggling with kids in quarantine. They’re gone 10 days, 14 days,” Zachery said. “Middle school kids can’t handle a college schedule. When we ask them to do remote learning, that’s what we’re asking them to do, to have the ability of college students to do time management and get stuff done. Our teachers are really stressed out. One kid is back after 10 days, another after 14 days. It’s like teaching the same lesson 14 times.”

Schools throughout the county may reverse course again. The Johnson County Health Department on Wednesday advised schools to follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Indiana Department of Health to mandate masks for all students and staff regardless of the number of COVID-19 cases in schools.

County schools had not made decisions based on the new guidance by Wednesday afternoon, and were seeking more direction from the county health department, said Terry Terhune, superintendent of Greenwood schools.