Students and staff at Edinburgh schools will continue to wear masks for at least another month.
The decision strays from those of other local school districts that have tracked the percentage of their students out with COVID-19 cases to determine whether to institute mask mandates. For most, that benchmark is 2%, while for Indian Creek schools, it’s 4%.
By late January, all local school districts except for Indian Creek had surpassed their respective thresholds, but since then, COVID-19 cases have fallen locally and statewide, including in schools, leading to many local schools nixing requirements. As of Monday, all Johnson County schools had returned to less than the 2% threshold.
Edinburgh schools, however, is taking a different approach, said Ron Ross, superintendent, in a post this weekend on social media.
“The Indiana Department of Health is still saying that we do not have to quarantine anyone at school if they are wearing masks. To keep healthy students in school and mitigate the spread of COVID-19, we believe that masks are necessary through Friday, March 4,” Ross said in the post. “Unless there is another major surge, it is our plan that when we return from spring break, masks will return to being optional. Warm weather will allow us to open windows to help the air circulate and for us to go outside for fresh air and social distancing.”
The district was also the first in the county to return to a mask mandate this winter, when in December, about 10% of students were identified as close contacts of COVID-19 cases.
The district also shortened the quarantine period for close contacts of COVID-19 cases to five days from 14 days Monday, though that policy is not retroactive to students who were already in quarantine before the start of the week. School officials wanted to delay the shortening of the quarantine period until now due to large numbers of cases and data suggesting students were spreading the virus after coming back to school on Day 6, Ross said in the post.
“We had data that showed people were testing positive on days six through 14. Other schools were having asymptomatic students return to school and becoming ‘super spreaders,’” he said.
Ross did not immediately share that data with the Daily Journal, and Johnson County health officer Jefferson Qualls said he was unaware of students spreading the virus at school after the five-day period suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Indian Creek and Clark-Pleasant schools do not actively track when students become contagious. Other local districts were still gathering information on Monday.
“We are looking at the data specific to our schools and community to make intentional decisions that we believe keep students and staff safe,” Ross said in the Facebook post. “We are attempting to make decisions that prevent us from altering the plan every other week. We value our students and staff and have tried to keep them healthy and able to attend school and work to the best of our ability. Doing what is best for our students and staff will continue to guide our decisions.”
