Our Board of Education met Saturday, Aug. 28 and decided to mandate mask wearing in our school district just as we had last year. This requirement will begin on Monday, Aug. 30 for all of our students, staff and visitors in all of our facilities for the foreseeable future. We know families feel strongly on both sides of this issue, we appreciate your understanding with this difficult decision.

We believe this is the safest route for our students and staff. In the summer we planned for optional masks, but many things have changed since then. Cases have increased in the past weeks, due to the Delta variant, the Wood County Health Department recently asked for all to be masked. Governor Mike DeWine last week asked for schools to mandate masks, and now our school board has decided to require masks in the best interest of student and staff safety.

As of Aug. 28 we have one student isolating and 23 students quarantining. To put that in perspective last year on Aug. 27 we had zero students isolating and two quarantined. Our numbers fluctuated to more than 100 students quarantining in a few weeks from October 2020 through January 2021 with masks and a hybrid schedule. We believe masks are the best way to keep our students safe, and keep them in the classroom without missing instructional time.

We know this will help to keep our students in class and fewer students will need to quarantine. We also know last year when we wore masks COVID-19 was not transmitted in our classrooms. Additionally, parents have to make sacrifices and miss work when students stay home. Our hope is that with this change fewer families will be impacted. We firmly believe at this time the board’s decision is in the best interest of our students, staff and community.

Thank you for continuing to partner with us to make sure your children are safe and receiving the education they deserve.