By SCOTT EDGER
Little Apple Post
Beginning Nov. 1, as USD 383 allows students, staff and victors at Manhattan High School to opt out of wearing a mask while at school, administrators don’t want to make the issue complicated.
Officials won’t try to track how many students are wearing masks or gather statistical data. Michele Jones, director of communications and school safety for USD 383, said the district is taking a simple, common-sense approach.
“We will look at the numbers,” she said. “If we have large numbers of people get sick, we will make adjustments.”
Board members voted 6-1 to approve the temporary measure. Board President Kristin Brighton was the lone dissent.
All USD 383 facilities have required masks since the current school year began. The new policy will affect both the east and west campuses. The district is using the first three weeks as something of a trial phase.
“The board looks at the plan regularly and they will evaluate the situation at each phase,” she said.
Masks are still required at the district’s middle schools, elementary schools, early learning centers, and any other indoor USD 383 facility, as well as while riding in district transportation.
More than 200 Kansas children have been hospitalized for the virus since the start of the pandemic, and two Kansas children have died from the virus. As of Monday, there were 15 children hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide.
According to data from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, at this time a year ago, prior to the December vaccine approvals for Pfizer and Moderna, Riley County had about seven new cases reported per day. Currently the positive rate is hovering around 5 percent.
Statewide, the number of new pediatric cases as well as total cases has been declining steadily since ticking upward over the more active summer months.
Two-thirds of the 25 largest public school districts in Kansas imposed some form of an indoor masking mandate this year in response to the spread of COVID-19.
Districts implementing a face-covering requirement include Olathe, Shawnee Mission, Kansas City, Blue Valley, Topeka, Lawrence, DeSoto, Manhattan and Salina. These districts comprise almost 240,000 students.
The weekly positive rate on the K-State campus has been below 1.5 percent for the last four weeks after spiking above 8.3 percent in late August.
Jones said that even if the mask opt-out at MHS goes well, rolling the policy down to USD 383 middle- and grade-school facilities may not simply follow suit.
“We will continue to adjust however is necessary,” Jones said, "and we will see what happens. We will proceed very cautiously."
The USD 383 policy would effectively end on Nov. 19, at which time the board would have to vote on how to move forward.
As of Aug. 1, Kansas State University is in the Phaseout stage of its coronavirus response.