The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education on Tuesday night, April 26, changed its mask policy, adopting a new policy that would take effect if COVID case numbers are over 5 percent at individual school buildings.
The vote was 4-3 to approve the new policy.
Tiffany Lewis, the district’s director of health services, presented two options to the board.
The first option was to use community levels of COVID-19, and follow the most conservative recommendation from the KDHE, UG Health Department or CDC, based on the latest data.
The second option was to look at each building in the district, and if COVID-related absences exceed 5 percent, then the building would return to mask requirements and would need to drop below the threshold before moving to optional masking. The board adopted this option, which would affect only individual buildings and not the entire district.
The motion to adopt the second option was made by Board President Randy Lopez. Voting no were board members Wanda Brownlee Paige, Rachel Russell and Dr. Valdenia Winn.
The school district already tracks COVID numbers in its buildings, according to Lewis, using a software program. When students call in sick, information is transferred to a nurse, who does a follow-up call and determines if it is COVID-related.
Lewis said when they look at data, they usually go with the most conservative approach, and that the board previously has gone with the most conservative recommendation from health offiials.
She said advice from the health experts at the local and state health departments was to provide some way for the district to go back to masking if the situation warranted it in the future.
Yolanda Clark, board vice president, said her yes vote speaks for not only physical, but also mental health and educational health.
Voting no on the issue, Paige said her vote has always been supporting public health.
Russell said her vote was always based on the response of the community.
Dr. Winn said she was concerned that if the district or county is in the “red” zone, at high risk, this doesn’t cross over with option 2. With option 2, if the community is at high risk but the case numbers at the individual school are under 5 percent, then the students and staff would not have to wear masks.
According to district officials, a survey was taken, including responses from parents and staff.
Forty percent favored continuing with the current mask policy; 50 percent were against it; and 10 percent were unsure, according to Lewis.
Forty-one percent of those surveyed were parents or guardians; 50 percent were school district staff; and 11 percent were both parents and district staff.
Lewis said the majority of parents was in favor of changing the mask requirement, while the majority of staff was in favor of keeping the mask requirement.
Last Monday, the board’s older policy, tied to CDC, KDHE and Unified Government Health Department numbers, determined that masks would now be optional in the district’s schools, because Wyandotte County dropped to “low” on the CDC’s county risk map. That change in the procedures was more like option 1, according to Lewis, and option 2 will be entirely new for the district.
COVID case numbers have dropped in Wyandotte County, and COVID hospitalizations also are currently low in the county.