Online Petition for Mask Mandate for Atlantic School District reaches 459 signatures

(Atlantic) A mask mandate online petition directed toward the Atlantic School Board,  reached 459 signatures as of 6:20 p.m. on Saturday.

School members discussed the mandate at Wednesday’s board meeting in response to Governor Reynolds’s new quarantine guidelines easing quarantine requirements. The idea is to keep non-infected students in school. The policy states when both the positive case and the close contacts case are consistently wearing masks, the close contact doesn’t have to quarantine.

School board members Nick Hunt and Laura McLean spoke in favor of mandating face coverings where social distancing isn’t possible. School Board President Josh McLaren spoke out against a mandate, Christy Pellett, and Jenny Williams appeared to be leaning against a mandate as well.  No vote was taken, but the issue may be brought up for discussion at a future board meeting.

Atlantic Schools Superintendent Steve Barber appearing on his weekly Superintendents report on 95.7 F.M. on Friday morning, stated, “We have seen a sharp decline in the use of masks amongst our student body.  “I am encouraging parents and students and staff to ensure they’re following school policy expecting students and staff to wear masks when social distancing cannot take place. So if we do have a positive case, we’re only affecting a small portion of people versus some situations where we’ve already had to shut down an entire class for two weeks.”

The current policy states students and staff in grades 6^th through 12^th are expected to wear masks when social distancing is not possible. He says there is square footage in the middle and high school buildings, and the majority of the classrooms and lunch areas allow for social distancing. “However, there are times when students and staff are in the hallways or other common gatherings where social distancing cannot be guaranteed,” said Barber. “These are the times we expect our students and staff to wear face coverings. We’ve always talked about individual responsibility, and this is part of being responsible during this time of COVID.”