The Greene County School Board recently made a change to mask requirements.

At their most recent meeting on March 10th, the Board held a discussion about the school district’s COVID-19 mitigation efforts. According to the District’s mask matrix, they have been on  red since November, which means masks are always required. Board Vice Chair Catherine Wilson recommended that they downgrade the matrix level.

“I’m proposing that we go back to yellow so that when kids can socially distance they can have their mask off. You know my kid has said before he thinks that teachers have to patrol more, I think they’re patrolling right now. I think it’s an issue having to patrol and make sure kids are wearing them all the time. Kids can take it off when they’re sitting on the learning staircase (at the high school), and take a breath, they might be more likely to leave them on their face like they’re supposed to in class.”

Board member Steve Fisher agreed to lessen the mask restrictions and shared the feedback he received from the public.

“There’s a lot of families that want this, there’s a lot of kids that want this, and there are a lot of teachers that want this. I was in the high school and I was met by a teacher who – this particular teacher – was in tears over the fact that this teacher was having problems with some issues that she’s got and said, ‘This mask makes it so much worse.’ I’m not saying we need to do away with masks, but I think we need to start easing restrictions.”

Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf expressed concerns with the steadily increasing COVID-19 positivity rate, as well as anticipating a jump in positive cases following spring break. 

Following the discussion, the Board unanimously approved for the district to be yellow starting April 6th. The yellow level means masks are required when social distancing is not manageable.