The Greene County School Board recently made a change to its COVID-19 mitigation efforts.

At their regular April meeting, the Board heard from several individuals advocating for masks to be optional. The mask requirements were changed to “red” where masks were required in all buildings from before Thanksgiving break in November to April 6th, when it was changed to “yellow” where masks were required to be worn if social distancing wasn’t possible. A local chiropractor Dr. Chad Schwander presented information to the Board from sources that led to the conclusion that masks didn’t prevent people from contracting the virus and that there was a small percentage of COVID-19 cases that were attributed to children. Three other parents spoke in favor of making masks optional.

Board President Dr. Steve Karber, along with board member Mike Dennhardt, Greene County Public Health Director Becky Wolf and high school students Alex Roberts and Makala Kafer spoke in favor of keeping some sort of mask requirement. 

During the discussion, Board Vice President Catherine Wilson motioned to move the district to “green” which encourages and does not require masks to be worn. She later rescinded the motion and then motioned to move all buildings to green and buses to yellow, due to the large number of students and not being able to socially distance themselves. The Board voted 3-2 and the motion passed. Board members John McConnell and Steve Fisher, along with Wilson voted yes. 

Superintendent Tim Christensen reminds everyone of the district continuing to abide by the guidelines for quarantining students if they are exposed to the virus.

“If a student is exposed, which is less than six feet for 15 minutes or longer, and if both students are not wearing a mask then the quarantine goes into effect. So that is still in place.”

The mask change will go into effect Monday, April 26th.