By GARLAND KENNEDY and
SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writers
With mask requirements loosening in much of the country as rates of vaccinations rise, Sitka School District announced Tuesday that staff members no longer will need to wear masks before and after student contact time.
However, while in contact, school staff and students must remain masked, as has been the case since local schools reopened in August.
“Masking is now optional for staff prior to and after student contact time. This change in masking policy is based on updated CDC guidance and feedback from public health. This change in masking policy also aligns with changes to the City of Sitka policy for city employees and city buildings,” School District Learning Support Director Chris Voron wrote in an email to school families Tuesday.
This policy will remain in effect when the district is in low to medium risk, the new policy reads, but if the risk level rises, masks will again be mandated at all times.
Regardless of risk levels, faculty must keep face coverings on when teaching.
“Masks must be worn while indoors during the student contact day,” the policy reads.
Masks are now optional when folks are eating or drinking and when in outdoor areas. However, the district still asks those watching baseball or softball games to remain masked, as physical distancing is difficult on bleachers, the district’s revised policy says.
This policy is in line with city and federal changes to masking policies.
On Monday, City Administrator John Leach sent out a “return to work policy and guidelines” memo which says masks aren’t required for fully vaccinated employees, the general public and public contractors while in city buildings.
There is an exception for “high-risk environments,” such as direct patient care settings, and in “public engagement areas such as the Sitka Public Library that have patrons with a mixed vaccination status.”
The city policy also says:
“In non-high-risk environments, such as enclosed offices or work spaces, fully vaccinated individuals can gather and work without wearing masks or social distancing.”
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fully vaccinated people can, for the most part, return to their pre-pandemic lives.
“You can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic,” the CDC states on its website, last updated on Sunday. “You can resume activities without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance. If you travel in the United States, you do not need to get tested before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel.”
Those traveling on planes, trains, and buses must remain masked, the CDC states.
Superintendent John Holst said today he hasn’t heard from anyone yet on the policy, but the revisions may signal a change for next fall as well.
“We did this because we have to let parents know the change is coming,” he said. “It doesn’t affect kids but we had to let parents know.”
Holst said the change will be in effect in all the school buildings all summer, for the year-round staff including those in the district office.
“Last summer we tried to do everything in the district office that we were going to ask people to do in the fall,” he said. That included routines and protocol for sanitizing, mask wearing and cleaning surfaces.
“We lived that for a couple months in the summer, even before school started,” Holst said. “We wore masks all day to see how it felt.”
Holst said it’s far too early to say where the community will be three months from now, but Sitka has done well with its vaccination rates. Community vaccination rates are now at 71.53 for those partially vaccinated and 65.19 for those fully vaccinated; the district has some 90 percent of staff and faculty fully vaccinated, Holst said.
Sondra Lundvick, principal of Sitka High School, saw the new policy in effect when she ran into a fellow staff member around 7:15 a.m. in the hallway without a mask – which is now in compliance with the new policy.
“He said it felt really weird,” Lundvick said. She has discussed the policy with individuals, but not yet as a staff since it just came out and the first staff meeting is today.
But she said the change in policy feels like progress.
“It’s a sense of relief from the sense we’ve done such a good job up until this point,” she said. “People see the light at the end of the tunnel, and ‘Maybe we’re getting past this pandemic.’ But I say this with caution because not all of Southeast is in the same (place). ... We’ve gotten to this point by being careful and cautious. There’s no reason to change that at the end of the school year.”
Lundvick counted successes throughout the year and in recent weeks, conducted with precautions in place such as mandatory testing for after-school activities. She thanked SEARHC for getting testing supplies to make that happen.
“We’ve been able to run almost all of our activities,” she said. Prom, and the school play, and “all of the sports have gone almost without a hitch.”
“It’s been nice to have activities for students,” Lundvick said. “Their engagement rises (for academics) the more you have them in activities they can be involved with. ... I just think the district as a whole has done a great job this year. I feel really good about what the district has been able to do and accomplish. Although it’s not been a traditional school day I feel we did learn and make progress academically.”
Jill Lecrone, Baranof Elementary School principal, said the staff is responding to the news “cautiously,” since not everyone is comfortable around others without wearing masks. She said if someone is wearing a mask, she has no problem wearing one as well, even though the rules have relaxed outside students’ presence and most are vaccinated.
“We’re following the mitigation precautions, and respecting people’s personal preferences,” she said. “I think a lot of people are happy to see staff’s faces and see their expressions and smiles.” She said another reaction has been “hopeful.”
Lecrone added, “I appreciate our community support, and vaccinating and following all the rules so we can have such a low case count and ending the year on a really positive note.”
