School board changes date to make masks optional
By TONY FYFFE
BSN Editor
LOUISA — The Lawrence County Board of Education will wait until its next meeting to decide when to make wearing a mask in school buildings optional instead of mandatory.
School board members approved a change to its safe schools plan Monday night that effectively cancels its original Jan. 3 date to make mask wearing an option.
An amendment to the district’s “Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Services Plan” that was approved by the board in November would allow the masking option to begin when the county can stay in the orange zone on the state’s COVID-19 incidence map for seven consecutive days and if the number of students who test positive in the district is less than .5 percent for seven straight days.
Superintendent Dr. Robbie Fletcher noted Monday night that although the district has been “underneath” the .5 percent criteria “pretty regularly,” the county has remained in the red zone for “awhile.”
“Basically, what we’re doing is, instead of saying we’re going to optional masking on the third, we’re going to continue masking and be able to…come out of that if those two criteria are met.”
Fletcher said in November that the Jan. 3 date to make masks optional was chosen in order to give parents the opportunity to vaccinate their children before the change took place after the Christmas break.
Lawrence County, which reported 77 new COVID-19 cases last week, had a 69 rate on the incidence rate map on Monday.
Also, during Monday’s meeting, Fletcher told board members that the Lawrence County district participated in the “Stuff the Bus,” also known as “Pack the Bus,” project in which schools in the 15th and 16th regions collected supplies for Western Kentucky tornado victims, loaded them on school buses and delivered them to affected areas on Monday.
Fletcher said Lawrence County packed five buses, including one with just toys for children in Western Kentucky. He said the district also collected about $1,500 in cash that was wired to the tornado relief effort.
“There were forty-five buses that went across the state today,” Fletcher said. “There were about fifteen semis, box trucks or other vehicles that were loaded down with everything from bicycles to cleaning supplies to toys, items like that. There were ten others that joined in Central Kentucky. … All together, we had about seventy vehicles going across the state, and our buses are on their way back right now.”
Fletcher said 22 or 23 employees of the Lawrence County district made the trip to Western Kentucky.
“It was one of the things where it was just a special time,” he said.
Fletcher said all of the supplies collected in Lawrence County went to Morgantown in Butler County and are being held in reserve to use when needed.