Students within the Marion County School District can breathe a little easier, at least for now, since the Marion County School Board voted Monday night to lift the mandatory mask requirement on all of its campuses.
Marion County Superintendent Michael Day announced that, based on the current number of cases and the overall condition of the district's student population, the mask mandate was no longer justified at this time. He stressed, however, that he and the board will continuously monitor the situation and make any policy modifications that are deemed necessary, including the reinstatement of the mask mandate.
One caveat to the lifting of the required mask rule is that the board has given all of the principals within the district the authority to temporarily require the wearing of masks on an individual event basis, such as an assembly or other large gathering where 50 or more will be in attendance.
Also, the revised rules call for all students to keep a mask with them during school hours, just in case any situation should arise that could require them to wear it.
Although there continues to be an elevated level of concern for the health and safety of the students and faculty, Day said he feels confident following the established guidelines and criteria that precipitates a policy change or revision, such as when to implement the shut-down of a campus, or building or individual classroom and revert to virtual learning.
Day said the factors used to determine these policies and when to enact certain safety measures, such as three or more positive COVID tests within the realm of a given space (like a classroom), seem to be effective in curtailing an increase in cases. He added that the same, or very similar, procedures are being followed by surrounding school districts with similar encouraging results.
Another topic covered during the board meeting was approval of the Early Warning System, which is an existing procedure that the district uses as an advance detection and prevention tool to monitor students who show certain indications of either falling behind in their education or possibly even dropping out of school entirely.
Day explained that the EWS is a tracking mechanism based on three elements that are essential to a student's success in remaining at the proper grade levels from kindergarten through their senior year. The elements are identified by the acronym "ABC," which stands for: A (attendance); B (behavior); and C (class performance).
Each element has its own parameters that serve as standard guidelines for how students are expected to perform, such as limitations on the number of unexcused absences that are allowed, the number of behavioral incident referrals and, of course, their academic grades in the classroom.
Day said it's a very valuable tool that helps prevent students from failing to reach their full potential by red-flagging those cases where students are beginning to slide off-track, and it identifies areas of concern that need to be reviewed and resolved quickly.
Although it's been some 19 months since the onset of COVID-19, Day said the MCSD continues to feel the negative impact of the pandemic. He said recent academic testing results, like the MAAP and ACT, reflect a dramatic under-performance that can directly be attributed to students having to revert to virtual learning.
"The pandemic hasn't just impacted our students' grades and classroom performance, it's also deeply affected many of our kids in emotional and psychological ways due to the isolation and lack of socialization," Day said. "I believe we'll still be working on trying to readjust and fix this years from now, like trying to help rebuild their sense of belonging. And it's not just Marion County alone, it's throughout the state and probably much of the country."
