You may see students, staff, and parents at Gibraltar maskless for the first since before the pandemic in the near future.
The Gibraltar School Board decided on Monday to allow optional masking to take place at its winter sports events at the secondary level. Spectators will have the choice to wear a face-covering while student-athletes and officials will have optional masking while they are warming up or actively competing. Mandatory masking will remain in place for athletes not competing, all district employees, and students until the district transitions to optional masking for all K-12 students. In a letter to parents, Gibraltar Superintendent Tina Van Meer says mandatory masking will remain in place during the school day and for all other extracurricular activities and practices until further notice.
The administration and the school board have restarted their conversations to transition to optional masking after high case numbers foiled their plans to implement it in the secondary school were foiled this fall. She points out that Door County Public Health will host four children-only vaccination clinics in November and December after the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control approved the vaccine’s use for those ages 5 to 11. That makes January 3rd the earliest date to institute optional masking protocols, though the school board has also discussed holding off on the switch until the end of the semester on January 26th. The administration has discussed allowing optional masking for secondary school students, which have had access to the COVID-19 vaccines for a longer time, to start after they come back from winter break.
You can read the full letter from Van Meer by clicking this link.
