Columbia Public Schools mask mandate to stay at least a week; JC Schools drops requirement Monday

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia Public Schools will keep its mask mandate until at least the end of next week, while the Jefferson City School District will shed its mask requirement Monday.

Both schools announced their decisions Friday afternoon. JC Schools said the district has moved into its "green" protocol, indicating a smaller number of new cases. The mandates require masks to be worn inside by students and staff.

Case levels have been dropping in Missouri, including in Cole and Boone counties, as the omicron wave appears to have peaked here.

Columbia's mandate had been set to expire this week. But CPS says it will use the next week to evaluate case levels after classes were out much of this week because of a snowstorm.

"Current sewershed reports indicate the variant has peaked in Columbia, and we are beginning to see a decline. This is encouraging information," the district said in a message to families.

"The safety of our scholars and employees continues to be our number one priority and this extension of our current intervention will allow for additional time for cases to continue to decline in our community."

Both districts put the rules in place as omicron sent case levels and hospitalizations in Mid-Missouri to record levels and made large numbers of staff sick, making it difficult to have teachers for all classes. But those numbers have since dropped. As of Thursday, JC Schools reported 21 active student cases and six staff cases. In CPS, 34 students had active infections Friday along with 19 employees.

Both districts have been out for snow days since Wednesday, allowing more students and staff time to recover.

"Though we had serious concerns with the increase in cases in January due to the Omicron variant, we have seen a sharp decline in new cases over the past two weeks," JC Schools said in its message to parents. "The number of staff absences and our substitute fill rate have also stabilized."

Attorney General Eric Schmitt has sued each district, along with 43 others, over the mask mandates, claiming they violate state law and are ineffective.

It's the second suit against CPS. Schmitt filed one over the district's previous mask mandate in the fall, but that lawsuit was dropped after the district removed the requirement in December. Omicron's dominance brought the mandate back as an order from the superintendent that was approved by the school board. Schmitt filed a new lawsuit in response.

The school board authorized CPS Superintendent Brian Yearwood to extend the mandate as far as Feb. 18.

ABC 17 spoke to CPS parents about the extended mask requirement. While no one wanted to go on record, the reaction was negative.

Noelle Gilzow, CPS teacher and president of the Columbia chapter of the National Educators Association, told ABC she appreciates efforts by the district to keep students in the classrooms.

"I am thankful that we're being flexible and responsive to the case numbers in our area in order to be able to keep students in seats learning," Gilzow said.

Gilzow supports the extension to make sure that COVID numbers in schools are not artificially low since students have been out of school for several days due to the snowy weather.

"It's probably a good idea to make sure the number being down isn't just because kids are out of school," Gilzow said. "I'm hopeful that this week will be it and then we'll go back to the um being able to mask if you want to but not that you have to."

Check back for updates to this developing story.