Masking changes for Jefferson City and Columbia Public Schools
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Jefferson City School District and Columbia Public Schools are making changes to their masking policies.
Starting Monday, Jefferson City will move into its 'green protocols' phase and will no longer require face masks while indoors. CPS announced it will extend its mask mandate an additional week through this Friday.
Jefferson City School District
On Friday, JC Schools sent a message to families stating the reason for the move into 'green protocols' starting Monday is due to a "sharp decline in new cases over the past two weeks."
According to the school district, all of its schools will move into "green level protocols."
Green Level Protocols
- Masks encouraged, not required
- Masks required on school bus per CDC order
- Individuals who test positive for COVID-19 and return to school symptom free on days 6-10 will be required to wear a mask
- All other COVID-19 reentry plan priorities are still in place including social distancing when possible
The school district said it will continue to monitor COVID-19 cases on its dashboard tracker and will make changes to protocols, if necessary. JC Schools says positive cases will be reviewed at least once a week.
JC Schools said individual classrooms, grades, school buildings, or the entire school district can move into different COVID-19 protocol levels at any time depending on the number of active cases within the schools or community.
Columbia Public School District
On Friday, CPS sent a message to families stating due to the recent winter weather and snow days, the school district planned to extend the mask mandate through this Friday.
The original masking policy in place was scheduled to end on Friday, Feb. 4.
The school district said the current decline in COVID-19 cases is encouraging but wanted CPS students and staff to return to the buildings before evaluating its next move.
According to the current CPS COVID-19 dashboard, a total of 23 students are currently in quarantine or isolation due to the virus. 12 of those students are currently positive with COVID-19.
As of Sunday, the dashboard reported 31 students in quarantine or isolation, which is a drop of eight students in a single day.
