ST CHARLES, Mo. — The board of education for the City of St. Charles School District voted Thursday night to make masks optional for high school students. The new guidelines go into effect Monday, Oct. 18.
Kindergarten through 8th grade will still be required to mask up.
At the beginning of the year, the school board voted to mandate masks for students Kindergarten through 12th grade and for all staff while they were inside.
A spokesperson for the district told 5 On Your Side "As since the beginning of the year, this will be revisited at the next monthly meeting."
The plan for mask optional at the high school level will be in effect as long as the positivity rate is 4% or below at each school. If the numbers go up, a mandatory mask policy could be reinstated.
A district spokesperson also said the district will follow a modified quarantine policy. That means if a student is wearing a mask and was exposed to another person with COVID they can still attend school if they don't have symptoms. They will also have to mask up for 14 days. If the student was not wearing a mask when exposed they will have to quarantine for 14 days and test negative for COVID before coming back to school.
The changes are expected to be posted on the district's website sometime Friday.
A presentation at Thursday night's board meeting shared data on current COVID cases in the district.
COVID cases from Aug. 23 to Oct. 14:
- 5 active, confirmed staff cases
- 12 cumulative, confirmed staff cases
- 11 active, in-person student cases
- 74 cumulative, in-person student cases: 1 early childhood student; 44 from K-6 buildings; 22 from 7-12 buildings; 7 from L&C and CAPS programs
- 3 active probable and 14 cumulative probable student cases
Quarantine numbers for same time period:
- 225 cumulative modified quarantined students
- 121 cumulative full quarantined students from school exposure: 27 from early childhood center (masks optional), 0 currently quarantined; 94 from K-12 (masks mandated), 19 currently quarantined
There are about 1,500 high school students in the district, according to the district's website. There are two high schools, one 5th-6th grade intermediate school, one 7th-8th grade middle school and six elementary schools for kids kindergarten through 4th grade. Overall, the district has about 5,100 kids enrolled.