ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The Mehlville School District is having an in-person first day of school for the first time since 2019.
The district is starting the 2021-2022 school year with in-person learning. Last year, the district decided to start all students virtually and later brought them fully back on campuses in April.
The district is requiring everyone – students and staff – to wear masks inside and on buses, regardless of whether or not they’ve been vaccinated.
But the district said it will re-evaluate the facemask policy if there’s a decline locally in COVID transmission during the school year. St. Louis County is considered a “high transmission risk” area by the CDC right now.
Mehlville School District posted its COVID-19 policy on Aug. 5 online.
The statement mentions that schools experienced difficulties after bringing students back to in-person learning toward the end of the 2020-2021 school year. It reads, “As students and staff returned to campus, we faced numerous absences due to COVID-19 exposure and often shifted entire classrooms or grade-levels to virtual learning. Last school year was difficult for our students, staff and families.”
This year, they’re starting things off by offering in-person learning at the start of the year. They intend to keep that option available all year, but students and families can still participate in online schooling if they choose.
The district has just over 200 at-home students in grades K-8. Mehlville High School has about 25 students completely at home and between the district’s two high schools, there are about 60 students learning from home.
The district said it encourages all students and staff to be vaccinated. Though it's not required, Mehlville School District parents are asked to consider sharing their student’s vaccination status with their school nurse.
That way, the district can have an idea of just how many people have had their shots in the different schools.
Mehlville High School principal, Dr. Jason Landherr, told 5 On Your Side some parents have already approached his school’s staff during a recent open house about voluntarily disclosing their child’s vaccination status to help the school collect data.
The district is preparing for the worst.
“We are tracking positivity rate and case rates in our zip codes. Both are considered high by CDC. Our board is revisiting this each month,” said Jessica Pupillo, director of communications for the Mehlville School District.
Their COVID-19 plan states if there’s an outbreak of the virus or a spike in cases at any of their schools, that school can temporarily pivot to virtual learning, or choose to do what they call their “connected model.”
In the connected model, kids will get live lessons using a platform like Google Meet and complete their work individually. Attendance will still be taken if schools have to move to the connected model.
Enrollment is up at Mehlville School District, with10,027 students expected to start school this year. That number is up from 9,778 last year. Mehlville High School is expecting 1,486 students, up from 1,387 last year.