ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — The Fort Zumwalt School Board approved a mask mandate for all students and staff throughout the district for the next four weeks.
The mandate was approved by a 4-3 vote and will be in place until the next regularly scheduled school board meeting on Oct. 18, where the policy will be re-evaluated. The policy covers every school from pre-K through 12th grade.
Before the vote, the Fort Zumwalt School District was encouraging students to wear masks, but they were not required.
The only exception for a mandate was Westhoff Elementary.
As of Monday, Westhoff Elementary School has had 30 students test positive, resulting in 99 quarantines. The school has 524 students. Starting on September 13, students and staff were required to wear mask indoors. They will now be under the district-wide mandate.
Fort Zumwalt Superintendent Bernard DuBray said as of Monday afternoon, the district has had 139 students with COVID in the past two weeks. More than 300 students are in quarantine, but that number is down from the beginning of the year. In total, that's about 2% of the district's students.