ST. LOUIS — Monday morning, students in the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District are expected to put their masks back on while the district tries to get a handle on a rise in cases.
School is out in two weeks and kids in the Maplewood Richmond Heights school district could spend the rest of that time wearing masks.
Kids in kindergarten through second grade are going into their second week masking up, and the older students will follow suit starting Monday.
The district policy states there's a building positivity threshold of 1% to reinstate the mask mandate at any one of its three campuses. According to the district’s latest COVID update on Friday, the Early Childhood Center or ECC has exceeded that 1% threshold.
There are 11 people with COVID in the ECC system, rounding the positivity threshold up to 1.84%. So, according to the district’s COVID policy, students on the ECC campus will have to mask up for at least the next week.
The Maplewood Richmond Heights district has been mask-optional for grades K-12 since April.
Elementary school is under the threshold at .81%. Middle and high school campuses were approaching the 1% threshold at .96% positivity.
The rise in cases seen in some schools is a reflection of what is occurring in St. Louis County. As of Monday, the county health department's website shows the weekly average of new cases is around 276.
Last month, levels were below 100 daily new cases.
"Unfortunately, it has become clear that COVID-19 is not going away," the St. Louis County Department of Public Health wrote in a post on Facebook. The department also made a post encouraging residents in North County to get vaccinated.
The John C. Murphy Health Center in Berkeley opens at 8 a.m. Monday. At the location, you need an appointment to get tested and you can walk in for a vaccine.