This story has been updated to include comments from school board member Dan Brown.
GREENFIELD — A mask mandate will go into effect starting Monday, Sept. 27, at Greenfield-Central schools.
The school board passed the mandate at a special session Monday, Sept. 20, after seeing the number of weekly COVID cases among students jump to an all-time high for this school year.
Greenfield-Central schools have seen an average of more than 21 positive COVID cases per week among its 4,400 students since school began July 29.
That average jumped when a new high of 32 new cases was reported last week, followed by an additional eight cases on Monday.
Between 12 and 32 new COVID cases have popped up each week since the start of school, forcing an average of 207 students each week to quarantine at home, according to administrators’ calculations.
“The numbers are definitely driving this decision,” Superintendent Harold Olin said.
“We’ve got seven weeks of data we’ve been able to glean, which we’ve been sharing with the school board on an ongoing basis,” he said.
The board voted 4-1 to pass the mask mandate. Board president Dan Brown was the lone member to vote against it.
Brown, in an email to the Daily Reporter on Wednesday, Sept. 22, explained why he voted against the mask measure
The mandate will impact students for six school days before being reviewed at the next board meeting Oct. 18, the day students return to school after a two-week fall break.
Mt. Vernon and Southern Hancock schools already have mask mandates in place.
Olin said Gov. Eric Holcomb’s decision to reduce school quarantine restrictions as of Sept. 1 helped drive the decision to require masks in schools.
In the past, students who were identified as close contacts with a person who tested positive were required to quarantine at home for 14 days. The governor’s mandate makes it possible for mask-wearing students identified as close contacts to continue coming to school.
According to the executive order, “schools and day cares that have mask requirements that are consistently followed throughout the day do not have to quarantine students, teachers and staff who are close contacts and aren’t showing symptoms of COVID-19. Plus, schools and day cares must continue to contact trace by notifying the local health department as well as parents, teachers and staff who were in close contact with a person who has tested positive.”
The governor’s order expires Sept. 30.
Olin said the order, along with Greenfield-Central’s mask mandate, means students won’t be forced to miss school as a result of being contact-traced.
“We’ve been disappointed to watch the number of kids who have been included as close contacts staying home and trying to work virtually,” Olin said. “After much review, the board decided that a mask mandate seems to be in our best interest.”
According to a letter the corporation emailed to parents Tuesday afternoon: “G-C students will be required to wear a mask at all times when six feet of social distancing is not possible, which includes most settings in the school day…. Masks may be removed when individuals are eating, at recess, participating in band or choir, and during physical education classes that include strenuous activity. If a student is identified as a close contact during a time when masks are not worn, such as the scenarios listed above, the student will be excluded from school for a designated period of time.”
You can read the superintendent’s letter in full here:
Sep 21 2021 Mask Update for GCCSC 1 (1)
Whereas virtual school was an option at Greenfield-Central schools last school year, it’s not being offered this year.
Twenty-five students have opted to take virtual learning through the corporation’s partner, the Central Indiana Educational Service Center, which is offering virtual classes for students in grades 7 through 12. Other Greenfield-Central students cannot opt to switch into or out of the program until the end of the fall semester.
Olin is hopeful the new mask mandate, coupled with the governor’s latest guidelines on contact tracing, will mean far fewer absences in the coming weeks.
“We’re really trying to preserve the educational environment, to have more kids on site with our teachers each day, without having healthy kids staying at home,” Olin said.
Monday’s school board meeting wasn’t all about masks. The board also passed a resolution to move forward with plans to build a new auditorium on the north end of the school, a project that will also entail adding a new entrance to the main gymnasium as well as more seating in the natatorium.
It was the second and final hearing for the resolution, which received public support at the regularly scheduled board meeting Sept. 13. Olin said work could begin in another month or so, and should be complete within two years.
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The Greenfield-Central school board has enacted a mandate requiring masks to be worn by all students and staff, starting on Monday, Sept. 27, making it the third Hancock County school system to require masks for the 2021-22 school year.
The Mt. Vernon Community School Corp. has been requiring masks in its schools since earlier this month. Southern Hancock County schools have required masks since late August.
The Eastern Hancock County school system has no mask requirements.
The Indiana Department of Health updated its weekly school COVID-19 data on Monday, with figures through last Friday, Sept. 17. According to the update, Greenfield-Central High School added 11 new student cases and Greenfield Central Junior High School added eight new student cases, while all of the other schools in the corporation added fewer than five new COVID cases among students.
At Mt. Vernon, student cases went up by eight at Fortville Elementary School and fewer than five at McCordsville Elementary School, Mt. Vernon Middle School and Mt. Vernon High School, respectively.
Southern Hancock saw student case additions of seven at New Palestine High School, five at New Palestine Junior High School and fewer than five in the rest of its buildings.
At Eastern Hancock, the high school had six new student cases while the middle and elementary schools had fewer than five, respectively.
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