At the September 1 Board of Trustees Special Meeting, the board voted to approve an extension to the mask requirement for one week through Friday, Sept. 10.

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This extension is in place in order to hear the full list of public comments from stakeholders who signed up for public comment.

This mask requirement extension will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 7, and will be for all students in K-12. That requirement is currently scheduled to end on Friday, Sept. 10.

For Thursday and Friday, Sept. 2-3, the mask requirement is for all students in K-8, as previously voted on by the Board of Trustees.

There will be a board meeting on Wednesday, September 8, to hear public comments and discuss extending the requirement.

Due to the board not seeing the second page of in-person public comment requests and a venue change mid-meeting, not everyone who signed up for public comment was able to share their opinions. Therefore instead of voting on extending the requirement through Friday, October 15, as originally written, the board voted on the one-week extension in order to hear the rest of the public comment on Wednesday, September 8, before making any longer-term decisions.

 

The purpose of the interim mask requirement is to help ensure students remain in school. Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) quarantine guidelines state that if a person is not wearing a mask and tests positive for COVID-19, anyone in close contact with that person must also quarantine. Vaccinated individuals will not have to quarantine, but WDH guidelines recommend they monitor for symptoms and test 3-5 days after the last known exposure.

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