Masks now required for grades K-8 at North Harrison Schools...

Mask mandate starting August 16th for North Harrison Schools, grades K-8.

Please the following statement from superintendent Dr. Lance Richards:

Parents, Guardians, Students, and Staff:

At this point everyone knows what is presently happening in regards to the Delta variant and the increased caseloads that are being seen in our area. At the time that we established our return to school plan, our county and district were seeing relatively few positive Covid cases. It seemed that our state, county, and community had turned a corner on Covid.

As a result of our current caseload, on Monday, August 16th, we are requiring all students and adults in grades K – 8 to wear masks in our buildings during the school day regardless of vaccination status, unless a medical situation or ADA compliance dictates otherwise.

At this point it is a two week masking requirement. We will reassess at that time to determine our path forward.

This requirement does NOT impact the high school at this time. We will continue to monitor their status and adjust if necessary.

At the outset we promised to examine the data as it relates to our school community specifically. We continue to track the numbers in our specific schools. If you follow the NH Covid Dashboard on our website, you will note that our elementary schools have been particularly impacted. Our middle school has seen several cases as well. Interestingly, our high school data has been very good with zero cases reported thus far in our students.

This year our main goal has been to return to full in-person instruction. We want to keep our schools open and our students in the classroom with direct instruction from their teachers. Everyone in our corporation is committed to closing the gap on the learning loss that many students experienced last year. We know that our school community wants this as well. No parent or educator wants a repeat of last year.

A big concern for us is the number of students who have to miss school due to contact tracing. Each positive case can then impact 20 to 30 students. This effort will shrink our close contact radius to three feet rather than six. At the close of last year our number of students in quarantine had been cut by more than half. Simply put it keeps more kids in school and in person. (Please note that the guidance on how we conduct contact tracing is set by the Indiana Department of Health. This framework is not something that we get to determine.)

As a reminder, federal regulations for public transportation require face coverings on school buses for all students and staff. This policy will continue until the federal entities change it.

At present, there are no mask requirements for outdoor activities.

We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we move forward. We fully recognize the divergent opinions on masks and Covid in our community. I have spoken with many of you on this topic. We will continue to monitor our data and adjust accordingly.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lance Richards

Superintendent

North Harrison Community Schools