Rochester Public Schools will make masks optional beginning next week

Starting Monday, March 7, most students and staff in Rochester Public Schools will have the option of taking off their masks.

The Rochester School Board voted unanimously on Tuesday evening to update the district’s policy to make face coverings recommended, but optional given recent declines in Covid-19 case rates.

Under the policy, masks would remain optional as long as case rates stay below 5 percent in any particular setting, such as a school building or bus.

Superintendent Kent Pekel, who introduced the recommendation, said the move does not necessarily mean an end to masking, but instead represents a shift from a district-wide approach to a school-by-school strategy.

“I believe, after a lot of consideration, this is a strategy that can sustain the school district through the foreseeable future of this pandemic,” said Pekel.

Currently, no schools or facilities within the district meet the 5 percent threshold at which face coverings would be required.

In any event case rates rise above the 5 percent threshold, however, students and staff at the particular school site would be required to wear masks for two weeks following the reporting period.

Pekel said the change in policy reflects data showing significant drops in Covid activity within the district. Just 63 positive cases were reported last week, down from a peak of 756 cases the week of Jan. 10.

He also noted that despite Olmsted County still registering as an area with a “high” level of Covid activity based on new CDC criteria, RPS — with testing strategies and a staff of nurses — remains more equipped than much of the county to make targeted decisions regarding its approach.

“Our ability to track cases of Covid — and act quickly on those cases — is not the case across the rest of Olmsted County,” said Pekel. “And that is why this policy is, once again, not abandoning mask requirements; it’s having them be driven by the actual increases where it occurs in case rates.”

In making his recommendation to the board, Pekel also noted that while students in the district have, by and large, stepped up to the challenge of wearing masks, the requirement has not been without consequence when it comes to language development, relational connection, and “for kids’ experience of school in the fullest sense.”

“Those are consequences that I think, when the spread of Covid is high, are absolutely appropriate trade-offs to make,” said Pekel. “But when we get to a point where we have 63 cases in our entire 18,000-student school district, that’s a point when I think we need to consider those educational, social, emotional, and relational implications of masking.”

By waiting until next Monday to make the change, Board Chair Jean Marvin said the district will have time to get the message out about the new policy.

Recognizing there will differing opinions on the matter, Marvin underscored the importance of reminding students the following: “Some of you will choose to wear masks. Some of you will not. There will be no judging. There will be no bullying. And to make it clear, too, that if the spread rises, everyone will be back to masks again.”

Even with the revised policy, some in the district will still be required to wear masks inside RPS buildings. Those include students in early childhood who are under five, and thus unable to be vaccinated. (That could change in the near future if the county moves from a “high” to “medium” level of transmission.) Staff in health services offices who have direct contact with students will also be required to wear face coverings.

Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.

Cover photo: File / Licensed via Canva