HILLIARD, Ohio (WCMH) – The Hilliard City School District will rescind its mask mandate starting this week.
In a letter sent to families, the district said masks would be optional for both students and staff starting Wednesday.
Masks are still required to be worn on school buses until March 18 due to it being a federal mandate.
As of Friday, the district reported 43 positive COVID-19 cases, 32 among the students and 11 staff members, according to the district’s dashboard.
“The decline in cases in our school district over the past 4 weeks is dramatic and sustained… I am proud of the efforts that our staff, students, and families have undertaken to collectively combat COVID-19, however, I believe the time has come to reconsider the requirement for universal masking in our schools,” Hilliard Superintendent David Stewart wrote in the letter.
Stewart’s full message to Hilliard families is below:
As you recall, in mid-November I emailed our community and let them know that, at that time, I believed that the COVID-19 data was trending toward a point where it would be possible to allow individuals and families to determine whether or not wearing a mask in school was their best option. At that time, the point of my letter was to give parents ample time to get their student vaccinated if they wished to do so. Unfortunately, the Omicron variant had other plans. This district, its teachers, its students, and its staff weathered that storm and united in their efforts to keep our doors open. I am proud of all of them for their efforts. If there was a silver lining to this very challenging time, it was that it provided more time for families who wished to get their students vaccinated to do so.
At tonight’s Board of Education meeting, I shared my current thoughts on the COVID-19 pandemic and masking in schools. The decline in cases in our school district over the past 4 weeks is dramatic and sustained. We have now reached the point where we were when I sent that email in November. As I said, I am proud of the efforts that our staff, students, and families have undertaken to collectively combat COVID-19, however, I believe the time has come to reconsider the requirement for universal masking in our schools.
Therefore, beginning Wednesday, February 16, we will no longer be requiring masks to be worn in our schools. To be clear, any student or staff member who wishes to continue to wear a mask will be absolutely welcome to do so. Please keep in mind that the federal requirement to wear masks on school buses remains in place until at least March 18.
This does not mean we will stop monitoring our data daily. We will continue to update our webpage each Friday with the number of student and staff cases in each building. We will also continue to provide community and county data from the CATS team on the webpage. Additionally, any parent who wishes to provide their student with an N95 mask can come to the district office (2140 Atlas St.) and we will provide those masks at no charge. We will also continue to employ other mitigation strategies such as cleaning and proper ventilation.
We will still ask families to continue to monitor their students for symptoms and check this FAQ for when to keep students home from school. In addition, we still want families to notify our school nurses if a student tests positive for COVID.
We know that the best place for kids is in school, in-person, full-time. All of our mitigation efforts have been aimed at ensuring this for our students and families. Again, we are extremely proud of the efforts of our collective community and are excited that we have reached this point. Our goals have not changed, and we look forward to a rewarding Spring for all of our students and staff. By continuing to work together, we can make this happen.
Hilliard Superintendent David Stewart
