Students, teachers and staff will no longer have to quarantine if they are identified as a COVID-19 close contact in a school building where everyone had their masks on consistently throughout the school day.

This is one of the changes the Brown County Schools Board of Trustees approved on Sept. 2 when they approved modifications to the school district’s COVID-19 educational service delivery plan. The initial plan was approved in July.

This was also the third school board meeting members of the public, including students, spoke out against the school district’s mask mandate. At the Sept. 2 meeting, three people spoke.

“I’m tired of wearing masks and I just want them optional. I want to live the normal life I used to live. I hate having to worry every day,” Brown County High School freshman Jasmine Dufek said.

“My friends are tired of this too. We are all tired of wearing masks. COVID will always be here and it will never go away. Just like the flu, it never went away, and we can’t wear these forever. Let us be happy and free.”

On Aug. 12 the school board ratified the mask mandate. Superintendent Emily Tracy had instituted it on Aug. 9.

Dufek said since the mask mandate has caused her to get in trouble at school and have a reputation as a “troubled kid.”

“I don’t enjoy going to school anymore. I can’t focus in class. I’m burned out by the end of the day,” she said.

Dufek said she enjoyed “three days of freedom” after the start of school when masks were only recommended for anyone not vaccinated before the mandate was put in place that everyone would wear masks regardless of their vaccination status.

“I didn’t want to go to school the next day,” she said.

The freshman questioned the school board about why masks were mandated after students, teachers and staff were exposed to each other the first three days of school.

“During lunch period we have to wear masks at the lunch table until we get food then you can take off the masks once you get your food and eat. What is the point in that rule? It’s useless,” Dufek said.

On the first day of school Aug. 4, the school district had its first COVID-19 positive case. Another case was reported the next day, and by Aug. 6 there were four additional cases. Four more positive cases were reported in three schools on Aug. 13.

The school board did not respond to the comments per their public comment protocol.

Kevin Patrick also shared data with the board from the school district’s daily metric report and said that positive cases continued to rise after the mandate was put in place.

“I’m just asking that you consider looking at the data aside from what you’re seeing from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control),” he said.

“This is a new virus we have and there is very little data about it. … It will continue to have variants just like every flu we have seen since the Spanish Flu in 1918.”

“I know you feel like you need to follow the guidelines put out by the state, but there are countless organizations and school boards in this state alone that are putting together their own plan to fit their own community,” he continued.

Plan changes

So far this school year Brown County Middle School, Van Buren Elementary School and Helmsburg Elementary School all had to close for a period of time and switch to remote learning due to the spread of COVID symptoms, cases or contacts within the building.

The buildings were moved to the “red level” of the district’s educational service delivery plan after the threshold of absences related to COVID-19 and active exposure cases — like those who tested positive, were symptomatic, identified as a close contact, or were awaiting test results — surpassed 20 percent of the building population.

As of Sept. 7, Sprunica Elementary School, Van Buren Elementary and the middle school each reported one positive case. Brown County High School reported two positive cases.

Every school also had less than 6-percent of building populations reporting COVID-19 symptoms as of Sept. 7.

One of the other changes the school board approved on Sept. 2 was to eliminate the “yellow level” of the response plan, which would put children on a hybrid schedule — or half-in person/half remote — depending on levels of symptom activity, positive cases or exposures in each building.

The metric tracking the percentage of a building population absent due to active exposure cases was also removed with the recent update.

Now a building will now only be considered for closure, or be put on “red level,” if 16 percent of the building population is reporting COVID-19 symptoms for at least two days. Previously a building would be closed if 20 percent or more of the building population was absent due to testing positive for COVID-19, having symptoms, being identified as a close contact or were awaiting test results.

All building and/or athletic closures considered under this metric will be reviewed by the school administration and decisions will be made in collaboration with local health partners as needed, according to the updated plan.

Anyone in a school building who is identified as a close contact to someone who tested positive will no longer have to quarantine per Executive Order 21-24 that Gov. Eric Holcomb signed on Sept. 1.

The executive order states that schools and daycares 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,” according to the governor’s office.

This close contact rule change applies to classroom settings only.

A virtual option for all students is also still being reviewed by the school district’s administration leadership team, Superintendent Emily Tracy said.

If a building is closed after reaching the “red level” all virtual instruction will be online for students in grades six through 12. Remote learning will be online and/or on paper for kindergarten to fifth-grade students.

If a school building is closed any extra-curricular or co-curricular activities may also be canceled, but Tracy noted that each cancellation would be reviewed on an “individual basis.”

The updates to the COVID-19 educational service delivery plan were approved unanimously.

See the complete plan here.