Masks now optional in Whitley County schools, except on buses

Students in the Whitley County School District still have to wear masks while riding school buses, but they can now take off their masks once they get to school.

The Whitley County Board of Education unanimously approved the policy change during its regular monthly meeting Thursday.

Parents can still require their children to wear masks in school.

Superintendent John Siler cited falling COVID-19 incidence rates as one of the major reasons for the change.

Masks will still be required on school buses due to federal requirements, Siler added.

The district’s masking policy has varied throughout the school year.

Initially, the district planned to make it a choice in terms of whether parents wanted their children to wear masks.

Then COVID-19 rates began to increase.

The Kentucky Board of Education mandated that masks be worn in school, but this requirement was later overturned by the courts.

Siler noted that after the local hospitals became overwhelmed and started canceling outpatient surgery and other things, the district opted to require students to wear masks.

The outpatient center at Baptist Health Corbin reopened about three weeks ago, and Siler noted that the district changed its mask policy around the same time to allow students to remove their masks once they were seated.

Siler said he feels like it is appropriate to drop the mask requirements now because the incidence rates have dropped from red to orange and are decreasing.

“We want to continue to monitor all of these things, such as how many positive students, the incidence rate, the positivity rate and things like that. If it starts to increase and it gets to the point where we feel like we need to, then we can revisit putting masks back in place,” he added.