Parkers Chapel School Board approves immediate temporary mask mandate
The Parkers Chapel School Board voted Wednesday evening to institute a temporary mask mandate on school premises effective immediately.
District Superintendent John Gross said as of Thursday afternoon, 48 high school students and 40 elementary students were in quarantine due to COVID-19 exposures.
“We’re having to send so many kids home because of contact tracing, and if they wear a mask — if both students are wearing masks, they don’t have to be sent home,” he said. “For every student who tests positive for COVID, we’ve been having to send probably 15 to 20 additional students home. They had to be quarantined because they were exposed.”
Last week, Gross said, there were 48 students total in quarantine. The rapid rise in student exposure to COVID is what prompted the school board to hold the specially-called meeting Wednesday. Forty or so members of the community attended the meeting and were given the opportunity to share their thoughts on masks.
“They had a lot of concerns. A lot of people don’t want their children to have to wear a mask. We had several people — I think we had 12 people that spoke last night. Some were medical professionals, some were parents of children with medical issues. We were there for a little over two hours last night. There was a lot of discussion,” Gross said. “I think most people understood. A lot of people just don’t want their kids to have to wear a mask. I can understand that, I don’t like them either; but we need to get them
back in school.” When a student has to quarantine due to COVID exposure, if they haven’t experienced any symptoms of the virus within five days, they may be tested and if their test comes back negative, they can return to school seven days after the initial exposure; otherwise, they must quarantine for 10 days, Gross said.
PCSD administration will be sending weekly reports to the school board with information about the number of COVID-19 cases, exposures and quarantines among students, Gross said. While the board did not set a specific threshold outlining what it would take to lift the mask mandate, they are hoping to do so as soon as possible.
“We’re sending them a report weekly, they are paying close attention to that and when the numbers get down where we have — they’ve not set a number yet where they’re going to lift the mask mandate, but they want to lift it just as soon as possible,” Gross said. “But we want to get through this spike, COVID outbreak we’re in now.”
According to the Arkansas Department of Health, 15 COVID-19 cases had been identified in the PCSD since August 21. There were seven active cases in the district as of Thursday.
The El Dorado School District, which is significantly larger than the PCSD, reported 12 total cases since August 21, including nine that were active Thursday, according to the ADH. The Junction City School District also reported six total cases this school year, including five that were active Thursday. South Arkansas Community College reported 11 total cases, including six active on Thursday.
In the 14 days preceding August 16, between 30 and 49 new COVID-19 cases were identified in residents within the PCSD, according to the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (AHCI). The ACHI also reports that as of August 16, between 20 and 40% of residents in each of Union County’s school districts, including the PCSD, had been vaccinated against COVID-19, a rate in line with most other Arkansas school districts.
Gross said Dr. Joe Thompson, a pediatrician at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and the director of ACHI, said the delta variant is the likely culprit for the quick rise in COVID cases in the state.
“He said the delta variant is still raging and he feels it will peak soon,” Gross explained. “We hope that peak will come soon and we can get rid of this mask mandate as soon as we feel our students are safe.”
The PCSD is one of three school districts in Union County that started the school year without a requirement that students and staff wear face masks on campus; the El Dorado and Strong-Huttig school districts both did implement mask mandates prior to the start of the school year.
The PCSD’s temporary mandate requires that district students at all grade levels, including Kindergarten, as well as staff and visitors wear masks on campus. Students who don’t have a mask will have one provided to them at the main office.
Gross said the district has also taken additional steps to ensure that surfaces in classrooms, school buses and the cafeteria are sanitized daily.
“It’s just a really tough time for everybody right now. We’ve just all got to work together to get through it. … It’s a lot of work trying to fight this virus,” he said. “Just as soon as we can stop this we will. We’ll let our kids get back to normal. Our school board is watching it very closely.”
"We hope that peak will come soon and we can get rid of the mask mandate as soon as we feel our children are safe."