Arissa Viering | 08/11/2020 | Goodday Mineral Wells | MWISD Updates
MINERAL WELLS, TX – On August 11th, 2020, Superintendent Dr. John Kuhn announced to the MWISD community important updates to their mask policy.
In the previous MWISD COVID-19 protocols and procedures policies, MWISD mandated that masks be worn by all students ten years or older (those attending Travis Elementary and above). This mandate will now be changed to include all students at MWISD, including those attending Lamar Elementary. Therefore, every student attending MWISD will be required to wear a mask when they are “within six feet of another individual,” per Dr. Kuhn.
“Face coverings can include a disposable mask, a cloth mask, a plastic face shield, or a gaiter. The reason for this change has to do with keeping our teachers on the job and our students in school . . . The quarantine protocol that we get from TEA [Texas Education Agency] and that the TEA gets from the Federal Government says this: “If you’re within six feet of someone for a cumulative time period of fifteen minutes and one of those two individuals are not wearing a mask and either person is sick, that person [the individual not wearing a mask whether sick or healthy] has to quarantine.”
Superintendent Dr. John Kuhn
Essentially this change in procedures is to ensure prevention of the need for further, repeated quarantine measures by both students and teachers. Within the scenario that Dr. Kuhn describes, if a person is exposed to another individual who is suspected of or has tested positive for COVID-19, if the individual was not wearing a mask at the time of exposure, they must quarantine as well whether they are showing symptoms or not. Due to this concern, the above changes in policy have been made.
Concerns regarding leave periods, amount of substitute teachers, and amount of students per classroom that could potentially become ill in addition to the updated protocols are discussed further in the below video:
Parents with students attending Lamar or Houston Elementary schools who wish to change their child’s enrollment status (remote or face-to-face learning) because of these changes in policy, may do so.
Dr. Kuhn wanted to stress the following statement: “If both parties are wearing a mask and a student becomes ill with COVID, that teacher gets to stay on the job.”
For further information regarding safe practices for wearing a mask, see the below post from Palo Pinto General Hospital published today:
For additional information regarding the safety of mask-wearing in children, check out the below articles from Cook Children’s Medical Center:
https://cookchildrens.org/coronavirus/updates/Pages/wearing-a-mask-is-safe.aspx
Former Co-Founder | June 2020-Nov 2020 | Graduate of Texas Christian University with a background in medical anthropology, psychology, and creative writing. Passionate about writing novels. Loved the Mineral Wells community and all that it had offered her and her family.
