Requirements for mask wearing changed this week across the Wright City R-II School District.

School board members decided during their monthly meeting on Oct. 21 to lift a mask mandate at schools under certain conditions and limitations.

Most impacted will be the high school, which moved entirely to voluntary masking on Monday. This status will remain in place unless the building exceeds a one-percent threshold of students testing positive with COVID-19. At that time, mandatory masking would be reinstated.

“That one-percent threshold was the district safety net,” said Superintendent Dr. Chris Berger. “If the high school hits one percent of active cases — that would be about five students — we’d go back to best practice, which is all of our mitigation strategies in place and mask up again for three weeks.”

At the elementary and middle schools, masks have become voluntary in cafeterias, gymnasiums and libraries when social distancing is possible. Masks are still required in other areas of the elementary and middle school buildings.

“We certainly want to mention that the Warren County Health Department fully endorses our actions, and we work with them in creating those recommendations,” said Berger. “The factor that was considered was positivity rate. We had been monitoring that it was trending the right way, and we knew when we got to single digits we could look to modify those mitigation strategies.”

Berger said part of the decision is related to the opportunity for all high schoolers to receive COVID vaccination. He said the district is hopeful vaccination will be available for students aged 5 to 11 beginning in November.

“The interesting question here is do student vacations have a role in this, and I would say they do,” said Berger.

Another topic that could potentially impact masking and quarantine in the near future is the possible implementation of a test-to-stay program, endorsed by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. If R-II chooses to initiate test to stay, students in close contact with a positive COVID-19 case could get tested at school and not have to quarantine if they have a negative test result.

“We do not have everything set up to do that, so we’ll spend the time between now and the next board meeting trying to get ready for that option,” said Berger. “The biggest obstacle is manpower and staffing it. We’ll try to put all those pieces together between now and November.”

If R-II were to join its neighboring district, Warren County R-III, in implementing the program, there would be approximately $400,000 available from the state to fund the efforts.

“Other things we’re looking at that appear to be eligible for those dollars are mobile filtration units and any other activities that support mitigation and testing,” added Berger.