Mid-Prairie requires face masks for staff

All faculty and staff at Mid-Prairie schools are now required to wear face masks.

At Monday's meeting, the Mid-Prairie school board agreed to revise the policy for employees in an effort to cut down on COVID-related quarantines.

'All employees are now required to wear face masks, with a few exceptions,” Superintendent Mark Schneider said.

One of the exceptions would be if an employee was working one-on-one with a student with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that indicates the student has a communication need.

Employees working without anyone else around are not required to wear masks as well.

Students are still required to wear face coverings and encouraged to opt for using masks.

Schneider said that the decision was based on guidelines from the Iowa Department of Health that state that if both parties are wearing masks in a close contact situation, quarantine is not required.

However, if one or both parties is wearing another type of face covering, like a shield or gaiter, a two-week quarantine is required.

'If we have a significant number of staff in quarantine, we can't do in-person learning,” Schneider said. 'We're not only trying to keep students in school, we're also trying to keep the staff working in in-person learning.”

On Nov. 10-12, the district reported that there were 17 staff absent each day due to quarantine. That number was at seven on Monday.

On Monday, there were 91 students absent due to quarantine, down from a high of 151 on Nov. 11.

'When students have to quarantine, it takes them out of the classroom,” Schneider said. 'They have to follow along from home.”

He said that mitigating quarantines helps the district maintain its commitment to in-person learning, nothing that other districts have had to move to online learning because of staff shortages.

The Highland school district recently moved to online learning because of a shortage of bus drivers.

'Not everyone can drive a bus,” Schneider said. 'They need to have a CDL, and they're hard to find.”