SSD Families:
As you know, Governor Hutchinson recently lifted the statewide mask mandate. While the state highly encourages school districts to continue requiring face coverings, the governor asked the local school boards to determine whether or not to continue the face mask requirement within their schools.
The school board would like to thank all the families and staff who responded to the district’s survey regarding our COVID-19 safety measures. This input was much appreciated and helpful to the board while making this difficult decision. Results of the survey can be found at https://bit.ly/3wTgKhg.
After carefully considering this input as well as the recommendations from the Arkansas Department of Health, the Arkansas Department of Education, and the district’s COVID-19 Task Force, the school board voted tonight to continue the face mask requirement at school and school events.
We, and our COVID-19 Task Force, believe the face masks and other mitigation strategies have been successful in limiting the spread on COVID-19 and have allowed us to continue offering on-site instruction and extracurricular activities.
Even though active cases are down, we believe we should err on the side of caution. It’s also important to note that the new ADH guidelines do not require individuals to quarantine after being exposed to a positive case IF both the person of close contact and the infected person were properly wearing face masks at the time of exposure. Therefore, the face mask requirement will help keep our kids from missing more days of school and/or special events (e.g. prom and graduation) due to quarantine.