Three weeks after the Eureka Springs School Board voted to reinstate a mask mandate on the school campus, administrators have made the decision to ease that requirement in response to a decrease in COVID-19 cases among district residents.

“Due to declining COVID cases in our district, masks will no longer be required at this time,” wrote superintendent Bryan Pruitt on Monday in a letter to parents. “However, they are still recommended. Our current numbers include five positive cases with zero staff members. That is well below our 3 percent population number at which masks are required.”

The school board voted Jan. 10 to give school administrators the authority to modify the mask policy in relation to the district’s risk level without needing board approval.

Pruitt explained the decision gave the district a better way to respond to a rapidly changing situation as the pandemic continues. The guideline used by the district is based on data compiled by Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.

Any time the rate for positive cases among the district’s approximately 8,500 residents tops 3 percent positive or 10 percent in quarantine, administrators can reinstate the mask mandate for three weeks. Then, if cases decrease, they can ease the restriction.

School board approval is not needed in either case.

In his letter, Pruitt said the district is still following certain public health guidelines, including being “proactive in hand washing, disinfecting and social distancing.”

“Please remind students not to drink after one another,” Pruitt wrote. “Water bottles are personal and are not to be shared. We still must maintain a social distance of 3 feet.”

The 3-foot distance, he explained, was a necessary precaution to avoid large numbers of quarantined individuals.

“At this point, the governor recommends we only quarantine people with positive cases as long as the 3-foot social distance is maintained,” Pruitt wrote. “If this distance is not maintained, close contact may also require quarantine.”

Pruitt stressed that, while masks are no longer required, they are recommended.

“If cases begin to rise and we break the 3-percent district population threshold, we will once again be required to wear masks,” he said.

During last month’s surge of positive cases, the Eureka Springs School District, along with school districts in Berryville and Green Forest, made the decision to pivot to virtual learning for a few days to give staff and students a chance to clear imposed quarantines, whether triggered by a positive test or as close contacts.

At the time of the Jan. 13 decision, the Eureka Springs district had 32 positive cases among staff and students and 92 in quarantine. Pruitt said an additional 27 people only avoided quarantine thanks to their vaccination status. Two days later, that number had grown to 40 positive cases with 140 students quarantined and 13 staff members unable to come to work.

“With the COVID numbers where they are — when you get to where you can’t staff the students, then it’s time to go home,” Pruitt said at the time. “That’s why we made our decision to go ahead and do that and hopefully let everybody just kind of get a fresh breath of air and this stuff just pass on through and come back next week and get after it again.”

Students returned to campus on Jan. 18, and Pruitt reported the time spent out of the classroom was worth it, with the number of cases falling from 40 to fewer than five.

As for the mask mandate and changing requirements, Pruitt said the district’s students have handled it well.

“Our students here have been real receptive and very cooperative,” Pruitt said last month. “They’re doing it for safety reasons. They don’t want to be sick and they don’t want other people to be sick. I’m proud of them for that.”

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Originally Appeared Here