The Matanuska-Susitna School District has dropped its mask requirement for students and staff in the schools when a school is in the “Yellow Zone” of infection, which is the moderate level.
Currently, the majority of the schools in the borough are in the Yellow Zone, with just 12 schools in the “Green Zone” of low infection. The change goes into effect on Monday.
View all schools in the Mat-Su and their status in the Covid mitigation recommendations here. Note that the plan has not been updated to reflect the district’s new direction announced Friday afternoon.
According to a note to parents, while the current prevalent variant of Covid is more transmissible than previous variants, Omicron “may represent a step toward more normalcy for our district. Omicron is simultaneously less severe for most people who catch the disease despite being more transmissible. A more transmissible variant that is less serious has the potential to increase the general population’s immune response to future infections,” the district’s superintendent wrote.
Superintendent Randy Traini noted that there is much resistance in the community to the mask recommendations, and said that Covid vaccines are widely available for most students and staff. He said that those who have tested positive for Covid can return to campuses after Day Five of their infection being diagnosed, and will need to mask up for five days after they return.
“On Monday, the World Health Organization announced that they anticipated an end to the emergency phase of the pandemic and that the Omicron variant ‘offers a plausible hope for stabilization and normalization,'” Traini wrote. “Further, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, offered this week that while new variants are likely to emerge, the combination of vaccination, new drug therapies, testing, and masks during surges could lead us into a time where COVID, particularly the Omicron variant, is ‘essentially integrated into the general respiratory infections that we have learned to live with.'”
“While in a Yellow Operational Zone, we will strongly urge staff and students to wear masks but they will no longer be required,” Traini wrote. “As always, the HAT [Health Advisory Team] team will continue to monitor the COVID environment and respond accordingly. Hopefully, we can continue on a trajectory towards a more normal school experience; however, if future variants warrant, the HAT team is prepared to reinstate any and all mitigation practices if needed.”
In the fall, the Mat-Su School District adopted a campus-by-campus approach to Covid mitigation, unlike the one-size-fits-all campus approach in Anchorage, where masking has been required in recent weeks. In Anchorage, one parent has reported that a teacher has been taping the masks to children’s faces.
