Haines schools will make masks optional starting March 7

Haines schools will make masks optional for students and staff starting on March 7. The administration says the district has met public health criteria to drop the masking requirement. And as KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports – district officials say they will continue mitigations efforts like testing.  

In January, the Haines school district decided on a formula for removing its mask requirement. And, Superintendent Roy Getchell announced that as of Wednesday (March 2) – they’ve met it. 

“The shift was going to be imminent, you know, for a variety of reasons,” Getchell said. “Including just some of the CDC adjustments, and just the general trend that we’ve been seeing on a on a national, state and even local level with that. So we knew that we needed to follow suit. And I was really happy to be able to point to that versus any other reason for that change.”

The school district has been looking for two things –  no school related cases among staff or students who are contagious.  And two, the state’s health department  clearing Haines of community transmission. Getchell says he consulted with the district’s health advisory committee, which meets weekly, and includes the regional health consortium, and state health officials.

“We didn’t have any positive cases within the school building, where there’s been an exposure within the school during that (contagious) period of time,” Getchell said. “As well as no community transmission where the cases weren’t easily identifiable.”

That means Haines is seeing a small number of COVID cases now that have been traced to known family or social groups, or where the source of infection is known. 

“And so when I called yesterday and confirmed with (Juneau) Public Health, and Stephanie (Pattinson) at SEARHC, and then our own school nurse, yeah, we met the criteria.”

However, as of Thursday afternoon the state dashboard reports Haines Borough has seen at least 30 cases over the last week. And almost 200 cases since February 1st. Getchell says the dashboard count is delayed, and the district is taking guidance from local sources.

“I don’t want to give a day number of how far delayed they are, but they don’t score up with our internal numbers, or the ones that we see locally, or whenever I talk to (Juneau) Public Health,” Getchell said.

Elaine Hickey with Juneau Public Health said via email that the state dashboard reports cases several days after tests are performed, and with the infectious period being only 5 days according to the CDC, many of those cases are no longer active.

A representative for the Haines SEARHC Clinic emailed that the demand for symptomatic testing has dropped so SEARHC is “comfortable in assessing that the latest outbreak of Covid has run its course.”

The Haines Borough is at a medium risk level, according to the CDC. At it’s Tuesday meeting, the Haines school board voted unanimously to allow Superintendent Getchell to make masking optional at a medium risk level.

Getchell also pointed to  Haines vaccination rate, which  is about 70 percent of the population, according to state data. 

Getchell says other school mitigations will remain, including classroom ventilation, social distancing, COVID testing athletes before and after travel, as well as testing as needed. He says the school will rely on families to screen students and keep them home when they’re sick. If there is a classroom outbreak, he says parents will be notified.

“We will continue to send exposure notices home so that parents know whenever there’s been a case within their level, so they can make those assessments for themselves as well,” Getchell said. “And truthfully, at this point, everything else that’s in place will remain in place. It’s just the masking will be, I wouldn’t even say optional, we’re going to call it recommended, as we move forward. But again, that’s going to be an individual choice and a family decision.”

Recently a small group of parentsprotested the masking requirement in demonstrations in front of the school and at board meetings. Getchell says their input was considered, but not a leading factor in the change of policy.