St. Cloud Area School District Approves Mask Mandate

(KNSI) – The St. Cloud Area School District will require all students, staff, and faculty to wear masks for the 2021-2022 school year. The School board approved the administration’s recommendation at Wednesday’s meeting. The mandate will be in effect regardless of a person’s vaccination status.

The recommendation comes less than a week after CentraCare Health and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended students wear masks in grades K-12.

“We believe by following these recommendations; it gives us the best chance of keeping our students learning in person every day. Because we will all be wearing masks, close contacts no longer need to quarantine if they’re not showing signs of illness. This will greatly reduce disruptions to our school year,” said District 742 Superintendent Willie Jett. “Collectively, we are trying to make decisions in the best interest of our young people within our school district. Our job is to gather and seriously reflect on all information available and use that to make a well-informed choice on behalf of 10,000 students and their families and staff.”

School board member Al Dahlgren was the only vote against the mask mandate. He says a survey of district parents showed that about 50% of families asked the school not to impose a mask mandate, while 30% supported a mask mandate, and 20% said they had no strong opinion.

Fourteen speakers voiced their opinions to the school board, with six supporting students wearing masks and eight asking the district to let parents chose.

The school district says they will reassess the policy in October and again later in the school year.

Along with masks, the district will also use social distancing, hand washing, respiratory etiquette, quarantine COVID cases, increase air quality capacity, utilizing outdoor space for learning whenever possible, verifying staff vaccinations, and ask anyone to stay home if they’re not feeling well.

The decision comes just days after the Sartell-St. Stephen School District approved a mask mandate. On August 9th, the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District administration recommended that students have the option to wear masks, but masks won’t be required. On August 5th, St. Cloud Catholic Community Schools made masks optional for the school year.

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