{"id":45389,"date":"2021-08-05T20:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T20:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-says-masks-will-be-optional-in-school\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:24:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:24:49","slug":"montezuma-cortez-says-masks-will-be-optional-in-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-says-masks-will-be-optional-in-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez says masks will be optional in school"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A student at Montezuma-Cortez High School operates a sewing machine on Jan. 6. As of right now, families will be able to decide for themselves if they want their students to wear masks to class this upcoming school year. (Courtesy photo)<\/span>Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 Board of Education on Tuesday said masks would not be required when classes launch Aug. 16.<\/p>\n

The review of COVID-19 procedures was moved to the first item on the night\u2019s agenda. The topic took priority with less than two weeks until the first day of school, with some board members wondering whether masks should be required.<\/p>\n

The board followed July 1 direction from superintendent Risha VanderWey, posted to the district\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rise of the delta variant concerned board member Dr. John Schuenemeyer, the only board member to wear a mask at the meeting.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Montezuma County RE-1 School District Board of Education met Tuesday night to discuss the upcoming school year.<\/span>Photo via YouTube<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI think it really is pretty critical to wear masks indoors,\u201d he said. \u201cThe delta virus has affected younger people, and many of them have gotten quite sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schuenemeyer said he consulted with Director of Pharmacy Services and Infection Control at Southwest Health System Marc Meyer, who, he said, agreed masks should be worn at school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t stop it from mutating, and it\u2019s spread, it\u2019s going to eventually turn into something a lot worse,\u201d said board member Chris Flaherty. \u201cFor me, I agree we should just stick to the plan (no masks required), but I could see that changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers Montezuma County an area with \u201csubstantial risk\u201d of virus transmission. A county is classified as having substantial risk when more than 50 (but less than 100) new cases are reported per 100,000 people in the previous seven days, or if the positivity rate is between 8.0% and 9.9% in the same time frame.<\/p>\n

However, the majority of board members were in agreement that masking should be optional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI too am saying to let these kids start school,\u201d said board member Stacey Hall. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a high percentage of staff who has been vaccinated. I think we\u2019ll be safe, I think we\u2019re doing what\u2019s best for kids and for students and for staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the decision is the district\u2019s official position, VanderWey said that RE-1 recommends masking, thorough use of sanitizer, social distancing and frequent hand-washing.<\/p>\n

Board Vice President Sheri Noyes mentioned that the current plan mentions no tolerance for bullying of students wearing masks. She wanted a clause to be added that no students should be pressured for not wearing masks.<\/p>\n

While the public was invited to attend the meeting or stream online, discussion was limited to board members only.<\/p>\n

Before the workshop, some parents were uncertain what COVID-19 policies would be in place as the fall semester draws nearer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy tagline is \u2018Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Happy\u2019 and that\u2019s for all of us,\u201d VanderWey said at the meeting while addressing the pandemic. \u201cIt gets really scary, and we can become very reactive, and the hope is that we don\u2019t get to that point again.\u201d<\/p>\n

VanderWey clarified that policies are subject to change as public health recommendations develop.<\/p>\n

The school board\u2019s decision follows the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment\u2019s endorsement Friday of CDC recommendation that everyone in a school setting wear a mask. School districts were given the liberty to outline their own procedures.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the school district will restart a health advisory committee Thursday that will meet once a week. Depending on the severity of the virus, the committee might meet more or less frequently.<\/p>\n

The pandemic and its influence on education will remain a fixed talking point at each Board of Education meeting, VanderWey said.<\/p>\n

Teachers will also have access to free vaccinations. This effort saw 83% of teachers get inoculated against the virus last school year, the board said.<\/p>\n

This article was republished on Thursday to correct a quote by Stacey Hall to read: \u201cI think we\u2019re doing what\u2019s best for kids and for students and for staff.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montezuma-Cortez school board session Tuesday, masks were deemed optional for the upcoming school year <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,21,28,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86475,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45389\/revisions\/86475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45389"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}