Putnam County School Board Chair Lynn McHenry said the school system will continue to monitor local COVID numbers for future decisions on its mask policy.
“We have had zero hospitalizations for children under 19, and that plays a large part of the decisions that we make locally,” McHenry said. “But, we are very cognizant of the fact that things change daily.”
Putnam Schools entered the year with an optional mask policy. McHenry said as of now, the guidelines school started with will remain the same unless numbers change.
“The board along with Mr. King is always in constant contact with the local department of health and many local doctors,” McHenry said. “And, we are updating our information as we are getting information from them.”
During the Thursday Board of Education meeting, Parent Silas Stoddart requested the board to mandate masks. Stoddart said local COVID numbers suggest a change should be made.
“What do we have to do to keep our kids in school?” Stoddart said. “Wearing face masks. Wearing face masks is what’s necessary to minimize the risk of transmitting the COVID disease. Masking is what is going to keep our kids from contracting the Delta variant and masking is what’s going to keep our kids in school. There is no singular decision that will make you popular with all the parents. That is the world we live in. So please make the decision to keep our kids safer and keep our kids in school longer.”
According to the Putnam County Schools COVID Dashboard, the district has 16 confirmed positive cases.
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