| Kelli Whytsell Superintendent, Calhoun County Schools reports, "We have been in school for 5 days and have had to quarantine approximately 50 students. We have had three positive cases non-school related, which caused the quarantine of students."
Whytsell says she will be issuing a mask mandate starting on Monday, August 30,for all students in grades 5-12 and all staff at CMHS.
The mandate will be reevaluated on September 16.
Two weeks into school year, there are 210 active COVID-19 cases among Kanawha students or staff, with Capital High shut down.
"The goal is to keep students and staff safe and in school. We cannot do that without masks at this time. We anticipated having to periodically issue a mask mandate. We do not see the outbreaks in the elementary schools, so the mask mandate will not be in place for those schools," Whytsell says.
Masks will be passed out on the buses on Friday evening and provided to students who want masks at the doors. Each bus and door will have masks to offer to students on Monday morning.
"I regret that we have to implement this so soon in the school year, but we can't keep quarantining large numbers of students and have a successful year," she said, with testing and vaccination clinics planned.
We will coordinate time to offer the testing program and have regular vacations clinics at CMHS.
"Thanks for your support in helping us keep our students and staff healthy and in school," Whytsell concluded.
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