SoBoCo School District Implements Tiered Covid Plan

By: Travis Naughton

On January 4, the day classes resume in SoBoCo schools following Winter Break, changes to the school district’s Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuity of Service Plan will go into effect. At its November 15th meeting, the Southern Boone Board of Education added a rubric to the plan that details the district’s revised policies on masking, quarantines, and school visitors. The rubric is based on one implemented by Jefferson City public schools that uses a “Green, Yellow, Red” system of tiers that adds safety restrictions as the number of positive cases increase in individual school buildings. A building’s status will be designated “green” if there are less than 10 active cases of Covid-19 infection within the school’s population. “Yellow” status is indicated when there are 11-25 active cases, and “red” is reserved for buildings with 26 or more active cases. If a building changes levels, the corresponding mitigation protocols will remain in place for at least 10 days to allow active cases to complete quarantine. A “green” status means that masks are encouraged but not required in that particular building. Field trips are permitted, and school gatherings such as holiday parties and assemblies are permitted. Masks are not required at these gatherings. Visitors are permitted in buildings at the administrator’s discretion. Quarantine of non-vaccinated, asymptomatic people who are close contacts of a Covid-positive person are not required at the “green” level.

See more in this weeks Boone County Journal