Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

School District requiring masks for all students, teachers

First Day of In-Person School

Christopher DeVargas

Students arrive at Rex Bell Elementary School on the first day of in-person school, Monday March 1, 2021.

Updated Tuesday, July 27, 2021 | 5 p.m.

The Clark County School District is requiring masks for students and teachers this coming school year.

In a note to parents today, the district said all students and staff will be required to wear masks indoors and on buses “unless medical or developmental conditions prohibit use.”

Classes begin Aug. 9, with in-person and online learning options.

The district said the mask requirement is in response to continuing high transmission rates of COVID-19 and “in alignment with the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Southern Nevada Health District, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed course today on some masking guidelines, recommending that even vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the coronavirus is surging.

Citing new information about the ability of the delta variant to spread among vaccinated people, the CDC also recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.

The number of COVID-19 cases and the test positivity rate in Nevada have been on the rise since the state dropped its pandemic restrictions on June 1.

At the time, the state was averaging 135 news cases a day, with a test positivity rate of 3.7%. Since then, those key metrics have jumped to 792 new daily cases and a 13.7% test positivity rate.

In Las Vegas, the School District said it remains committed to safely opening schools for all students for in-person learning. "We will continue to monitor the health data in our community to make informed decisions regarding the implementation of mitigation strategies," the district said in a statement.

John Vellardita, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, said the teachers union believes the district “took the right precautions” by following health officials’ recommendations “to open schools as safe as possible this upcoming school year.”

The district had previously dropped mask requirements for fully vaccinated students and staff in most situations, as well as for young students. Children who are 12 and older qualify for vaccinations.

Under the previous district plan, masks were optional for students in prekindergarten through third grade but required for all fourth- and fifth-graders.

Masks were optional for fully vaccinated students in grades six through 12.

The School District is returning to in-person learning next month after it spent most of the 2020-21 school year with students learning remotely. Classes resumed in a hybrid fashion in the final weeks of the school year.

Clark County School Board president Linda Cavazos said the district’s main focus is the safety of everyone who comes on campus, and she supported Jara’s decision to extend the mask mandate.

District officials have been watching disease metrics — hoping the area’s vaccination rates would go up, while test positivity would stay low.

“Unfortunately... that has been the opposite,” Cavazos said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.