Williamson County Schools Will Make Students Wear Masks in School Buildings Until Mid-January

 

The Williamson County Board of Education voted to extend the temporary mask requirement for students, staff and visitors at all grade levels, inside all buildings and on buses, through January 19, 2022.

The board approved in an 8-4 vote on Monday to extend the district’s mask requirement.

According to a news release from the school board, teachers and staff are able to remove their masks while indoors if they are socially distant. Teachers and staff are also permitted to remove their masks while outdoors. Meanwhile, any essential volunteer working directly with a student is expected to wear a mask.

The news release also mentions that mitigation strategies are still in place for Williamson County Schools (WCS). Such strategies include:

• Visitors are limited to those with essential school business.
• No lunch visitors are allowed.
• Volunteers are limited based on essential tasks needed in the school, and elementary school volunteers are required to wear a mask when interacting with students.
• Assemblies during the school day are limited to those determined to be essential to the operation of the school.
• Indoor assemblies will not be held during a time of “high spread” in the school.
• Field trips are limited to venues honoring WCS safety protocols.
• Masking is strongly recommended, encouraged, and advised for all students, staff and visitors while inside a WCS school, WCS facility and the Central Office.

Parents or legal guardians of students may opt-out of any mask requirement made by a school district thanks to Governor Bill Lee’s (R-TN) Executive Order 84, signed on August 16th.

According to Lee’s executive order, if parents and legal guardians of students in kindergarten through twelfth-grade want to opt-out their children of wearing a face covering at school, on a school bus, or at school functions, they must affirmatively notify the local education agency or personnel at the student’s school in writing.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]