Face Coverings Required for Majority of Charles City School District This Week

Students and staff at four of the five Charles City School District campuses this week will be required to wear face coverings.

In a notification from the district, school officials say the three-day rolling average for student illness absence rate as of Friday, January 21st, was 9.3% at both Charles City High School and Washington Elementary School, 9.7% at Charles City Middle School, and 15% at the Innovative Campus. Face coverings will be required for students and staff at each of those four campuses January 24th through the 28th. The face covering requirement applies only during regular school operations, but does not apply to outside activities like athletic events. Face coverings are not mandatory for visitors during regular school hours, but masks are available at each school. 

Anything over the three-day absence rate of students of 7% triggers the district’s Health Mitigation Plan (HMP). The policy goes into effect on a school-by-school absence basis. Since the three-day rolling absence rate at Lincoln Elementary School was at 6% as of Friday, the face covering requirement does not apply there. 

Officials add that they will reevaluate the data again this Friday, January 28th for the following week and that families will be notified once the health mitigation plan can be relaxed. 

According to the district’s “Illness Dashboard,” there were between 25 and 30 positive COVID cases at the middle school; between 15 and 20 cases at the high school and Washington Elementary; and 10 to 15 cases at Lincoln Elementary. There was no number available for the Innovative Campus.

The latest activations of the HMPs comes as Floyd County’s seven-day positivity rate surpassed 22% with a 14-day positivity rate of over 18%.

*You can find more information on the Charles City Schools website.