Dear Parents and Guardians,
On March 16th, during the regular board meeting, the School Board elected to follow the Cascade County Health Department's mandate on masks. This wasn't an easy decision for the School Board and the topic was debated with both the pros and cons considered by each board member. In the end, it was decided to follow the recommendations of our county health department.
On March 17th, at the regular Cascade County Health Department's board meeting, the county mask mandate was lifted. The CCHD had planned on lifting the mandate if or when the number of COVID cases fell below 10 per 100,000. The current COVID rate of infections is 9.6 per 100,000.
On Monday, March 22nd, masks will no longer be required at Cascade Public Schools. We will still enforce our other COVID precautions and ask that you keep your children home and attend school online if they are sick.
The CCHD noted: "While event size limits and the mask mandate are no longer in effect, it is critically important that our community members remember what got us to this point: social distancing, wearing face coverings, limiting capacity, and other common-sense practices like frequent hand-washing and staying home when sick. These best practices have resulted in our daily case rate dropping to the current level, and CCHD still recommends that these practices be implemented."
Cascade Public Schools also recommends that our students and staff wear masks as well.
As parents and guardians, the choice is yours on whether your children should wear masks. Please discuss your expectations with your children and make those expectations clear to them.
If you would like your child to wear a mask at school, please send an email to your child principal and classroom teacher and we will try to help with your expectations. Also, if you would like to change your child's educational status, please make arrangements with the principal or office to sign the necessary forms to move them to online learning.
We will keep you informed if anything changes.
Respectfully,
Rick