Masks Recommended, Not Required at SCSD#1

The SCSD#1, board was held in Big Horn on Tuesday, Nov. 16, with all trustees but Chad Baker, who joined via audio, were present,

Superintendent Pete Kilbride gave an update on Covid-19, saying that things have changed quite a bit in the last few weeks. “We’ve had some meetings with parents and with the school nurses, and he talked with Dr. Ian Hunter about the continued use of masks.”

He said the number of cases is down by 321. “We were in the yellow, which is good. We moved to light green last week, which is even better. During the same time period, the last two weeks in October of 2020, there were 154 cases, now there are 104.”

The board voted to accept Kilbride’s recommendation on masks, and while they are strongly recommended, they are no longer required, starting on Wednesday, Nov. 17. There was applause from the nearly 30 people who attended the board meeting.

Preceding the vote, two parents spoke again on how they hoped that the board would take off the mask requirement.

Quarantine requirements for infected persons, or those exposed to Covid-19, have not changed, Kilbride said.

Kilbride also mentioned that the government vaccine mandate, for businesses employing over 100 people, only affects the staff, not students. Wyoming’s Governor Gordon is challenging the federal mandate.

In other business, the board discussed the Valedictorian and Salutatorian at graduation, with the teachers and students feeling that there should be recognition for other high achieving students as well as those chosen for the two roles at graduation. The students and teachers will continue to work on that for 2023.

Roy Garber was approved to be the Whitney Benefits representative, and Trustee Clint Krumm will be the WSBA voting representative.

SCSD#1 will have two votes at the convention, and the board agreed to approve four resolutions that are being presented at the conference, #1, concentrating on Reading and Writing and Math in the elementary curriculum; #2 to not bring a distinct suicide prevention program into the health curriculum, as most already address it; #3 recruitment and retention of co-curriculum staff, namely coaches, as the requirements are sometimes too strict, and that there should be exceptions made in some instances. Kilbride gave an example of an incident in Teton County, where a former NBA player wanted to coach basketball.

The board also agreed to approve resolution #5, which would deny the teaching of CRT in Wyoming schools.

Board went into executive session at 7:15