KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Olathe Public Schools board members voted unanimously Thursday to amend the district’s COVID-19 mitigation measures.
Previously, optional masking was allowed in high schools as long as isolations and quarantines were less than 4% and building absenteeism was less than 7%.
Universal masking was instated when isolations and quarantines reached 4% or higher and building absenteeism met or exceeded 7%. Once in place, universal masking was to be maintained until gating levels were below the thresholds for two weeks.
In accordance with the Johnson County Board of Commissioners mask mandate that lasts until Feb. 17, Pre-K through 8th grade students in Olathe observed universal masking.
With Thursday's update, the board voted 7-0 to dissolve the isolations and quarantines 4% gating requirement, leaving the only requirement for masks being that school building absenteeism not meet or exceed 7%.
Universal masking will still last a minimum of two weeks until absence levels are controlled.
Additionally, the board voted to apply mask gating criteria to all district schools effective Feb. 18, meaning pre-K through eight-grade buildings will not be required to universally mask unless the 7% absence threshold is exceeded.
The Johnson County Commissioners will review its masking policy at its Feb. 17 meeting.
The county's current policy mandates masks be worn in school buildings in grades pre-K-6.
Removing the 4% measure was ultimately suggested due to the isolations and quarantines number no longer being accurate for the district as contact tracing has ceased.
During the meeting, a slideshow was shared with updated statistics on test-to-stay tests, substitute fill rates, positivity rates and absences.
Since test-to-stay was implemented Nov. 8, total tests increased from 3,150 in November to 10,334 total in January.
Including students, staff and family members, the percent of positive tests jumped from 7.50% in October to 9% in November and December. In January, the percent of positive tests was exponentially higher at 28.25%.
There were 4,675 substitute requests in January with an 86.80% fill rate. The fill rate has stayed between 85% to 87% since October, but the presentation said subtitle requests increased by 340 in January.
District-wide, absences hovered between 10% to 12% the first three weeks of January and dropped to around 7% for the fourth week of January.
At the same time in 2020 and 2021, district-wide absences were around 4% all four weeks of January.
The district closed Jan. 18 and Jan. 19 due to “dire circumstances” of staffing shortages, and the district closed again Feb. 2 and Feb. 3 due to inclement weather.
Olathe East, Olathe North, Olathe Northwest and Olathe South are eligible to return to optional masking Feb. 4.
Olathe West's absences reached 7.93% on Jan. 28, meaning the school will observe universal masking for at least two weeks. The earliest optional masking could return, providing no further instances of excess absences, would be Feb. 11.
In accordance with the Johnson County Commissioners' mask mandate that lasts until Feb. 17, all pre-K through eight-grade buildings will continue to observe universal masking.
Below is a breakdown of high school absence threshold breaches since Jan. 6:
Olathe East
- 7.66%, Jan. 20
- 7.30%, Jan. 21
Olathe North
- 10.8%, Jan. 6
- 11.67%, Jan. 7
- 8.44%, Jan. 10
- 9.10%, Jan. 11
- 9.19%, Jan. 12
- 9.55%, Jan. 13
- 11.13%, Jan. 14
- 7.70%, Jan. 20
- 9.04%, Jan. 21
Olathe Northwest
- 7.93%, Jan. 6
- 8.45%, Jan. 7
- 9.52%, Jan. 10
- 9.00%, Jan. 11
- 10.16%, Jan. 12
- 10.11%, Jan. 13
- 12.05%, Jan. 14
- 8.11%, Jan. 20
Olathe South
- 8.72%, Jan. 10
- 10.04%, Jan. 11
- 8.37%, Jan. 12
- 8.84%, Jan. 13
- 10.21%, Jan. 14
- 8.13%, Jan. 20
- 8.75%, Jan. 21
Olathe West
- 9.72%, Jan. 6
- 11.28%, Jan. 7
- 8.79%, Jan. 10
- 8.92%, Jan. 11
- 8.85%, Jan. 12
- 10.28%, Jan. 13
- 11.27%, Jan. 14
- 10.90%, Jan. 20
- 10.72%, Jan. 21
- 7.62%, Jan. 24
- 7.31%, Jan. 27
- 7.93%, Jan. 28
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