CORVALLIS — After weeks of discussions and deliberation, the Corvallis School Board is deciding to require older students to wear masks when classes reopen in late August.
The board and staff have been working on the reopening plan constantly throughout the summer, with the idea that in-person instruction is much more effective than remote learning.
With that in mind, the district is announcing that middle and high school students will be required to wear masks. But masks will only be recommended for students from kindergarten up through fourth grade.
The district says the decision is based on all the current guidelines that masks are key to stop the spread of the virus.
"The decisions that the school board is making right now are some of the hardest that we've ever had to make before," Corvallis School Board Chair Becky Anderson said. "So we're not taking any of them lightly. We really discussed wearing masks for our students and we decided that, we need to bring students back because we know they learn best in a classroom with teachers there to help them. So, if we're going to do that, we needed to do everything we can do to protect our students, our staff, and then our families at home."
Superintendent Jon Konen says the district will also use a comprehensive plan for sanitizing and social distancing, and will continue to work out additional details through the remainder of the summer.
