Lincoln Schools modify COVID-19 protocols for upcoming school year

Lincoln Public Schools won't be requiring students to wear masks when they return to school Aug. 23, but some of the COVID-19 protocols from last year remain.

Superintendent Jen Packer discussed the school's protocols with the Lincoln School Board during at their Aug. 9 meeting.

There is strong agreement among local state, county and federal agencies that students need to return to in person learning, but the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases related to the Delta Variant threw a wrench in the works. The CDC is recommending, among other prevention strategies, universal masking for all students returning to in-person learning. However, information provided to the school from the Montana Office of Public Instruction, showed most parents would rather see their children return to school without masks.

Without any specific legal mandates, only recommendations, Lincoln Schools will be taking something of a hybrid approach.

Students can wear masks in school if they would like, but they will not have to wear them.

The exception is when students are on a bus, where a CDC order dating to Jan. 29 still requires their wear. Packer said she has already talked to Laurie Richards with D&L Busing about the issue. Unlike last year, the school won't conduct temperature checks for students as they get on the bus. "We just have to make sure they have masks on the bus in case (students) get on the bus without a mask," Packer said.

The state also recommends universal masking for K-12 students if the county is seeing high transmission rates – which Lewis and Clark County currently is – but Packer noted that those rates may not reflect the situation in Lincoln, which is removed from the rest of the county.

"I'm not all that worried about that. I do wish I could get more information about just Lincoln," she said.

Although Lewis and Clark Public Health has routinely reported confirmed case numbers in the schools throughout the Helena valley, they have claimed they can't provide numbers for localities like Lincoln and Augusta due to state and federal privacy laws.

In discussing other protocols, Packer said she didn't have a position on temperature checks but conceded they did have an effect. "We were able to catch a few students who came to school with a temperature."

The school board agreed that it would be a good idea to retain both temperature checks and hand sanitizer for students as they enter the building. Students will also have to continue to keep three feet of social distance whenever possible, and the school will still use dividers at lunch.

Additionally, the school will continue locking the doors to help control access to the building, which serves a general security purpose, as well as giving staff the chance to check visitors' temperature as they enter the building.

Packer said the school's other COVID-19 emergency protocols will remain the same, with the exception of how they react if a person with COVID-19 had been confirmed to have been in the building. Instead of a blanket shutdown of the entire building for three days, it will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Packer said it could be the entire school that shuts down, it could just be a classroom, or it could just be an individual who is sent home. Another modification reflected the CDC guidance that fully vaccinated people should get tested within three to five days, if they've been in close contact with a someone who has COVID-19.