Skagway’s school relaxes mask requirements for all students, unless there’s an outbreak of COVID-19 | KHNS Radio

New rules went into effect on Wednesday at Skagway’s school making face-coverings optional for all age groups, as long as there aren’t any outbreaks of COVID-19 on campus. The school board adopted the changes unanimously on Tuesday. KHNS’ Mike Swasey checked in with Skagway School Superintendent Josh Coughran for more details.

Swasey – What sorts of feedback did you get regarding COVID mitigation?

Coughran – It was varied. And it was nice to see different points of view and people that respected different points of view. Obviously, you know, the biggest topic is masking. And when we should go to Universal masking. One of the metrics changed recently in that public health is no longer defining community transmission. And that’s always kind of what we hung our hat on when it came to our trigger for universal masking. And so the board’s task last night was to come up with that new threshold and to define that new metric at which we would go into Universal masking. 

Swasey – And what did you settle on?

Coughran – Basically transmission within the school. We no longer will go into Universal masking if there are cases in the community that are unrelated to the school. But if we know that there’s transmission going on within the school, then we will go to Universal masking. And we went a step farther, we actually defined this transmission as three positive cases of unknown origin within five days. 

Swasey – All right, well, that seems to be a, you know, a reasonable threshold that hopefully we won’t get to. But you never know. Okay, well, so that was productive. What else was on the agenda last night? 

Coughran – There were two other updates related to COVID mitigation, one being that age delineation between when we have regulations on masking. When we wrote this mitigation plan back in July of 21, the vaccine was not yet available for students under 12 years old. And so we created that as the threshold and for all intents and purposes, kind of the barrier as to which students are masking up in hallways and bathrooms and congregate settings. 

And so now that vaccines are available for those students under 12 years old, we’ve essentially eliminated that age barrier, we’ve kind of gone to an all or nothing. And so, for instance, today, we’re not in a universal masking situation, which means that while masks are encouraged for all students, they are ultimately optional for all of them and all staff.

Swasey – How about the new rules for an isolation period after receiving a positive test?

Coughran – Right, so essentially, what we did is we just updated our plan to align with CDC guidance when it comes to isolation after a positive test. And that’s been diminished from 10 days down to five days. But after the five days, there still is universal masking, when it comes to COVID positive folks. And so, five days they can come back to school, but they would still have to Universal mask for the following five days. 

Swasey – Right. And then, was there anything else on the agenda at the school board meeting besides COVID?

Coughran – We had a lot of actual school business, we approved a contract for our certificated folks for the next three years, so teachers will have a contract through 2025. We approved an MOA with the municipality for school nurse funding as well as defining that job description for a school nurse and so that job posting is going to go out here real soon. Hoping to have somebody hired by next meeting. We also opened up the Don Heather Wall of Fame application as well as the Chris Maggio Memorial School Board scholarship application.

Swasey – Alright, Josh, thanks so much for sharing the time with me this morning and giving me the update on the school. I appreciate it.

Coughran – You bet Mike, have a good day.

Travel-related requirements also exist. Coughran told KHNS in an email that any staff member or student who travels outside of Skagway to or through a community with active cases of Covid-19 will be required to schedule a Covid test within 3-5 days of return. Or they can self-isolate for 10 days before being admitted back into the school building. During the 3-5 day window prior to receiving test results, the traveler will be required to wear a face-covering inside the school building at all times except for at lunch -where they practice six feet of separation – regardless of age or vaccination status. 

For more information on the Don Hather Wall of Fame, or the Chris Maggio Memorial School Board scholarship application, visit skagwayschool.org.