LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Elisha Johnson, a fifth grade student at Zachary Taylor Elementary School, still remembers getting an answer wrong on a test because he couldn’t hear his teacher.
“I got kind of mad about it,” Johnson said. “I didn’t tell her that I didn’t hear what she was saying, but I did get it wrong.”
Elisha and many of his fellow students at Zachary Taylor Elementary are among those taking advantage of the optional masking policy at Jefferson County Public Schools, which has been in place for a week as of Thursday. Superintendent Marty Pollio made the call to make masks optional inside district facilities on March 9 amid a steep drop in COVID-19 cases locally.
Masks will be mandatory again if Jefferson County records high rates of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations under new metrics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the policy detailed by Pollio Feb. 9. The move came a day after the Jefferson County Board of Education narrowly gave him authority to decide the district’s masking policy based on local coronavirus data until June 30.
Elisha is among students welcoming the optional masking policy, though he admits not wearing face coverings after regular masking is “kind of weird.”
“I kind of feel a little bit better now because I can breathe,” he said, noting that he hopes masks will remain optional at JCPS through the rest of the 2021-22 school year. “… When I come in, I don’t have to worry about if my mask is off, ‘Put your mask up, put your mask up, put your mask up.’ I can just be free, and I just have a choice.”
Some Zachary Taylor Elementary teachers also appreciate the break from monitoring whether students wear their masks appropriately.
“Telling them not to have to fix their mask all the time, it's giving you more time to get to the content,” said Kimberly Jenkins, who teaches first grade.
For the youngest students at Zachary Taylor Elementary and other JCPS schools, the past week has been their first glimpse at what school was like before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted about two years of learning from behind screens and under preventative measures like masking once classrooms ultimately reopened.
“It's their first taste of normalcy, and they're living their best lives right now,” Jenkins said.
Zachary Taylor Elementary first grade teacher Kimberly Jenkins observes her students during class on March 17, 2022.
Jenkins wears a mask while teaching out of respect for her students who don face coverings in her classroom. She estimates that fewer than half of her students wear masks regularly since the optional policy went into effect.
She and Courtney Green, who teaches fifth grade at Zachary Taylor Elementary, have noticed differences as students and teachers get comfortable without masks in their classrooms.
Helping students sound out words during reading and writing exercises is easier for Jenkins, and Green said she notices students’ nonverbal cues more when she can see more of her students’ faces. Like Jenkins, Green said the number of her students wearing masks has dropped as the week has progressed.
“It's easier for them to hear me and to see my nonverbals, too,” Green said. “I can better see their expressions to see if they're getting frustrated more easily because the mask hid all of that.”
“This is a milestone to bring us into a different phase of the pandemic, so I think we're moving into the 'how do we do life with COVID,' and that looks different from person to person, from school to school,” said Eva Stone, health services manager for JCPS.
Students in Courtney Green's fifth grade class at Zachary Taylor Elementary work on assignments during class March 17, 2022.
JCPS has reported nearly 150 active COVID-19 cases among students and staff as of 7:01 p.m. Thursday, and Stone said the district has not seen much change in coronavirus infections since the new optional masking policy went into effect.
Still, Stone cautioned that another wave of COVID-19 infections in Jefferson County and Kentucky could strike, similar to past surges driven by new variants of the coronavirus.
“We need to enjoy this time right now where there's decreased COVID in the city and in the state. We just don't know what's coming next,” she said. “… I think if there's anything that we've learned in the last two years, it’s to enjoy these moments where we have a downtime but then to be ready for what can happen next.”
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