Oldham County Schools to lift mask mandate for students, staff

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Oldham County Schools will lift its mask mandate for students and staff "in light of current and trending data," according to a letter sent home to families.

The Oldham County Board of Education voted Monday to lift the mask requirement for high school students and staff beginning Thursday, Nov. 11. Masks will still be recommended in all high schools in the district.

The mask requirement will drop for all students Monday, Nov. 29, but will be recommended for students, staff and visitors in any Oldham County Schools building.

"We've created the data set that's made for informed decision making. We look at that data very closely," OCS Superintendent Dr. Jason Radford said. "(We're) using that moving forward as an early warning system so if we get to those levels that we had before school started that we would need to revisit universal masking."

Some parents, however, said more time was needed to allow students 5-11 years old to get vaccinated.

"My son (Tuesday) is getting his first shot but he will not be able to be fully-vaccinated until the 13th of December," said Jennifer Tarullo, whose son is in kindergarten in Oldham County. "I am fully for once everyone has had the chance to get vaccinated to make it their choice to mask or not."

Because of a federal order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, masks will continue to be required for all students and drivers while on school buses. However, drivers will now no longer be required to wear face masks when students are not on the bus.

As of Tuesday, the seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases in Oldham county was 10, the lowest since July.

The district said the data it relies upon to make decisions on masking include county incident rate, school cases, vaccination rate and statewide case numbers.