Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools intend to look into a mask optional policy in 2022, but there are some caveats to that intention.

“We have shared that it is our intention to try to look, after (holiday) break, at the possibility of going mask optional,” Superintendent Yvonne Stokes told HSE School Board members Wednesday night.  “Now, with that, comes some qualifications of, what would need to be in place to be mask optional, and, what would need to be in place to decide a particular building would have to go back to having masks required.”

Decisions on mask policies for a particular school building would come down to two factors, according to Dr. Stokes – that school building’s COVID positivity rate and the number of students absent due to quarantine.

“One or the other could send a particular building back into (a mask) requirement,” Stokes told the board.

The mask optional policy is not likely to begin in 2022 for the first day of classes, the superintendent indicated, because of the normal “uptick” in positive COVID tests after a holiday.

Stokes plans to update the community on this before January 1 through her regular Friday video updates.

There were two public comments on this issue.  The first was critical of mask and vaccine mandates.  The second identified himself as a doctor and expressed opposition to the policies and findings of the local, state and national health officials.

Wednesday evening, Avon Schools pointed to an increase in positive COVID tests in announcing the reinstatement of a mask requirement, regardless of vaccine status.  Also, Brebeuf Jesuit High School in Indianapolis will reinstate a mask requirement December 8 through at least December 17.