The Cleveland City Schools Board of Education, in a Special Called Session, on Thursday directed that masks will now be required for all students and staff (K-12) beginning on Tuesday.
During the session, the board approved updates to the COVID-19 plan.
School Director Russell Dyer said those updates include the following:
- The mask requirement is for buses, classrooms, and all other school environments when six feet of social distancing is not available. Visitors to schools and district offices will also be required to be masked when social distancing isn’t feasible.
- Parents may opt out their child from this mask mandate per Governor Lee’s executive order. The opt out form is available in English OR Spanish . Staff may only be excluded from the mask mandate for documented medical reasons and those may be submitted to your immediate supervisor. Human Resources will be sending out more information regarding employee masking.
- Masking is requested, but not required, for events happening outside of regular school hours. ? The mask mandate will be reviewed at each future board meeting starting in October and will only be renewed if data continues to show a need for masking.
- It is important to note that students and staff who are appropriately wearing a mask are not considered a close contact by the Tennessee Department of Health. Please see the chart below regarding this update.
- The board approved a new policy for employees that will allow for eight COVID-19 relief days for employees. More information will be provided regarding this new policy by our Human Resources team.
The board also discussed other information pertaining to school operations. Those updates include the following: - Remote learning is now an option provided by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) for individual classrooms or schools affected by student and/or staff absenteeism related to COVID-19. This remote learning would require TDOE approval and is only for a seven-day period. Please note the entire district is not allowed to close and use remote learning. Meals could be served during this time on a to-go basis for all students who are operating remotely. Also, if a school is closed and remote learning is utilized, all extracurricular activities must cease during this remote learning time.
- Schools are not allowed to convert to a hybrid A/B schedule due to TDOE regulations. While this would help with social distancing, it is not an option at this time.
- Inclement weather days may be used to close an entire district or a particular school. Under this plan, remote learning is not an option and we would treat this like any other inclement weather day. Meals would not be available on these days. Extracurricular events may be possible under this scenario.
We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation carefully and respond with changes, as needed. You may find our COVID-19 plan at clv.city/21-22guidance. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to respond to this unprecedented situation.
The board meeting may be viewed online at https://youtu.be/BdNZZ0dLmKs.