Earlier this week, the Emporia Board of Education voted to make masks optional as a COVID-19 mitigation strategy effective March 28. The board will get another COVID update as part of a special meeting Monday.
The meeting is at 4:30 pm at Mary Herbert. The only listed item is a COVID update, with additional talks from Wednesday’s meeting — although the agenda does not say whether mask policy will be addressed or could be changed.
The board voted unanimously to make mask use optional in late March after students return from spring break. That vote followed a 4-3 vote against making the change Thursday.
The special meeting comes as KVOE News continues a special online poll on when you believe mask use should be optional across the district. The poll goes until 5 pm Sunday and is available on the home page and news page at KVOE.com.
The board’s decision also comes with health officials tracking the spread of a variant to the omicron strain called BA 2. It’s more transmissible than the original omicron variant, but Lyon County Public Health Emergency Preparedness Director Jennifer Millbern says the initial omicron strain apparently has triggered more immunity than when omicron surpassed the delta variant as the lead strain.
