Pueblo Board of Health votes to make masks optional in Pueblo County Schools, pending districts approval
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- During a monthly meeting Wednesday, the Pueblo Board of Health voted to unanimously adopt a revised public health order for Pueblo District 60 and 70, allowing each district to decide whether or not to continue with masks mandates.
The districts were presented with two options, both effectively making masking optional in Pueblo schools if the school district choose so.
Multiple parents spoke during the public forum portion of the monthly meeting. Four expressed their displeasure with the Public Health Order remaining in place for the last six months.
"Mask wearing has little to now effect on of stopping the transmission of the virus," Tanya Mcclintock said.
"The burden is on you to provide us with tangible evidence that these extreme measures are actually working. You can't our schools are over run with infections. Why? We're masked," Joy Lundquist questioned.
The two options include:
- Symptom checking required for all students aged two and older. Masking would be encouraged but not required.
- Each school district to assume responsibility for handling covid mitigation strategies in their schools. D60 and D70 would have to initiate a vote by their Boards of Education to assume liability and responsibility for managing COVID-19 in schools.
Each district would still be required to provide case reporting data and outbreak data to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Both masking and vaccination are encouraged but not mandated in the second option.
"It does not in essence give them permission to ignore covid, it just gives them the option to say we want to try out our own strategies for mitigation and reducing transmission in our schools," Pueblo Health Director, Randy Evetts, said.
The initial Public Health Order requiring masks to be worn in Pueblo Schools began in August 2021. Now, the order will stay in place under each school district holds a Board of Education meeting to adopt either option provided by Health Director Evetts.
"The mandate stays in place. It is still effective for all school districts, unless they take a vote from their board of education to choose one of those other two options," Evetts said.
The move goes against the recommendation of Chief Medical Officer Dr. Chris Urbina. He urged the Board of Health to keep the current Public Health Order in place.
Both district 60 and district 70 have written letters to the Board of Health in recent months. Those letters have expressed differing views on how to handle masking in schools.
A slide during Evetts presentation stated that D60 is in full support of a mask mandate. They wish to keep the current order in place, according to Evetts.
D70 is in favor of a revised order and wants options to manage and mitigate covid on their own. They have provided Pueblo Health with a plan on how they will develop their mitigation plan, the presentation reads.
KRDO reached out to officials from both school districts Wednesday. No dates have been finalized for a vote on the two options offered. They expect one to come in the next few weeks.
