School board eases COVID restrictions

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — As the world comes to the realization that COVID is not going away anytime soon and life must go on (see: maskless Super Bowl in California, NYC ditching masks, and Europe lifting most pandemic restrictions) terrified Teton County has finally toed the water and declared it safe to swim. Sort of.

During a meeting last week, school board trustees eased what were some of the strictest policies in place for mitigating the spread of COVID. As a result of tweaking language in Teton County School District #1’s Smart Start Plan, masks are now optional, the controversial Test-to-Stay program is gone, quarantining is all but eliminated in most cases, and no distinction is being made between vaccinated and unvaccinated.

In fact, the general nomenclature is being shifted to symptomatic and asymptomatic as most trustees recognized that vaccinations are not working against Omicron, thus requiring them is pointless.

Changes to the Smart Start Plan took effect February 12.

Masks will continue to be required on school buses and at the Cubs and Grizzlies preschool programs, and on buses where a federal mandate is still in place. Rapid antigen tests, molecular tests, and PCR tests will remain available upon request.

During the meeting, most board members expressed their desire to see masks go away.

Trustee Janine Bay Teske said, “The latest research about high-quality mask protects shows they protect the wearer most. I see no reason then why it should not be the wearer’s choice. If a mask protects them, why are we making everyone else wear them?

Trustee Betsy Carlin also leaned toward “finding an off-ramp for the pandemic” but preferred to see it look more like a bunny hill than, say, Corbet’s Couloir.

At the meeting, superintendent Gillian Chapman shared encouraging numbers for the district. Staff absences due to COVID were down from a high of 47 to about zero now. Students absences due to positive COVID tests were down to 30 last Monday, compared to 335 the week of January 4-10.

“We’ve seen very few positives if any over past two weeks,” Chapman said.

Even Health Department worry warts Travis Riddell and Jodie Pond didn’t bother to attend the meeting, firing off cautioning emails just minutes before it started.

The masks came off fairly easily. Test-to-Stay almost stayed but Teske questioned the discriminating way it singles out the jabbed from the unjabbed. She also warned of burnout with maintaining it and contact tracing.

“Is this Test-to-Stay program being done anywhere else in the state?” Teske asked.

No, was the reply. Laramie tried to make it work in their school district, Chapman answered, but could not keep up with it.

Trustee Bill Scarlett agreed the district did not have the resources for contact tracing or maintaining a Test-to-Stay program.

Elsewhere in Teton County, fear of COVID remains high, especially at the government level. Contradictions are baffling. Some places of business are continuing to require face coverings but they are now the exception.

Over a thousand gather at events like Moose hockey with nary a mask in sight, while Center for the Arts sticks rigidly to perhaps the strictest COVID policy in Wyoming for its events. To attend, a patron must: Wear a mask at all times inside the facility, show proof of full vaccination from COVID-19, and show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours.

It remains to be seen whether this policy and others like it will be walked back when they begin to hurt the bottom line.

Meanwhile, public schools in Teton County are beginning to return to normal.