North Kansas City council extends COVID-19 order requiring masks to be worn in schools
The North Kansas City City Council on Tuesday voted to extend its COVID-19 health order requiring masks be worn in schools within the city’s limits.
The council voted 6-1 to extend the mask order until Feb. 5th, which requires the wearing of masks inside a school building where students from kindergarten up to and including 12th grade are attending class. People riding on a school bus also must wear a mask unless they have received a medical exception approved by the school.
“In-person education is critical to our students and I believe masking in one mitigation measure we can take to keep our schools open,” said Mayor Bryant DeLong on Twitter.
Saying that regional hospitals are filling quickly with patients while experiencing a high percentage of staff outages due to COVID-19, DeLong added in subsequent post on Twitter that North Kansas City can’t continue to ignore the hospitals’ pleas regarding the latest surge.
“Masking isn’t a perfect solution,” he said. “But it one of many things we as a region can do to help.”
Council member Wesley Graves cast the sole vote against the extension.
The North Kansas City School District said on its website that the extension affects only students, staff and visitors at North Kansas City High School and Briarcliff Elementary, which is holding classes at the district’s Norclay building while the elementary school is renovated.
The district said it follows masks ordinances approved by the city councils in which its schools are located. Kansas City’s most recent mask ordinance requiring masks in schools expired Jan. 1. The district said that as a result, students, staff and patrons of schools in Kansas City were no longer required to wear masks when they return from winter break earlier this week.
On Tuesday, the rolling average for new COVID-19 cases hit a record high in the Kansas City metro, with 2,100 per day. Children’s Mercy also reported a record number of COVID cases in its hospital since the pandemic began.
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 10:28 AM.
