There will be a face mask requirement for personnel attending and working in brick and mortar schools in Geary USD 475 this fall.
Associate Superintendent Lacee Sell said, "Here in our school district we are asking and requiring that everyone wears a mask." Sell explained in wearing the masks "the requirement is that if you cannot maintain six feet social distancing that you have to have a mask on. Parents are asking what about P.E. and recess? And so with that what we are going to do is try to keep the students apart best we can and avoid that direct contact."
Sell noted that during discussions with the Health Department that officials there and with USD 475 realize wearing a mask will make it difficult for anybody to breath. "We are going to try our absolute best to keep that six feet social distancing but when that can't occur that is when that mask absolutely has to be on." When there are situations where there just a few children in a room and they are more than six feet apart the masks can come down for a little bit, explained Sell.
Reginald Eggleston, Superintendent of Schools, noted that the wearing of masks is a topic across the nation."And so we all have to be mindful and do our part." Eggleston said they have to be practical."We're actually in a different day and time. The pandemic is driving a lot of our actions. Under normal this would not even be a topic of discussion.However, because of the pandemic and because of everyone being alarmed we're going to take every necessary precaution that we possibly can."