The universal masking requirement was approved at Tuesday’s school board meeting and include students, staff and all visitors in the buildings. It includes all activities such as parent meetings, athletic events and student performances.
Springfield City Schools, Northeastern, Global Impact STEM Academy and Northwestern Elementary are the other local schools to require masks. Clark-Shawnee and Tecumseh Local Schools are requiring masks through Oct. 1, and Mechanicsburg Exempted Village Schools has short-term masking in place for certain classes.
Thiel said the district has seen a “dramatic increase” in the number of students who have been absent from school for illness.
“Although many of these students may not be identified as COVID-19 positive, the addition of face masks should have a positive impact on reducing the potential for viral spread in the school setting,” he said.
The district is following recommendations from the Ohio Department of Health, Thiel said, including strongly encouraging vaccination for those who are eligible, the use of face masks in school settings, social distancing, prompt care for people with COVID-19 symptoms, practicing good hygiene, and routine cleaning and disinfecting.
Thiel said with all these layered prevention strategies in place, more students can remain in the classroom and continue to participate in sports and other activities.
According to the ODH school district dashboard for the week of Sept. 14-20, Urbana reported 20 new student and staff cases.
Twelve Clark County and three other Champaign County school districts reported new cases of COVID-19, according to the ODH. A total of 168 student and staff cases were reported between the counties Thursday for the week of Sept. 14-20. This is a decrease from the previous week’s total of 201 cases with 118 cases reported in Clark County schools and 50 in Champaign County schools.
The school districts that reported student and staff cases are:
Catholic Central: 1 student, 1 staff
Clark County ESC: 2 students
Clark-Shawnee: 6 students
Emmanuel Christian Academy: 7 students
Global Impact STEM Academy: 1 student, 1 staff
Greenon: 5 students
Madison-Champaign ESC: 1 student, 3 staff
Mechanicsburg: 15 students, 5 staff
Northeastern: 25 students, 2 staff
Northwestern: 10 students
Southeastern: 2 students, 1 staff
Springfield: 18 students, 1 staff
Springfield-Clark County: 10 students
Tecumseh: 21 students, 4 staff
Triad: 6 students
Cases reported on the school dashboard lag one week, meaning those reported Thursday were from Sept. 14-20.
The dashboard tracks cases of COVID-19 in all public and private K-12 schools across the state. Data displayed on the board includes all student and staff cases broken into new and cumulative categories. The board is updated Thursdays.
Clark County had 17,992 coronavirus cases and 328 deaths as of Thursday afternoon, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Champaign County had 4,488 cases and 64 deaths.
As of Thursday, 64,333 vaccination shots have been given in Clark County, according to ODH. Almost 48% of the county’s total population has received at least one shot and almost 45% have been fully vaccinated.
In Champaign County, 15,616 vaccination shots have been given. Just over 40% of the county’s total population has received at least one shot and just over 37% has been fully vaccinated.
By the numbers
17,992: Number of COVID-19 cases reported in Clark County
4,488: Number of COVID-19 cases reported in Champaign County
64,333: Number of vaccination shots given in Clark County
15,616: Number of vaccination shots given in Champaign County
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