White Co Schools Continuing Year With Masks Optional

White County Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said the district will continue through the school year with masks encouraged.

‘We’re in school five days a week in-person right now,” Dronebarger said. “We are monitoring it daily. The nurses are still turning in numbers. We’re monitoring our health tracker communicating with the health department. We’re going to try and follow that model as long as we can.”

Dronebarger said a week into school, less than one percent of the student population is infected. Last year, White County Schools required masks up until the last weeks of school.

“Other schools did this last year and were able to get through the school year in a similar fashion,” Dronebarger said. ‘We’re praying for the best, so not turning a blind eye. Certainly very attentive to what is going on and watching and doing the best we can, but the main change right now is we are not wearing masks in school.”

Dronebarger said virtual school is also not an option since White County did not create a separate school for that learning.

“The Governor was insisting that we are in school in-person,” Dronebarger said. “We did not take the option to create a new school with a school number for virtual learning. That wasn’t productive for the majority of our students that did that anyway last year.”

Dronebarger said quarantines are only taking place if the health department orders a student to do so. Dronebarger said masks are encouraged and all sanitation measures are continuing.