Catholic schools in Lexington set to go mask optional this week. What we know

Catholic schools in Fayette County are set to go mask optional on Thursday, said Superintendent for the Catholic Diocese of Lexington schools superintendent Tom Brown.

“The metric met our standard for going mask optional,” Brown told the Herald-Leader.

Brown said the change in policy will affect about 2,000 students.

Brown said under a state and federal Centers for Disease and Prevention Control metric, COVID cases have dropped to a level that allows masks to be optional at schools

“The decision was made to go, on Thursday, mask optional,” said Brown.

Fayette County Public Schools are still requiring masks on school campuses. But school board members gave Superintendent Demetrus Liggins permission Wednesday night to make the decision to go mask optional on his own as soon as cases drop to a medium or low level without waiting for a vote from the board.

Under state law, school boards make any masking decisions.

The seven day average of new cases in Lexington has dropped from 726 on February 8 to 89 on March 1, Liggins said.

Dozens of public school districts around the state have gone mask optional in the last several days, but as of Monday health departments told Fayette County Schools officials that the number of cases were too high.

This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 4:22 PM.