School districts in Central Kentucky county ease or lift student mask requirements

Starting Friday, Mercer County Schools in Harrodsburg are no longer requiring masks inside school buildings.

Mercer Superintendent Jason Booher told families in a letter Thursday night that the school board had passed new guidance on masking,“highly” recommending but not requiring face coverings.

Students will have to wear their masks in some small learning groups around a small table until they return to their regular seats, Booher said.

Booher said in the letter that if COVID cases in the district rise to a certain level, the district will return to wearing masks for at least a week until the number of cases go back down.

Booher said teachers who are fully vaccinated and are employed as of Dec. 1, 2021, will be paid $200 as an incentive for getting vaccinated.

The Burgin Independent district, also in Mercer County, will still require masks inside the building except when students are sitting at their desks or when the student is sitting down to eat meals at school, a Facebook post said.

Senate Bill 1, passed during the recent special session of the Republican-led General Assembly, took effect on Friday, eliminating the statewide mask mandate in Kentucky public schools.

The Science Hill, Clinton and Hickman county school districts have also lifted the mask mandate in school buildings.

Gallatin County Schools on September 15 made mask wearing optional but changed course Friday and required them.

“This afternoon, board members along with school and district personnel worked together on a masking plan for the district,” a district Facebook post said. “They determined that due to the high number of cases and quarantines in our school district, all students and staff will be required to wear mask indoors for the next ten school days beginning Monday September 20th.”

As of 8 a.m. Friday, 96 percent of Kentucky’s 171 school districts had announced they will continue to require all students, staff and visitors to wear masks, Kentucky School Boards officials said.

Fayette schools is one of them.

This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 8:59 AM.