Mountain Brook Hopes To Make Masks Optional In Schools Soon

MOUNTAIN BROOK, AL — With neighboring school systems shifting to a mask-optional policy on its campuses, Mountain Brook Schools officials say they would like to shift to that same policy soon.

The first nine weeks of the 2021-22 school year ended Friday, and the school system said fewer than 20 students were home with positive COVID-19 diagnoses by Friday. The exact number was nor reported, as the school system does not report specific numbers lower than 20 due to privacy concerns.

"While we see these lower numbers as a positive thing, several factors are reviewed daily that inform Mountain Brook Schools’ response to COVID," the school system said in a news release Friday. "It is worth noting that our goal is to move to mask optional as soon as it is safely possible."

Factors for Consideration:

• Recommendation by medical officials from the ADPH and the JCHD.
• Voluntarily reported local school positive cases
• Absentee rates at each school
• Jefferson County COVID data including percent positive, hospital rates, and severity of the variant and spread
• Vaccine availability for our students, staff, and community

"We recognize that local, county, and state data is skewed due to personal home COVID tests available on the market," MBS said. "The results of these tests are likely not reported to the same efficacy as tests administered by medical professionals. Because of this, we have been carefully monitoring our absence rates throughout the school district. Every school has experienced an increased rate of student absences at approximately double what we experience in a typical school year. Please report any positive cases or exposure to your child’s school nurse."

Vestavia Hills City Schools and Hoover City Schools have already shifted to a mask-optional policy on all of their campuses.

SEE ALSO:

Vestavia Schools Report 15 COVID-19 Cases Among Students

Masks Now Optional For Students At Hoover Schools

Schools See Decline In COVID-19 Cases, Urged To Keep Mask Orders