Mask Mandate To Be Lifted Next Week At Edina Public Schools

EDINA, MN — Masks will no longer be required in Edina Public Schools starting Feb. 23.

The district’s board unanimously voted Monday to approve Superintendent Stacie Stanley’s recommendation to lift the district’s universal mask mandate next week.

Stanley told the board that the masking requirement is no longer necessary due to a recent drop in coronavirus cases within the district and throughout Edina, as well as increasing vaccination rates.

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Almost 84 percent of high school students were vaccinated against the coronavirus, as of Feb. 4, according to the district. Just under 75 percent of students in grades 6-8 and about half of all elementary students were vaccinated, officials said.

Stanley acknowledged that immunocompromised students “aren’t going to be able to stay in school in person” without the mask mandate in place, urging students to “give them space to transition” to remote learning.

“It’s going to be a change for them,” Stanley said. Lifting the mandate “is taking away some of their social experiences that they have had this year by being in school, masked.”

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Despite lifting the mandate, Stanley and officials are “strongly” recommending students and staff continue to wear masks.

Edina Public Schools officials are set to monitor student attendance rates to determine if masking requirements should be reinstated at a school. Masks would be required again if absences are twice as high as the weekly average of student absences in 2018 and 2019.

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Students and staff must continue to wear masks on district transportation, officials said.

Anyone who tests positive for the coronavirus must isolate at home for five days and wear a mask at school for the next five days, according to updated guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Those who cannot wear a mask for the second five-day period will not be allowed back in class until the full 10-day period has expired.

Students will be required to quarantine for five days if there is a positive case in their household unless they are fully vaccinated or had COVID-19 in the past 90 days, the CDC guidelines state.