Masks Required At Stillwater High After Spike In COVID-19 Cases

STILLWATER, MN — Students and staff at Stillwater Area High School must wear masks after the school board voted Thursday to expand the district’s masking mandate.

A masking mandate was already in place at Stillwater elementary and middle schools, but officials are now requiring masks at the high school after a spike in coronavirus cases among staff and students to start 2022.

About 5 percent of Stillwater Area High School students and employees reported coronavirus cases during the first week of the new year, officials said.

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All students, staff and visitors must wear masks inside Stillwater Area High School starting Monday, regardless of their vaccination status, officials said. The district is encouraging students, staff and visitors to wear N95 or KN95 masks, or to wear a mask with at least two layers of fabric.

The board is expected to reconsider the high school’s mask mandate at its Feb. 3 board meeting, with officials recommending the requirement remain in effect until there is “a consistent, downward trend” of cases for several weeks.

Coronavirus cases within the district surged after Thanksgiving, but “things were looking pretty good as we were coming into winter break,” Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Cherry told the board on Thursday.

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The start of winter break coincided with the onset of the omicron variant, which caused a spike in cases that is “higher than we’ve ever seen in the past,” Cherry said.

The COVID-19 data dashboard for Stillwater Area Public Schools shows there have been 466 coronavirus cases at the high school and St. Croix Valley Area Learning Center. Almost 20 percent of those schools' total cases were recorded over the past week.

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Stillwater Area High School was included Thursday on the Minnesota Department of Health’s list of facilities with recent coronavirus outbreaks, which it defines as five or more cases of COVID-19 among students or staff who were in the building while infectious.

Five other SAPS schools were also named on Thursday’s list: Rutherford Elementary, Afton-Lakeland Elementary, Andersen Elementary, Lake Elmo Elementary and Oak-Land Middle School.