The district began the school year with masks required only for those students and staff of grade six and lower and optional for grades seven through 12.
However, 81% of the positive COVID-19 cases last week, identified by Greene County Public Health as spread within the school setting, were coming from seven through 12th grades, the superintendent wrote.
“Although there are quarantines in our elementary schools, last week’s data showed that a positive case in a grade level that does not require masks results in approximately twice as many quarantines,” Otten said.
The surge in coronavirus cases amid the more contagious delta variant has led other schools, such as Wayne High School in Huber Heights, to send students home for a period of remote learning.
Otten said he hopes that with the change in mask policy Beavercreek Schools will not have to resort to changes in the educational delivery model.
Kettering City Schools last week updated its policy to require that all students inside classrooms wear masks.
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