Bourbon School District Won’t Mandate Masks

The Bourbon School District decided not to adopt a mask mandate for middle school and high school students on Thursday night, opting to keep its current policy in place.

Gov. Mike Parson announced earlier this month that if public schools mandate face coverings and someone is exposed to a positive contact at the school, no quarantines will be necessary if all parties were wearing masks.

Surrounding schools, like Sullivan, have decided to mandate the masks for students in sixth through 12th grades, but due to a low number of cases and relatively few quarantines, Bourbon will leave its policy unchanged.

Students must be masked during passing times and on the bus.

Superintendent Dr. Kyle Gibbs said due to mitigation measures the district has taken at the middle school and high school, they have been able to halve the number of students who are quarantined when exposed to a positive case.

Gibbs said that the last two exposures resulted in nine and eight students being quarantined, down from 20 to 25 per case in the early part of the year.

Schools like Owensville and Steelville, which had no prior policies, have quickly shifted gears and adopted masking policies, Gibbs said.

The school board decided to be more aggressive on masking on the bus.

Transportation Administrator Jessica Becker said the only concern she had heard from bus drivers on masks is that they feel they don’t want to drive and police kids at the same time.

The board agreed not to take draconian measures to make sure every student is wearing a mask properly, though.

With a recent bus driver quarantine and issues finding enough drivers and substitutes, the school is taking no chances on losing the ones they have.

“We have to protect our bus drivers,” said board member Jason Gobin.