Siloam Springs School District's mask policy will stay in place until the end of the year after school board members voted three to two in favor of the policy on Thursday.
School board members also asked Superintendent Jody Wiggins to investigate other options for high school graduation during the meeting.
The board received plenty of public feedback on both issues in the form of emailed and in-person comments from parents.
Since Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced on March 30 the statewide mask mandate would be lifted, the school district's policy, which was adopted before the the mask mandate was issued, has remained in place.
On Thursday, Wiggins recommended the school district continue to keep the mask policy in place for the last seven weeks of school. He noted the covid-19 safety policies have served the district well over the past year and encouraged board members to err on the side of caution.
School board members Brian Lamb, Audra Farrell and Connie Matchell voted in favor of keeping the mask policy in place until the end of the school year, while school board members Grant Loyd and Travis Jackson voted against it.
Graduation
Plans for high school graduation were announced at the March school board meeting. The ceremony was scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 15 at Barnhill Arena at the University of Arkansas campus. It was to be divided into two back-to-back ceremonies with roughly 190 students in each event and students would leave the arena as soon as they walked across the stage to facilitate the university's social distancing requirements.
In addition to the feedback presented at the meeting, a group of students wrote a letter and circulated a petition requesting the ceremony be changed so the class can graduate together, Wiggins said.
After hearing and reading the public feedback, school board members asked Wiggins to investigate other possibilities, including hosting the event at Panther Stadium on May 15 or the following weekend on May 22.
Wiggins said school administrators will research all the options and asked school board members to come back one day next week for a special meeting to review the possibilities.
For the full story, see Siloam Sunday.