Lindbergh Schools is moving to a mask-optional environment next semester after the Board of Education passed the Green Light Plan Dec. 16.

Masks will be optional for all students and staff when school resumes Jan. 5. 

The plan approved by the board allows schools to stay mask-optional as long as total positive tests do not exceed 1.5 percent at a school, in which case only that specific building would require masks for two weeks, or until the percentage drops. Superintendent Tony Lake said 1.5 percent is on the low end of schools with similar policies. 

“If you look around our county, as more and more districts begin to go to this model, you’ll see as high as 4 percent,” Lake said, adding that there has only been one time a school went over the threshold this year.

The plan highlights several “tools” the district will have at its disposal going forward. Quarantine will exist for students who test positive for COVID, students who have an unvaccinated family member test positive and temporary exclusions for children with COVID symptoms.

Contact tracing will continue and parents will be notified of exposures to sick people, but close contacts will no longer be excluded from schools. The plan has options for different learning environments should they be needed, including virtual, in-person and a hybrid.

The change does come on the heels of a letter from Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt to Missouri schools instructing them to cease mask mandates, quarantine and mitigation policies, although Lake noted the district had been discussing these changes since November.

“I just want to make sure people and parents don’t think we’re caving to certain political pressure or somebody that has put out some information demanding us to do certain things,” Lake said.

The board will review the plan and the district’s COVID situation at each meeting going forward and make changes as needed.