Thank you for your ongoing commitment to Hopkins Schools in the midst of a continued pandemic. We appreciate your partnership in helping us navigate nearly two years of mitigation measures. We are pleased to share that positive cases have dropped dramatically across our community and in our schools.
Because case rates have significantly dropped, the Hopkins COVID-19 Mitigation Team is recommending that we relax our district-wide masking policy for K-12+ students and staff from a mandate to strongly recommended. This recommendation also aligns with relaxed CDC guidelines that occurred over the weekend. Changing our masking policy requires approval from the Hopkins School Board. The Board will take action on this at its March 15 meeting. If approved on March 15, the recommended change would likely become effective immediately or within that week. At this time, we are not recommending a change to our masking mandate for our Early Childhood programs.
As we enter into this new phase of the pandemic, we acknowledge that transitioning from requiring masks to strongly recommending masks will be celebrated by some and met with hesitation and apprehension by others. In Hopkins, we instill empathy, humility and inclusivity into our students. We will keep our core values at the forefront as we enter a space that can be polarizing.
Additionally, we would like to provide a Community Engagement opportunity for staff and families to attend in order to raise questions or express concerns. We will host this hybrid event on March 9 at 4:30 p.m. at the Eisenhower Community Center in room 233 for those who wish to attend in person. Those who would like to attend this event virtually can join via Zoom at this link.
Please look for another email after the March 15 School Board Meeting that describes next steps.
We could not have reached this point without the engagement and partnerships of our families, staff and students. We truly appreciate our community.