GF school leaders still making case for masks

This marks first full week of school in the Grand Forks School District.  Most students kicked off the school year last Wednesday with a mask mandate in place.

Superintendent Terry Brenner says the district had one student case of COVID during the first three days and without the mandate many more students would have been impacted.  “One infected person without a mask could put 9-10 people out of school – but if everyone is masked it’s just that one person that goes.”

Brenner says keeping kids in school is the top priority.  He noted during the summer sessions masks were optional for students and staff.  “We had 3 classrooms that had to be quarantined because masks were not required.  One was so late in summer school that some of those students were unable to start on the first day of school.”

The school board will get another another update oregarding the policy on September 13th.

According to the North Dakota Health Department there are currently 317 active cases of COVID-19 among kids ages 14 and under statewide.