OLCHS Dist. 229 Board Unanimously Approves ‘Mask Optional’ Policy

OAK LAWN, IL — The Oak Lawn Community High School Dist. 229 school board voted unanimously on a resolution to remove school masking mitigations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during an emergency board meeting Friday afternoon. Face masks are still required to be worn on school transportation, such buses used to transport athletes and students to games and field trips, in compliance with federal laws.

The resolution was adopted after an appellate court ruling Friday making the school mandate "moot." Although masks are still strongly recommended, effective immediately, staff, students and visitors to the high school will have a choice whether to mask up through the end of the school year. In addition, the board recommends, but does not mandate, OLCHS staff and faculty be vaccinated for COVID-19 and unvaccinated personnel to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.

In addition, quarantines for staff, students and visitors exposed to COVID-19 via close contact will no longer be required to stay home for the time period recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although still strongly recommended.

Staff, teachers and students, however, must still follow procedures for reporting absences and report COVID-19 positive results or close contact exposure.

The board also left the door open for the school district to reimplement mitigation strategies, including face masks if there is a spike in community or school COVID-19 positivity rates.

“Our interpretation by the appellate court ruling is that it is now a local decision by each school district,” Dist. 229 Supt. Mike Riordan said.

OLCHS plans to send a family message out Saturday, but on Tuesday, Riordan said the school will look a much different when students return to school after being off for Presidents Day.

“We feel we can still operate the school safely without masks with the other mitigations we have in place,” Riordan said. “We’re still keeping students distanced in classrooms, and we’re still going to do weekly testing to identify those cases in their early stages and prevent spread.”