Tacoma rescinds in-person school plans over mask problems. Start date now unclear
A day after releasing COVID-19 plans, Tacoma Public Schools announced on Thursday students will not return to the classroom next Monday.
The 30,000-student school district cited concerns over personal protective masks for school employees.
“We have discovered during safety testing of our N95 masks that many are not passing the safety standards,” district spokesman Dan Voelpel said.
The state Labor and Industries Department recommends higher grade masks than what the district has.
Currently, the district has 3,400 N95 masks in its warehouse. The district tested the effectiveness of the masks, and about half do not meet the states’ performance standards, Voelpel said.
“We ordered these masks as a precautionary step because we didn’t think we would be required to have a large number of employees to wear them,” Voelpel said.
Many staff, like nurses, health clerks, special education teachers, paraeducators, and custodians will be fitted with N95 masks, Voelpel said.
The state-required fitting process must include a confidential health review, a training session and individual mask fitting by a licensed professional.
“Tacoma Public Schools already has contracted with a training and fitting vendor and has begun the process,” he said.
The district thought cloth masks were acceptable for teachers and other staff, but recent L&I guidance requires those employees to wear disposable surgical masks,Voelpel said. There are 30,000 surgical masks in the warehouse, and the district has ordered 100,000 more.
Voelpel said the district wishes health and safety guidelines from the state would stop changing as they try to implement them.
“We understand that this is extremely difficult for our families, especially those hoping to send their students to school next week,” he said. “It has been extremely frustrating to try and follow changing guidance on health and safety issues that we have to put in place.”
It is unclear when school will now return.
Sept. 28 was expected to be the first day of a gradual transition back to the classroom.
On Wednesday, the school district released its COVID-19 safety protocols to bring back more than 1,700 preschool and kindergarten students.
Plans included required masks other than recess, continual social distancing and daily COVID-19 forms.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 6:17 PM.
