East Central Reporter

Arcola Community Unified School District 306 issued the following announcement on Jan. 27

Dear Families,

For the past two years, the Arcola School District has been doing its best to keep up with the ongoing changes in state guidance, mandates, and executive orders revolving around the pandemic. Throughout all of the changes, our goals have been to maintain a safe school environment, keep students in school learning, and provide a consistent, nurturing environment for all students. This notice is to inform you of another event that could potentially impact school districts in the coming weeks.

A current court case regarding face masking in schools is expected to have a final judgement (ruling) soon. The outcome of this judgement could have an impact on school districts throughout the state of Illinois. It is anticipated that the Judge will make one of the following determinations:

1. Reinforce the state’s ability to require a mask mandate in schools.
2. Make facemasks optional for the students that were involved in the lawsuit. (Arcola does not have students involved in the lawsuit)
3. Make facemasks optional for the school districts that were involved in the lawsuit. (Arcola School District is not involved in the lawsuit).
4. Make facemasks optional statewide regardless of who was involved in the lawsuit.
5. Allow school districts to locally determine if facemasks should be required.

Additionally, after the judgement, there is an anticipated appellate decision that will come out ten days later that could uphold or potentially reverse the lower court’s decision.  Most likely, the appellate court decision will impact all schools in Illinois.

KEY POINT – Regardless of the ruling in this case, there will be NO immediate changes to the masking policy or any policy as it relates to our current procedures in the Arcola School District. 

As we have always done, we will take the information from the ruling, determine the impact on our school district, look at local statistics and make the best decision we can to meet the goals for our local students.

Thanks,

Tom Mulligan

Original source can be found here.