HAYS COUNTY, Texas — Kids at Hays CISD had their first day of school on Thursday, and they were not required to wear masks.
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra ordered that schools require masks, but that goes against Gov. Greg Abbott’s order that bans mask mandates in schools.
Justin McCorkle, the director of student health services for Hays CISD, said until local and state leaders sort out where they stand on mask mandates, they will continue to abide by the governor’s order and not mandate masks. He said they do have a large supply of masks at each school for kids to wear if they would like one.
Superintendent Dr. Eric Wright spoke with KVUE and said he highly recommends masks, especially for elementary school kids who cannot be vaccinated yet. He also encouraged kids 12 and older to get the shot.
When the KVUE team was at Buda Elementary School on the first day of school, the large majority of children and adults were wearing masks.
In addition to encouraging masking, Hays CISD does have other safety precautions in place.
"We have a list of symptoms we are on the lookout for and we have a separate nurse's office,” said Sean Fox, the principal of Blanco Vista Elementary. “We have two nurses' offices, one for kids who are exhibiting symptoms and one for Band-Aids and things like that."
Principal Fox said that the majority of kids at Blanco Vista Elementary showed up in masks for the first day of school, and they are encouraging it.
Hays CISD leaders said they are also trying to space kids out, clean buses and classrooms, and put out a lot of hand sanitizer. They are also conducting contact tracing when there is a positive COVID-19 case.
"So we hired in extra nurses to help with the contact tracing and communications process,” said McCorkle. "Just to make sure we have enough folks who can do the work and get in touch with parents so they can make informed decisions."
McCorkle said if a child has symptoms, they will refer them to free COVID-19 test sites in the community.
You can view Hays CISD's full COVID-19 safety protocols by clicking here.
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