Botetourt Students will wear masks due to state code

Masks in school are back on for Botetourt County and all other public school students in the Commonwealth. Schools open here on Wednesday.

BCPS School Board Chairman Anna Leffel Weddle sent this statement regarding masking:

“Updated to recommend universal indoor masking for all students, staff, teachers and visitors to K-12 schools regardless of vaccination status.”

On August 4th the CDC updated its guidelines due to the uptick in Covid 19 cases nationwide. Here is what happened next in Virginia on August 5th.

Due to the inactment of Senate Bill 1303 introduced by a Republican senator from Henrico County and receiving bipartisan support, the bill was passed by the Virginia General Assembly in March of 2021 and is now part of the Code of Virginia. Paraphrashed it states that CDC Guidelines will be followed by the state school divisions. Governor Ralph Northam repeated this several times in his press conference on Aug. 5. Thus all schools are to uphold state code.

Northam reminded the public if they have questions or concerns to contact their state legislators. In our area that would be Del. Terry Austin and Del. Chris Head from the House of Delegates and Sen. Steve Newman from the Virginia Senate. Local school boards have no control over state laws.

Some items of note:

BCPS will continue the weekly Covid -19 Dashboard for positive cases report in the school year 2021-22

Covid Relief funds were used and ionic filters for the air circulation system in the schools are in place for filtration to help stem Covid spread though the air.

This afternoon, School Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Russ will be sending out an updated version of Back to School to parents and faculty and staff. The Botetourt Bee and other media will be posting information for the Community when we receive it.

–Cathy Benson