During the 2020 - 2021 school year, Monforton School District #27 used layered mitigation strategies to successfully limit the spread of COVID among faculty and students. At the beginning of the 2021 - 2022 school year, however, the Monforton School Board voted to approve the Superintendent's COVID recommendations. These recommendations made masks optional and did away with many of the mitigation strategies that had protected faculty and students the previous year. Just five days into the school year, there are at least 7 cases at the middle school and one at the elementary school. The school has also had to ask the entire 6th and 7th grade to participate in remote learning and has quarantined at least one elementary school classroom. Continuing the current guidelines places both the health and educational attainment of students at risk.

We ask that at a minimum the Monforton School Board reinstitute its mask mandate. We also ask that they consider other mitigation strategies.

We value the education that Monforton provides and want to provide students and faculty with a safe environment this school year that will promote their intellectual and emotional growth.