No changes have yet been made to the Washington Community School District’s mask policy following a temporary order from a federal judge allowing Iowa school districts to enact mask mandates.

Washington schools released a statement on September 10th, a few days before Judge Robert Pratt’s order, that they highly recommend students wear masks at school. Their positive case numbers on that day were 19 in the high school, 19 in the middle school, two at Lincoln Elementary, and three at Stewart Elementary. As of last Friday, Washington County’s seven-day positive COVID-19 test rate was 12%, with 3,349 positive tests, about 150 more than the week prior. The state coronavirus dashboard shows Washington County has 62.4% of those 18 and older fully vaccinated. Superintendent Willie Stone shares how the district is responding to the federal ruling, “We’re going to have a discussion about trying to set up a meeting probably over the next couple of weeks, or we may wait until our next board meeting. Because we’re actually trying to collect a lot of data to see where we’re at in comparison to last year, and we want to make sure we have a good database to make sure we make informed decisions.”

Stone mentioned during the September 8th school board meeting that much of the district’s positive cases were among middle and high school students. COVID-19 vaccines are free and available for those 12 and above. Washington’s next regular board meeting is scheduled for October 13th.