COVID-19 mitigation procedures have been updated for the current school year, following school board meetings and notices from the Department of Health. These updates include mask policy, quarantine procedures and one-way hallways.

“Right now, masks are voluntary,” Assistant Principal Catherine Halbuer said. “It is the students’ choice as to whether or not they wear masks.”

The school board announced on Aug. 10 that masks are optional in Brevard Public Schools.

“I think that masking should not necessarily be optional,” physics teacher Joseph Estevez said. “I think it leaves vulnerable populations extremely vulnerable. We don’t know who’s sitting next to us.”

While some students and staff members continue wearing masks, others have decided to stop wearing them.

“As far as [masks] being optional, I think that it’s great,” AP Government and Economics teacher Sean Regan said. “If someone wants to, then by all means they should. If they don’t want to, then they shouldn’t.”

According to Halbuer, the Department of Health in both Brevard County and Tallahassee update and announce quarantine guidelines.

“Quarantine policy [is made up of] flow charts,” Halbuer said. “The [Department of Health] makes revisions to the flow chart with the school board. I anticipate we are going to have another change as to how [quarantine policies] work. If somebody is a close contact to a positive [case] in a household and they are unable to isolate from everybody in the household, their quarantine does not start until after the positive [case] quarantine is over.”

Although masks are optional, one-way hallway policies remain in place.

“The district pushed out prior to the school year that we must have one-way hallways,” Halbuer said. “The superintendent of Brevard Public Schools reiterated that Brevard Public Schools need to enforce one-way hallways.”

More on these policies can be found on Brevard Public Schools’s district webpage.