Andrea Johnson/MDN From left to right, board members Mike Gessner, Miranda Schuler, Jim Rostad, Supt. Mark Vollmer and board members Laura Mihalick and Bonny Berryman at Thursday’s board meeting at Minot High School-Central Campus. The board unanimously approved a plan for the school year that says masks are recommended, but won’t be required in Minot schools. They will be required at Minot Air Force Base schools due to federal requirements.

Things will be back to normal, or almost, when classes resume in the Minot Public Schools on Aug. 24.

The board approved a policy that makes masks strongly recommended, but not required, in school buildings in Minot, though they will be required at Memorial Middle School and North Plains and Dakota Elementaries at Minot Air Force Base because the U.S. Air Force requires masks indoors per federal guidelines. Children who attend the Star Base program on the base will also be required to wear masks when they are indoors at base schools. Board member Laura Mihalick said people who want to wear masks in Minot schools will still be allowed to wear them.

However, the board agreed to do away with other policies that had been prompted last year by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Social distancing will no longer be required, so kids won’t be required to eat lunch or play at recess in “cohorts.” School lockers are being assigned at the middle school and high school levels when last year they were banned because of fear that the virus could be too easily spread if kids congregated at lockers. Board member Bonny Berryman, a retired teacher who still works as a substitute teacher, said there aren’t enough teachers to supervise the locker area and kids tend to push and shove each other or get into fights when they go to their lockers. Administrators assured her that locker times will be staggered during the school day so fewer kids will be in an area at the same time.

Distance education is no longer an option as it was last year but the board approved a plan to set up virtual academies at the elementary, middle and high school level. Families will have to apply and permission can be revoked if they do not participate as agreed, said Assistant Supt. Kim Slotsve. She said she hopes to have the virtual academies in place by the first day of school but is not sure how many families will be interested. The details of how it will work are still being worked out.

Vaccinations are not being required and the district will not be keeping track of who has been vaccinated against COVID-19 or who has tested positive for the illness. Contact tracing will be left up to the public health department.

The Centers for Disease Control has advised people to wear masks indoors in areas with high numbers of the virus, In some areas of the country, hospitalizations are surging due to the more easily transmissible Delta variant and lower vaccination numbers. Ward County currently has 117 active cases of the coronavirus reported by the state health department, behind only Cass and Burleigh Counties with the highest number of cases. Forty seven percent of eligible people in the county have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

However, there has been little appetite for mask wearing in the Minot area. People in the audience – more than is typical at a school board meeting – burst into applause when the board unanimously approved the plan with no mask mandate.