T-R PHOTO BY TREVOR BABCOCK Superintendent Theron Schutte provides an update on Marshalltown Community School District’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies and plans for graduation at the school board’s regular meeting Monday night.

No changes to Marshalltown Community School District’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies will be made for the remainder of the school year.

Superintendent Theron Schutte provided an update on the district’s COVID-19 policies at the regular school board meeting Monday, responding to the most recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH).

Last week, the IDPH updated their COVID-19 safety guidance to recommend schools make masks optional, while the CDC recommended schools not make any changes to mitigation strategies for the remainder of the year.

With 15 days left in the school year, Schutte said the district should stay the course with their efforts.

“Our kids and our staff have done an unbelievable job of complying and doing what they need to do to keep themselves, their families and each other safe,” Schutte said.

He said the district will no longer use desk shields after the school year ends and is certain mask usage at the middle school and high school levels will be made optional for the next school year. Depending on the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine for ages younger than 12, masks may or may not be optional at the elementary, intermediate and pre-Kindergarten levels next year.

The district will hold a vaccination clinic Friday for ages 12 and older at Lenihan Intermediate School from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., Miller Middle School from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and Marshalltown High School from noon to 2 p.m.. Consent forms are available at each building and must be signed by a parent and submitted to the building’s school nurse office by 3:30 p.m., Thursday.

Another vaccination clinic will be held on Saturday at the Marshalltown High School Roundhouse Team Room from 8 a.m. to noon and is open to all eligible students in Marshall County.

School Board Member Mike Miller asked Schutte if there are any plans for the district to identify what students have been vaccinated and those who have not.

“We haven’t had any discussion about that, but I think as we go into the fall we will try to do that so we can get a handle on the percentage,” Schutte said. “I don’t think it will necessarily affect our decisions at the middle school and high school because we’re already tentatively planning on loosening restrictions. Parents and students will have had months in order to become vaccinated, so the assumption will be that if they are willing and want to do it then they will have done it.”

The district is planning a traditional outdoor graduation for May 30, weather permitting.

In case of inclement weather, graduation will be held indoors with social distancing procedures similar to last year’s graduation.

Last year’s graduation was not open to the general public, but only to the graduating students and their immediate families. Graduates and family members waited in cars in the parking lot and gradually moved in a socially distanced line toward the stage.

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Contact Trevor Babcock at 641-753-6611 or tbabcock@timesrepublican.com.