Each week during the school year a representative from the Carbon County School District comes in to speak with Castle Country Radio about the latest news and happenings taking place within the district. Now that the summer is winding down it is time to present the weekly series again and it’s only appropriate that the first weekly update of the school year be with Superintendent Mika Salas.

Mask wearing will not be required this school year as Superintendent Salas explains, “There’s a House Bill 1007 that was passed during legislation this year that actually makes it impossible for schools to mandate or require masks in schools after the end of last school year. So in other words, we will not be requiring masks as students come back this fall or this school year. So students are welcomed to wear masks if they choose to. So our staff, visitors, and anyone in our building who would like to wear a mask are welcomed to do so. We will not be requiring the use of masks this year.” This may come as some relief for some students and parents as last year all students and faculty had to wear masks for the entire school year.

There is a Senate bill that advises school districts on how to determine test-to-stay situations. “What the bill states is that if your school population is less than 1,500, which all of our schools are, then it would when you have 30 positive cases in that building, we would switch over to test-to-stay and then there are a bunch of ways to do that,” stated Superintendent Salas. Even in the height of COVID exposure there was never 30 or more students that were positive at one time in any of the schools. The district will follow the guidelines set in place by the Southeastern Utah Health Department.

The construction taking place at Carbon High School has been moving along smoothly with the exception of the fire arts department. “Anyone who has done construction knows it doesn’t ever go exactly how you thought. There are some delays and COVID has changed some of the vendor delivery option and things but we will be in-person, in each building the first day of school. We’ll just have to make some moderate or mild modifications for our rooms and things but we will be back in school on the first day,” stated Superintendent Salas. The school plans to host a public open house once construction is completed.

To learn more about Carbon School District visit their website at https://www.carbonschools.org/