BETTENDORF, Iowa — Overnight, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a new bill into law, banning local entities from requiring face masks. That includes banning them in schools for students and staff. This gave schools that had mask requirements, about 8 hours from the time the law was signed, until the first bell rang for classes Thursday.
Dr. Brian Strusz, Superintendent for Pleasant Valley School District says an administrative staff meeting was held late Wednesday night to brainstorm how they would make the change work while still making sure every student that attends Pleasant Valley School District felt safe.
"We've had some of those phone calls or even emails late last night coming in saying I want to keep my child home, what does that look like? and we've had other people say they are very happy that this has occured as well". Said Dr. Strusz.
Thursday, students were able to choose whether or not to wear a mask. While News 8's David Bohlman was at the school interviewing staff, he noticed about 50% of students were wearing masks and about 50% were not. Most staff appeared to have face coverings on.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says: "The state of Iowa is putting parents back in control of their children's education and taking greater steps to protect the rights of all Iowans to make their own health care decisions."
Pleasant Valley School District says they will continue over the last days of the school year to increase social distancing, "We've also talked to our staff about how do we go about maximizing space in the classroom... for example if we had pods do you break your pods up further or maybe go back to rows and try to separate it that way and try to create as much distance as possible". Said Dr. Strusz.
According to the CDC and the HHS Iowa's continued to have a decreased case count of new cases. The state is also seeing a decrease of tests being performed. As of 5/20/21, 297 new cases of Coronavirus were reported bringing the 7-day rolling average to 203 new cases. The same data shows 5 new deaths reported in the state for a 7-day daily average of 3 deaths a day. Tests are down to 3,534 tests reported Thursday, for a 7-day average of 3,916 tests being performed daily.
You can learn more about this data here.