Karns City Area School District's board discussed updates to its Health and Safety Plan at its work session and meeting Monday evening.

Superintendent Eric Ritzert discussed changes to the quarantine guidelines in light of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) changes.

According to Ritzert, the amount of time a student would have to quarantine is now five days, which is shortened from the previous 10 days recommended by the CDC. This update was implemented officially Jan. 5.

“We're adopting five days now. The students and staff are abiding it, and we've seen no great swing in the numbers,” Ritzert said.

Ritzert said students can return to the school after five days only if they are asymptomatic. The school does not require proof of a negative test to return to school, but students who return after a five-day quarantine are required to attend school masked for five days. Students in this category must also be socially distanced at lunch, Ritzert said.

The school's active COVID-19 cases are representative of students or staff who have tested positive after being in the school building. Ritzert added that masks continue to be optional for students, but that more students are taking advantage of the masks made available on campus.

Ritzert said the school district would close due to COVID-19 concerns if there were an order issued by the government, active cases made up 5% of the school population or a lack of employees resulted in an inability to operate.

According to Ritzert, there are five flexible instruction days available for COVID-19 closures.

During the work session, the board discussed making snow days into remote learning days instead of having a traditional day off for weather, but ultimately agreed to keep them a traditional day off.

“We've had some feedback from parents that they'd rather not go remote when it's weather related,” Ritzert said. “They would rather make it up in person.”

The board received an update from Anthony Colestock of Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates, the architects involved in the Chicora Elementary School building project. Colestock said depending on the state of the budget after the project is out for bid, there could be an opportunity for a new turf field. The field would replace the current softball field on the property.