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The Altoona Area School Board unanimously voted Thursday to ease restrictions on its COVID-19 close contact policy.
According to the new guidelines, students who come into close contact with a person who has COVID-19 are allowed to return to school as long as they are asymptomatic.
"We don't want to be isolating kids unnecessarily, and we also don't want to be creating hazards for other kids in school," Superintendent Charles Prijatelj said. "We feel that this is a pretty good happy medium."
Prijatelj said the revised guidelines provide an easier pathway for students to remain in the building for in-person instruction.
Under the former guidelines, any student deemed to have been in close contact was forced to quarantine for 10 days.
While any student who comes into close contact must wear a mask for 10 days, they are permitted to return to school if they do not have any symptoms and can "test out" of the protocol if they receive a negative test after the initial five days, Prijatelj said.
If students begin to show symptoms of COVID-19, they would need to quarantine, the guidelines state.
"We would hope that people use common sense there," Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Brad Hatch said.
Hatch said the revised plans, which were presented to the board under the administration's recommendation, were designed with input from the school nursing staff and are in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of COVID-19 cases within the district have reduced "significantly" over the past two weeks, Prijatelj said.
The district reported Jan. 27 that it had 34 cases of COVID-19, and now just two weeks later, the district has just four cases, Prijatelj said.
"The numbers are continuing to go down," he said.
Despite the revised guidelines, parents may still opt to quarantine their child if they are asymptomatic, Prijatelj said.
District administrators said that further revisions to the health and safety plan are expected, and the guidelines are planned to be reviewed again next month.
"I think this is a good move because it's going to get more kids in school," Prijatelj said. "I'm just hoping the decline in the county continues to go down. The numbers in the county are falling, and I hope it keeps decreasing as omicron works its way out of the community. Hopefully by spring we can -- knock on wood -- put a lot of this behind us."
In other matters, school directors took the next step toward honoring late school director Richard "Dick" Lockard at Mansion Park.
School board members discussed Monday about possibly naming something at Mansion Park Stadium in Lockard's honor, and during Thursday night's meeting, Board President Frank Meloy requested a committee be assembled to "come up with ideas."
"Let's implement a committee that can look at this, consider it and bring a recommendation to the board," Meloy said.
According to Meloy, the school's guidelines require the committee to include the superintendent, assistant superintendents and board members who are on the facilities committee.
Any recommendation from the committee will be subject to board approval, he said.
Mirror Staff Writer Calem Illig is at 814-946-7535.