By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Buhler USD 313 Superintendent Cindy Couchman explained that the district she leads is taking its own approach to COVID-19 protocols for the upcoming school year.
"Right now, our plan at Buhler is to open without facemasks," Couchman said. "That's usually the biggest thing people are worried about. We are not doing temperature checks this year. Last year we did and this year we are not. We've learned a lot about COVID and how it spreads."
The district reserves the right to adjust based on future data.
"The plan is to look at our building numbers and exposures inside each building," Couchman said. "It's possible that we would mask up by building, if we had some concern that exposure is happening inside a building. We would say, okay, Buhler High School, or Prairie Hills, or wherever the building is at, that you would mask up and maybe it would be four weeks at a time and we would reevaluate it to see if maybe we can't get numbers calmed down."
Buhler is also going to host a vaccination clinic.
"They're looking at one in September, I believe," Couchman said. "We haven't finalized that with Reno County Health. We're looking at some clinics both in the fall and the beginning of winter, to try to get as many people vaccinated as possible."
Buhler is not going to use the same gating criteria as they did last year. They lifted that last spring. The board has not committed to specific case numbers that will trigger future actions.