By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
ELLIS — This week, the Ellis USD 388 Board of Education voted to suspend the district's COVID-19 mitigation plan, now treating COVID cases like other communicable diseases that routinely impact schools.
The plan has been in place since September 2021.
The COVID plan now in place is "basically identical" to the district's flu plan, according to Superintendent Corey Burton.
"This is exactly what we were doing pre-COVID, as far as influenza was concerned," he said.
The move follows a similar measure made by the USD 489 Hays school district in late January.
While the plan is now suspended, it will remain in place through the end of the year.
"The thought behind the suspension of it is, if we would ever see a big outbreak again, we can move to reinstate it," Burton said. "So it's not totally gone. I thought it'd be there for us as a backup."
Board member Latisha Haag brought the measure to vote, Cindy Hertel would offer a second, and the measure passed unanimously.
Despite the suspension of the plan, Burton told the board he would continue to update the board regularly on COVID cases in the district.