MASON CITY — The Mason City School Board Monday night reviewed a draft “Return to Learn” plan for the upcoming school year which will be formally adopted early next month. Superintendent Dave Versteeg says the number one priority of the district’s plan is to protect the health of the students, staff and community. He says the situation of bringing kids back to school full-time or utilizing a hybrid of in-class and online is still fluid at this time. “It’s a week-to-week and day to day decision. I would not anticipate that that decision about what we’re actually going to do is going to happen until shortly before the start of school, for a variety of reasons. We’re 20 some days away from August 24th, almost a month, maybe five weeks. It’s going to change immensely between now and then. Those are our options and that’s what the plan outlines is options, not necessarily exactly what we’re going to do today.” Versteeg says a number of new rules would be implemented when students attend classes at school, including cleaning procedures and limiting access to visitors. “Going beyond the office area is likely prohibited in most cases, even for parents, and probably appointments are necessary to even enter the building. New cleaning procedures for classrooms and common areas have been developed and are in place, and training needs to take place with staff about those at the appropriate time.”Versteeg says both staff and students will need to self-assess their health before coming to school each day. “It’s now been our determination at this point that on-site temperature testing and assessing would not be efficient or effective given the large number of students that we’re probably dealing with, but it’s possible, but at this point we’re asking people to self assess before they even leave for school.” Versteeg says they will strongly encourage the use of masks in school when social distancing is not possible. “We feel that given the nature of mandates and how do you enforce it, we would have a better success by convincing people to wear masks then punishing people for not wearing them. We’re just not sure how the enforcement is going to be. That’s our stance today, we highly encourage people to wear masks, we’re very supportive of that. But at this point, since I don’t have the support of the Department of Ed to mandate that decision, I think it would be best that we just make it not necessarily optional, but we really encourage people to do it and support people who do do it.” Versteeg says the board will have a special meeting on August 4th to approve the district’s “Return to Learn” plan. You can review the draft plan as well as watch video from last night’s school board meeting via the links below: Click here to read the full “Return-To-Learn Plan”Click here to watch Monday night’s meeting