The governing board for the Balsz School District in Phoenix approved a mask requirement on Tuesday evening, likely making it the first Phoenix district to begin requiring masks after a court ruling this week cleared the way for these policies at public schools.
“We said well while the state is appealing we’ll just go ahead and implement this mandate. Everybody knows the benefits are huge," said acting Superintendent Zeek Ojeh.
The district had a mask requirement last school year but didn’t enforce masks earlier this school year due to the state ban that was scheduled to take effect this week, Ojeh said.
The district’s community is experiencing high COVID-19 transmission, according to data from the Maricopa County health department, but Ojeh said Balsz schools are seeing less than five cases a week, and voluntarily mask usage has been high among students and staff. But he hopes the new mask requirement will give extra assurance its nearly 300 employees and 2,000 students.
“We are a K-8 school district so the majority of our kids are not eligible for vaccines yet so the better thing to do is to wear masks," Ojeh said.
KJZZ has confirmed that masks will continue to be optional at a few school districts such as Peoria Unified and Gilbert Public Schools.
