April 6, 2021, Governor Hutchinson announced the statewide mask mandate will be lifted in Arkansas, effective immediately. The Governor's press conference announcement does not change the guidance and recommendations for schools from the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH) or Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). ADH and DESE both strongly advise districts to continue to follow all measures that have allowed successful in-person learning to occur, which includes physical distancing, mask wearing, hand washing, cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities, and Identification of close contacts.

Woodlawn School District (WSD) adopted a Ready for Learning (RfL) Plan for the 2020-2021 school year in adherence to those recommendations. The procedures WSD has followed since the beginning of the year have helped prevent person-to-person spread of the virus among students and staff while at school. For this reason, the district will continue following ADH and DESE recommendations and the Ready for Learning Plan until further notice, which transitions us to now provide guidance for face covering as determined by the WSD Board of Education. WSD is currently in the process of reviewing the RfL plan and seeking public comments.  WSD will begin the development of the 2021-2022 school year following public comments.

The current Woodlawn School District Ready for Learning may be found at https://www.whsbears.org/ for review by those providing Public Comments.