Vail Unified School District’s plan for masks

Vail Unified School District is located near Tucson and has not been so ‘unified’ recently. It had a contentious board meeting last week when they were about to discuss how to handle masks in schools for the remainder of the year after Governor Ducey lifted the mask mandate in schools. 

The VUSD Board wound up canceling its meeting last week because so many parents showed up, angry over the possibility their kids would have to continue wearing masks. They had another meeting this past Monday night and listened to parents, but no decision was made.

We talked with John Carruth, the Superintendent of Vail Unified School District about what happened and what the plan is for the district. He explained that they have 3 weeks left of the school year. They even have in-person graduation planned. 

He explains that they have developed three different structures for schooling this year. He said it is fortunate that they seem to be on the backside of the pandemic. He said their district covers about thirteen thousand students and about two thousand employees. The governor has removed the school mask mandate, but their school district has not released the mask mandate. 

He said they are after keeping people safe for the rest of the year. There have been a lot of mixed messages going on and this has made it hard for the school district. We also talked about what will be happening for the Vail Unified School District in the next year.