SOUTH MADISON COUNTY — The 2021-22 school year should feel a little more like normal when area students and teachers head back to class next month.
Both South Madison Community School Corp. and Frankton-Lapel Community Schools approved operation plans for the upcoming school year at their respective July meetings, both conducted on July 8.
South Madison and Lapel students and teachers will have pandemic-related protocol, but nothing like 2020-21 that was heavy on mask wearing, social distancing, contact tracing and virtual learning.
The school systems will go mask-optional to start the school year.
Masks will only be required for students and staff when riding school buses, a federal public transportation mandate.
“Other than (school buses), we’re going to go back and try to be as much normal — or at least back to where we were prior to the pandemic — as we possibly can be,” Frankton-Lapel Community Schools Superintendent Bobby Fields said.
Fields added that adjustments have been made to contact tracing procedures, too.
He said for students who are not vaccinated, contact tracing will continue. Anyone who has been vaccinated or tested positive in the last 90 days, are not subject to contact tracing and do not have to quarantine.
Also, contact tracing, during the 2020-21 school year, was based on being six feet apart from someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. Fields said that has been reduced in most situations from six feet to three feet.
“What we found, what the research says and what happened at most schools, people that were getting sent out of school for contact tracing were hardly ever getting sick,” Fields added. “Almost every time we had a student test positive, you could trace it back to the home situation. They weren’t getting sick at school. Kids were missing so much school for (contact tracing) and were never getting sick.”
South Madison Superintendent Mark Hall said his schools will take a similar approach.
He said, as it did last year, South Madison will have a four-level plan based on community spread. Unlike last year, the first two levels will make face coverings optional inside their buildings. At Levels 3 and 4, if virus spread increases, students and staff will have to wear masks.
Hall added the school system will not require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for students or staff to come to school. If named a close contact,  and a student or staff member has been vaccinated and can prove it, they would not have to quarantine.
Staff and students are not required to be vaccinated.
The South Madison district will still provide virtual learning for those with medical concerns in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Fields said online learning at Frankton-Lapel schools will be available for students in Grades 7 through 12, not elementary students. He said there were only five requests for virtual learning at the elementary level.
“I think, generally speaking, schools’ restrictions are being reduced,” Hall said. “We’ve learned a lot about the virus and kept data on it. We’ve got a plan now to get back closer to normal, but we also have a way in case things would increase. Our plan would let us put restrictions back on if we need to do that.”
Fields added, “We’re not the medical experts. We have to depend on the medical experts on our advice. It’s a fluid situation just like last year.”
The first day of classes for South Madison students is Thursday, Aug. 5.
The first day of classes for Lapel schools is Wednesday, Aug. 11.