The Knoxville Community School District will not adopt a mask requirement in light of a federal judge ruling that blocks Iowa’s ban of school mask mandates. Superintendent Cassi Pearson says the decision to take no action is based on the low illness rate in the district.

“We’re going to stick with what we’re currently doing, which is encouraging folks to wear a mask if that’s what makes them feel more comfortable. But we are not at a point where we need to mandate everyone wear a mask. We did that last year, and I think it served us well. If there’s a need for it, we’ll go back to that, but right now there is not a need. If we have a huge spike or we see there’s a lot of contagion going on at school, we will definitely reconsider that, but we also want to look at data. Right now our numbers are extremely low, so we feel we don’t need to make any changes.”

Pearson adds that school officials track the numbers on a regular basis, and changes will be made as deemed necessary.