Mask wearing still required during school functions

By on Thursday, May 27th, 2021 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News

NORTH POWDER – Recently, Lance Dixon, Superintendent of North Powder School District, sent a letter out, regarding mask wearing.  This year has been an extremely challenging year. Now as we near the finish line, the district needs to ask for your help and continued patience for a couple more weeks. Monday night at the basketball game I misinterpreted a rule and players were allowed to play without masks. Yesterday, I received a phone call from OSAA and I took full credit for the error, but also had to assure the OSAA that North Powder would follow the current guidelines. This means all players; coaches and spectators are required to wear a mask at indoor competitions. 

This is where we need you to work with, and help the school so our athletes can still play indoor sports and have spectators attend. We are near the finish line for this school year and are still required to wear masks indoors during the school day and at school functions and extra-curricular activities. 

This is something we all have to do and when parents or community members refuse to follow these rules, it makes an already difficult and trying situation even harder on staff and administration. Staff and administration are just trying to follow rules so that your children can play sports and have spectators. I do not want to be put in a situation like we were in at the start of the year with extremely limited or no spectators at events. None of us know what next year will bring, but for right now let’s focus on finishing this year and working together for the benefit of kids. Please come to games prepared to wear a mask appropriately and understand wearing a mask is the expectation. 

Please understand that in order to live stream games to those families and community members who cannot attend in person, we are also live streaming the event for OSAA and anyone else to watch as well. Finally, understand that failure to do so can have negative impacts on our students’ ability to play and/or spectators’ ability to attend in person. Thank you for your patience and continued support and help with this matter.