District 49 will not require masks inside their schools or administrative buildings, will not report positive COVID-19 cases to public health agencies, and will not cooperate with requests for contact tracing, according to a recent communication from the district.

“We are not under any mandatory conditions or requirements related to public or individual health,” the district said in a memorandum. “D-49 staff will not act as enforcement agents for public health recommendations.”

During the district’s Aug. 12 Board of Education meeting, Chief Education Officer Peter Hilts addressed the district’s decision, noting that there’s no mandate requiring masking or divulging anyone’s medical information – including COVID infection or vaccination status.

“We are not under any extraordinary emergency conditions or orders, or any external control,” Hilts said. “We are as fully in local control as a school district has ever been or could be in the state of Colorado.”

Hilts said the board’s decisions reflect the preferences of the District 49 community.

“The very, very strong preference of the large majority of our students, our staff, and our visitors is not to wear masks right now,” Hilts said. “They have access to the same information that we do, and they’re voting with their faces.”

Students and staff members will be on the honor system concerning personal illness, according to the memo. Sick individuals will be expected to stay home until they fully recover.

The district intends to treat COVID infections as privileged medical information, according to the document. No students of staff will be required to report the results of medical tests, including for coronavirus.

“If individuals decide to test (for COVID, influenza, nonovirus, etc.) the results of that tests are their their personal medical information, and we will not ask or expect them to divulge that information,” the memo stated.

If someone discloses a positive test result, the district will not report it to any “third party,” including El Paso County Public Health.

“We have taken the position that we are not reporting single cases,” Hilts said. “We have a lot of empirical data: we know that we over-quarantined last year, and we know that the disruption of those mitigation efforts turns out to have been more harmful than the disruption of the disease process itself.”

If the district learns that a student or staff member has tested positive for COVID, they will send a “courtesy notification” to anyone who may have been in close contact with that individual, but will not perform contact tracing, according to the document.

“If our county health department requests us to participate in contact tracing because they have informed us about a COVID-positive individual, we will politely decline,” the memo stated.

The memo concluded by saying the district has consulted directly with the county health department, studied state and county regulations, and concluded they are in compliance with laws.

“The protocols and directives in this document do not violate any regulation or require any individual to take on any licensure or legal risk,” the document stated.