Tag: Loveland Magazine

  • 12th Annual Captain Seth Mitchell Hero 5k Saturday October 16

    12th Annual Captain Seth Mitchell Hero 5k Saturday October 16

    Loveland, Ohio – The 12th Annual Captain Seth Mitchell Hero 5k will take place in Nisbet Park on Saturday, October 16. Hope to see you then to revise this great Loveland tradition.

    Last year’s event was “virtual” but the race to raise funds for The Seth Mitchell scholarship programs this year in live and in person in Historic Downtown Loveland on the Loveland Bike Trail along the State and National Scenic Little Miami River.

    Seth Mitchell, a captain and pilot in the United States Marine Corps and a 1997 Loveland High School graduate, was killed in action in Afghanistan in October 2009.  Seth contributed greatly to the Loveland community in his youth… he served as a leader and role model on the varsity football team, was voted to be Class President his senior year, and was named “Mr. Personality” by his peers.  He was well loved here.  After graduating, he took that same sense of service and loyalty into all that he did: as a son, a brother, a friend, a leader in the Marines.

    In other words, Seth was a hero for all.

    We are a group of Seth Mitchell’s high school classmates, who miss our friend and want to keep his memory alive.  We represent the many people who Seth made an impression on with his sense of humor, kind heart, and loyal friendship.  As we organize this 5k Race and the scholarship memorial fund, we are motivated by one enduring inspiration: to live each day a little more honorably, kindly, and humbly… just like Seth. 

    Read more and register…

    Meet the 2020 Scholarship Winners

    Dear friends, we hope you are well, safe and doing all you can to blunt the force of the pandemic surrounding us. We are truly in unchartered water. Our prayers are with you. As you probably guessed we were unable to do personal on site interviews with our 2020 Seth Mitchell scholarship applicants. However we summoned the help from some younger folks and proceeded with the interviews through Google Hangout!! Yep, Steve and Connie on Google Hangout. Who’d of thought that? Loveland High School also did not have their annual Senior Night on May 13, so the scholarships were awarded virtually. We had 18 applicants this year and personally interviewed six before awarding the two scholarships detailed below. Your scholarship committee consisting of Greg Carpinello, Damien Cook, Mollie Schrichten, Marisa Sobb, (all friends of Seth and ’97 LHS graduates) Connie and I, take seriously the process to recruit, interview and select candidates. All the kids were deserving and we are especially proud of the recipients.

    So here goes: The Let Us Never Forget Seth Mitchell scholarship ($3500.00) is a partnership between the Mitchell Family and the Let Us Never Forget Scholarship Foundation (yellowribbonsupportcenter.com). Jordan Collins (above left) is the 2020 recipient and she has a spirit similar to Seth. She was/is involved in many theatrical and musical productions, is a National Honor Society member, volunteers through Mom’s Hope and works part time. Jordan will be paying a large part of her college costs. She has a “do something” attitude, a strong work ethic and knows no stranger, being kind to all. She is not afraid to fail in the pursuit of her dreams and is strong in the face of adversity. She hopes to pursue her theatrical dreams at Syracuse University.

    The Seth Mitchell Memorial Scholarship ($3,500.00) is funded by the Seth Mitchell Hero 5k (sethmitchell5k.org). This annual event is in its 11th year in downtown Loveland, OH and is ran by Seth’s friends named above. The goal of the scholarship is to keep Seth’s spirit and story alive. Caroline Ginder (above right) is the 2020 recipient of the Memorial Scholarship. Caroline was described by one of her references a “being self motivated and goal oriented…and a fine example of caring more about their teammate than herself”. She participated in many school events such as Tiger’s Inc., soccer, NEST and is a National Honor Society member. Caroline will attend Ohio State University where she will pursue medicine. She hopes to someday be a part of Doctors Without Borders. Like Jordan, Caroline is paying a share of her college costs.

    Thank you for your support, prayers and investment in our scholarships through the last eleven years.

    Steve and Connie Mitchell Parents, Capt. D. Seth Mitchell, USMC KIA 10/26/2009, Helmand Province, Afghanistan Let Us Never Forget

  • Video Slide Show: The Timestamp band

    Video Slide Show: The Timestamp band

    Loveland, Ohio – On August 14 the Time Stamp band performed 80’s and 90’s rock and roll covers at the Town Fountain and railroad station in Historic Downtown Loveland.

    Photos by David Miller/Loveland Magazine © 2021

  • Candidate version of J.D. Vance using same dog whistles he once derided as a ‘moral disaster’

    Candidate version of J.D. Vance using same dog whistles he once derided as a ‘moral disaster’

    JD Vance, venture capitalist and author of ‘Hillbilly Elegy,” in 2017. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images).

    COMMENTARY

    MARILOU JOHANEK and Ohio Capital Journal

    The last time I spoke with J.D. Vance, he was living the good life as an elite West Coast venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. He was a baby-faced investor from southern Ohio who was basking in the unexpected sensation of his newly published bestseller. Everybody had to get their hands on his memoir for what it might explain about the inexplicable presidential appeal of a former reality TV star. Vance’s book about his self-described hillbilly roots promised insights into why a dirt-poor, down on its luck demographic was swooning over a billionaire celebrity who wouldn’t be caught dead in Appalachia.

    At the time I wrote for a newspaper in a blue-collar Ohio town whose glory days as a manufacturing mecca — like Vance’s hollowed-out hometown near Cincy — were long gone. So, I invited the author to connect with an Ohio audience that might relate to his story. He called from his office in San Francisco, and we spoke for over an hour. Recently, I went back to look at the transcript of that conversation to make sure it was the same Vance who now wants to be Ohio’s next U.S. Senator. 

    The senatorial candidate looks and sounds like the J.D. Vance I interviewed, save for the full Midwestern beard he’s sporting, but something’s very different. The Vance appearing — on any FOX show that will have him — is passing himself off as a fawning Trump acolyte and far right culture warrior. Who the heck is that guy and what did he do with the thoughtful conservative I questioned who castigated another charlatan for pulling off a similar con to become president?

    The 37-year-old moved back to Ohio, bought a sprawling million-dollar estate in a tony neighborhood in the Queen City and decided to boost his profile with a vain bid for national office. To that end, however, the 2021 version of Vance has sidled up to the infamous Mar-a-Lago insurrectionist, hobnobbed with big money donors on the coasts and rebranded himself as an alt-right grievance peddler. This character jumped right into the smarmy attack mode of the extreme right, owning the “degenerate liberals,” deriding the “party of childless people,” (what??) disparaging desperate immigrants as “dirty” drug traffickers threatening to overrun Ohio, dismissing critical race theory as “crap” parents don’t want in their schools, defending a white supremacist banned from Twitter for inciting violence and, of course, discounting life-saving measures during a surging pandemic as nefarious “efforts to control our lives.” 

    Candidate Vance opined that: “Obesity is a far more serious public health crisis than Covid,” and sardonically asked, “Should we mandate that no one be allow to eat fried chicken?” He parroted the insanity of right-wing Republicans that COVID “is not the only bad thing” and “people don’t trust (life-saving) vaccines because our public health authorities are understood, reasonably, to be political hacks who don’t know what they’re doing.” Besides, he added, brushing over 600,000 dead Americans, “what about basic bodily liberty?”

    Seriously, who is this guy and why is he embracing the ugly scorch and burn tactics of the fearmongers and scapegoaters that 2016 Vance denounced as divisive and dangerous? Back then he told me, “Trump voters can be encouraged to look at their fellow countrymen as fellow citizens and that’s good. Or they can be made to think of them as scapegoats for all their problems and [that’s] the reason I am so against Donald Trump.” He [Trump] is pulling “a significant portion of the white working class” into a “more racist direction,” concluded Vance.

    “He’s changing the political conversation in a way that makes it less likely for people to think of Black folks and Mexicans as countrymen” and instead “think of those people” as the ones to blame for everything that’s wrong in white America. “Racism is definitely a part of the Trump phenomenon,” said Vance. “The David Dukes of the world…[are] absolutely a part of the Trump movement. And I think to his great discredit, Trump hasn’t disavowed these people as strongly as he should. I really believe that Trump bears a lot of blame… we are seeing an unprecedented level of racial resentment and racialized rhetoric in this [2016] election.” 

    But Candidate Vance is blowing the same dog whistles he once disavowed from a candidate he derided as a “moral disaster.” Trump’s personal conduct alone, Vance said, “would have been so offensive to my [Appalachian] grandmother that she would have hated it… there’s no way she would have voted for him.” Vance confided he was disappointed in religious leaders “who have made a lot of apologies for Trump’s behavior…if Barack Obama, who by all accounts is an incredible family man, if he had fathered five children from three women…there would be a lot of religious conservatives all over him…”

    “I don’t think it’s totally out of bounds to say we should hold our presidents up to a certain moral standard…and it’s just astonishing to me that we haven’t done the same thing for Donald Trump,” Vance told me. That was before Trump was elected and the serial corruption, deceit, dishonor and damage commenced. Before his first impeachment for trying to rig the 2020 election in exchange for foreign aid and his second impeachment for inciting an insurrection against his own government to steal an election he lost.

    It was also before J.D. Vance pulled a 180 on his former self. The young writer I talked to over four years ago was different. He was authentic, unafraid to chastise his community for its “lack of agency” and “a feeling that you have little control over your life and a willingness to blame everyone but yourself.” It was personal for Vance, whose mother was in the same rut. “I don’t blame Mom for the way she lived her life. I don’t blame her for the addiction. I don’t blame her for the way she sometimes treated me and my sister. What I would blame Mom for is if she stopped trying.”

    That J.D. Vance was nothing like the Ohio Senate candidate blaming everyone else today. That actor is degrading all the people MAGA supporters love to hate — from rich educated elitists (like himself) to the mainstream media, Brown immigrants and Black Lives Matter protestors. So, which J.D. Vance is the real deal, and which one is running a clumsy con as a faux extremist to pursue an open Senate seat in Ohio? 

    You know. Ohio voters can spot the phony a mile away.  

  • COVID-19 booster shots to roll out starting next month

    COVID-19 booster shots to roll out starting next month

    President Joe Biden receives a covid vaccine. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

    BY: LAURA OLSON and Ohio Capital Journal

    Top U.S. health officials announced a plan Wednesday to begin offering COVID-19 booster shots to Americans starting Sept. 20, with the scheduling of the additional shot to be based on when a person was fully vaccinated.

    The new round of jabs will be extended to those who received the two-dose vaccine from either Pfizer or Moderna, and can be taken eight months after an individual’s second dose.

    Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, told reporters Wednesday that recent data makes clear that while the current COVID-19 vaccines have been highly effective against severe disease, hospitalization and death, the protection against mild and moderate disease has appeared to decrease over time.

    “This is likely due to both waning immunity and the strength of the widespread delta variant,” Murthy said, adding that health officials are concerned that the decline in immunity could reduce protection against severe disease and death in the months ahead.

    The more than 13 million Americans who received the one-dose shot from Johnson & Johnson may also need boosters, but will not yet be eligible.

    Federal health officials said they are awaiting data from J&J in the next few weeks before urging additional doses. The J&J shot wasn’t approved until March, so those who received it will not hit eight months past inoculation until November.

    The new booster rollout plan is subject to formal authorization from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine panel.

    Those agencies will hold public meetings before the booster rollout can begin. But officials said they were detailing the booster plan ahead of those meetings in part to give state and local health officials time to prepare for another wave of vaccination logistics.

    State and local health officials again under pressure

    The plan for offering a third shot puts yet another layer of pressure on state and local health departments that have carried out the massive vaccination campaign.

    Those officials are still seeking to boost vaccination rates that have lagged in certain regions amid skepticism and misinformation. Meanwhile, vaccine manufacturers are expected this fall to seek approval for administering shots to children under 12, who so far have not been eligible.

    During Wednesday’s news briefing, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, cited several new studies that tracked vaccine effectiveness, including among New Yorkers across age groups and another following case counts from nursing homes.

    Those studies have shown that protection against severe infection has held up but not against milder infections, she said, adding that other countries, such as Israel, also are starting to see “worsening outcomes.”

    “In the context of all of these studies, different cohorts, different settings across the country, and our international colleagues, we’ve made the decision to plan for these booster doses,” Walensky said.

    The booster shots will be available at roughly 80,000 sites nationally, including 40,000 local pharmacies. As with the other COVID-19 shots, the boosters will be free of charge.

    The CDC had already approved a third COVID-19 shot for some immunocompromised individuals, who may not have received strong protection from the initial doses of the vaccine.

    While the booster plan does not specifically mention other categories of individuals to receive a priority for boosters, the initial vaccine rollout did put certain groups first in line. So the first individuals to hit eight months after their second shot should be those in the earliest priority categories, such as health care workers and nursing home residents.

  • Former Loveland Superintendent Dr. Kevin Boys retires from Southern State Community College

    Former Loveland Superintendent Dr. Kevin Boys retires from Southern State Community College

    SSCC President Dr. Kevin Boys, standing at right, shakes hands with former Board of Trustees member, the late Kay Ayres, at his first board meeting in 2010.


    Southern State Community College (SSCC) President Dr. Kevin Boys on Wednesday announced his retirement from the college effective June of next year. 

    Prior to his presidency, Boys served for 31 years in K-12 education as a teacher, principal and superintendent in Loveland and Sycamore school districts. Boys was employed in Loveland from July 1, 2002 through December 2009.

    The announcement signals the end of more than a decade of Boys’ leadership at Southern State. 

    Boys provided his letter of resignation for the purpose of retirement to the SSCC Board of Trustees at its regular meeting on August 18, setting his final day for June 30, 2022 to provide time for the board to find a replacement. 

    Dr. Kevin Boys addressing the 2006 Graduating Class of Loveland High School. (Loveland Magazine File Photo)

    Boys has led the college since Jan. 1, 2010. During his tenure, he served under Ohio governors Ted Strickland, John Kasich and Mike DeWine. Both of Boys’ children attended and graduated from Southern State during his presidency. He resides in Clinton County. 

    Boys said in his retirement letter that he had planned to retire in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic prompted him to remain in leadership for an additional year beyond his contract. 

    “I felt it imperative that I stay to see us through the many challenges that this pandemic has brought our way,” he said. “It will be time for fresh leadership to take on new challenges as the college recovers from the pandemic and explores new opportunities to further its important mission.”

    Boys said SSCC’s graduates range in age from the early teen years to well into a late age, and many would not have pursued a college degree if the college was not here for them. 

    “That has motivated me and brought joy to me nearly every day,” he said. 

    Boys also served as co-chair of the Higher Education Funding Commission with President Rod McDavis, devising a plan to distribute substantial capital funding to the state’s public colleges and university systems. Additionally, Boys served on the board of directors of the American Association of Community Colleges, and as Vice-chair of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges. 

    Boys graduated from the inaugural class of Leadership Adams and the 25th class of Leadership Clinton.

    Dr. Kevin Boys introduced Ohio Govenor Ted Strickland at the Loveland Intermediate School in 2009 when Strickland announced his State budget and school reform. (Loveland Magazine File Photo)

    Boys has served on the Highland County Chamber of Commerce Board for 10 years and is currently the chair of the Community Colleges of Appalachia, a membership group of 80 colleges throughout the Appalachian region. He is also a board member of the Rural Community College Alliance.

    “It truly has been the honor of my life and pinnacle of my 42 years in public education to have served alongside you in providing accessible, affordable, and high-quality education to the citizens throughout these counties in Southern Ohio,” he said in his resignation letter. 

    Boys thanked the Board of Trustees, both current and past, who served as stewards of the institution, as well as dedicated faculty, staff and administrators. 

    “Southern State Community College is in good hands,” he said. 

    SSCC Board of Trustees Clinton County Chairman Brian Prickett wished Boys well in retirement and thanked him for his service to the college. 

    “I wish him well as he moves to the next phase of his life in retirement,” Prickett said. “His calm, professional demeanor in many recent trying situations is going to be missed. He is a true leader, and the school’s going to have to work very hard to replace his knowledge and his visibility to lead folks as we move forward and grow.”

    Boys told Loveland Magazine, “I regard my years in Loveland with great fondness.” He and his wife now live in Wilmington. “We have neighbors close on both sides but we overlook our pond and the farm behind complete with red barn. We’re not sure what we’ll do in retirement, but for now we’ll enjoy the country.”

    Boys said in retirement he plans to pick up playing his mandolin again, travel and “catch my breath.”

    “I also plan to take my morning walks a little later in the morning,” he said. 

  • [Photos] Loveland High School Marching Band and Color Guard

    [Photos] Loveland High School Marching Band and Color Guard

    Loveland, Ohio – Last Friday the Loveland High School Marching Band and Color Guard held a preview night to celebrate two weeks of band camp and show parents, siblings, grandparents, and music fans the skills they learned during two weeks in the hot August sun.

    The theme of their Fall completion season, as well as half-time performances this year, is “An Eighties Adventure”.

    Photos and video by David Miller.

  • ECC’s Lebanon High School cancels opener due to COVID 19

    ECC’s Lebanon High School cancels opener due to COVID 19

    Due to a recent increase in student-athletes unavailable to compete, including one entire position group, Lebanon Football is unable to play Friday night at Springboro. While no players are COVID-positive at this time, according to Lebanon Athletics, several football student-athletes are in quarantine due to contact tracing.

    Loveland hosts Sycamore this Friday in their opener at 7 PM. The Tigers are not scheduled to play Lebanon this season.

    Tiger Football Schedule

    Schedule
    AUG. 2021OPPONENTTIMELOCATION 
    Fri. 20Sycamore07:00 PM
    Fri. 27Princeton07:00 PM
    SEP. 2021OPPONENTTIMELOCATION 
    Fri. 3at Turpin07:00 PM
    Fri. 10at West Clermont07:00 PM
    Fri. 17Milford07:00 PM
    Fri. 24at Little Miami07:00 PM
    OCT. 2021OPPONENTTIMELOCATION 
    Fri. 1Walnut Hills07:00 PM
    Fri. 8Kings07:00 PM
    Fri. 15at Anderson07:00 PM
    Fri. 22Winton Woods07:00 PM
  • Local Interactive Garden Changes the Lives of Loveland Students!

    Local Interactive Garden Changes the Lives of Loveland Students!

    by Cassie Mattia

    Loveland, Ohio – Now more than ever is the time to encourage our youth to both protect and benefit from our ever-changing environment! This is exactly what local non-profit, The Loveland Learning Garden, aims to achieve.

    The Loveland Learning Garden, located at 600 Loveland-Madeira Road (Loveland Primary and Loveland Elementary school grounds), dedicates everything to giving kids the opportunity to form “lifelong connections to the wonders of the natural world.” The non-profit outdoor education program not only strives to build awareness and community support but also maintains vegetable and flower gardens, as well as a nature trail used for hands-on learning. The 1st-4th grade students involved are able to get an interactive experience, through a 20-week curriculum (taught by “Garden Educators” during the school day in the Spring and Fall), with nature while still adhering to the academics they are being taught in class. Seeing how food is grown, tasting fresh produce, and harvesting food that is eventually donated to local non-profit LIFE Food Pantry are just a few things students are able to get involved in at the Loveland Learning Garden.

    Board President, Laurie Flanagan, believes that exposing the over 1,200 Loveland students that the outdoor education program serves to the environment at an early age will leave a lasting impact of positive impressions with nature.

    We’re instilling a love of nature, joy, and wonder in discovering the outdoors and influencing the growth of the next generation of people who care for our environment,” Flanagan said, “We have a diverse volunteer base of ages and backgrounds and welcome everyone! For example, we have students from the LHS National Honor Society, Tigers in Service, and the LHS Environmental Club who have helped us, University of Cincinnati students, workgroups, church groups, students from neighboring school districts, local parochial schools, and many individuals from across the Cincinnati area.

    The Loveland Learning Garden operates using dedicated volunteers so gaining new talent is vital to keeping the non-profit education program running. “In order to successfully sustain our program, we seek people who want to share their talent and ‘dig in’ to join us by taking on leadership roles on our board or owning pieces of work that make the organization run,” Flanagan explained, “Our committees include education, communications, garden and trail maintenance, volunteer recruitment, and grants/fundraising.”

    During the months of March-October volunteers are heavily needed in order to maintain both the garden and nature trail. If you or your organization would like to volunteer email the Loveland Learning Garden.

    Here at Loveland Magazine, we found the Loveland Learning Garden to be both interesting and inspirational so we decided to meet Laurie Flanagan, Melanie Simon, and Jen Banzinger at the garden for an on-camera tour. To see just what the Loveland Learning Garden is all about watch the video below!

    The Loveland Learning Garden will be a part of the 2021 Great Outdoor Weekend sponsored by Green Umbrella. On September 25th from 9 AM-1 PM, the Loveland Learning Garden will be holding a scavenger hunt for kids ages 4-10. For more information click the above Great Outdoor Weekend link!

    To stay informed on all the latest Loveland Learning Garden updates you can visit their Instagram and/or Facebook.


    Loveland Learning Garden History
    The foundation for Loveland Learning Garden was planted in 2002 as a floral garden on grade school grounds thanks to the vision of a grandmother who wanted to share the joy of picking fresh flowers with children. With the addition of vegetable gardens and a nature trail in the woods behind the school, Granny’s Garden School grew to be one of the most comprehensive school garden programs in the country and was recognized as a model for nature-based education training. In 2016, the founder retired while a new group of leaders, believing in the value of the program to students and the community evolved the nonprofit to its next iteration. Today, with new energy and a refreshed identity, the Loveland Learning Garden operates with strong, collaborative school partnerships, diverse leadership, community involvement, and a continued passion to educate and inspire children to the lifelong benefits found through nature. 


    For more local inspirational stories stay tuned to the Loveland Salad With ME, Cassie Mattia!

  • A Perspective on the Mask Mandate Debate in Loveland Schools

    A Perspective on the Mask Mandate Debate in Loveland Schools

    Loveland Magazine received this Guest Column from the parent of Loveland school students who asked us not to reveal their identity.

    By: Anonymous Parent of Loveland Students

    The start of a new school year has sparked a debate in the Loveland community that is arguably more divisive than the 2020 presidential election. We are nearly a year and a half into the outbreak of Covid-19 and parents, public health agencies, and school officials are divided on whether or not masks should be mandated in our schools. On one side you have those concerned about the desire to protect the physical health of citizens and minimize the spread of Covid-19. On the other are those concerned about the educational, social, and mental health effects universal masking has on students. We all want what is best for our children, individually and collectively. Both sides should find this common ground while showing empathy for the opposing view. I don’t think that is in question. The real question is at what point are we taking unnecessary measures that are hurting our children out of an overabundance of caution?

    Last school year our state government and the Ohio Department of Health used their powers to enforce universal mask mandates in schools and other locations. These were highly controversial decisions causing state legislative action. Here we are at the start of another school year and these agencies responsible for assessing and enforcing mandates are not able to do so. If our expert public health officials are not making the decisions to enact universal mask mandates then there is no reasonable expectation that a local school board can effectively make decisions to mandate the behavior of families and students regarding their health. A mandate for public health purposes should not be coming from our local school board. In the absence of state and health department mandates, these decisions are best made by each family with the guidance of their healthcare providers.

    Parents and guardians are tasked with the decision of whether or not to send their children to school in masks. We are pulled between a desire to protect citizens from Covid-19 and to protect our children from the negative educational, social, and mental health issues related to universal masking. Generally speaking, children are spared from the severe consequences of Covid-19. According to some of the most comprehensive studies to date, children are at an extremely slim risk of dying of Covid-19. In fact, children are more likely to die of homicides or drownings, and I don’t see anyone shutting down their pools. The mortality rate among children is actually lower than that from the flu and the risk of severe disease or hospitalization is about the same.

    So, I’ll ask again, at what point are we taking unnecessary measures that are hurting our children out of an overabundance of caution? That is ultimately what is in question. We are left with a debate between physical health and causing educational, social, and mental harm. To the best of my knowledge, there have not been any Loveland student deaths related to Covid-19, however, we undoubtedly have many students suffering educationally and from social and mental health issues related to universal masking in their learning environment. This cannot be ignored any longer. At some point, our community must realize that mask mandates imposed on our children can have a greater impact on public health than Covid-19 itself.

  • Special Loveland Board meeting Friday to discuss masks

    Special Loveland Board meeting Friday to discuss masks

    Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland City School District Board of Education will be scheduling a “Special Meeting” on Friday, August 20 at 6 PM to discuss the district policy concerning the use of face coverings and masks.

    Loveland schools begin classes tomorrow morning, Wednesday, August 18.

    The current Board policy concerning face coverings is that the wearing of masks by students, teachers, staff, and visitors inside of all District school buildings is optional. Masks are required by federal law to be worn on school buses.