• Mcalester News-Capital: OPINION: OUR VIEW: Closer to normal

May 11—Some recent fun events in our community make us feel more like normal.

A parade followed by a steak cookoff and a community block party two weekends ago, then a concert in downtown McAlester to kickoff a festival series set for the summer.

We appreciate these and other fun activities throughout our community offering a sense of normalcy after an unprecedented year.

These events offer a little light at the end of tunnel as COVID-19 cases in our area become more manageable and vaccination numbers reached about one-third of Pittsburg County's population.

We hope those trends continue so we can all enjoy time together like we did before the pandemic.

Wednesday could bring another step toward normalcy for McAlester Public Schools — as long as the data allows.

School officials updated the district's policy that would remove the district's mask mandate if Pittsburg County hits the safest risk level on the Oklahoma State Department of Health's weekly COVID-19 risk level map.

OSDH's weekly map indicates risk level for each county — counties with fewer than 1.43 daily new cases per 100,000 population are green, while counties with between 1.43 and 14.29 daily new cases are yellow.

OSDH listed Pittsburg County in the yellow risk level last week and releases the reports every Wednesday.

McAlester school board members passed a measure Monday to drop the mask requirement if Pittsburg County's risk level goes green — but keep it in place if the county's risk level is yellow or higher.

It's smart of board members and school officials to continue keeping public safety the top priority as the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be more manageable.

MPS reported just one student testing positive as of Monday.

Board members heard both from people who are tired of wearing masks and from those who are concerned about public safety.

We believe this policy both keeps public safety a priority while allowing for lesser restrictions based on data from a state department.