In-school masking will be lifted for the state’s schools on March 11, the Oregon Health Authority announced, as hospitalizations drop and are projected to reach levels below those at the start of the Omicron surge.

The date gives local communities time to prepare for the transition, the health authority said, and allows district and school leaders to take necessary actions to ensure students can safely remain in their classrooms.

Whether the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation district will lift its indoor mask mandate then remains to be determined, executive director Skyler Archibald said.

“No decision has been made at this time,” Archibald said.

At the Feb. 24 park district board meeting, the members agreed to follow the state’s school guidelines for in-school masking at park district facilities — at that time, March 31.

“I wanted to get some general feedback from the board about a lot internally with the staff,” Archibald said. “It seems like the overall consensus from the board was to line up with what the school district is going to do, and align with the state’s timeline.”

Right now, all patrons and staff are expected to wear masks in park district buildings, including the Sunset Pool, Bob Chisholm Community Center and Sunset Recreation Center, he said, except when they are actively swimming.

Archibald said that early on in the pandemic there was resistance to the mask mandate from park district patrons, but now most accept the protocol.

After the mandate is lifted, other COVID protocols will remain in place in park district buildings, including extra sanitizing stations and temperature checks for participants in youth programs.

The park district may choose to keep a mask policy in place for those seeking to wear them or be around others wearing masks, he said, with a portion of the day where people can sign up to work out in a masked environment. Patrons could sign up for the programs through a reservation system.

“There are a lot of situations where you don’t know what’s going on,” board member Michael Hinton said. “You just don’t know what’s going on around you all the time. You’ve got to protect yourself.”