DeWitt Public Schools sent a letter to parents signed by principals of K-5 schools, advising how their children would be instructed to eat snacks at school while wearing a face mask.

The Oct. 15 letter stated: “We have been advised by the Health Department to encourage students to pull their masks up and down while eating their dry snacks (Goldfish, crackers, granola bars, etc.). For example, pull mask down, take a bite, pull mask up, repeat. Students still have the opportunities to engage in mask breaks throughout the school day. This one mitigation strategy is an example of an effective measure to keep students in school. For example, just this week we had a positive case surface in a DPS classroom and without this precautionary measure, seven students would have needed to quarantine. With this measure in place, only the student who tested positive needed to quarantine.”

DeWitt Superintendent Shanna Spickard stated in an email that the district is following guidelines issued by the county health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The guidelines revolve around quarantine measures required of unmasked children who spend 15 minutes or more during a 24-hour period in the presence of someone who has contracted COVID-19.

"Our goal is to keep students in school, so we are trying to prevent the amount of time they are unmasked. Before these modified quarantine guidelines, we were looking at as many of 4-6 students who were close contacts; now, if we can keep unmasked time lower, it might be one or two--if any," Spickard said in an email.

Total spending by Michigan’s state government has soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, in large part due to the injection of billions of federal dollars.

For the 2018-19 fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2018 - the last full fiscal year before the pandemic - state lawmakers approved $58.340 billion in spending, including money from both state taxpayers and the federal government.

The pandemic arrived about five months into the next state fiscal year, 2019-20. The total 2019-20 state budget increased to $67.172 billion, including the federal dollars.

If not for the previous year’s increase in federal funding, Michigan’s 2020-21 budget of $61.564 billion would be setting a new record. Instead it’s a reduction, even though spending will still be $3.2 billion higher than it was in the last pre-pandemic budget.

It’s actually the first decline after an eight-year streak of annual state spending increases. The last time total state spending did not increase was the 2011-12 fiscal year.

The overall state budget was $47.598 billion in 2011-12. When adjusted for inflation, that budget was equivalent to $55.761 billion in current dollars, which is $5.8 billion less spending than the current budget.

The data comes from the Senate Fiscal Agency.