NORWAY-VULCAN AREA Schools students board buses outside the NVAS auditorium in Norway on Thursday afternoon. The school board Sept. 8 passed a mask mandate for students and staff in sixth grade and younger, effective Sept. 13. Everyone riding a bus, regardless of their grade, will be required to wear a mask when the mandate takes effect. (Brian Christensen/Daily News photo)

NORWAY — All students and staff in Norway-Vulcan Area Schools will be required to wear face masks starting today amid a spike in the district’s COVID-19 cases.

District officials made the announcement Sunday in an email and text message to all district families.

“Over the weekend we were informed of additional positive COVID-19 cases among our student body. This has triggered our mask requirement for the middle and the high school. We will track our numbers and inform you as to when we can end this requirement,” the statement read.

The district’s school board already had made the masks mandatory, starting Sept. 13, for students in sixth grade and younger and all staff working with those grades, plus all students when riding district buses.

But the board decided the policy would not apply to students and staff in grades seven through 12 unless 8% of students at that level were COVID-positive or in quarantine. The district did not state how many students or staff now are in those two categories.

The mask requirement has drawn complaints and protests from some parents in the district. But the school board Wednesday kept the mask rules in place.