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Date: 2/28/2022
LUDLOW – With the statewide mask mandate expired in schools as of Feb. 28, during the Ludlow School Committee’s Feb. 22 meeting the committee agreed to lift the mandate when it was lifted by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
To begin the discussion, Interim Superintendent Lisa Nemeth said her recommendation was to remove the mask mandate.
While masks will be optional in schools, committee Chair Michael Kelliher said masks would still be required in certain situations.
“It will go to an optional masking policy for schools with the exception of when you are on the bus, which is a federal requirement right now – we have no way around that one – in the nurse’s office because the nurse’s office is considered a health care facility and there is a state mandate for health care facilities and then returning back from when you are sick with COVID [-19], which is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC],” he said.
Committee member Jeffery Laing said he was in favor of the policy.
“We cannot wear these masks forever, but I was in favor of having masks on in schools because there was a time when we were remote and everyone was complaining to get the kids back to school and that was the safest thing to do at the time,” he said. “Many people have been vaccinated; many people have come down with COVID [-19] so we have a great herd immunity, so it is time to take the masks off.”
With students returning on Feb. 28 after February vacation, committee member Sarah Bowler said she was hesitant to lift the mandate.
“Many parents and teachers have emailed saying they want to keep the mask mandate for one reason or another. It is a very hard decision coming out of a vacation, I went away for the vacation and there was not a mask in sight. It worries me dropping a mask mandate right after a vacation and if we will see an uptick in numbers,” she said.
In response, Nemeth said she would continue to monitor COVID-19 trends in the schools even after the end of the mandate.
“We still have in place the signs and symptoms, so if anyone is experiencing the signs and symptoms of COVID [-19] or the common cold we still are asking them to stay home,” she said. “I will still be watching the numbers and if we see an uptick in cases then we will bring it back to the board to see if we should be making changes.”
Bowler also said she had concerns about students being bullied for continuing to wear masks.
“If a parent decides their child should wear a mask or the child decides to wear a mask, there should be no one questioning that, that is that family’s decision,” she said.
Throughout the first week of the end of the mandate, Nemeth said there would be announcements multiple times a day to support the students still wearing masks and to dissuade any type of bullying for students continuing to wear masks.
Committee Vice Chair James Harrington said he was ready to end the mandate.
“I am certainly in favor of this, it is time, we need to learn to live with this thing, COVID [-19] is going to be here in some form forever. We need to move on, let the kids and teachers take the masks off if they feel comfortable, our special education students have taken a hit during this – imagine trying to be a speech pathologist and trying to teach speech with a mask on? It has been incredibly challenging,” he said.
By removing the mandate, Harrington said the committee would be continuing the precedent it has been following since the beginning of COVID-19.
“We have been following DESE recommendations, state recommendations and the people who are studying these things much more than us. We are going by what the state said and the state is recommending this at this time,” he said. “Masking should be something that should be an individual choice and we have to move forward with that.”
The committee unanimously agreed to approve the policy with an effective date of Feb. 28.
During the meeting, the board also agreed to send a waiver to MIAA to request that seventh and eighth graders be allowed to play boy’s tennis and softball at the junior varsity level to fill the rosters. Nemeth said the waiver was necessary because of factors across the region.
“It is due to low enrollment, all of our districts that we play against have seen a steady decline in the amount of enrollment, but I do not think it has anything to actually do with COVID [-19] it has to do with life and kids are choosing to work versus playing sports,” she said. “A slight decrease but nothing major at Ludlow High School.”
The Ludlow School Committee next meets on March 8 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the March 17 edition of The Reminder.