HANCOCK — Some local school boards and administrations are starting to reverse their COVID-19 mask mandates to masking-optional policies.
Among the districts voting to make masking optional are Lamoine, Hancock, Surry and Regional School Unit 24, which includes Winter Harbor, Eastbrook, Franklin, Waltham, Mariaville, Sullivan, Sorrento, Steuben and Gouldsboro.
The Ellsworth School Board is scheduled to meet Thursday, March 10, at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Consideration of new CDC guidelines is on the agenda.
The changes at some schools come as positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline throughout the country and state and as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced updated mask guidance on Feb. 25.
Under the new guidance, people in most of the country do not need to wear a mask in indoor public spaces, including children on public school buses.
The new guidance uses “community levels” — low, medium and high — to indicate when masking is recommended. In areas with a “low” community level, the CDC advises wearing a mask “based on your personal preference, informed by your personal level of risk.” At “medium,” masking is recommended for high-risk individuals and for people meeting with them indoors.
Instead of focusing just on transmission rates, the levels are determined by hospital capacity, hospital admissions and new COVID cases in an area.
Most of Maine, including Hancock County, was still at a “high” level as of Wednesday, despite the decline in hospitalizations. That means that under the new federal guidelines, masking continues to be recommended in public, regardless of vaccination status or individual risk. That includes schools.
The high level could be a result of the backlog of over 50,000 positive tests the Maine CDC has been processing.
Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah announced that Maine would revisit its own mask guidelines for schools after students return from February break. No changes had been announced as of early this week.
But because the recommendations from the Maine CDC are not mandated in the state, local schools can make their own decisions, something that became easier when the Maine CDC suspended contact tracing for schools, whether or not they had masking policies in place.
The Surry School Board on Tuesday voted 3-2 to make indoor masking optional starting March 15.
The decrease in positivity rates and end to contact tracing helped encourage the members of the Hancock School Committee to unanimously approve making masking optional in a Feb. 24 meeting that lasted 15 minutes.
Hancock students will still wear masks if they are traveling to other schools that have masking policies in place.
Public comment at the meeting was minimal and the decision was met with applause from members of the audience and some committee members. Participants also attended virtually via Zoom.
On Feb. 27, Regional School Unit 24 (RSU 24) Superintendent Michael Eastman announced in a letter that the district would no longer require masking, citing the downward trend in positive cases and “ample time for people to access the vaccination.”
Eastman noted that the mask mandate could be implemented again if there is a “dramatic uptick in COVID cases.”
The next day, the Lamoine School Committee voted unanimously to make masking optional, effective March 2. The committee said it would continue to monitor the situation and follow guidance from the Maine Department of Education if COVID risks rise. Lamoine students traveling to schools with mask mandates will have to follow those policies.
Lamoine Consolidated School Principal Dawn McPhail said that roughly 70 percent of respondents to a recent survey indicated they would like masking to be optional. About 18 percent did not respond.
One audience member who attended virtually said he thought the school may be making the decision too quickly before hearing the updated recommendations from the Maine CDC.
McPhail stressed that the school would practice a “culture of acceptance” and respect whatever choice students and staff make regarding wearing a mask.
McPhail added she was going to talk to parents, make a note of which students were still required by their families to wear a mask and ensure that those students continue to do so.
Visitors who are making a quick drop-off to the school may not be asked to wear a mask, but visitors who will be at the school for an extended period may still be asked to wear one.
Gordon Donaldson, the committee’s vice chairman, thanked school staff, parents and students for their perseverance during the pandemic.
“The kids have been remarkable, I think,” he said.
Donaldson also commented on the decisions the committee made throughout the pandemic.
“We did the best we could.”
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