Falmouth School Committee To Lift Mask Mandate
Falmouth School Committee voted 8-1 this week to lift the mask mandate in Falmouth Public Schools, effective February 28.
Health Agent Scott McGann, and school district physician Dr. Greg Parkinson were both largely of the opinion that the best course of action is to continue following the guidelines set by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and lift the state mask mandate.
While a specific policy is yet to be determined, committee chairwoman Natalie Kanellopoulos said that, ideally, the policy subcommittee will be able to meet before February 28 to craft an updated version.
As of the meeting on Tuesday evening, February 15, the school committee had received 128 emails from parents, students, teachers, and community members.
“When you email the school committee, we each get a copy,” Ms. Kanellopoulos said. “We read them all and we truly appreciate your thoughts and perspectives.”
Mr. McGann and Dr. Parkinson both spoke to the current status of COVID in Falmouth and the Upper Cape. With cases trending downward, Mr. McGann said that we will likely see COVID’s prevalence decrease—as respiratory illnesses often do after winter—as people will spend more time outside. He also pointed out the state’s gradual transition from crisis mode to a more self-reliant approach, with the discontinuance of contact tracing and encouragement of home testing.
While coexisting with the virus means different things to different people, Mr. McGann said, it is important to get to a point where people recognize that they are going to be living with COVID for a while and need to start making their own decisions.
“I think you can remove the mandate and allow individuals to measure their own risk and make their own decisions,” he said. “Obviously, if the next variant comes out and it’s Delta on steroids, we’ll have to regroup at that point. The mitigation accomplished what we needed to do: it got us to a point where we were vaccinated, we’ve gotten boosters, we’ve got treatments. It might be necessary at some point to go back, but that’s my opinion.”
Dr. Parkinson addressed some concerns held by the public regarding the time frame, as the mask mandate will be lifted on the same day students return from February vacation. Coming off a massive Omicron spike in December and January, which saw up to 24,000 daily cases in Massachusetts alone, Dr. Parkinson said that the numbers have decreased greatly, which seems promising as spring approaches.
“Within the last week, we’ve gone down to about 2,000 cases a day,” he said. “You do your exponential math and it would suggest in another two weeks, we’re down to about 500 cases a day. So from the weather forecast point of view, it’s a good forecast: there are no imminent variants on the horizon, I think we have to be aware of that moving forward and [be] a little proactive on that, if that kind of thing does happen.”
Dr. Parkinson said he is inclined to be conservative on this issue to protect vulnerable populations but when the opportunity presents itself, people need to be reasonable and not just reactive to something out of fear, when there is no data to support it.
“I think we have to give a chance for some normalcy when it presents itself, and it appears to be presenting itself,” he said.
Dr. Parkinson, like Mr. McGann, said that should things take an unexpected turn, they need to have the ability to pivot and be responsive while also being reasonable.
Board member Andrea Thorrold asked Dr. Parkinson about his experience with COVID in children under 5, who are currently not eligible to be vaccinated. He said that relatively speaking, COVID tends to be a mild illness in most young children, and is far less severe in children than the flu or respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
Schools Superintendent Lori Duerr updated the committee on the district’s current vaccination status: 85 percent of staff and 55.4 percent of students are vaccinated, with 16- to-19-year-olds being the most vaccinated age group at a rate of 76 percent. Five-to-11-year-old students are 43 percent vaccinated, and 12-to-15-year-olds are 65.5 percent.
The district also participates in a statewide at-home testing program, which distributes one kit containing two tests biweekly to all students and staff who opt in. Currently, about three-quarters of school staff are enrolled, compared to one-third of students. The district is working with the Falmouth Educators Association, which purchased extra tests with the intent of distributing them to enrolled participants on February 28 to mitigate any spread that may occur upon returning from February vacation.
The FEA also conducted a survey of 188 members to collect feedback regarding the mask mandate. Survey results revealed that 60 percent were in favor of ending the mandate, 9 percent had no opinion, and 31 percent were against it, with many leaving comments that they would be okay with ending the mandate at a later date.
Before the committee’s vote, Dr. Duerr reviewed the mitigation strategies that would remain in place should the mandate be lifted.
In addition to closely monitoring the data, she said the district will continue to advise on specific activities and events and follow DESE guidelines. She noted that there are exceptions to lifting the mask mandate: for example, masks will still be required on school buses, which was a federal mandate, in health offices, and for any students returning to school on day six following a positive COVID test through day 10 of symptom monitoring. The district has a system for identifying students who are out with COVID and knows when they are expected back at school, and this information is communicated to teachers so they can help ensure that the students who need to be masked are, in fact, masked.
“From the DESE guidance, it was recommended that if you’re unvaccinated, you continue to wear a mask,” Dr. Duerr said. “That’s a recommendation, not a mandate.”
Dr. Duerr said she agrees with Dr. Parkinson and Mr. McGann that anyone who wants to wear a mask can wear one. There are plenty of masks in the schools, she said, both surgical and KN95.
“Our staff is wonderful, and I do believe that they’ll make their colleagues and students feel comfortable wearing a mask if that’s what people choose to do,” she said.
Dr. Duerr also emphasized that during school hours, they defer to the school nurses in deciding whether to test and/or send sick children home.
Public comment was limited due to the high volume of emails received. Geraldine Camilli spoke to the board first and expressed concern for her 3-year-old Pre-K student, who is not eligible for the vaccine. Ms. Camilli said she relies on masks to keep her youngest child safe, and asked the committee to hold off on lifting the mandate until young children are eligible for vaccination, noting that Pfizer is looking to apply for approval for that in April.
“Removing the masks in school right now, right after the return from school vacation, is exposing young children before they can even be vaccinated,” she said. “Our young children who cannot yet be protected still rely on mitigation measures like masks.”
Another parent, Valerie Anderson, said she has seen the struggles that her daughters endure firsthand. She has two daughters going into their senior years—one at Falmouth High School and the other at Upper Cape Regional Technical School—and almost their entire high school experience has been during the pandemic.
“I’m coming from the point [of view] of a mother of a daughter with severe anxiety [who] took to self-harming,” she said. “I just want [masking] to be optional, because maybe mental health isn’t a significant portion to you, but it has affected our family dramatically.”
Ms. Anderson spoke to the negative impacts the pandemic has had on students’ mental health and said she has talked to other parents who have similar concerns that children are dealing with depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation.
“They’ve been courageous, they’ve been brave,” she said. “I think it’s time for us to be brave and allow them to enjoy their childhood.”
Prior to the vote, Ms. Thorrold told the board that she would like to extend the mask mandate for two weeks and lift it on March 14 instead, because it would allow time for people to test and for the district to monitor cases following February vacation, give the policy subcommittee time to draft an update policy before the mandate is actually lifted, and would give principals enough time to thoroughly communicate details and expectations to families.
“To me, it’s obvious from the feedback that we received that people in this town are very passionate and care for the well-being of our children, and I think we’re very lucky to have that,” Ms. Thorrold said. “But I also think we want to do this right. We need to do it right to ensure that the schools stay open and that our kids are there and ready to learn… giving just a little more time to get all our ducks in a row, I think, is a reasonable compromise.”
The committee did not necessarily agree. Member Leah Palmer said that while she appreciated the thoughtfulness of that suggestion, she was inclined to agree with Dr. Parkinson, who said that the extra two weeks likely would not produce a significantly different number of cases, plus they are trending downward anyway. Melissa Keefe, board secretary, agreed, saying she trusts Dr. Parkinson both professionally and personally and sees this as an opportunity to embrace some sense of normalcy.
“We are the adults,” Ms. Keefe said. “We, the committee, represent our community as a whole, and it’s up to us to quell the noise and set the tone.”
All board members, with the exception of Ms. Thorrold, voted to lift the mandate, effective February 28, for all students Pre-K through grade 12.