PARIS — Maine’s Center for Disease Control loosened COVID guidelines surrounding wearing masks last Wednesday, leading to a chorus across the state to make students wearing them in schools a choice rather than a requirement.
The same argument is being made in Oxford Hills, where parents have long been itching to unmask their kids. But while the conversation gathers momentum, families will have to wait until March 7 to find out if school masking rules will change.
According to Interim Assistant Superintendent Heather Manchester, the mask mandate will be on SAD 17’s board of directors’ agenda at its regularly scheduled meeting next Monday.
But first, district administrators and healthcare advisors will take up the issue this Friday when the COVID Response Team meets, as it has done weekly since the beginning of the school year. The team informs the superintendent ahead of her making recommendations to the school board.
“We use CDC recommendations, community transmission rates, hospitalization rates and (infection) rates in school,” Manchester wrote in an email statement to the Advertiser Democrat Feb. 28, noting that the same factors would be considered in the event of surging illnesses in the future.
Manchester said that all indoor activities on school grounds could be impacted if she recommends, and the board authorizes, changing rules regarding mandatory masking.
Oxford Hills students may soon be able to enter schools without wearing masks. School board directors will discuss loosening masking mandates at their March 7 meeting. Nicole Carter / Advertiser Democrat
Oxford Hills residents are optimistic that the time to shed face coverings is coming soon.
The Maine CDC continues to recommend that 13 of Maine’s 16 communities wear masks and practice social distancing. At its Feb. 23 media briefing, Kennebec, Somerset and Waldo were the only counties the CDC rated “medium” risk for COVID transmission.
On the first day of school following February break, there were no students or staff isolating, according to SAD 17’s online COVID tracking report. There were 18 confirmed positive cases and one probable, marking the lowest levels in schools since last October.
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