SNOW HILL – Local officials are preparing for changes following the Maryland State Board of Education’s decision to lift the statewide school mask mandate.
The Maryland State Board of Education voted 12-2 Tuesday to permit local school systems to decide on whether their public school students should continue to be masked. The action now goes to the state’s Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review (AELR) Committee for consideration.
“Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) is aware of the action taken by the State Board of Education today to rescind the statewide mandate of face coverings in school settings,” Superintendent Lou Taylor said in a statement Tuesday. “As today’s action also requires the approval of the state’s Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review prior to its going into effect, leadership at WCPS will take this time to plan and prepare any changes needed to our current health and safety protocols should the repeal go into effect. If and when the legislature repeals the mandate, we will communicate any changes to our protocols with our students, staff, and community as soon as possible.”
Last week, the Worcester County Commissioners and the Worcester County Board of Education echoed Gov. Larry Hogan’s call for the state school board to end the mask mandate. On Tuesday, the state board voted 12-2 to rescind the emergency regulation requiring face coverings in schools and to give local school boards the ability to decide whether students should be masked.
“The Worcester County Board of Education applauds the action taken by the State Board of Education (SBOE) at its meeting today,” said Elena McComas, president of the Worcester County Board of Education, in a statement. “Our Board continually advocated for local control of these decisions, most recently with letters sent to the SBOE and the Maryland Department of Health last week. We are grateful that decisions related to the pandemic are in the process of being returned to local school systems, where local leaders can make the decisions best suited for their individual communities.”
Hogan urged the General Assembly to act quickly.
“I want to thank the State Board of Education for heeding our call to rescind its school mask policy,” Hogan said in a statement following the board’s decision. “This action aligns with the data and the science, the recommendation of the State Superintendent of Schools, and the guidance of medical professionals across the country. I also want to express my sincere appreciation to all the parents who have spoken out in recent weeks. At a time when Maryland has the lowest COVID-19 metrics in the country, this is a major step for normalcy and the well-being of our students.”
Unless school systems, like Anne Arundel did this month, meet one of the off-ramp metrics outlined in December, no change in masking can take place immediately following Tuesday’s vote. The off ramps allow school systems to go mask optional if 80% of the county is vaccinated; or if 80% of the students and staff at a school are vaccinated; or if the county’s transmission rate is low or moderate for 14 consecutive days.
When the AELR committee will meet to consider the change is unknown though a target effective date sought by the state school board is March 1. Though Taylor shared plans to have masks be optional at the start of the 2021-2022 school year, the state board in August issued a mandate requiring masks in schools. Regardless of this week’s decision by the state board masks will still be required on buses per the federal government.
