SWAMPSCOTT — Public-school students will continue wearing masks inside of schools for at least the next two weeks until the mid-winter break.
Superintendent of Schools Pamela Angelakis said she will prepare her recommendation on the obligatory indoor-mask wearing to the School Committee by its next meeting on Feb. 16, after seeking input from the town’s Health Department and the district’s medical staff.
“As a district, we’ve maintained through this pandemic by being sometimes overly cautious and putting more constraints than necessary, but we will have some discussions and bring in our recommendation to you next week,” said Angelakis at this week’s School Committee meeting.
This decision came on the heels of the announcement that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) made on Wednesday, Feb. 9, about lifting the statewide mask requirement for K-12 schools on Feb. 28. DESE and the state Department of Public Health still recommend that students and faculty wear masks in certain scenarios consistent with DESE’s COVID-19 protocols.
At an 84.3-percent vaccination rate as of Feb. 7, Swampscott High School had previously reached the required 80-percent threshold to apply for a mask waver.
“But as you recall a few meetings back I was very concerned about the December break and people going on vacation and the holiday gatherings,” said Angelakis.
With the lifting of the statewide mask requirement, school districts no longer need to request a waiver from DESE to remove masks in school buildings where 80 percent of staff and students are vaccinated. Masking will be a community choice in schools across the commonwealth, according to DESE, regardless of vaccination rates within a school. School districts can establish local requirements, however.
On Feb. 7, the vaccination rate at the middle school was 53 percent; 65 percent at Hadley Elementary School; 45 percent at Clarke Elementary School; and 59 percent at Stanley Elementary School.
Angelakis said that staff will be considered vaccinated with two shots of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. She will report staff-vaccination-rate numbers at the next School Committee meeting as well.
The school district had 26 individual positive COVID-19 cases among students and two cases among staff members reported from Feb. 3-9., compared to 57 and 10 cases respectively between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2, according to DESE reports.
