WEST ORANGE, NJ — West Orange Superintendent of Schools Scott Cascone said during a public health update at the Feb. 28 Board of Education meeting that the West Orange School District chose to allow for mask wearing to be optional as of March 7, when Gov. Phil Murphy lifted the statewide mandate for everyone to wear face masks while in schools. The governor’s announcement came on Feb. 7, and at a BOE meeting that night Cascone said the district had not yet made a decision.
“As you know, Gov. Murphy loosened the mask mandate in schools as of March 7,” Cascone said at the Feb. 28 meeting. “School districts were authorized to set their own (policies) so far as masking. The district, as we have throughout this pandemic, has gone about making our decision in a very measured, deliberate manner, through which we’ve been able to gather feedback from our stakeholders, to confer with medical and public health experts, and in this case, the several weeks that we’ve had since, we’ve had the national- and state-level public health officials issue revised guidelines in the wake of the governor’s announcement.”
WOSD’s mask-optional policy comes with conditions. West Orange is currently in the low transmission range of cases of COVID-19, and Cascone said the current policy will stay in effect as long as rates stay static or fall. If the transmission rate moves above the moderate range to one of the two highest ranges, masks will once again be required.
“We did confer with both our district physician and local department of health, and both entities deemed this course of action appropriate based on the current level of transmission,” he said, also mentioning that a survey that was distributed to stakeholders to gauge their feelings about lifting the mandate. “In the student survey, 42.9 percent indicated that they would prefer to keep masks mandatory through the end of the year, and about an equal number of students said to no longer require masks. Fourteen percent concurred with the approach the district is taking.”
In Murphy’s initial announcement on Feb. 7, he said the mask mandate would remain in place on school buses, but on Feb. 28 he announced it would be optional, as it would be in school buildings. West Orange will follow those guidelines as well on school buses.
“This is really a time for us to be respectful and understanding … of other people’s positions on this,” Cascone said. “It hasn’t always necessarily been something where we haven’t really been insightful and empathetic about other people’s perspectives and positions. We will have a sizable number of folks who will continue to wear masks in school, and that is absolutely fine. They should feel comfortable doing that.”
He said that in meetings with the district principals, it would be made clear to everyone in the district that they must be respectful of other people’s choices, regardless of what it may be. The district has a large number of N95 masks remaining from when the county and state were distributing them, and anyone who wants to request one can.
BOE member Brian Rock asked about indicators that determine whether or not the mask mandate would have to return, since the regular case counts tend to lag a week behind based on when cases of the virus are reported.
“It comes out a week after and the data is from a week before,” Rock said at the meeting. “Is there something that we can look to that’s a more timely indicator of when we would need to transition back to a mandatory policy?”
Cascone didn’t have an answer at the meeting but said he would consult with the health department on the question.
“I think if we look at the last two years and the way the cases have trended, I think we will continue to see the cases decline over the course of the spring as we move into the summer months,” he said. “But in advance of a spike, we should do more research on that.”
Cascone stresses student and staff choice in district mask policy in West Orange schools added by Amanda Valentovic on
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