Burlington Schools' Mask Policy Gets Update

BURLINGTON, MA — The Burlington School Committee voted to approve an updated mask policy requiring the use of face coverings in school buildings.

The unanimous vote Tuesday night comes two weeks after Superintendent Eric Conti's announcement that Burlington would return to indoor mask-wearing, making it one of the first public school districts in the state to say it would require masks.

The policy, which is the one offered by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, will be revisited every month. There may be exceptions for medical and behavioral reasons.

"The intention of this policy ... is to keep students in-person for five days a week," Superintendent Eric Conti said. "That's really what our goal was last year. And masks are a mitigation factor that will help keep students in school."

Parents spoke passionately on both sides of the issue during 33 minutes of public comment, some arguing the mask policy is too restrictive for children and it's time to move on from face coverings, and others arguing it's the safest play and now is not the time to let up.

"I think what we saw tonight was a small snapshot of the opinions that kind of go throughout town, and we've all received an awful lot of feedback from people over the last few weeks," School Committee Chair Thomas Murphy said. "One thing you learn in this job is that no matter what you do somebody's not going to be happy with you, so that goes with the territory.

"The way that I look at this is I'd rather have somebody be angry at me for having their child wear a mask than having somebody be angry at me for not taking the proper precautions and their child gets sick."

The mask mandate comes as the delta variant fuels a rise in COVID-19 cases across Massachusetts. Burlington's average daily incidence rate has more than doubled to 9 in the last month, while the positive test rate has increased nearly a percentage point to 2.18 percent.

Many recent cases have been of the "breakthrough" variety. A breakthrough case is when someone who has already been vaccinated catches the virus. Those testing positive often show no or mild symptoms, but serious illness and death have still occurred among fully vaccinated individuals.

For now, it's all enough to bring keep kids masked up.

"I don't like wearing masks," Conti said. "I want to have students out of their masks as soon as possible, but I feel like the best way to keep students in school learning is to have them in masks when they are indoors."

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Burlington Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.