Mask Mandate Ending For Falmouth Public Schools Feb. 28

FALMOUTH, MA — Beginning Feb. 28, masks will no longer be required for students in Falmouth Public Schools for the first time in nearly two years.

The school committee voted 8-1 Tuesday to make masks optional in Falmouth classrooms.

Gov. Charlie Baker and DESE Commissioner Jeffrey Riley last week said the statewide mask order for students and staff will not be extended a fourth time because of high vaccination rates across the state, rapidly dropping coronavirus cases and hospitalizations from the winter omicron surge. In Falmouth Public Schools, 85 percent of staff and 55.4 percent of students are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, Superintendent Lori Duerr said. That percentage is higher for older students, where 76 percent of students ages 16-19 have gotten both shots.

Both town Health Agent Scott McGann and school Dr. Gregory Parkinson agreed with the state guidance that it's fine for Falmouth school students and staff to remove masks.

McGann said Falmouth's COVID-19 numbers have continued a sharp decline since the peak of the omicron variant.

"Think about the days when we were wiping Amazon boxes in 2o2o," McGann said. "We have the treatments that we need. "We're in a point now where we're sort of at an endemic phase where we're kind of coexisting with the virus."

"We're going to be with COVID for a long time, and we need to get to a point where we make our own decisions with it," McGann added.

Parkinson said the district removing the mandate doesn't mean school officials will ignore warning signs or not take action if the pandemic worsens again. He said masks have been an important part of the mitigation strategy, but there is a mental health component to prevention.

"I think we have to give a chance to some normalcy when it presents itself, and it appears to b presenting itself," Parkinson said.

The lone vote against lifting the mandate Feb. 28 was School Committee member Andrea Thorrold. Thorrold said it's not that she doesn't want to make masks optional, she just wanted the district to wait until March 18.

She said it would give the district time to see how the COVID-19 numbers react, once the state mandate is gone.

"It gets us closer to spring and the option for more outdoor time, and it sets a date in the very near future students, staff and parents can plan for," Thorrold said.

Parkinson said he didn't think there would be a big spike in cases if the district waits to lift the mandate.

Committee member Bill Dorfner said he also wanted more time originally, but hearing Parkinson's report made him think that was no longer necessary.

"When this first came out, I thought the timing was horrible as well," Dorfner said. "My initial thought was, what if we just waited one more week."

Where masks will still be required

Duerr said masks will still be required in the following situations:

• After a student/staff member with COVID-19 returns from isolation, they'll have to wear a mask through day 10 of their infection
• In school health offices.

Duerr also said it's recommended unvaccinated students wear a mask.

"Anyone that wants to wear a mask can," Duerr said. "We have plenty of KN-95s. We also have surgical masks."