Norwood Schools to Require Mask Use Indoors

NORWOOD, MA - The Norwood School Committee voted unanimously to require the wearing of face masks indoors for students and staff at its meeting earlier this month.

A motion was included to allow Superintendent David Thomson discretion during this month to allow custodians and administrators who will not be in contact with students and working in isolated situations to take off their masks. The policy will be revisited before school opens to account for new data on COVID-19 and the rise of the delta variant.

At the meeting, Health Department director Sigalle Reiss said the delta variant is about twice as contagious as the initial strain, which has caused a spike in cases nationwide as well as in Norwood. If people are vaccinated and exposed to the virus, they do not need to be quarantined.

The case count for the most recent two-week period in Norwood from July 18 through July 31 was 21. However, the week before that, there were only nine cases, and four the week before.

“We had a good seven- to eight-week period where we had five cases or less,” Reiss said. So far, 68 percent of Norwood’s population has been vaccinated, including about 56 percent of children ages 12 to 18. Although the infection rate is still low, her concern was that the rates are multiplying.

The recent situation in Provincetown illustrated that people who have been vaccinated can carry similar viral loads as nonvaccinated folks, which means that they can still spread disease, according to Reiss.

“I think that’s significant when we look at masking,” she added, which prompted a discussion on guidelines.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend universal indoor masks regardless of vaccination status, along with continued prevention practices. However, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH) released a joint statement emphasizing that Massachusetts has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country and that the vaccines have been highly effective. It called for unvaccinated people to wear masks as well as those who live with an at-risk person. Students through grade six should always wear masks indoors, as well as unvaccinated individuals, the statement read.

“What I think it was sort of silent on is that it doesn’t mention the spread of the virus,” Reiss said.

Thomson noted that the department is responsible for the safety of "3,500 students and over 700 staff members,” making this "a much bigger decision.” He recommended that the policy that students wear masks be reinstated, which also was suggested by the committee's policy subcommittee.

School committee member Myev Bodenhofer made a motion to allow vaccinated adults not working in a room with childrento remove the masks if they are alone during August to account for the heated conditions, particularly at the elemntary schools because they are not well ventilated. This was approved by a 5-0 vote.

Vice chair Anne Marie Mazzola called for masks to be worn. She said it would be "a logistical nightmare" for staff to monitor which middle and high school students have been vaccinated to see who would have been allowed not to wear masks under the current state guidelines.

Bodenhofer also made a motion to that would allow students to take off their masks outdoors, which received unanimous approval.