Salem Schools To Keep Masks For Pre-K Classrooms

SALEM, MA — Salem Public Schools will keep the masks on in pre-kindergarten classrooms after Superintendent Steve Zrike told the School Committee Monday night that the district's Health Advisory Group recommended doing so during an April vacation meeting.

The School Committee voted on March 7 to lift the district-wide indoor mask order for most schools, students and staff effective March 14 — but opted to keep the requirement in place for its youngest students and their staff because they were not yet eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination.

The pre-K mask mandate had been slated to expire as of April 29.

"Their recommendation at this time was to continue masking for students under the age of 5 and in our pre-K classrooms," Zrike said. "We do appreciate that our students and staff have maintained those guidelines (for the past month).

"At this point (the Health Advisory Group) just felt like our plan seemed to be — I don't know if 'working' is the right word — but that they suggested continuing the course," Zrike said. "They thought the course was an appropriate one given that students under the age of 5 still cannot be vaccinated."

School Committee Vice-Chair Manny Cruz said he supported the decision to keep the youngest students masked.

"My comfort level remains the same with respect to our little ones under 5 not having access to the vaccine," he said. "Certainly believe that's a great recommendation."

While virus levels are dramatically lower than the peaks of December and January, they have been steadily inching higher in recent weeks with the statewide test positive average at 4.41 percent as of Monday.

The Salem seven-day positive test average as of Thursday was 6.2 percent.

While most schools districts have done away with nearly all COVID-19 mitigation measures since the statewide indoor mask mandate expired on Feb. 28, the Salem School Committee's vote on going mask-optional in March was split as vaccination rates among some student demographic groups remained low and there was continued community spread of the virus.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)