Great Valley School Board Votes Unanimously To Lift Mask Mandate

MALVERN —Great Valley School Board on Tuesday night unanimously voted to allow the district’s mask mandate to be lifted on March 7 if COVID-19 rates remain low.

Dr. Daniel F. Goffredo, Great Valley School District superintendent, recommended that masks become optional because the number of COVID-19 cases have been significantly reduced to a half dozen in the district.
As a result of the decline, he recommended that the district revise its health and safety plan to lift the mandate.
The mask requirements for bus transportation will remain in place because the requirement is a federal law, he noted.
The district consists of Charlestown, East Whiteland and Willistown townships and the borough of Malvern.
More than a dozen parents provided written requests to the school board to lift the district’s mask mandate immediately.
The parents wrote that the mask mandate is detrimental to the children and will not improve health, but cause social and emotional issues.

The new health and safety policy includes these changes:

• Cease testing unvaccinated employees.
• Cease masking requirement for unvaccinated staff when masks become optional.
• Add “localized declining community incidence rates and the availability of vaccination” as consideration for masking.
• Cease quarantining and contract tracing.
• Modify antigen testing language to reflect when available due to limited supply.
• Add language regarding limited accommodations for students.
• Describe the metric the district monitors and will continue to monitor.

According to the Chester County Department of Health, there were 23 positive COVD-19 cases reported in municipalities in the Great Valley district last week. In comparison, there were 163 positive cases reported four weeks ago.
The superintendent noted that the plan must be flexible in the event the conditions change.
“One thing the pandemic has taught us is to expect the unexpected,” the superintendent said during his presentation.
The superintendent said testing is available for anyone with symptoms.
Goffredo said that the recommendation was based on reports from the Chester County Health Department, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and discussion with superintendents in other districts across the region.
Board member Samantha Jouin said she would like to see the district strongly encourage staff to be vaccinated.
The superintendent said testing is available at school if parents provide permission.