Mask Issue Likely To Come Up During Colonial SD Meeting Monday

PLYMOUTH-WHITEMARSH, PA — Members of the community are reminded that the Colonial School District will be holding a special school board meeting tonight, Aug. 9, to discuss the district’s health and safety plan as well as the overall ongoing mitigation efforts to combat COVID-19.

The meeting will be held in-person at the district’s board meeting room beginning at 6 p.m. but will also be broadcast live on the district’s YouTube channel, will be available on the virtual meeting platform Zoom, and will air on a local cable television station.

Parents of schoolchildren will have the opportunity to learn about the district’s 2021-22 health and safety plan during a time when school districts in Pennsylvania grapple with whether or not to mandate facemasks for students inside school buildings as coronavirus numbers begin to once again surge.

The masking issue is likely to come up during the special meeting, and this meeting will offer residents a chance to weigh in.

The Colonial School District has already announced it is planning for five days a week of in-person instruction during the upcoming school year.

Masking policies vary by school district across Montgomery County, with some announcing they will require students and staff to be masked while inside school buildings, and others saying masks will be optional.

The somewhat controversial mask issue is gaining traction once again after Montgomery County health officials recently issued a recommendation saying masks should be worn indoors in the county as a continued mitigation strategy against COVID-19.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf recently announced that there will be no blanket mask policy for schools in the commonwealth and that each individual school district will have to make individual decisions with regard to whether or not masks would be mandatory.

Across the Delaware River, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy took the opposite approach, and recently issued a mandatory mask policy for all schools in the Garden State, a move that has gotten some pushback.