LEBANON — If they have not already dropped their mask requirements, Upper Valley schools in New Hampshire are scrambling to do so in compliance with new state guidance.
The Lebanon School Board voted Wednesday to stop requiring masks in the city’s schools beginning March 14. The 8-1 decision came hours after Republican Gov. Chris Sununu and state health officials announced they no longer recommend masks in indoor spaces and therefore schools are required to roll back their mask mandates.
For some in Lebanon, the planned rollback, 2½ weeks following Sununu’s announcement, is too slow, but others are concerned about the effect of the rollback on families and employees who may have health conditions that make them more vulnerable to serious illness should they contract COVID-19.
“Waiting 2½ weeks, to me that’s a long time,” Lebanon School Board Vice Chairwoman Jenica Nelan said in a recording of Wednesday’s board meeting. Nelan cast the sole no vote.
Lebanon Superintendent Joanne Roberts said it would take some time to sort out which of the district’s 1,600 students have parents who want them to continue wearing masks.
“If a parent with an immunocompromised child wants them to wear a mask, our staff are going to want to support a parent decision,” she said.
Sununu’s announcement on Wednesday struck some Upper Valley school officials as part of a logical trend, given the recent decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Some schools, including those in Claremont, had already dropped their mandates, while others already had set end dates or conditions for end dates.
The Lebanon School Board, at a meeting earlier this month, rejected a motion by Nelan to drop the mandate and said they’d like to seek input from school employees before ditching masks.
Similarly, the Mascoma Valley Regional School District Board determined at a meeting on Tuesday that it would keep masks mandatory and take the issue up again at a March 22 meeting, Mascoma Superintendent Amanda Isabelle said.
But following Sununu’s Wednesday announcement, the board scheduled an emergency meeting for 5 p.m. Monday to reconsider the mask issue.
In advance of that meeting, Isabelle said she has reached out to the employee unions to gauge their attitudes on the issue. The district has plenty of N95 masks available for staff and students who may want them, she said.
Isabelle said she’s heard from parents who look forward to masks becoming optional. For her part, she said she views the change as a logical next step.
It’s “something that we had seen coming anyway,” Isabelle said. It was “looking like it was time to release that mitigation strategy.”
New Hampshire schools are barred from requiring COVID-19 vaccines, but Isabelle estimated that about 50% of students in the high school have been vaccinated. In addition, she said, many in the schools, including at least 35% of those in the middle school, have some immunity from prior infection.
Vermont health and education officials have said that Vermont schools might consider dropping mask requirements when 80% of students have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Schools in Plainfield and Cornish were ready to drop their mandates as soon as the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the American Academy of Pediatrics changed their recommendations, said Cory LeClair, who serves as the superintendent for schools in both towns.
“Our boards were comfortable with some widely recognized governing body changing their recommendation,” LeClair said.
Beginning Monday, masks will no longer be required in Plainfield School. Meanwhile, Cornish Elementary School will drop masks beginning March 7, giving families time to alert teachers if they would like their student to continue to wear a mask at school.
The Grantham School Board is likely to schedule a meeting next week to discuss masks, said SAU 75 Superintendent Sydney Leggett. Leggett said she was concerned that state officials hadn’t given schools advanced notice about the change before announcing it during a Wednesday news conference.
“I believe all schools were thinking that we were moving closer to lifting mask mandates with cases declining, but in our district, we’ve had more cases over the past six weeks than we’ve had since the pandemic began, so this will seem too soon for some of our families and staff,” Leggett said. “The most important thing for us to do is to make this transition thoughtfully and keep both our kids and our vulnerable populations in mind to ensure everyone continues to feel as safe and confident as possible.”
In advance of Wednesday’s Lebanon School Board meeting, the board received several messages from parents eager to get rid of masks, as well as from those who urged caution.
During the meeting, Hanover Street School Principal Jack Finley said he wasn’t sure what dropping the mask mandate would mean for the school.
“It’s going to be strange,” Finley said. “I don’t know how the kids are going to react. … I don’t know if I’m going to be losing students (or) losing staff.”
But Lebanon High School Principal Ian Smith said he didn’t feel like taking masks off would require much of a transition period.
“Our kids are ready to take their masks off,” he said. “I have no medical expertise; that’s just my sense of being in school. We’re all ready.”
The board is slated to discuss Lebanon schools’ other COVID-19 mitigation strategies at its next meeting on March 23.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
