SOUTH ROYALTON — Morgan Haynes has mixed feelings about the end of the White River Valley Elementary School’s mask mandate on Monday.
“After wearing a mask for so long it makes me nervous,” Haynes said. “At the same time, I want my daughter to experience a normal school year.”
Haynes’ 5-year-old daughter, Millie, is a kindergartner at the school’s South Royalton campus. The family also includes two younger children, who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19, 2-year-old Duncan Tuthill and 6-month-old Gus Tuthill, as well as her husband, Jonathan Tuthill, who has Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease which may put him at higher risk of developing serious symptoms should he contract COVID-19.
Haynes said she reached out to Millie’s teacher with her mixed feelings, and the teacher assured her that the class would spend time outdoors and they would open the classroom windows as the weather warms.
Haynes said she’s not certain “how much of (her worry) is a valid concern (and) how much of it is us being used to this new normal.”
As the second anniversary of the start of the pandemic arrives — Vermont and New Hampshire first issued pandemic-related emergency orders on March 13, 2020 — many Upper Valley schools and municipalities have already rolled back mask requirements or are preparing to do so in accordance with state and federal guidelines that no longer recommend masks for most people.
For some, these rollbacks signal a final step in the return to normal, while for others they elicit trepidation.
After initially saying that Vermont schools that have 80% or more students vaccinated may drop mask mandates in mid-February, state officials earlier this month said that schools could roll back their mandates on March 14 regardless of their vaccination rates. The Vermont Department of Health has stopped recommending masks in most other settings. New Hampshire officials also no longer recommend masks, but they have gone further than Vermont, warning that schools that retain mask requirements will run afoul of state education regulations.
After surging to their highest point earlier this winter, COVID-19 case counts, hospitalizations and deaths have dropped dramatically in recent weeks.
Conditions are such that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says that the entire state of New Hampshire has low levels of COVID-19 in the community.
Most of Vermont has medium levels, except for Rutland County, which is still at “high.” The CDC uses COVID-19’s effect on hospitals and the number of new COVID-19 cases in an area to determine the community level.
The Hartford School Board, during its Wednesday night meeting, appeared to struggle with the changing guidance from the state on masks in schools and how a change in the mask rules might be interpreted by the community.
Superintendent Tom DeBalsi recommended the board go along with the guidance from state officials and drop the mask requirement starting Monday.
“We stick with the science; that’s what we’ve done,” he said in a recording of the meeting. It “hasn’t failed us yet.”
Still, DeBalsi noted that none of Hartford’s schools would have been able to drop mask requirements had the state stuck with the 80% guidance. All three elementary schools have vaccination rates in the 30% range, while the middle and high schools have rates in the 60% range, he said.
He said if the board opted to drop masks, the district would support those who continued to wear them and continue to urge those who are sick to stay home.
Felicia Hayes, Hartford High School’s nurse, said that should the district stop requiring masks, they would still be required under certain circumstances such as following an exposure to someone who’s tested positive. The district would continue to recommend testing if people develop symptoms.
“I think people are going to hear, ‘Masks off, COVID’s over,’ ” she said. “I don’t think that’s what science says.”
The board appeared to have mixed views on the subject as well. Board member Peter Merrill said he supported going along with the state guidance: “I am not a proponent of removing masks (or) keeping masks. (I’m a) proponent of doing what has worked, which is relying on the evaluation of our internal resources about what is safest for the school.”
But board member Havah Armstrong-Walther said she had several members of the school community reach out to her to express concerns about dropping the mask requirement. Armstrong-Walther also said she was concerned about the schools’ low vaccination rates.
“And that we’re talking about removing masks when there’s a really easy way to ensure that schools are not slowed, delayed, set back with rising cases of COVID or anything in our youngest grades in particular — that’s through vaccination,” she said. “If we were at 80% vaccination rate, I would feel a lot differently than I do right now.”
The board is scheduled to continue its discussion in a special meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the high school auditorium.
There’s also some trepidation in Woodstock-area schools, which are taking a mixed approach. The middle/high school has reached the state’s original 80% vaccination threshold, so masks are now optional there, said Bryce Sammel, chairman of the Windsor Central Unified Union School District board of directors. But the superintendent decided to hold off on rolling back mask requirements at the district’s elementary schools until April 4.
In a March 9 message to families announcing her decision, Windsor Central Superintendent Sherry Sousa said that by April 4, the schools will be able to do more outdoors and open windows.
Like Hartford school officials, Sousa said she was torn in making the decision.
“While I want science to direct my decisions and the guidance of the state, I feel that I also need to hear my families who are fearful of the loss of this COVID response strategy,” she wrote. “Whether they have young children at home or vulnerable family members, there is much anxiety around this decision.”
Meanwhile, some other mask mandates have fallen without much fanfare.
Newport School District Superintendent Brendan Minnihan said the School Board rescinded the mask mandate following the schools’ February break.
“So far, there has not really been any response from teachers, students, staff and families,” he said. “The number of positive cases have remained low for now. Hopefully that will remain true.”
On Tuesday, the Hartford Selectboard, after a short discussion, unanimously opted to allow the town’s mask mandate to expire.
In a recording of the meeting, Michael Hoyt, the board’s chairman, said the decision is “hopefully reflective of the improved situation involving COVID in our area.”
Bradford, Vt.-area schools in the Orange East Supervisory Union stopped requiring masks this past Monday. It was a bit of an adjustment, Assistant Superintendent Randy Gawel said.
“After basically two years of either remote learning or masking in schools, there is some trepidation on the part of folks to just do away with them completely,” Gawel said.
Now that masks are optional, some people have chosen to continue wearing them, while others have opted not to, he said.
“One staff member said that they feel ‘naked’ without the mask after having to wear it for so long, and that makes sense as we come to be conditioned to putting it on. In fact, several people mentioned how they got halfway into school, realized that they had forgotten their mask, turned around to go get it and then realized that they actually didn’t need to,” he said. “In short, it is a time of transition but, by all accounts, individually and organizationally, it is going smoothly.”
The situation is similar at The Sharon Academy, which stopped requiring masks on Monday. Nearly all employees at TSA are vaccinated and 87% of students are.
Andrew Lane, director of TSA’s middle school, said about half of middle school students and a “significant portion” of our high school students are remaining masked. In addition, many employees also are continuing to mask.
“My sense is that this personal choice has been respected universally, and I have not heard of anyone being judged for their choice,” he said. “It is an interesting opportunity for teaching about how someone can make a new choice every day and even in various situations. Some students choose to wear masks in class but remove them when they are more distanced in the halls. Others have kept them on, but around their chins rather than over their mouth and nose. It is certainly a fluid situation as people get accustomed to this new situation.”
Lane said there are positive things about being able to see faces again, noting that middle schoolers’ faces have changed so much in the past two years that “it is almost startling from what I remember them looking like previously.”
Lane said he thinks removing masks reduces barriers to interpersonal connections: “I have already had some meaningful conversations with students in the past two days where it seemed they were more willing to open up. That may just be in my mind, but it feels like progress (at least for now).”
The school plans to continue to require masks for events such as its annual circus on March 25 and 26.
“Given that the event is indoors and often draws hundreds of people from all over the Upper Valley, we wanted to ensure everyone’s safety and relieve concerns of those patrons with small children or immunocompromised family members,” he said.
Among those opting to continue to wear a mask in spite of the lack of a mask requirement is Haverhill resident Jamie Riley’s son, Alex, who is in fifth grade at Haverhill Cooperative Middle School.
Riley, who also has a daughter at Woodsville High School and a son, Andrew, in eighth grade at the middle school, said the lack of a mask requirement “makes me nervous.”
Andrew has a severe form of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and cannot wear a mask for medical reasons. Though Andrew has been vaccinated and boosted, he is on a feeding tube and can’t manage his own secretions, so when he gets sick, he requires medical intervention, Riley has said.
The family has taken pains to reduce its risk of COVID. When Riley’s daughter, who is vaccinated, contracted a mild form of COVID in January, she isolated in her room and wore a N95 when she left it. No one else in the family became infected, Riley said.
While the high schooler is an “independent-minded child,” Alex continues to wear a mask at school, on play dates and when the family goes out. Riley said she suspects he will continue to do so until case rates come down further and there are no new variants in the offing.
Riley continues to ask that school employees who work with Andrew wear masks to help protect him. He also continues to learn in a classroom separate from others, though Riley is hopeful that will change before too long so he can have more peer interaction.
“Things are looking up,” Riley said, but she continues to have questions about what the future holds and how long immunity granted by a vaccine will last.
Meanwhile, Haynes, the Royalton mom, is leaving the decision of whether or not to wear a mask on Monday up to her 5-year-old, Millie.
“If she wants to wear a mask, she can wear a mask,” Haynes said. “If she doesn’t want to, I can’t make her wear a mask if none of her friends are doing it. I don’t want her lying to me about it.”
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
