Despite urging by public, New Kent School Board holds off decision on optional mask wearing

Masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are still a requirement to be worn inside New Kent County schools. For now.

Despite pleas from citizens at Monday night’s regular school board meeting to allow them to be an option, school leaders remained steadfast in their position.

Debate over the option to make masks optional to wear picked up steam in November after the general election. With governor-elect Glenn Youngkin taking office this week, it’s expected that he will remove the mandate and allow each school district to make a decision when it comes to wearing masks.

Several citizens approached the school board at Monday night’s meeting with information about the effects of masks in a learning environment. Other supporters of allowing it to be the option commented that masks had a psychological effect on learning and social interaction.

But despite those citizens putting forth information, school board members did not bend to the request as they elected to hold off on the issue until Youngkin is officially sworn in.

Meanwhile, New Kent Superintendent of Schools Brian Nichols presented a flow chart on the possibility of how schools could partake in optional mask-wearing.

The chart began with everybody wearing masks for four weeks. After an assessment of the school’s impact, if the spread is low then an assessment of the spread in the community will take place. From there, if the transmission rate is low, then the recommendation will be made for masks to be optional. If there is a substantial number, those under the age of 12 will have to wear masks and it will be optional masks for those over the age of 12 if 80 percent of the school is vaccinated. If the transmission is a moderate number, then optional mask-wearing will be available for all students and optional for vaccinated staff. Finally, if the transmission rate is high, then the schools will return to the requirement of wearing masks. If at any time the school system is in the optional mask wearing phase and the school sees a rise in cases, they would return to requiring masks to be worn.

Nichols said the purpose of the flow chart is to prevent the schools from backtracking, a stance he’s remained firm on since the start of the pandemic.

“We want to do what’s best for our students and one thing we don’t want to do is go in reverse,” he said. “We have been watching and monitoring the situation and know that with Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin taking office soon, it’s a high probability that the mask mandate will be lifted and left up to the schools.

“We have already seen two school districts who chose the mask-option route,” Nichols continued, pointing to the school districts of Powhatan County and Chesapeake. “We also have seen both school districts go back to the mask mandate because of the spread, and if you seen the news recently, some schools in Chesapeake are going virtual all of next week.”

Nichols also said that a complete transition to all-virtual for the entire school district was the last thing they wanted to do.

“We all know students learn better in-person,’ the superintendent said as he wrapped up his comments. “The teachers will tell you that and the students will tell you that. That is why we are taking measures to keep our kids in the classroom.”