In the News: Some San Mateo County Districts Drop Mask Mandates

Most San Mateo County school districts are gearing up to lift mask mandates in alignment with changing state guidance but some education officials have lobbied to take a wait-and-see approach before reducing masking expectations for students and staff.

 

“We’ve gone through so many changes and I do want us to head toward normalcy,” Greg Land, a San Mateo Union High School District trustee, said. “It is the right thing to do but how to do it and how to implement it, that’s the problem and you have cases like this where we have to think this through.”

 

San Mateo Union is among a handful of school districts in the county not immediately aligning with changing state guidance that lifted masking requirements by the end of Friday in exchange for a strong recommendation the safety measure be practiced instead.

 

The state’s move to put the authority back in the hands of local district administrators and officials comes as COVID-19 cases have steadily decreased over the past month following a historic surge caused by the omicron variant. In San Mateo County, cases have declined by 93% since peaking on Jan. 8 and about 80 new cases are being reported per day, according to a release by Chief of Health Louise Rogers.

 

After the San Mateo County Office of Education adopted the state’s recommendation, many San Mateo County school districts have followed suit and are allowing students and teachers to go maskless indoors starting Monday, March 14. That list includes San Mateo-Foster City, Redwood City, San Carlos, Sequoia Union High, Millbrae and Belmont-Redwood Shores school districts.

 

In various announcements about the decisions, officials pointed to a number of other protective measures currently in place that will continue to make school settings safe, including improved ventilation systems, the county’s high vaccination rate and continued uptick in student vaccinations and testing opportunities.

 

Burlingame School District Superintendent Chris Mount-Benites announced in a newsletter last Friday that the district will also be adopting the new policy but will be doing so after spring break ends Monday, April 4.

 

Mount-Benites said the delay will allow for families to discuss the best approach for their child over spring break as well as school administrators with their employees while officials continue to monitor trends over the coming weeks.

 

“That does not mean all masks will come off after spring break,” Mount-Benites wrote. “They will become optional and we recognize that many of our families, neighbors and loved ones will not be ready to remove their masks and that all BSD families, friends, teachers, and administrators will be strong in their support of the individual’s and family’s choice to continue masking for as long as such a choice is desired.”

 

Like the San Mateo Union High School District, South San Francisco Unified School District and the San Bruno Park School District are also taking a more cautious approach. Rather than schedule an official date for when the requirement will end, each district’s respective boards decided to reconvene after spring break to assess the data and make a determination at that time.

 

Similar concerns were raised during discussions held by the boards Wednesday and Thursday night. Officials said they didn’t want to put the immunocompromised or those with high-risk family members at greater risk by losing the masks right after a sudden surge of COVID-19 cases and were apprehensive about suggestions teachers could be the ones to decide to require masking in their classrooms.

 

Michael Milliken, San Bruno Park interim superintendent also noted that substitute teachers are in short supply and raised concerns that lifting the mandate would either make teachers call out more often out of fear or make substitutes less likely to take a job with the district.

 

Unlike SMUHSD and SBPSD officials who were unanimous in their calls to hold off on lifting masking requirements immediately, some SSFUSD trustees shared concerns for how masking could be affecting the learning of younger students.

 

Those members struck a compromise with others on the board by agreeing to revisit the issue two weeks after spring break. SSFUSD officials will meet Thursday, April, 14, while SBPSD will meet the day before on April 13 and SMUHSD will meet the following week on April 21. The compromise could also help ensure seniors will have the chance to attend major events like graduation and prom, SSFUSD officials agreed.

 

“I think it would be very unfair to risk the possibility of the amazing things that could happen,” SSFUSD Student Trustee Abigail Verino said. “[To] finally have a full graduation, finally have a full prom and all of these amazing events just because we lifted it too early and got a little bit excited just because we were cleared to do so.”

 

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