State College Area School District will no longer require masks in schools or on district transportation beginning Monday, Superintendent Bob O’Donnell wrote in a message to students and families on Wednesday.
As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations began to drop significantly last month, the district began working toward making masks optional on March 28, with administrators saying at a Feb. 23 meeting that the schedule would allow time to work with families of high-risk students.
Since then however, the Centers for Disease Control introduced COVID-19 community levels of low, medium and high, which measure new cases, hospitalizations and hospital capacity. Centre County is currently at the low level, at which there is no recommendation for indoor masking. At the medium level masks are recommended for individuals at high risk and at the high level universal indoor masking in public places is recommended.
“After meeting with our Health and Safety Team [on Tuesday], we have decided to move to optional masking in schools and on district transportation beginning March 21, a week earlier than originally planned,” O’Donnell wrote. “We feel it’s safe to make this shift on Monday because Centre County’s COVID-19 Community Level is now low and conditions have continued to improve since the end of January. “
SCASD staff have contacted all documented high-risk students and plans will be in place for next week, O’Donnell wrote. Families with a child who has been diagnosed as having a weakened immune system and who have not been contacted by the district should email Director of Student Services Jeanne Knouse at jmk37@scasd.org.
A special work session with the school board and the district health and safety team will be held as scheduled at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Patton Township Municipal Building. Zoom access also will be available and the meeting will be broadcast live by C-NET (channel 98).
Families who want their child to continue wearing a mask were told to fill out a form so that it would be noted in the student information system. Surgical masks continue to be available to all students.
“Our principals, faculty and staff will be supportive of an environment where students may comfortably wear masks within all of our schools,” O’Donnell wrote.
Schools will continue to maintain 3 to 6 feet of physical distancing in classrooms and 6 feet of distancing during lunch “for now,” according to O’Donnell. Teachers will be permitted to rearrange classroom furniture, provided distancing is maintained.
The district will continue to ask families and employees to report COVID-19 cases and will follow updated guidelines for quarantine and isolation.
O’Donnell added that SCASD will continue to monitor local COVID-19 conditions and respond according to CDC guidelines.
“If we identify transmission concerns within schools, or if our community returns to the high level, we would consider reinstituting mitigation protocols, including masking at levels ranging from classrooms to districtwide,” he wrote.
State College Area is the only school district in Centre County that currently requires masking.
