Starting February 22, the school division will rescind its universal masking mandate since children went back to class five days a week in August.
The School Board voted 5-2 to rescind the order just before 10 p.m. Thursday, February 10, during a special meeting to discuss the mask mandate.
The School Board declared the mandate no longer “practicable.” A state law expiring August 1 requires public schools to provide five-day-a-week needed in-person education schools to follow CDC masking recommendations to the maximum extent “practicable.”
Since August, the CDC has recommended face masks in schools.
According to School Board Chairwoman Patricia Healy, the Virginia Supreme Court made this decision easier this week when it reiterated local School Boards’ control of masking. The high court dismissed a lawsuit challenging Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s order allowing parents to send their children to school without a face covering.
The governor’s order went into effect on January 24. Stafford County would not allow children without masks into school buildings and prevented them from coming to school, parents said.
George Washington District School Board member Susan Randall motioned to rescind the mandate. He urged parents who filled seats at School Board meetings over the past month to protest the mask mandate to continue attending meetings and supporting teachers.
“Shower them with love. They’re exhausted. Throw a pep rally for them,” said Randall.
Hartwood District School Board member Alyssa Halstead won a seat on the School Board in November and campaigned on allowing students to remove the masks.
“We want our parents in Stafford County and across Virginia to know School Boards have woken up, and we’re listening, and voting does have consequences, and elections do have consequences. But they don’t have to be bad ones. This was a good one,” said Halstead.
The vote came after two hours of passionate testimony from parents and teachers urging the school division to allow parents to let their children wear a mask.
Students must continue to wear masks on school buses in the division’s head-start program due to federal orders, officials said.
Schools Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor will spend the next 11 days getting the school division ready to see children’s smiling faces once again.
“This begins with, obviously, notifying our families and staff about the decision tonight and sharing with them some of our expectations, as well as communicating some of the personal protective equipment that’s available to staff and students who may want it, as well as some of our other layered mitigation strategies and making sure that all of our students feel welcome and safe in our schools,” said Taylor.
School Board members Dr. Sarah Chase, and Maya Guy of the Falmouth and Aquia magisterial districts, respectively, voted to keep the mask mandate.
