Harwood district won’t change school mask rules before March 14

Feb. 19, 2022  |  By Lisa Scagliotti

Although state officials are giving schools a green light to return from February break and relax indoor masking rules, students and staff in Harwood district schools will not see any changes before March 14, according to school officials. 

On Wednesday, Harwood Unified Union School District Superintendent Brigid Nease said she and other staff overseeing COVID-19 school protocols reviewed the latest guidance from the state of Vermont to determine what the next phase of mask rules will be following the school vacation that is now underway through March 1. 

Gov. Phil Scott and Education Secretary Dan French on Tuesday said they would adhere to their plan to tell schools that have reached 80% vaccination among students that they may make mask-wearing optional starting Feb. 28. State officials this school year have used that benchmark as their target to relax their guidance but the timing has been pushed back several times as COVID cases have surged, most recently in January and early February due to the Omicron variant. 

On Tuesday, the governor and administration officials pointed to improving trends with diminishing daily case reports and falling numbers of hospitalizations both in Vermont and in the region as signals that conditions should be favorable to have schools no longer require masks indoors where the vast majority of students are vaccinated. 

“It’s time to adapt,” Scott said. “Our kids need to get back to normal.”

COVID-19 trends indeed are improving in Vermont. Case reports have fallen to under 250 for a seven-day average. As of Friday, 57 Vermonters were hospitalized, 12 in intensive care. Reports of deaths, however, have not yet tapered off. So far this month, 38 Vermonters have died, mostly individuals over age 70, for a pandemic total of 583, according to the Health Department COVID-19 dashboard.

When asked how many schools in Vermont meet the 80% vaccinated benchmark, Scott said state officials were still compiling that information and they hoped to have more details on that breakdown at next week’s COVID-19 press briefing. 

‘Cautious, thoughtful, local, data-driven’

On Wednesday night, Superintendent Nease gave the HUUSD School Board a COVID-19 update and a preview of the announcement she would send out to staff and families the following day. 

She noted that among the district’s seven school campuses, four have reached the 80% vaccinated threshold -- Crossett Brook Middle School, Fayston Elementary, Harwood MS/HS, and Waitsfield Elementary. Warren will soon reach that mark, Nease said, although Moretown Elementary and Brookside Primary are not close to 80%. 

Nease also confirmed that the trend is looking encouraging. Weekly case averages in January were in the range of 40-65 cases, she said; in February that has dropped to 15-20. 

“We are very excited about and heartened by the fact we’re seeing fewer cases,” she said. 

This past week followed that trend. Ending with a day off for icy weather on Friday, school officials reported 13 new cases of COVID-19 in students and staff who were contagious while in school. 

That said, however, Nease said she and school staff tracking COVID illnesses cannot ignore the spikes in cases following every school break during the pandemic. “After every break in the last two years, we’ve always had a surge,” Nease said.  

School is scheduled to return to session on Wednesday, March 2. Nease said the district would like to see what happens once students and staff are back in buildings after 12 days off. It also is prudent to give staff time to prepare for shifting to managing classes where masks are optional. 

She said she’s eyeing Monday, March 14, as the day when indoor masks could become optional if the current trend continues. That would apply only to the schools where 80% of the students were vaccinated, she stressed.  

“We’re hoping we don’t see spread or have a high number of cases when we return,” she said. 

To help contain new cases, school staff handed out rapid antigen test kits to students on Thursday with instructions for them to test on the final two days of school vacation before returning on March. 2. The tests are not required, Nease emphasized, but they are meant to help families gauge whether they might have contracted the illness during time away from school. 

Nease noted that the school district is taking other steps to relax COVID-19 precautions. Spectators were recently allowed to attend indoor school events including sports without limits on numbers, although masks are still required indoors. After February break, Nease said masks will not be required outdoors although students will still need to wear masks on school buses which are governed by federal regulations which have not yet changed. 

Schools have also recently resumed using cafeterias for students to eat lunch, she noted. 

The district’s decision to wait to relax mask rules amounts to eight more days with masks required in all schools. Nease said the goal was to avoid a post-vacation surge that could jeopardize schools remaining open given a continuing shortage of substitute teachers. An uptick in cases could also affect spring events, she said. 

“Waiting 8 more student days, after wearing masks for two-plus years, seems prudent and a reasonable compromise to be sure of this very important decision,” Nease wrote in her memo to families and staff on Thursday. 

Nease said she will be watching statewide and local new cases trends and that she also is eager to see if guidance changes in the coming days from two sources the school district looks to in addition to the Vermont Department of Health: both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not changed their recommendations that K-12 schools still require masks indoors. 

All of those steps, Nease said, reflect that the Harwood district has taken an approach that’s “cautious, thoughtful, local and data-driven.”

Nease acknowledged that opinions on the topic run the gamut. “We ask for your patience and understanding as we approach our indoor mask-wearing decision in a cautious, incremental manner,” she wrote. “Our HUUSD team will review data for a full week (8 student days) after the return to school and share a decision regarding any further changes in masking thereafter, with the expectation that any change would go into effect March 14th.” 

Community data update

On Friday, the Vermont Department of Health released its weekly tally of COVID-19 case tracking data by community. Waterbury saw an increase in the seven days ending Wednesday, Feb. 16, with 49 cases reported. That brings the town’s pandemic total since March 2020 to 1,509 cases. 

Other nearby towns saw far fewer new cases for the week. Eleven cases were reported for Stowe where the total stands at 806; Waitsfield saw 9 new cases for a total of 304; Moretown had 5 and 4 were reported for Warren. 

Montpelier this week saw its new cases drop to 27 and its total stands at 1,123. Barre City’s cases remained the highest in Washington County with 62 new reports this week for a total of 3,485, according to the weekly community data report. 

COVID-19 testing continues locally at the Waterbury Ambulance Service station at 1727 Guptil Road. Vaccine appointments are also widely available through state sites, pharmacies and health care providers. More information on testing and vaccines is online at healthvermont.gov/covid-19.