Mascenic School Board members voted Tuesday night to implement changes to the district’s COVID-19 protocols in line with state Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, shortening the quarantine and isolation period after a positive test, but only for district staff.
Current DHHS protocols call for a shortening of quarantine and isolation periods after a positive test from 10 days to five if the individual is asymptomatic and wears a mask for the remaining five days whenever he or she is in contact with others. The district decided, on guidance from Superintendent Chris Martin and district principals and nurses, to only implement this guidance for staff members.
For students, the only change was to shorten the quarantine period for an unvaccinated individual if a household contact tests positive. Initial district policy was that the student should quarantine for the contact’s 10-day isolation period as well as an additional 10 days, and the new guidance shortens the second period to five days, assuming the student does not show symptoms or test positive, with no mask required once the student returns.
Students who test positive must still stay in isolation for the full 10 days. Martin said the decision not to shorten the period for students who test positive was chiefly intended to avoid social isolation, a decision reached by district principals and nurses.
“Because we are not masking full-time, and we also cannot social distance, it would be socially isolating for our students to return on day six with a mask, with peers not masking, that we would potentially have to isolate them away from their peers, and it would turn out staff into the mask police,” said Martin.
Board member Tom Falter expressed concern about the plan, as other surrounding districts have moved to adopt the shorter isolation and quarantine guidance for both students and staff who test positive.
“A lot of our neighbors went with this plan, and I actually think we have to at some time, if not now,” he said.
The key difference between Mascenic and other districts, according to Martin, is that the other local districts – including ConVal and Jaffrey-Rindge – that have implemented the new quarantine guidance are also masking universally. Mascenic’s current plan only mandates masks if total district cases rise above 10.
The logistics of staying consistent with which students are freshly back from isolation and must mask would be too difficult to keep up with, according to district principals.
“I think we’re managing well at Boynton because it’s an all-or-nothing situation,” said Boynton Middle School Principal Elizabeth Pogorzelski. “When we don’t have to mask, we’re not becoming the mask police. For me, it’s about the impact it would have on the kids and social perception, and we’ve created a good culture and I don’t want to be fighting constantly about what to do and what not to do.”
Other concerns from the principals surrounded the inability to space properly at lunch if a student returned from isolation must continue to be isolated in order to eat, as well as the social problems that this would cause.
“The management is definitely difficult,” said John Barth, principal of Mascenic Regional High School. “The isolation I don’t really feel is fair for kids, and that stigma.”
“I cannot see it as a way to not target kids and to make kids feel uncomfortable and different and less than,” said Pogorzelski.
Martin also pointed out that in order to make sure that everybody who was supposed to be masking was doing so, more people would have to be privy to each student’s medical information.
“It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to manage,” said Board Chair Rachel Anderson. “I think we need to support our staff when they say they need a bit of a reprieve from another thing to figure out and juggle.”
Board member Mike Pellerito brought up his plan that was rejected by the other board members in December, which would have called for a mask mandate if the county’s levels are classified as “substantial,” defined by the state as either more than 100 new cases per 100,000 in 14 days or a positive rate of above 10% in seven days.
“It would be an easier solution for us all, and a safer solution,” he said.
The board also implemented a change in language to update guidance for individuals who are symptomatic but refuse to test, as current DHHS and CDC guidelines have the quarantine period for that individual at 10 days instead of the district’s previous 14 days.
Anderson advocated for potentially changing the quarantine and isolation policies for students who test positive down the line, once the district has had more time to iron out the potential difficulties posed by Martin and the principals.
“I’d like us to leave that door cracked open, to see if we can find ways to progress toward finding ways to make that work,” she said.