Mask mandates continue to be lifted in the region as cases go down, with the Town of Peterborough and the ConVal district shifting to make masks optional.
“We’re at a point where we can, at least in town buildings, go to optional masks again,” said Peterborough Fire Chief Ed Walker, who is also the town’s emergency management director.
Walker initially came to the Select Board in January and recommended a mask mandate for municipal buildings, both as a response to rising case numbers at the time and to publicly show the town that pandemic protocols should be taken seriously. The mandate required all visitors and workers in public, town-owned buildings to wear masks unless in a private office or meeting.
Since then, he said case numbers have decreased enough to make masking less necessary, and he consulted with Monadnock Community Hospital administration to make sure.
Other considerations included new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommended moving away from mask mandates in areas of low- to medium-transmission risk, which Peterborough falls into.
“The key is that the decision to wear a mask has reached a point where it’s a personal choice,” said Walker, adding that if people still want to wear masks, others should not treat them differently for it.
Select Board Chair Tyler Ward noted that should cases rise again, the board may revisit the mask mandate.
The ConVal School Board voted Tuesday night to accept the district administration’s plans for moving to a mask-optional format effective immediately.
The decision to roll back the district’s mask mandate was made at the prior board meeting in February, when members voted to direct the district administration to prepare a plan to move to optional masking by March 7 due to a decrease in cases locally and statewide.
The new plan calls for some mitigation strategies to be maintained in order to reduce risk, including three-foot distancing in classrooms and distancing during lunch periods. Students and staff will still be isolated if they test positive or have symptoms, and the district will follow the most-recent quarantine and isolation guidelines calling for asymptomatic individuals to continue to mask for five days after a five-day isolation.
Screening of students upon arrival and contact tracing will no longer be done by the district, although testing will still be offered.
“We will ask parents to keep doing what most parents do already,” said Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders. “And that is survey the health of their child before sending them to school.”
Board Chair Tim Theberge said that should cases rise again, the board will decide whether to move back to mandatory masks.
“That’ll be up to this board, taking in recommendations just like we have all along,” he said.