Northampton’s school committee holds meeting for school year masking policy

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) -The mask drama continues in Northampton, as the School Committee holds a special meeting to discuss how they’ll be handling mandates and testing this school year.

There’s not currently a mask mandate in place in the city’s schools after it was lifted at the end of last school year. The school committee president said she’s heard mixed responses from residents about whether or not to go forward with a mandate this fall.

The Northampton School Committee is holding a special meeting to discuss masking rules for the start of the academic year.

“Our health services director Lisa Saffron has put together a PowerPoint of what she sees as the status in our schools, our supplies, what our plan should be, and all the cases that are possible and what the CDC and also the department of education have put out recently,” said Gwen Agna, school committee president.

Agna told Western Mass News they’ll be looking at a draft put forth by the rules and policy committee.

This comes a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Protection updated its COVID-19 guidelines, including ending its recommendation for daily testing within schools, as well as dropping its quarantine recommendation for people who have been exposed to the virus, saying people no longer need to stay six feet from others.

Parents are worried. Patrick Boughan of Mask Choice Pioneer Valley argued Northampton isn’t keeping up with the latest guidance.

“We’re concerned that they’re still debating this issue. The way that it’s phrased right now it would probably result in masking students in Northampton like more than 80% of this year. At this point, the policy should effectively follow the state and CDC guidelines which is to not have such a policy and they’re an outlier,” Boughan explained.

With the school year set to start in less than two weeks, Agna said she hopes they will have an answer tonight.

“For the sake of our families, we would like to have something firmed up tonight so they know what to do as well as for our educators in the system,” Agna said.

If they vote to impose a mandate, Boughan said his group would look into taking legal action.

“At this point, they would be withholding education which is a state right of students based on their individual interpretation of public health guidelines,” Boughan said.

Agna said if no decision is reached tonight they have one more possible meeting a week from today on the 25th, they’ll schedule if needed.

Western Mass News was told there will not be an opportunity for public comment at Thursday night’s meeting.

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