Schools stand pat on masks

Amid CDC guideline changes, face covers still mostly optional as school year nears

Barring a change in state or federal mandates, area school districts are proceeding with plans to generally make masks optional when classes resume this month.

The only time masks will be required, as per federal mandate, is on public transportation, such as school buses, Spring Cove School District Superintendent Betsy Baker said.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its masking guidelines and recommended masks indoors in counties with moderate and high transmission rates, regardless of vaccination status.

Blair County remains in the moderate range, according to the CDC's website. Bedford, Centre, Cambria, Huntingdon and Clearfield counties are in the substantial range.

"The CDC's latest mask recommendation is not a legal mandate," Baker said.

Altoona Area School District Superintendent Charles Prijatelj said before Monday's board meeting, "As it sits right now, we are staying with having masks be optional."

Only unvaccinated staff members will be required to be masked. Everyone else, Prijatelj said, is simply recommended to wear them.

Hollidaysburg Area School District Superintendent Robert Gildea said that recent guideline changes will impact his district's health and safety plan, but masks are still optional.

"We're working on revising the health and safety plan based on the most recent guidelines," Gildea said. "We'll be adding more detail to the plan."

Tyrone Area School District Superintendent Leslie Estep said that "at the moment," her district's health and safety plan will go unrevised despite recent guideline changes, meaning masks will be optional for all staff and students.

"Based on the way things are looking locally, the board wants to maintain the current plan where we will continue to use some of our mitigation strategies from last year, like distancing and hand hygiene and ventilation and all of those things," Estep said. "We'll just watch the data and the numbers and see how things go."

In the Spring Cove School District, masks will also be optional, including for unvaccinated staff.

According to the Claysburg-Kimmel School District's health and safety plan, masks are encouraged for unvaccinated staff and students. The plan emphasizes that masks are optional "per expiration of the PA required mandate."

The health and safety plan for the Williamsburg Community School District says that masks are optional for all regardless of vaccination status.

Altoona's Prijatelj said that the community transmission rate will ultimately dictate the direction the district takes with masking. He noted that the community remains in the lower transmission range, but said that if that rises to substantial, district officials will "look at changing" the masking policy.

Hollidaysburg's Gildea said that masks will become a requirement if community transmission rates rise above the moderate range or the district sees "any evidence of spread" in the community.

"Now, with more guidance, we can fine tune our plan," Gildea said, though he noted that plan is "evolving as conditions continue to change."

Mirror Staff Writer Andrew Mollenauer is at 814-946-7428.