Bellwood-Antis: Parents may get say on masks

District pleased with Wolf’s recent decision on mandate

BELLWOOD -- Parents in the Bellwood-Antis School District soon may again have a say on whether their children wear masks in school.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday that on Jan. 17 he expects to turn decisions about masking over to local school officials.

Wolf said Pennsylvania school districts will be allowed to modify or end the mask mandate for K-12 students saying it is "time to prepare for a transition back to a more normal setting."

The Wolf administration imposed a statewide mandate in early September amid a surge in infections and hospitalizations from the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.

The order from acting Health Secretary Alison Beam required that students, staff and visitors at K-12 schools and child care facilities wear masks while indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

Bellwood-Antis officials are pleased with the governor's latest plan.

"We are glad he is giving control back to the schools, this is how we started the school year," said Superintendent Thomas McInroy. "We had our safety plan in place."

McInroy said the ultimate goal is to be safe.

"We will talk to the board. The goal is to be safe and we will most likely open up to what parents want to do with masks, we will have all of our safety plans in place, revisit our documents to see where we are at," he said.

"I have felt strongly about parental choice but the governor elected to take that from us at the end of August," he added.

Things could change between now and Jan. 17.

"By Jan. 17, we may see all of this (COVID) go away or there could be an uptick. For the health and safety of our students, faculty and community, we have to make sure all of our plans are up to date," McInroy said.

Board members and the administration have come under fire at recent meetings.

"I've received as many calls from parents who want masks as from those who don't. They don't want to come to meetings but have called and emailed me," McInroy said.

McInroy said it has always been important to do what is best for the students.

"I respect everyone's perspective here, there have been very many comments on this issue," McInroy said. "We as a community respect everyone's thoughts and opinions and are trying to do the best we can for the kids."

The superintendent said he hopes "we can get back to the part of educating kids and getting them back to where they should be to enable them to be able to do what they want to do for the rest of their lives. We need to help them recover from three years of disruptions."

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.