| Last week, I shared the announcement from the Town of Hamden that they were repealing the town-wide mask mandate for private businesses, which took effect last Friday, February 25th. In that announcement, Town officials shared that the following Monday, February, 28th, the local Board of Education would meet to vote on whether or not masks must continue to be worn by students in school.
Taking into consideration a number of factors, the majority voted to maintain the use of masks in Hamden schools.
In voting, members referenced that Hamden's case rate over the previous two-week period was 12.7 COVID-positive people out of 100,000 and Hamden’s teen populations (12 - 17) only has a 55% vaccination rate. School staff were also surveyed in early February, where 60% of the staff that voted said they believed masks should still be worn in school.
There is currently no end date for the Hamden school mask policy, but the Board of Education does have a scheduled meeting on March 8th and expressed intent to reevaluate their policy before April 1st.
I believe the key going forward is that our town will continue to have control and flexibility over how to most safely navigate us into the next stage of getting out this pandemic and do so with advice and guidance of the State Department of Public Health and Department of Education and based on out town’s specific COVID-19 numbers. This was always the goal of the legislation we passed earlier in February.
As always, I will keep you updated if any new developments come out of the Board's March 8th meeting. In the meantime, if you would like to watch the Board of Education's February 28th meeting where they discussed and voted on the school mask policy, please click the button below. |
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