SNOW HILL – Local officials are preparing for changes following the Maryland State Board of Education’s decision to lift the statewide school mask mandate.
The Maryland State Board of Education voted 12-2 Tuesday to permit local school systems to decide on whether their public school students should continue to be masked. The action now goes to the state’s Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review (AELR) Committee for consideration.
“Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) is aware of the action taken by the State Board of Education today to rescind the statewide mandate of face coverings in school settings,” Superintendent Lou Taylor said in a statement Tuesday. “As today’s action also requires the approval of the state’s Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review prior to its going into effect, leadership at WCPS will take this time to plan and prepare any changes needed to our current health and safety protocols should the repeal go into effect. If and when the legislature repeals the mandate, we will communicate any changes to our protocols with our students, staff, and community as soon as possible.”
Last week, the Worcester County Commissioners and the Worcester County Board of Education echoed Gov. Larry Hogan’s call for the state school board to end the mask mandate. On Tuesday, the state board voted 12-2 to rescind the emergency regulation requiring face coverings in schools and to give local school boards the ability to decide whether students should be masked.
“The Worcester County Board of Education applauds the action taken by the State Board of Education (SBOE) at its meeting today,” said Elena McComas, president of the Worcester County Board of Education, in a statement. “Our Board continually advocated for local control of these decisions, most recently with letters sent to the SBOE and the Maryland Department of Health last week. We are grateful that decisions related to the pandemic are in the process of being returned to local school systems, where local leaders can make the decisions best suited for their individual communities.”