By Dave Ryan

CAMBRIDGE – Masks will be optional in Dorchester County schools, effective Monday, Feb. 28.

The change was announced in an email from the Board of Education sent after 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25, following a day of consultations regarding the developing situation.

On Feb. 22, the Maryland State Board of Education voted 12-2 to rescind its policy requiring masks in public schools. The decision was meant to return control of the issue to local boards of education.

The move needed to be approved, however, by the General Assembly's Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review. The committee held a hearing Friday and voted to ratify the change.

In his statement on Friday announcing the local change, Superintendent of Dorchester County Public Schools W. David Bromwell said, “We will continue to strongly encourage students and staff to wear masks indoors due to our current community transmission rate and low vaccination rate. Students and staff are expected to respect anyone’s choice of wearing or not wearing a mask while present at school or any DCPS event.”

In a related development on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped its requirement that masks be worn on buses and vans operated by school systems. “Therefore masks will no longer be required and become optional to students, school bus staff and bus drivers on DCPS school buses effective immediately,” Mr. Bromwell said.

Precautions including cleaning, free masks and optional testing will still be observed in the county’s public schools.

“Any event inside our school buildings will still be at 50% capacity until further notice,” Mr. Bromwell said. “Our goal for future indoor events will be to increase capacity as soon as safe and agreed upon by the Dorchester County Health Department.”

Beginning the process

The process began at the State Board of Education on Feb. 22. Following a closed-door session during the Tuesday meeting, State Board of Education member Charles Dashell Jr. read a motion, saying, “As the health data is continuing to show improvement, we are now at a point where we can restore the authority for these decisions to our local jurisdictions. Given the improving health metrics, it is appropriate for the local boards of education to make the decisions which they feel are in the best interests of the students they serve and providing them a safe, in-person learning environment.”

Prior to the vote, a presentation by Jinlene Chan of the Maryland Department of Health showed that Maryland is the state with the highest proportion of fully vaccinated citizens.

“While having the lowest case rate in the country, as a whole, Maryland still experiences substantial spread, according to the CDC,” she said. Dorchester and Caroline counties are among those in the state with high levels of community transmission.

State Superintendent of Public Schools Mohammed Chaudhury said, “I would recommend to you to send it back to the locals…The conditions are better.”

Calling for change

The Dorchester County Board of Education had joined the voices calling for a return to local control. In a letter to President of the State Board of Education Clarence C. Crawford dated Feb. 17, president of the county board Laura Layton wrote, “We are requesting that the Board immediately rescind the regulation requiring face coverings for all students in public schools, including the elimination of all three ‘off-ramps’ and transfer this authority back to the local Boards of Education.”

The so-called off-ramps were health-based measurements which could be used by counties to opt out of the mask requirements. According to the board’s decision Feb. 22, the off-ramps would not have to be used in counties’ decisions.

Earlier in the month, Governor Larry Hogan had lifted the mask requirement for state buildings and called on the state board to rescind its policy. Following the vote, he released a statement, saying, “I want to thank the State Board of Education for heeding our call to rescind its school mask policy…At a time when Maryland has the lowest COVID-19 metrics in the country, this is a major step for normalcy and the well-being of our students. The General Assembly must now act swiftly to ratify the State Board’s decision.”

‘Positive culmination’

Mr. Bromwell concluded his Feb. 25 letter, saying, “Our goal has been to keep DCPS open for instruction this year. We have succeeded with that task as no school or grade level has been closed due to COVID this school year. The MD BOE, CDC, and our local health department feel we can continue to make this happen with optional masking which will be our goal to finish the 2021-2022 school year on a positive note. Please be aware, that as we have learned with COVID, national, and state level decisions can change quickly. I continue to thank our students, staff, community, but especially our parents for your patience over the last two years in dealing with the pandemic.

“Thank you, please stay safe and healthy as we march together to a positive culmination to the 2021-2022 school year.”

See page 5 for Superintendent Bromwell’s full statement.