Students will return to school on Sept. 8 wearing masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status, as the Bristol-Warren School Committee did not resist enforcement of Governor Dan McKee’s statewide mask mandate for students, teachers and school personnel during their meeting on Monday night.

The committee did not vote on an official reopening plan last night, as they are choosing to await a subsequent decision from the governor around Sept. 18, when the mask mandate will surpass its 30-day authority. If he does not extend the statewide mandate, the committee will then have to vote on their own masking policy.

A blended mask policy

The mask policy put forward by Hicks that was discussed last night adheres mostly to a blend of protocols established by the CDC and the Rhode Island Department of Health, while also recognizing the overarching mandate brought down by Gov. McKee, which means that during periods of moderate to high transmission locally (11-50+ cases per 100,000 residents), students will be required to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status.

However, should the statewide mandate be lifted in September, the proposed policy would leave flexibility to relieve mask requirements within schools once transmission rates statewide fall below 50 cases per 100,000 residents, which the CDC considers to be a moderate transmission rate. Likewise, if at any point the local rate in Bristol-Warren falls below 10 cases per 100,000 residents (a low transmission rate as defined by the CDC), masks would also become optional.

The policy requires mask breaks be implemented throughout the day, and although Mr. Hicks said that would be a point of focus, he could not specify Monday night how that would be implemented at schools across the district in each classroom.

“We acknowledge that it was not consistent last year,” Mr. Hicks said of mask breaks. “We will be enforcing and making sure students get access to mask breaks.”

Students will continue to be required to wear masks on school buses, but will not be required to wear masks while outdoors. Elementary students will remain in contained pods during recess to reduce possibility of inter-school spread.

Mr. Hicks recommended a three-strike warning policy regarding students refusing to wear masks. They would be prevented from entering school if they refuse to mask, and get three such incidents before facing any possible punitive action. He did not specify what that punitive action might look like on Monday night.

Mr. Hicks said he was hopeful that Rhode Island would look to Massachusetts for examples on how to craft mask-wearing policies moving forward, mentioning their policy where mask wearing becomes optional in schools where 80 percent of the student body is vaccinated.

Quarantining, testing, other protocols

The recommended policy for quarantining students was mistakenly omitted from the policy proposal put forth by Mr. Hicks on Monday night, however he said he would update the document on the district’s website shortly.

Going forward, close contacts of someone who falls ill with COVID that is asymptomatic and vaccinated will not be required to quarantine. Close contacts who show any symptoms of COVID (regardless of vaccination status) will be required to quarantine for seven days and present a negative PCR test before returning to school.

As for testing, the district will not be utilizing Binax Now rapid tests in accordance with new state guidance, and will be undergoing the process of training school staff to administer PCR tests, or make accommodations for students and staff to visit test sites when available.

Mr. Hicks recommended that cleaning go back to a once-daily schedule, with full sanitation only required in the instance that somebody is confirmed to have fallen ill.

Mr. Hicks once again mentioned Massachusetts as an example of setting good protocols regarding quarantining, where a student who is a close contact of a COVID-positive peer can provide a negative test in order to avoid quarantining entirely.

“That would have a drastic reduction in quarantining, and I’ll be interested to see if Rhode Island picks up on that option and implements that for us as well,” he said.

Remote learning

School Committee Vice-Chairperson, Tara Thibaudeau, made a motion to formally investigate distance learning options to provide to parents who are uncomfortable sending children to school in-person, regardless of whether that’s due to fear of contracting COVID or fear of sending them to school where prolonged mask wearing is enforced.

“Some families do not want to send their children to school for seven hours with a mask, and some families don’t want to send their children to school because they don’t feel it is safe,” she said.

The committee voted in favor of the motion 7-2, with Chairperson Marjorie McBride and Secretary Victor Cabral voting no.

Resistance (mostly) unheard

The energy of the meeting fell far below that of the meeting two weeks prior, where a full room of unmasked students, parents and teachers loudly and philosophically clashed with a contingent of healthcare workers, parents and students who agreed with masks being mandatory.

Monday evening saw no significant protest from students or parents, but two members of the public — David Scarpino and John Fennessy — vocally criticized the committee following Gov. McKee’s mask mandate and for enforcing a mask mandate of their own in order to participate in the meeting.

“This mandate is already on shaky legal ground, so to use it to deny people their right to be in a government meeting — you just made it that much worse,” an unmasked Mr. Fennessy said prior to leaving the meeting before it had begun. “To say that you’re going to shut down a meeting because people won’t wear masks, you’re just creating deeper problems for yourself.”

Mr. Scarpino refused to put on a mask for about 15 minutes prior to the beginning of the meeting, prompting the committee to go into a recess while he spoke with law enforcement officers in the room about his right to deny the mandate. He eventually relented, but let out his frustration during public comments.

“I did not come here for a fight. I did not come here to argue about masks. I came here to be positive, because this community deserves it. Our children deserve it,” he said. “They’re going out into an environment where they’re going to be at a severe disadvantage. Not only with the time they haven’t spent in class, but with the level of education that’s being imparted on them. So I implore you, focus on our children, and forget about all the other stuff that brings nothing to the table. We just spent 20 minutes debating about masks. It’s not what we should be talking about.”