Mahanoy Area School District announced Thursday that it’s dropping the indoor mask mandate on Monday.
The school is like many in Schuylkill County that voted to make masks optional at the beginning of the 2021-22 school term. But then it imposed the mandate, per the statewide school masking order issued in late-August, after school had started locally.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has since ruled that statewide mandate unconstitutional.
Some Schuylkill County schools immediately repealed mask mandates after the Supreme Court ruling but a few holdouts held on to the power for a little longer.
Mahanoy Area’s decision comes a few hours after school board members at Pottsville Area School District voted on Wednesday night to drop its mandate.
North Schuylkill, Minersville Area, and Gillingham Charter School in Pottsville still have mask mandates in place.
Mahanoy Area Schools Dropping Mask Mandate on Feb. 14
According to an announcement posted to Mahanoy Area’s Facebook page by its Superintendent Joie Green, masks will still be required on district transportation.
Students and staff will be required to quarantine for 5 days if they’re considered “symptomatic” and when they return to school after those symptoms subside, they’ll be required to wear a mask for 5 days.
Close contacts of COVID-positive students who are deemed “symptomatic” must also follow those same quarantine and mask rules.
“Numbers will continue to be monitored by our Covid Health and Safety Team. If positive case numbers begin to rise, we will mask again at that time,” Green writes.
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