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Newton schools likely going mask optional on Tuesday

After hearing from its medical experts at a meeting last night, the Newton School Committee informally voted yesterday to make masks optional in most indoor spaces as of March 8, School Superintendent David Fleishman wrote parents today.

"The recommendation called for optional indoor masking based upon the sharp decline in COVID cases in our community and the high vaccination rates among students and staff," he wrote.

Fleishman says a formal vote in favor of letting most students drop their masks if they want to will come at a School Committee meeting on Monday.

Students will still be required to wear a mask on visits to school nurses' offices and if they are in days 6-10 after a positive result on a Covid-19 test, he continued.

He added that families should continue to do "daily symptom assessment" and to keep children who have any symptoms home - and test them - and continue to do weekly antigen tests. Also:

As we move to this mask-optional environment, we will emphasize personal choice and responsibility around masking. There will be many reasons for which students and staff continue to wear masks. There will be reasons students and staff decide not to wear masks. All decisions will be supported and we will ask our school communities to be respectful of others’ individual choices.

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