Mask mandates will continue as usual in Concord schools as Omicron rates surge in the state, but so will the district’s policy of allowing large crowds to attend after school athletic events and performances, the school board decided Tuesday.
In the first meeting of the new year, the Concord School Board voted to continue allowing full audience attendance at district-wide extracurricular events like sports games and concerts, as long as all attendees wear masks. The decision rejected a proposal Superintendent Kathleen Murphy made in December to limit attendance to only immediate family members in an effort to keep COVID-19 numbers down. Murphy expressed concern at the time that if too many staff members tested positive or were exposed to COVID-19, not enough employees would be available to keep the schools open.
Many students and parents spoke against limiting audience attendance at the school board’s December meeting, arguing that attending events with peers was important for students’ mental health. At the January meeting, most board members agreed.
“We have a pandemic, we can all stay home and live the pandemic in our houses, or we can live our lives and do the best we can to be safe living in a pandemic,” board member Barb Higgins said Tuesday.
However the board has given the superintendent leeway to disallow audience attendance for any and all events in the future if the mask policy isn’t being followed. Board members did not specify how mask wearing behaviors will be enforced at games or concerts.
Board president Jim Richards said he was “not very encouraged” by the number of people without masks at a recent boys basketball game he attended.
“I just would stress to the fans, both students and parents, that we really don’t want to keep people out of watching events, but it’s important that they wear masks and that they abide by the guidelines that we have established,” Richards said.
On Tuesday Murphy said the Concord School District has officially surpassed 500 COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the 2021-22 school year. On Tuesday, the first day school was back in session after winter break, Murphy said she received 53 reports of COVID-19 student cases and 10 employee cases, accumulated since Dec. 21. School board member Gina Cannon tuned in to Tuesday’s meeting remotely, saying she had tested positive for COVID-19.
The board decided to keep the district’s current mask policy in place, despite the wider availability of vaccines to different age groups. The district’s policy, which was enacted in August before school began, requires masks in schools until vaccines are approved for children under 12 or the vaccination rate in the city of Concord reaches 70%, the minimum needed for herd immunity. The policy adds that if community transmission rates are “substantial,” mask mandates shall continue.
Children ages 5 to 11 were declared eligible for the Pfizer vaccine in November, just as the Omicron variant with its high breakthrough rate began spreading in the United States in December. The vaccination rate in the City of Concord is currently at 60.8%, and the entire state of New Hampshire remains in ‘substantial’ community spread, according to the Department of Health and Human Services dashboard.
“The biggest difference I would say is that a vaccine now is not as sure a thing, it’s a little more concerning now,” Richards said. “Because I can choose to have my child and my family vaccinated, and we’re not protected necessarily from the other students who are positive. The mask helps that.”
Tuesday’s meeting was the first meeting of 2022 for the Concord School Board. In a separate organizational meeting before the regular meeting began, Richards was re-elected to be board president for another year, Higgins was re-elected to be vice president and Cannon was re-elected as secretary.
The School Board will meet again Feb. 7.