Secaucus School District Will Poll Parents, Teachers On Masks

Secaucus NJ

08 February, 2022

3:28 PM

Description

SECAUCUS, NJ — The Secaucus school district will begin polling parents and teachers before it makes a decision on mask wearing in schools, said acting Secaucus school superintendent Daniela Riser. The polling will likely start happening very soon. "The Governor ended the mask mandate on his end. What this means is that his executive order is rescinded and that districts have the option to make indoor mask wearing optional for staff and students," said Riser Tuesday in an email to Patch. "However, this does not mean students can show up on March 7 without a mask," she continued. "It is still up to the school districts to determine what would be safe for the students and staff going forward. Therefore, we are polling the parents and staff to determine how they feel about making masks optional and asking what their major concerns are before a decision is made." "I can't say whether we are leading toward making them optional or not right now, since I haven't discussed it with the board yet. We do not want to make a quick decisions without weighing all of our options," she said. Expect that polling to start happening very soon. The Secaucus school board will then publicly discuss what to do about masking at its next meeting, which will be Feb. 17. This will likely be a public discussion and the public can weigh in at that meeting. Superintendent Riser cannot make a decision on masks alone, because the school board has to vote to amend its safe return plan, according to Board member Leah Farinola. "That's a BOE policy. We can only vote at a meeting, so a decision cannot be made before Feb. 17," said Farinola. "It will be a group decision, but the Board has yet to make a decision. We will discuss the issue this week in committee with further discussion with the entire board at our February (17) Board of Education meeting. The decision will be made based upon trends in the data, parent and staff input, and in consultation with local health officials." Decisions on masks in schools vary wildly across New Jersey On Monday, Gov. Phil Murphy made the bombshell announcement he will be lifting the statewide K-12 mask mandate March 7, and leaving it to local school districts to decide. New Jersey school districts are varying widely how to proceed from here. In towns like Fair Lawn, Clark and Wayne the school superintendents simply declared Tuesday morning that mask wearing is optional starting March 7. It is not clear if the superintendents in those towns consulted with the school boards, or if they just made an executive decision. Like Secaucus, the Chatham school district said its school board will begin the mask discussion this week. The Montclair school district is also currently undecided. South Brunswick, a large district in Middlesex County, says it has to poll parents and do studies on COVID rates before they can make a decision on masks. The South Brunswick superintendent just told Patch he has to do a "cause-and-effect analysis" before he can make a decision. And the Newark school district already announced masks will remain mandatory in schools even after March 7. Gov. Murphy's edict Monday gave local New Jersey school districts freedom to decide on mask wearing. The next day, former Republican governor candidate Jack Ciattarelli predicted Murphy's decision will only lead to "school board battles." "In leaving it up to locals, he's going to turn school board meetings into battlegrounds and pit communities against each other," Ciattarelli posted on Facebook Tuesday. "(There) should be no state or local mandate, with parents deciding whether their child wears a mask." Get great local NJ news. Sign up for Patch emails: https://patch.com/subscribe Contact this Patch reporter: [email protected]