The City of Newton will be rescinding its indoor mask mandate effective the end of the day next Friday, Feb. 18, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller announced today.
Individual businesses and employers may still choose to require masks in their establishments.
“While the City of Newton will no longer be requiring masks at the end of next week in indoor public places, we support people who may choose to wear a mask,” Fuller said in a statement.
It’s about time!
What about schools? Kids have always been exponentially lower risk. It is time to drop masks in schools too.
Please, please email the school committee members in advance of the vote on 3/7:
https://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Page/688
Our high schoolers and middle school students are as vaccinated as they are going to be, and our teachers are something close to 100% vaccinated. Masking kids under 12 isn’t done anywhere else on earth, and this cohort is so safe from covid that the FDA can’t justify approving the vaccine.
There is absolutely no justification for forced masking in this community for any person at any age. Give the kids their school back.
Let the kids have fans at their games!!!! The Boys’ basketball teams at both North and South are having outstanding seasons – some of the best in the state – and their Girls’ teams are doing well too.
Almost all other schools are allowing their peers to cheer them on – why is Newton so slow to act? These kids have had a rough go of it for a couple of years but have stuck it out. Throw them a bone!!!! Somebody show some leadership!!!
As part of the Superintendent’s NPS update today:
“One immediate change that will go into effect today is that there will no longer be limits on the number of spectators who may attend athletic competitions or fine arts performances. All attendees must remain masked, but events may now return to full capacity.”
I dont understand this. Why must people remain masked after Friday when the mask mandate is over?
Is it that we need to see the school committee vote on schools before there is any application to NPS and its activities?
Frank D – yes that’s correct, in Newton the SC didn’t delegate masking policy to the superintendent, so they need to vote to change the policy. Also Newton’s school masking can’t become optional prior to February 28th in any case (when the statewide DESE mandate ends) because the district did not apply for a waiver for its schools that are >80% vaccinated. Some districts (Needham, Weston) did apply and received waivers for their high schools which are currently mask-free, others (Wellesley, Brookline) did not.
The Newton SC has announced they are voting on the masking policy on March 7. Note next week is winter break for the kids so if the SC does vote to make masking optional, it would effectively 1 week of differing citywide vs. NPS indoor masking policies.
You can see here a spreadsheet of where every district in the state is on mask policy:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/16dj-86dnd5ENMP7xetLi-D8KaUlFikCbI63daNVAd2s/htmlview#
Frank, you are correct. Obviously the committee should have met the moment decision from the governor came down, but hell, what’s another impaired week of school to them.
Craig – I’ve been far from shy about criticizing the SC the past 18 months since Covid started, and pushed hard to get the kids back in the classroom last year, but in this specific case I think the SC is acting on a reasonable timeline given the arrangement with the Medical Advisory Group. If the SC makes masking optional, we would plan to send our elementary kids in without masks. Our 3rd grader hasn’t been vocal about it, but our 2nd grader has been asking every day with hopeful anticipation when he doesn’t need to wear a mask anymore.
A lot of local places are confused by Fuller’s wording. She says end of the day on Friday, which means the mask mandate ends on Saturday, right? Places are lifting it on Friday.
It’s no big deal, but it’s a little confusing to some.
At least at the Y, they are interpreting the end of the mask mandate as taking effect I’m Saturday.
My school (a university) just sent out an announcement about a spike in COVID cases among students. Perhaps a bit more caution is warranted here in Newton.
I agree with Elmo though I it seems inevitable that we will run an experiment on our entire community to discover if this optimism is warranted. Because I am 71 years old and have a medical issue, I will continue wearing masks in indoor public spaces, and I will avoid sports venues and theaters and such, at least for a while longer. But I grasp the frustration with the current modus and the excitement that the mask mandate will be eased.