February 14, 2022
Dear Shrewsbury Families, Colleagues, & Community Members,
I want to make you aware of a change regarding the date and time of an upcoming meeting regarding the topic of mask mandates in our schools.
The Shrewsbury Board of Health is now meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, February 15 at 4:30pm to hear and potentially act upon a recommendation from the Worcester Public Health Department, with whom our town works as part of the Central Massachusetts Regional Public Health Alliance (this meeting was previously scheduled for Friday morning). This is a virtual meeting that will be broadcast live on SELCO Governmental Access Channels 30 & 330 and streamed live on the Shrewsbury Media Connection's website.
Our school district is currently subject to five separate mask mandates: 1) The DESE statewide mandate (found here and which will expire effective February 28); 2) the townwide public mask mandate instituted by the Shrewsbury Board of Health, which applies to all schools in Shrewsbury; 3) the district mask mandate instituted by the School Committee prior to the start of the school year; 4) the federal Department of Transportation mask mandate that applies to all persons riding school buses; and 5) the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association (MIAA) mandate for indoor athletics, which is also set to expire effective February 28 (I had neglected to note the MIAA mandate in my last communication).
The School Committee will address this topic at their regular meeting on Wednesday, February 16. In the meantime, all five of these mask mandates remain in effect in our schools, on our school buses, and for indoor interscholastic athletics.
Please remember that the district's weekly COVID-19 statistics dashboard is available here (updated just today) and information regarding the district's COVID-19 testing program (weekly PCR surveillance testing, weekly rapid surveillance testing, and symptomatic testing) is available here.
Respectfully,
Joe Sawyer
Superintendent of Schools