TSA adopts mask-optional protocol

February 16, 2022

As of Monday, March 7, assuming Governor Scott follows through with his current plans and guidance, TSA will no longer require that students and staff wear masks while in the buildings. Masks will be optional for each person. For details, please read the FAQs below:

 

 



What is the state’s guidance?

  • Governor Scott and team have suggested that as of February 28 (this date could change, but it seems unlikely), if a school’s eligible student population exceeds 80% fully vaccinated, masks are not required.

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What is TSA’s current vaccination rate?

  • We have nearly universal staff vaccination and 87% of students are fully vaccinated according to the Agency of Education’s definition of two shots.

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Why will TSA pivot to mask-optional a week later than the governor’s guidance?

  • Masks will be optional starting on Monday, March 7. 
  • We are distributing tests to take home by Friday, February 18 and encouraging all students and staff to test on February 28 and March 1.
  • When we return from our winter break on Wednesday, March 2, we willl remain masked for the duration of the week while we ensure that all tests have been administered and negative.
  • Again, the move to the mask-optional protocol is contingent on the governor staying with February 28 as his date.

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What does “mask-optional” mean?

  • This means that while in the school building students and staff may choose to wear masks as they see fit; they are not required to do so.
  • We want to create a community where anyone can wear a mask and be respected for that choice while others can be respected for choosing not to wear a mask.  It is important to us to maintain an environment that makes it comfortable to wear a mask whenever and wherever an individual chooses. 

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Are visitors required to be masked?

  • During the regular course of the school day, individual visitors have the option to wear masks when they enter the building.
  • We will still require masking during after-school activities when a large influx of outsiders introduces uncertainty.  Thus, at a sporting event, at our annual middle school circus, or any time the building is invites the public for an event, we will require that everyone be masked because we are less confident of our visitors’ vaccination levels.  We may change this as guidance from the state changes in coming weeks.

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Why do we feel confident that it is safe for us to move to a mask optional policy?

  • We have improved the air quality of our facilities
    • We have state-of-the-art HVAC systems in both buildings. 
  • We have effectively managed response and treatment of the disease for our community
    • In the entirety of the pandemic, we have only had 20 in-school exposures.
    • We have had zero evidence of in-school transmission.
    • We have a high vaccination rate, which has led to a low infection and transmission rate. Therefore we know our population is at a significantly reduced risk of serious illness at this time.
    • There is a steady supply of testing materials and our community has demonstrated its willingness to follow our guidance to test and stay home when symptomatic.
    • We have consistently followed the science and state guidance in establishing safety protocols. When these protocols sometimes seem out of step with CDC’s national guidelines, it is because we are responding to the unique conditions of our specific small community in Vermont.
    • With the reduction of danger of serious illness in our community, the use of masks can now be considered as part of a personal risk and situation-specific decision. In addition to plentiful access to “high quality” masks on the open market (KN-95s, etc), the school is able to provide them upon request. 

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What can we all do to help make this new stage of our response to COVID-19 successful?

  • The benefit of not wearing masks on the social, emotional, and pedagogical experience of our students is significant enough that we want to make every effort to ensure that our community’s health and safety are protected. Thus, it will be more important than ever that students and staff stay home when they are symptomatic. Students and staff should only return to school after two negative tests AND improved symptoms.
  • In the case of a positive infection, patients need to be as vigilant as always regarding quarantining and testing.
  • Please refer to our COVID-19 Resource page for more details.

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Will the school keep a list of which students’ parents want them to wear masks and enforce this?

  • No. Just like we don’t track whether your student wears their coat in cold weather, we will be ensuring there is access to masks but not tracking who is and is not wearing them.  We encourage families to have conversations about what they want their students to wear and why.

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Is this a permanent change?

  • No.  We have always been guided by scientific evidence and state guidance.  If the need arises, we will absolutely return to a mask mandate while in the building. This might happen if we see another statewide or localized surge, if state policy changes, or if our localized case counts elevate dramatically.

For other questions about this new protocol, please feel free to contact TSA’s COVID-19 Coordinator Andrew Lane at [email protected].

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