We are so thankful for the ways our students, parents, and staff have worked together over the nearly two years of COVID to mitigate the health risks and be able to get students back to school. This has been a sacrifice for all of us but ultimately it has put our students at the center so that they can be back in our schools to learn and it has helped us have very little spread of the virus within our schools.
As we enter next week, Hopewell City Public Schools will continue to follow our health plan and Virginia law (SB 1303) and require masks in our school buildings for students and staff. We will also maintain the need for students to wear masks on buses in accordance with a federal requirement regarding transportation that applies to public schools.
Before there was a state mask mandate issued for schools earlier this school year, the Hopewell School Board had a mask requirement in place for students and staff. Throughout the last two years, Hopewell has followed the CDC and VDH guidance and this has helped us be able to have students receiving in-person instruction as much as possible and as safely as possible.
SB 1303 requires that public school divisions “provide such in-person instruction in a manner in which it adheres, to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies for early childhood care and education programs and elementary and secondary schools to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 that have been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” With regard to mask use, CDC guidance currently states, “CDC recommends indoor masking for all individuals ages two years and older, including students, teachers, staff, and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.”
We believe that our health mitigation strategies currently in place, and updated over time as the CDC guidance changes, not only keep us in compliance with the law, but are essential to protecting the health and learning environments for our students and our staff for the time being.
While we honor our partnerships with our families and are dedicated to respecting parental choice as it is possible and appropriate, we must have certain requirements in place when it comes to health and safety in the operation of our schools. As such, there will be no change to the HCPS Health Plan related to the mask requirement at this time. Students and staff must continue to wear masks to enter our classrooms and board our buses until the health guidance suggests a change or the existing relevant laws change.
We are extremely hopeful as we analyze improvement trends in our positivity data in Hopewell, and we look forward to revisiting this requirement when data suggest it is safe to do so.