Dear Medway High School families,
We are writing to provide an important update regarding the mask requirement at Medway High School. As you may know, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is allowing schools with a vaccination rate of greater than 80% of all students and staff, to file for an exemption from the mask requirement. Medway High School has achieved a vaccination rate of 82%. At the Medway School Committee meeting on October 21, at my recommendation, the school committee voted to move forward with the process to allow vaccinated students and staff to opt to no longer wear a mask within Medway High School, if certain conditions are met. Unvaccinated students and staff will still be required to wear masks in all indoor spaces at Medway High School and throughout the district.
The school committee voted to include five other conditions that must be met to implement the mask exemption. These conditions include:
- No instances of in-school transmission at MHS
- No identified clusters within in-school groups (classroom, activity)
- Town of Medway positivity rate of less than 2% (data from MA DPH)
- Weekly COVID-19 testing of at least 50% of MHS students and staff (currently not meeting)
- School testing weekly positivity rate of 3% or less
The school committee authorized November 8, 2021 as the start of optional mask wearing for vaccinated students and staff if DESE grants the mask exemption, and these additional five conditions are met.
It is important to note that, in addition to the required vaccination rate, we are currently meeting four out of the five additional conditions to allow for implementation. At this point, our participation in weekly COVID-19 testing is lower than the identified 50% threshold. While more than 50% of the Medway High School students and staff have signed up, weekly participation has been approximately half of that. Weekly testing, especially for unvaccinated individuals, is an important protective measure so that we can monitor the prevalence of COVID-19 within our school environment. If you have not already done so, we encourage all high school families to sign up their child for participation in weekly testing. An electronic consent form and sign up process can be accessed here.
The mask exemption will only apply to students and staff who are fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated students or staff, visitors, volunteers, or vendors to Medway High School will continue to be required to mask indoors. Further, masks will continue to be required for all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, within the school nurse’s office, and on school transportation.
We recognize that this is a significant change to the current practice and that some families may have concerns. Based on the information that we have available to us connected with the prevalence and current impact of COVID-19 within our community, we believe that we are ready for this next step. We are pleased that we continue to see a decline in the number of COVID-19 cases at Medway High School. Over the past five weeks, we have recorded only two COVID-19 cases. In addition, other mitigation strategies will continue to be in place. Please anticipate that Principal Murray will share an opportunity to learn more about the planning that is taking place for implementation of this change, should all conditions be met.
As always, we continue to appreciate the deep partnership between the community and our schools.
Sincerely,
Armand Pires, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools