Trumbull County schools divided on masks

Policies mixed as some mandate, others make coverings optional

Trumbull County area school districts, like much of the nation, are divided on whether to require students and educators to wear masks inside their buildings.

The majority of Trumbull school districts are allowing students and parents to decide whether they should wear masks inside.

Some districts, however, such as Liberty, recently told its parents they will require all people to wear masks inside the buildings -- except when students and employees are eating. When they're outdoors and can maintain safe, social distancing of 3 to 6 feet, they will not be required to wear masks, depending on the district.

Warren, Girard, Champion and Lakeview school districts previously announced they would be requiring students and all people working inside the buildings to wear masks, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Other Trumbull school districts, including Bristol, Brookfield, Bloomfield-Mespo, Howland, Hubbard Exempted Village, Niles, Weathersfield, LaBrae, Maplewood, McDonald and Newton Falls, have announced there will be no mask requirements inside their buildings. It will be optional to parents, students and district employees as to whether they will wear masks inside.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently updated its masking guidance for K-12 schools, recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors regardless of vaccination status.

Last month, the Ohio Department of Health strongly recommended consistent mask wearing for individuals not fully vaccinated.

Gov. Mike DeWine twice this week strongly encouraged school districts across the state to have those students eligible to get the vaccinations and to mandate mask wearing inside buildings.

DeWine did not impose a statewide mask mandate for schools, however.

Howland Superintendent Kevin Spicher said the school board voted in June to make wearing of masks optional.

"We are doing all of the protocols the district did in the last school year," Spicher said. "Whenever we can, we will have social distancing of 6 feet, but we will have distancing of at least 3 feet apart."

Weathersfield Superintendent Damon Dohar emphasized the district is leaving it up to the individual, but that could change based on whether the virus continues to spread.

"The school board wanted to take a wait-and-see approach to this," Dohar said. "The community has been supportive of our decision."

Having some of the newer school buildings in the county, Dohar said the ventilation systems are state of the art.

"We have had a small handful of parents that asked questions, but that was a couple months ago," he said. "Most questions we've received were from those just wanting to know the policies."

McDonald Superintendent Kevin O'Connell said the district is following ODH policy of highly recommending people wear masks and getting immunized, but not mandating either.

"There was some discussion among board members at a meeting, but I already had the power to make this decision," O'Connell said.

In the meantime, the district is maintaining many of the policies established during the last academic school year, including encouraging safe distancing, temperature scanning of students in the morning, rigorous cleaning protocols and encouraging handwashing and sanitizing.

McDonald schools opened to students this week.

"More than half of our elementary school students were wearing masks. It seemed that under 50 percent of our upper-grade students were wearing masks," O'Connell said.

Newton Falls Superintendent Rocco Adduci said the district would be returning to the same policy it had at the end of the last school year of allowing individuals to decide whether they want to wear masks inside.

"All of our students returned to our school buildings during the last nine weeks of school last year, and it was very successful," Adduci said.

The decision to have an optional policy was made after discussions among board, community members and the school nurses, as well as following the recommendations of state health officials and the CDC, Adduci said.

Schools will open on Thursday.

"Students will be required to stay at least 3 feet apart," he said.

All students riding buses to and from school are required to wear masks, regardless of the school district they attend, because school buses are considered public transportation, as noted in CDC guidelines.