Masks Will Stay In Peters Township Schools

The Peters Township School Board voted to maintain its universal mask requirement for students and staff with their most recent update to their health and safety plan. Directors voted on two options on keeping masks in schools and the least restrictive of the options was approved. The 5-4 roll call vote approved masks in schools as long as Washington County is in a high level of community transmission based on the PA Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard. Masks will become strongly recommended once the county enters substantial or low levels of community transmission. According to Superintendent Dr. Jeannine French, the dashboard is updated weekly on Monday. If Washington County were to enter into substantial or low levels of transmission, parents would be notified of the change in mask requirements on the district website and by an email blast letting them know the change would take effect two days later on Wednesday. Directors are not concerned about a yo-yo effect of moving in and out of masking requirements. It is their feeling that once cases trend downward, they will maintain that downward trend, so they feel it is unlikely that masks would be optional one week and required the next.