Students and staff in the Weatherly Area School District must wear COVID-19 masks in school, at least into early March.

The Weatherly Area School Board President April Walters said that the mask issue will be discussed at the first meeting of each month to see if the policy should be changed.

The next WASB meeting will be March 2.

“We want to get input from the public and the nurses,” Walters said.

“We need to continue with the mask order,” school nurse Rebecca McFadden said. “The situation improved, but then the number of cases went back up again. To keep safe in school and on the field, we need to continue masking.”

She explained that students’ seats are three feet apart in the classrooms.

“In order to go without masks, they’d have to be six feet apart. We don’t have the space.”

Students are monitored for symptoms. If they show symptoms, their parents get a telephone call.

McFadden agrees that KN-95 and N-95 masks are better, but “other masks do serve a purpose.”

She also pointed out 19 million children are not eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

“People who’ve had the vaccine are getting (the virus), but they are not getting as sick.” McFadden said. “At some point, scientists will determine people are not dying from it.”

Board member Matthew vonFrisch agreed. “I work for a health care provider,” he said. “The projections for the end of the month are the same as the start of the school year. The quarantine is down to five days. People are not getting as sick.”

Some board members, and members of the public want to see masks be optional. Parents who spoke feel that cloth masks don’t work, and point to the fact that the students gather after school without masks. “I think it should be up to the parents,” said board member Thomas Connors Jr. “I hate it,” said board member Nancy Mulvaney, “but if my wearing a mask helps, I will be inconvenienced. It’s the least I can do as a human being.”

“A lot of people want it to be optional,” said board member Bill Knepper.