Subject: Important Update on Mask Mandate & Procedures, February 28, 2022
Dear North Shore Community Member,
This past weekend Governor Hochul ended the mask mandate that was in place for New York State Schools, effective Wednesday March 2. As had been previously announced at the Board Meeting of February 17, the North Shore Schools will take the following steps, also effective March 2, this Wednesday.
Now that the mask mandate is no longer in effect:

• The district will suspend our district-imposed mask mandate immediately. By suspending ours it will allow us to revert to our own mandate in the event that the number of cases exploded, or some other circumstance required us to. We do NOT anticipate doing this and are taking this step only as a precaution against an unanticipated increase in transmission rates.
• We will now adopt a mask optional approach that will allow students and adults to choose whether to wear a protective mask.
• We will continue social distancing as we have this year whenever possible.
• We recognize that some parents will want their children to continue to wear a mask in school. We remind those parents that the best mask to rely upon is an N95 mask or a KN95 mask. You should be able to obtain theses masks at https://shop.projectn95.org/all
• We also remind everyone that a useful lesson we have learned from this pandemic has been the utility of enhanced hygiene, and we encourage everyone to apply those lessons now.
• It is now even more important for individuals to monitor their own health and stay home if they are sick for any reason.
• We will follow the medical guidance offered to us by our district physician, nursing staff, and the New York State Department of Health. This could result in some increased isolation/quarantine procedures because those without a mask are subject to different rules.
• Parents and staff should review this attachment from the CDC that offers some additional information: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html
• Parents are asked to instruct their child on whether they are to wear a mask or not, with the understanding that teachers in the classroom cannot monitor this on a moment-to-moment basis. We will remind children that they should follow their parents’ directive on the wearing of a mask.
• We will continue to make test kits available for home use. Our distribution procedures will continue until we exhaust our supply. Please avail yourself of these resources and use them as previously instructed.
• There will be an expectation of civility in all interactions. Mask-bullying (in either direction) will not be accepted, and educational efforts will be made to eliminate it.
• We will monitor transmission rates carefully, continue to keep windows open and revert to outdoor education as fully as possible as soon as we are able.
• We will report data to the community as it becomes available to us, particularly if we see an increase in transmission or positive testing.
• We will maximize our efforts to improve ventilation in all our buildings, including large meeting spaces.
• The requirement for masks on school buses, which had been a federal mandate, has also been dropped. Students will not be required to wear a protective mask while on our school buses. They may choose to do so.

These are the procedural steps that are being put into place to make the future as predictable as possible. With your cooperation we can navigate this path and successfully move ahead together.  We remain committed, as a district, to offering our students the rich North Shore experiences that they deserve which unfortunately have been impacted by the last two years of the pandemic. This spring, we look forward to celebrating with live concerts, school events, live parent teacher conferences (a separate letter on this topic will follow later this week), and other aspects of the school year that have been necessarily put on hold by COVID. In doing so, we might have an increased appreciation for them as they had been so recently taken away.
So, let’s use this spring to catch up on the aspects of school that we now realize are so important to our students’ experiences.  I’m sure we can accomplish this together.
Mask Optional Letter-REVISED[3].pdf 
Sincerely yours,
Tom Dolan
Interim Superintendent of Schools