SeDoMoCha masking to be based on school case numbers

DOVER-FOXCROFT — For the 2021-22 academic year, SeDoMoCha School students have been wearing protective face wear under a policy requiring universal masking when Piscataquis County is in the red or the most severe of the community transmission rate — which it has been since classes began.

When the building is scheduled to reopen on Monday, Feb. 28 following a week of vacation, masking will be based on RSU 68’s own metric depending on the number of cases at SeDoMoCha. A new metric was approved by the school board during a meeting in the SeDoMoCha School multipurpose room on Tuesday evening.

Superintendent Stacy Shorey said case numbers from Saturday to Friday will determine masking requirements for the ensuing week of classes, with low statistics of less than a dozen cases potentially enabling masking to be optional for the next Monday to Friday timeframe. She said parents/guardians would be notified in advance.

“We are looking at cases within the school, as opposed to cases in the county,” Shorey said. She said there are five positives at the present time, but this would be low enough to lift a universal masking requirement for the campus of 700-plus people. 

When asked why the district does not simply make masking completely optional, Shorey said the insurance company could drop the school should it have no policy in place.

The superintendent said Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shaw may provide updated information on the standard operating procedure for the state’s schools later this week or early next, but SeDoMoCha is being proactive in advance. Shorey said should masking become optional at the state level, then this would supersede the new RSU 68 metric.

“I just think it should be optional masking, period,” board member Erin McCorrison said during discussions prior to the directors’ vote. The vote passed 4-2, a weighted count of 432 to 206, with McCorrison being one of the two “no” votes.

“I’m here for the safety of the kids and their wellness,” McCorrison said. She asked that Shorey collect data from the Maine CDC on how masks have helped and see if any numbers pertaining to the psychological toll of continual mask wearing can be gathered.

Last month RSU 68 cut its required isolation time for COVID-19-positive students and staff members from 10 days to five, based on revised guidance from the Maine CDC.

The school district, along with others across Maine and the country, altered its COVID-19 rules to keep more students learning in school without disruptions. The Maine CDC and Maine DOE revised the  standard operating procedure for COVID-19 in schools following new guidelines from the federal CDC.

If someone in a household tests positive for COVID-19, students who are asymptomatic can still come to school because RSU 68 had universal masking, according to the policy on SeDoMoCha’s website.

In other business, Shorey said late last month the finance committee met. “We talked a little bit about wants and needs,” she said, in addition to potential mill rates for 2022-23.

Shorey said Financial Manager Teresa Scott will be drafting a preliminary budget based on the discussions so far, with this set to be presented to the finance committee at its March 1 meeting.

The superintendent said during a recent Piscataquis Valley Adult Education Cooperative committee meeting, PVAEC Director Carolyn Haskell said RSU 68’s share of the adult ed budget would likely remain the same as in the current academic year. 

RSU 68’s share of the 2021-22 PVAEC budget is nearly $64,000, out of $411,180 spread proportionally across the cooperative member districts.

Athletics were briefly discussed.

“We concluded a few seasons and moved on to a few others,” SeDoMoCha Middle School Athletic Director Cameron Archer said. He said the four Eagle basketball teams and the cheering squad have finished their seasons, with unified basketball and wrestling to both start soon. A year ago the unified basketball team did not face other schools and there was no wrestling season due to COVID-19.