Leechburg Area School Board voted to make it optional for students and staff to wear masks or face coverings when classes resume Aug. 25.
Superintendent Tiffany Nix presented the proposed change to the district’s health and safety plan to board members on Wednesday. Under it, masks and face coverings also will be optional for volunteers and visitors to district facilities, in addition to students and staff.
Students using school transportation, however, will be required to wear a mask.
The amended health and safety plan was approved 7-0, with board members Danielle and Darius Lovelace absent.
School board President Neill Brady said that prior to the vote, he fielded numerous questions about the mask issue.
“Mask policies are controversial. I have not heard a lot of concern, just people asking about the mask rule,” Brady said.
Pennsylvania’s public school districts are required to approve and post their health and safety plan by Friday.
Under Leechburg’s plan, students also will have the option of choosing to receive in-person instruction five days a week or to attend classes virtually, with real-time, synchronous instruction.
Brady said the district could update the plan if necessary. He pointed to the recent rise in cases and the spread of the delta variant as things to watch, noting that if conditions worsened locally it could potentially results in changes to the mask policy.
“It will be interesting to see what happens,” Brady said.
The district health and safety plan can be found here.
