Westmoreland County Community College Board of Trustees member Doug Weimer said he isn’t personally opposed to masks, but on Friday he questioned a mandate issued by the school’s president to require all students, faculty and others to wear face coverings inside the institution’s buildings.

“I feel we jumped the gun on mandating masks,” Weimer said. “I find it difficult to support mandates on masking at community colleges based on the current information.”

School officials instituted the mask mandate when classes started Aug. 18 and announced that decision to trustees this week at the board’s monthly meeting. Weimer, a Republican who serves as vice chairman of the Hempfield Township board of supervisors, said WCCC trustees were never given the opportunity to weigh in on the issue.

The mask mandate applies to students and staff at WCCC’s Youngwood campus as well as satellite campuses in Murrysville, New Kensington, Latrobe, Indiana and all other regional buildings.

WCCC President Tuesday Stanley did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Board chairwoman Leia Shilobod said she took no issue with Stanley’s decision to impose the mask mandate.

“Our executive is allowed to make those operational decisions,” Shilobod said, noting the mask requirement was not debated at the board’s meeting Wednesday. “I have no issues with the way it was done.”

According to the school’s website, there are six active coronavirus cases among students and two staffers have tested positive at the Youngwood campus.

Weimer, who works as an art teacher in the Norwin School District, insisted his objection was with the process that excluded the school’s trustees from the decision-making. He said he’s not personally opposed to mask wearing and even requires his 10-year-old daughter, who attends school in the Hempfield Area School District, to wear a face covering while inside the school building and in class.

His older teenage children, who have been vaccinated, are permitted to make their own calls about mask wearing in school.

“I just question the decision (to require masks at WCCC) because the rest of the world is not insisting on mask mandates based on what the CDC or state health department has said,” Weimer said.

Current CDC guidelines recommend masks be worn, regardless of vaccination status, in areas with substantial or high levels of coronavirus transmission. Westmoreland County, as is most of Southwestern Pennsylvania, is listed as having a high transmission of the virus.

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