FORT FAIRFIELD and PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — SAD 20 in Fort Fairfield will now mandate that all students and staff wear masks to prevent COVID-19 spread.
Though the district had originally planned an emergency school board meeting for Tuesday to discuss masks and COVID guidelines, Superintendent Tim Doak announced Friday that administrators have decided to put the mask rule in place now and cancel that meeting.
“With the recent positive cases affecting individuals at Fort Fairfield Middle High School, the need to establish mitigation strategies is very important to helping SAD 20 schools operate in a green model,” Doak said, in a memo sent to the school community.
In Fort Fairfield, school began on Monday, also the first day of the mask mandate. Previously the district had delayed the start of school from Aug. 25 to Aug. 30 due to positive COVID cases among school community members.
Like other school districts in Aroostook, SAD 20 has switched from optional to universal masking to prevent students and staff members from having to quarantine after exposure to COVID. The Maine CDC has been allowing schools with universal masking to not enforce quarantine guidelines regardless of a person’s vaccination status.
The SAD 20 school board will hold its next regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 14. Doak said that he has asked all school administrators to review the district’s return to school guidelines prior to that meeting.
COVID is also affecting students on the Presque Isle Middle School boys soccer team, according to SAD 1 Superintendent Ben Greenlaw. Ten students on the “blue” team are in quarantine for 10 days after a person affiliated with the team tested positive. The school’s “white” team was not impacted.
Six additional students, Greenlaw noted, are close contacts, but do not have to quarantine because they are fully vaccinated against COVID.
The quarantine period has caused the team to cancel its games and practices until Tuesday, Sept. 7. That date also marks the start of the new school year for pre-K to 8 students at SAD 1 schools.
SAD 1 began implementing a mask mandate at all schools effective Aug. 25, a move that Greenlaw said was intended to avoid remote learning situations moving forward.
