School Board to hold meeting about masking

The Rappahannock County School Board on Sunday announced it will hold a special meeting Thursday (Jan. 20) to discuss how to proceed in response to Republican Gov. Glen Younkin’s executive order rescinding Virginia’s mask mandate for schools.

Youngkin’s order, which goes into e ect Jan. 24, does away with the school mask mandate issued in August by Democratic former Gov. Ralph Northam when the delta variant of the coronavirus was surging caseloads in public schools across the state. The move places power into the hands of parents to decide whether they want to send their children to school masked while the even more-infectious omicron variant currently spreading rapidly across the nation.

According to spokesperson Holly Jenkins, there will be no changes for students this week with regards to COVID-19 mitigation policies at Rappahannock County Public Schools, including masking requirements. The body will also hold a budget work session at the meeting, Jenkins said.

As it stands, the schools’ current masking policy in the absence of a state mandate is to make them optional, but allow Superintendent Dr. Shannon Grimsley to require facial coverings in the event of an outbreak — with the ability to remove the order once the virus’ spread is contained. That stance is subject to change at Thursday’s meeting.

Grimsley in an interview said the School Board will consider Senate Bill 1303, a bipartisan piece of legislation that passed the Virginia General Assembly in 2021 that says schools must follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guideless to the “maximum extent practicable.” Current CDC guidelines recommend indoor masking for all students and sta in K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

In Northern Virginia, many schools are rejecting Youngkin’s order and maintaining masking mandates, some on the basis of Senate Bill 1303.

A er Dr. Colin Greene, the outgoing acting director of the Rappahannock-Rapidan Health District, warned the School Board in December that Youngkin was likely to li the mask mandate, Grimsley advised the body that it should keep mitigation measures in place because of the risks posed by the omicron variant.