Anchorage school board reverses decision to drop face mask requirement

Anchorage public schools opened the new year with face mask requirements still in place, after the school board reversed a decision by the superintendent that would have made masks optional.

Schools Superintendent Deena Bishop decided in mid-December to drop the masking requirement for when students and staff returned to class on Monday, but the Anchorage School Board on Dec. 20 voted 5-1 to reverse the decision.

Face masks will be required in the state’s largest school district until at least Jan. 15, when the board will review the policy.

Board member Andy Holleman, who proposed the motion to continue the masking requirement, said that if the trend toward lower COVID-19 case counts continues in Anchorage, he would “be delighted to see the policy go away.” However, he said it’s critical that when families return from winter break, the school district has enough mitigation measures in place, according to Anchorage TV station KTUU.

“This lets everybody continue doing what we’ve been doing, and what we’ve been doing very well,” Holleman said. “And then it gives us enough weeks after break to see if we’ve got a problem on our hands or not.”

Wrangell schools continue to operate with a face mask requirement with the return from winter break this week. “Currently, with the new variant, holidays and travel, we feel it is prudent to continue with what has been working,” Schools Superintendent Bill Burr said before the schools closed for the holidays.

“We are continuing with the same mitigation plan until at least the next board meeting in January. We review it once a month,” Burr said. The next Wrangell School Board meeting is set for Jan. 17.

The Anchorage superintendent said testing rates for the infectious disease, low case counts in the community and the availability of vaccines for children as young as 5 were reasons to drop the masking requirement.

According to the state, the vaccination rate as of Monday for children ages 12 through 18 in Anchorage was almost 60% with at least one dose. The rate in Wrangell was 45%. The rate in Anchorage for children ages 5 through 11 was 24% with at least one vaccination shot; the rate was 20% in Wrangell.