The Bordentown Regional School District has a plan in place regarding its face covering policy when Gov. Phil Murphy lifts the state’s mask mandate on March 7.
Superintendent Dr. Trudy Atkins told centraljersey.com that masks and face coverings of any kind will be optional for students and staff when the mask mandate is lifted next month.
This decision was made based on the results from a survey sent out to the Bordentown community this month, Atkins said.
Atkins communicated her findings from the survey to the Education Policy Committee on the Bordentown Board of Education (BOE) and then worked with the board to revise the school district’s face covering policy to reflect her findings.
“We have revised our face covering policy to reflect our findings to make face covering optional for students and staff starting on March 7,” Atkins said. “We feel that it’s best for our school district to make face coverings and masks optional based on the views of the Bordentown community.”
Murphy announced on Feb. 7 that he was lifting the state’s COVID-19 mask mandate that requires all staff, students and visitors to wear face coverings of any kind when inside a school building.
The Executive Order has been in place since September 2020 when some schools returned to in-person classes.
With the Executive Order being lifted, school districts have the authority to require masks be worn if they and local officials choose to enforce such requirements.