Parents in the Williamsport Area School District can send their children to school without masks this year, but if a student is exposed to someone in the classroom infected with COVID, they will have to quarantine.

That was the message that Dr. Timothy S. Bowers, superintendent, stressed at the recent board meeting.

“One thing we do want to caution parents on is that if you do choose to not have your child wear a mask, and there is an exposure, your child will have to quarantine,” he said.”As of right now our (health and safety) plan says that’s a parental choice.”

“I just want parents to understand that by making that choice it could make your child more vulnerable to having to quarantine,” he added.

Dr. Richard Poole, director of student services, said that current CDC recommendations state that if a student is masked in the classroom, if they’re sitting next to a student that tests positive for COVID, they will not have to quarantine.

He added that this particularly applies to students in the lower grades that can’t be vaccinated. Students in the upper grades who are vaccinated and provide proof to the district would not have to quarantine.

Currently anyone who is exposed to someone with the virus must quarantine either for 10 days and then return to school on day 11 or they can choose to be tested on the on the fifth day of quarantine and return on day eight if the test is negative.

Bowers noted that at the present time, the area is in a moderate rate of infection, but if that would change and the district is having to quarantine a number of students, then the administrative team would have to address if more mitigation is needed.

“Our goal is to have kids in school, so if by having this choice in masking is doing the opposite effect and we’re quarantining so many kids that they can’t come in session, that’s not handling our mission either and we should talk about that,” he said.

“If our mission is to get kids here, but because we have to quarantine so many that it’s not working, we’d better regroup and talk about that,” he added.

Bowers admitted that masking is a “tough issue” compared to other mitigation protocols, such as social distancing and enhanced cleaning of facilities.

“We can recommend to a family to wear a mask, in fact we encourage people to wear a mask, but if they don’t want to do that, we’ll give them that choice,” Bowers said in response to a question from board member Barbara Reeves about the CDC’s recommendation that everyone be masked indoors due to cases of the Delta variant rising.

“If our governor or our secretary of health says look, the variant has gotten so bad or our cases have gotten so bad that we’re telling you it’s a mandate to wear a mask — if they say it’s a mandate, then our health and safety plan is okay, because we will follow a mandate,” he said.

Bowers stated that he’d rather have people in public health making that call and let the districts focus on education.

“Our mission is education. We want to get kids back in the classroom, in person for a normal year. That’s what we do best. I want to leave that decision to folks whose mission is public health,” Bowers said.

Board member Adam Welteroth questioned if the board could choose to ignore a mandate from the state regarding masks if that would result in loss of funding.

“As a commissioned officer of the state, for me to just ignore a mandate, I can’t do that personally. I just can’t. I take an oath to follow the rules and laws of the commonwealth,” Bowers stated.

Bowers told Welteroth if the board wanted to do that against his recommendation, hypothetically, they could make a motion to do that. Board members would have to contact the board solicitor to determine what happens next, he added.

Fred Holland, board solicitor, who was present during the discussion, said, “What I would add is that regardless if you lose state funding, it’s a dangerous thing to try to ignore mandates that come from the Department of Education or the Department of Health.”