Dear Parents, Guardians, Staff, Students, and School Board Members:

On September 10th our district instituted a two-week indoor mask mandate. This mandate was issued with the understanding that if conditions improved the mandate would be lifted at the end of the two weeks and if conditions didn’t improve the mandate would be extended.

  At this time, we are extending the indoor mask mandate for another week (5 school days) to be revisited again on October 1.

 At the time of the mask mandate (Sept. 10), our Washington County CDC Color distinction had gone from Orange (Substantial Risk) to Red (High Risk). Since that day our risk level has remained Red, and our 7-day average case totals have more than doubled. In the last two weeks our SAD 37 schools have had positive COVID cases that have resulted in the need to quarantine students and staff. Without having a masking mandate in place, we would have most likely needed to close those schools for a two-week period or at the very least quarantined over a hundred students and staff members.

 Every school system in Washington County is now temporarily making masks mandatory with the exception of Jonesport. Every school system in Washington County except SAD #37 has had to close schools this fall due to COVID. All these schools were not masking at the time of closure. A few of the schools that have had closings are: Jonesport/Beals High School (two weeks), Washington Academy (two weeks), Beals Elementary (two weeks), Rose Gaffney (two weeks), Eastport Elementary (two weeks), Calais Elementary (delayed opening due to COVID), to name a few.

 This mask mandate will be monitored, and it will be lifted when the conditions that caused its implementation have subsided. At the end of this time-period you will be notified if the mask mandate will continue or if it will be lifted.   

 Schools have been able to remain fully open with live instruction five days a week in all schools. Our goal is to keep everyone as safe as possible while keeping our schools open and giving our students live, in-person instruction for as long as we can. If COVID cases increase to the point that we must close schools, we have plans to implement remote instruction for all our students.

 Thank you for your patience, understanding, and cooperation as we work together to solve problems, find answers and work through this difficult situation. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 Sincerely,

Ronald Ramsay

Superintendent of Schools

MSAD #37