On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Scott announced that schools could stop requiring masks on February 28 if at least 80 percent of their students were vaccinated against COVID-19.


But in the days following the announcement, some superintendents in the most highly vaxxed parts of the state — Chittenden and Washington counties — have signaled that they will proceed cautiously when it comes to ditching the face coverings.
All six of the schools in the Champlain Valley School District — which draws students from Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne and Williston — have vaccination rates near or above 80 percent, according to superintendent Rene Sanchez. Leading the way is Champlain Valley Union High School, where about 91.5 percent students have had at least two COVID-19 vaccine jabs.

But with a number of unanswered questions about the guidance, all students and staff in the district will remain masked when they return from school break on February 28, Sanchez wrote in a letter to families on Wednesday. Part of the concern, Sanchez wrote, is that the date for lifting masking requirements coincides with a return from vacation, a time when many students will be traveling.

Further, he wrote, the district is unsure about whether it should use its own data or state data on student vaccination rates. It was also unclear whether the state guidance would still require masks for unvaccinated students or preschool kids under age 5 who are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

"For students who are ineligible for the vaccine, we feel it is important that they remain masked until the recommendations are lifted or the vaccines become available," Sanchez wrote in an email to Seven Days on Thursday.

Finally, Sanchez wrote, it was unclear how municipal mask requirements would affect the school guidance. Williston, for example, recently extended its masking mandate for indoor public spaces until March 22.


In her letter, Bonesteel wrote that the district "highly recommends that all students and staff wear masks while inside our school buildings for the foreseeable future."

Bonesteel noted that some staff and students might be immunocompromised or have other anxiety about COVID-19. She said, for instance, that she will continue to wear a mask, "not only because I live with my elderly, immunocompromised mother, but also because I care deeply for my colleagues and the students we serve."

"Masks help alleviate this anxiety so that people can focus on their job and learning," Bonesteel wrote in her letter. She said that the district would continue to provide KN95 masks to students or staff who want them.