Edinburg CISD lifted its mask mandate Wednesday, joining a variety of other Hidalgo County school systems to make face coverings optional since the beginning of the school year.
Santa Rosa lifted their mandate on Friday. The Monitor reported on three districts in the county last semester that dropped their mandate or didn’t enforce it.
A county order mandating masks for schools expired in December, and late in January Hidalgo County Health Authority Ivan Melendez and districts that had dropped their mandates signaled those requirements weren’t likely to be renewed.
A statement from Edinburg CISD issued Wednesday attributing the policy change to current coronavirus conditions and federal guidance.
“The district will continue to take all precautionary measures to protect the safety and well being of our students and staff,” Superintendent Mario Salinas wrote. “After careful consideration, based on new guidance from the CDC, and a significant decline in COVID-19 cases, the district has decided to make the use of masks optional.”
The statement said other pandemic measures, among them enhanced sanitization, social distancing, hand washing encouragement and vaccine distribution will continue, and that masks are still allowed and encouraged.
“Masks are highly recommended for individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have a compromised immune system,” it said.
The district can also reinstate a mandate in the event of a surge in cases, the release noted.
Mask mandates have been a hot button issue at Hidalgo County schools since August, sparking legal action against the state and prompting often impassioned responses from local teachers and community members.
Those passions haven’t cooled much.
On Tuesday afternoon, Edinburg AFT President Marsha Gonzalez said she and fellow teachers expected the mandate to be lifted, but were disappointed that the district didn’t announce the change before it took effect.
“It was kind of a shock that they did it so soon, from one day to the next,” she said.
AFT members, Gonzalez said, would have also preferred another week or two of the mandate.
“Because what we’re foreseeing is here comes spring break, the numbers come up, and then we have to go back again. And then everybody back with a mask again,” she said.
Gonzalez reported seeing fairly high rates of voluntary mask wearing on her campus Wednesday.
Not every county resident is convinced students and teachers need masks.
Several school districts faced criticism for enforcing mandates over the course of last semester, including ECISD. The board often faced that criticism in the public comment portions of its meeting, addresses that were usually heated — one enough so to result in a man’s arrest for disorderly conduct last August.
Two individuals speaking to the board during their meeting Tuesday evening continued to criticize masks and pandemic policies.
“These masks are a joke up there,” O.W.L.S. member Fern McClaugherty told the board at their meeting Tuesday, saying she couldn’t hear trustees and criticizing the efficacy of masks.
