Beverly High Students Lag Well Behind Unmasking Vaccine Threshold

BEVERLY, MA — As the state provides a blueprint of how school districts can begin lifting indoor mask requirements for individual buildings, Beverly High School remains well off the pace to meet that vaccination threshold.

Updated state Department of Elementary and Second Education guidance released Monday said that the universal indoor mask mandate for all schools will be extended from Oct. 1 for 30 days. Starting Oct. 15, districts with schools that have reached 80 percent coronavirus vaccination rates among both students and staff will have the option to consider lifting the mask mandate for vaccinated students and staff only.

Unvaccinated students and staff will have to remain masked at all times indoors, according to the guidance.

But Beverly High School is a long way from meeting that criteria with Superintendent Sue Charochak reporting during last week's school committee meeting that as of Sept. 16 only 56 percent of city residents ages 16 through 19 had at least one dose of vaccine.

"We're not really close to the 80 percent," Charochak allowed, adding that she would bring the updated guidance and the vaccination numbers to the committee for it to decide on any potential action regarding masks when Beverly Schools qualify for that consideration.

Vaccination rates are higher among Beverly students ages 12 to 15 where Charochak reported 81 percent have received at least one dose.

"If you are one dose you have to go get that second dose," she reminded.

She said she plans to have those numbers sorted more specifically by student ages for the next school committee meeting.

Since the vaccines have thus far only been approved for those 12 and older, middle schools with grades that involve those younger than 12 years old are ineligible to have the mask mandate lifted.

Beverly High will hold a vaccination clinic on Oct. 8 in association with its "Friday Night Lights" event where portable lights are brought in for the football game. Students can sign up for vaccinations at that time and are reminded to bring their vaccination cards with them if they are intending to receive the second dose.

The Beverly Schools website said there was one new coronavirus case last week as of Thursday — bringing the number to 35 total this school year. As of last Wednesday, Charochak said there were 11 students in quarantine, eight students in a test-and-stay program that allows students considered a close contact to remain in school as long as they test negative each morning, and she said one student had received symptom-based testing in schools.

She pointed to the benefits of the state's new quarantine guidelines and test-and-stay program in one case where 11 close contacts were identified for a positive case. Five of those students were exempt from testing because they were vaccinated, five more were allowed to remain in school through test-and-stay and one who was not enrolled in the testing program had to undergo the full quarantine.

"The goal is to keep kids in school as much as possible," she said.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

More Patch Coverage: Massachusetts Extends School Mask Mandate