Masks Optional Still Plan For Brick Schools In Fall

BRICK, NJ — Brick Township Schools students and staff still will have the option on whether to wear masks in school in September, the superintendent said Wednesday, even as masking guidance amid the COVID-19 pandemic has changed at the federal level.

"Optional masks are still the plan as of right now," Brick Schools Superintendent Thomas Farrell said Wednesday.

The Centers for Disease Control said this week said vaccinated Americans should return to wearing a mask indoors in public places, particularly in areas with "substantial and high transmission" of coronavirus. The CDC change comes as infection rates have risen significantly across the country, fueled by the delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Ocean County has seen a spike in several metrics, according to CDC data. There has been a 57 percent increase in the number of cases over the last seven days, and 209 percent increase in the number of people hospitalized in Ocean County with COVID-19, to 34 patients. The percent positivity has risen to 4.73, and there has been a steady climb in that number since the beginning of July.

On Wednesday Gov. Phil Murphy and state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli urged all residents to return to mask-wearing indoors, in response to the increasing transmission.

"Our metrics are trending in the wrong direction, and new data suggests the delta variant is more transmissible even among vaccinated individuals, which is why we are making this strong recommendation," said Murphy and Persichilli in a joint statement.

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Discussion of the increases has some parents concerned that statewide mask mandates are in the offing.

Murphy has said that is not the case, even as districts prepare for full-day, fully in-school instruction in the fall.

"The CDC matters a lot to us," Murphy said Monday during a coronavirus news briefing. "We largely look to the CDC for a lot of guidance. We always take that into consideration, but you have to take into account the reality of what your state looks like. A national recommendation may or may not be consistent with the facts on the ground."

The state is not mandating the use of masks among unvaccinated students, but leaving the decisions up to school districts, Murphy said, continuing a change he made in May, as schools contended with a heat wave and urged the state to let local officials decide.

The Brick Township school board was one of the first that pushed for local decisions on masks.

"School districts in New Jersey are operated by locally elected school boards and superintendents working together with district stakeholders," board president Stephanie Wohlrab said in a May letter to Murphy. "It is time to once again let us do what we were elected to do, with our highly trained, professional staff in place – run our districts with the authority to make decisions in the best interest of our community."

A week after the district's letter, Murphy announced local districts would be able to make the decision, and Brick responded by making masking optional.

They have remained optional since then.

While New Jersey has one of the highest rates of vaccination in the country, Ocean County has remained below Murphy's goal of 70 percent of the adult population getting vaccinated.

According to the CDC data, 62.6 percent of Ocean County residents 18 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines, and 54.9 percent are fully vaccinated. For those age 65 and older, for whom the risks associated with the virus are higher, 81.7 percent have received at least one dose and 73.1 percent are fully vaccinated.

With reporting by Alexis Tarrazi, Carly Baldwin and Anthony Bellano

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