After two weeks of Wayland Public Schools enforcing an indoor mask mandate, Superintendent Omar Easy sent a letter to WPS families on Sunday, May 22 announcing that the mask mandate will officially be lifted for the week of May 31.

During the week of May 23, a total of 19 students within WPS tested positive for COVID-19, seven of those being reported at Wayland High School. Additionally, there were 3 Wayland staff members who tested positive for COVID-19, zero of those being reported at WHS. The decision to lift the mask mandate was made after carefully evaluating the number of positive cases and comparing them to the start of the enforced mask mandate, when there were 153 positive cases reported within WPS.

“Due to the decline in positive cases in our schools, we are lifting the required masking mandate for students and staff,” Easy wrote. “With that being said, the use of masks is another preventative measure to keep our schools open and functioning at full capacity and therefore is highly recommended while indoors and on school buses.”

Easy also reminded WPS families of the fact that Wayland currently has a COVID-19 test positivity rate of 12%. This means there are still a lot of COVID-19 positive cases within Wayland, as any percentage over 5% shows a large amount of virus in an area. Also, the current case rate within Wayland is 95 cases per 100,000 cases.

Easy will continue to monitor the positive cases within WPS and work to access, analyze and implement mitigation strategies. Some of those mitigation measures include opening windows, continuing pool testing, eating outdoors and cleaning classrooms when positive cases are identified.

“Thank you for your continued support and commitment to keeping our schools open to serve our children daily and provide a safe and healthy environment for all students and faculty,” Easy wrote.