Mills Administration Announcement Regarding Recommendations for Face Masks

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the Maine Department of Education advised Maine school units and child care providers today that, effective March 9, 2022, universal masking is no longer a statewide recommendation in these settings but is now an optional recommendation. Consistent with Maine’s tradition of local control, local school boards have the authority to determine requirements in their respective schools. 

This change is dependent on continued stability in COVID-19 trends in Maine, including reduced hospitalizations, reduced virus levels in wastewater, and reduced school outbreaks and absenteeism, among other quantitative and qualitative factors. It also comes as Maine and the rest of the nation enter a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, where vaccines, therapeutics, and other interventions highly effective at preventing serious illness and death are widely available. Maine is one of the most highly vaccinated states in the nation, and the Administration continues to strongly recommend that all people get vaccinated and boosted.

See the entire announcement here

We will be sure to post any future board/school committee meetings that may come up shortly due to this announcement in each of our Valley Unified districts.