Board unanimously approves mask mandate for St. Paul Public Schools

The St. Paul Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday evening to approve a mask mandate for the upcoming school year amid concerns over possible COVID-19 infections among students who are too young to get vaccinated.

The mask mandate, approved by a 7-0 vote, applies to all students, teachers, staff and visitors 2 years and older, regardless of age or vaccination status. It goes into effect Wednesday morning.

The resolution comes as the Minnesota Department of Health reported 3,054 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday. That number represents data as of the remainder of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and as of 4 a.m. on Monday.

Parents in support of the measure said they wanted to do whatever was necessary to protect the health of students and staff.

"I implore you to take all measures to protect SPPS children and staff from getting infect being hospitalized or having the unimaginable happen," said Laura Ford-Haven.

But others said they were worried about the effects masks will have on their children and said a mandate was a step too far.

"It should not be a mandate," parent Michael Guy said. "I think it should be parents’ decision as to whether they want their kids to be masked up."

St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Joe Gothard said requiring masks will allow schools to keep holding in-person classes without interruptions.

"I think it’s important for us because we want to open our doors, we want to keep our doors them open," Gothard said."I think we’ve demonstrated to this community that we can put really good effort forward and have all safety plans in place."

Required vs. recommended: Mask policy updates

Earlier in the day, Bloomington Public Schools announced its own mask mandate — but only for children who are younger than 12 and older than 2.

Edina Public Schools will also require masks indoors for all students and adults, regardless of vaccination status. Staff may use clear face shields in place of a mask when teaching some lessons that benefit from facial cues, including classes with students who are deaf or hard of hearing, classes for multilingual learners, phonics and speech development lessons.

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this report indicated COVID-19 case data reported Tuesday marked one of the state’s highest single-day case counts in several months. The report has been updated to clarify the number represents data as of the remainder of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and as of 4 a.m. on Monday.