Wall Board of Ed Sends Letters Asking For End Of Mask Mandate

WALL, NJ – The Wall Board of Education sent a letter late last month to Governor Phil Murphy asking the governor to give local school boards the authority to decide whether or not students have to wear masks this upcoming school year.

In the letter, Board of Education president Ralph Addonizio laid out how the district handled the pandemic and the impact of having to adapt to having students learning both in-school and at-home along with the various changing mandates and the impact that it had on the students, parents, teachers and district staff.

“In addition to in-person instruction, we have a full online curriculum for students who are in quarantine or who choose remote learning. Additionally, we took immediate steps to make sure our schools were safe for students and staff with the hiring of additional staff for cleaning and nurses for contact tracing. Those steps, along with other initiatives such as plexiglass, have made a difference in our district keeping schools open,” Addonizo stated in the letter.

“These measures have altered the learning environment to be more restrictive, therefore limiting the effectiveness of in-person instruction. In order for the district to continue its mission to provide high-quality education to its students, local and state governments need to start rolling these measures back in the Fall. The only way to do that will be to return control of these measures back to the local health departments and school districts to control flare-ups in the absence of a health emergency on the state level.”

The letter to the Governor comes after parents and students voiced their concerns about having to wear a mask at a recent Board of Education meeting. At the end of the letter, Addonzio said that the Board hopes that students can see this as an example of government at work by seeing this letter.

“We hope that by advocating on their behalf, the students of Wall Township will view this letter as an example of democratic government in action,” Addonizo said.

“It is so important that students and parents understand that there is a process in government and reaching out to our elected officials is how we can effectuate changes that benefit each one of us.”