East Providence is among the local school districts which starting next week will lift mandatory mask use as the COVID-19 pandemic lingers, instead allowing students and parents to make the decision on their own.

Gov. Dan McKee formally announced during a briefing on Wednesday, Feb. 9, his plan to rescind an existing executive order setting indoor mask requirements throughout the state, including those for Kindergarten-12th grade school buildings, as of the end of classes on Friday, March 4.

When asked at the time why the March 4 date was chosen for schools, McKee said state officials felt it made sense to go a full week after the winter break “to make sure we’re in good shape…We’ve made considerable progress against COVID-19 and the recent (Omicron variant) surge, and we are in a much better place than we were in early January.”

In anticipation of the governor’s declaration, East Providence School Committee at its meeting the previous evening, Tuesday, Feb. 8, accepted the recommendation of the administration of Superintendent Kathryn Crowley affording employees and families the choice to wear or not wear a mask.

Crowley said after the gathering the committee referred to the district’s re-entry plan put together by her staff and other officials prior to the start of the 2021-22 term.

“Our school committee brought up the policy formulated when we put together our re-entry plan which was masks were going to be a choice at that point, strongly recommended, but a choice. And so that’s what our school committee just re-instated. We’ve already done it. A lot of school districts were going (visit the issue) this week and next week,” Crowley said recently.

She continued, “So our masking policy will be in accordance with the governor’s executive order and based on the recommendation of RIDOH (Rhode Island Department of Health), which will be choice. But strongly recommended for people that have immunocompromised systems still at this point and people that aren’t vaccinated. But again, a choice, but strongly recommended.”

Those districts who likewise adopted the optional, though recommended, continued use of masks over the last few weeks included northern neighbor Pawtucket, whose school committee adopted the measures at its meeting on Tuesday night, Feb. 22. North Providence was another jurisdiction that opted for recommended choice the same evening.

McKee formalized his intentions on Wednesday, Feb. 16, when he authored another executive order putting in the provisions affording districts the ability to make up their own policies, thought based on guidelines put into place by RIDOH and the Rhode Island Department of Education.

According to the governor’s office, the approach brings masking in line with other mitigation measures that schools implement based on recommendations from RIDOH and RIDE, such as testing, social distancing, and symptom screening.

One aspect of mask wearing will not change, on public transportation including school buses, which is a federal requirement.

— With contributions from Jim McGaw, editor of The Portsmouth Times, a sister publication to The Post in the East Bay Media Group.