MILL HALL — Following Thursday night’s re-organizational meeting, the Keystone Central school board held a brief voting meeting. It was the final meeting of 2021 and the entire agenda passed with relative ease.

During her superintendent’s report, Jacquelyn Martin addressed the masking issue that has perplexed educators throughout the Commonwealth since the school year began in August.

“Our health and safety plan is still in effect,” Martin noted. “We will be following all mask mandates currently. Pennsylvania’s K-12 mask mandate is still in effect. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has now decided that they are not lifting anything on Dec. 4.”

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania reinstated Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration’s mandate requiring students, teachers and staff to wear face masks in school

The action is temporary, with the court scheduled to hear arguments on the matter on Dec. 8. The court noted it has taken no position on the matter. One justice disagreed with reinstating the mandate.

Acting state Secretary of Health Alison Beam had imposed the statewide mandate at the start of the school year after parents in many school districts turned out to oppose the idea of locally imposed mask mandates.

While many districts had the Dec. 8 date circled on their calendars, Martin pointed out that things may not change next week.

“There is no guarantee that (the mandate) is going to be lifted at that time. There are several things being taken into consideration,” Martin said.

According to Martin, even if the mask mandate is lifted, the district will not “change in the middle of any school day.” She said that parents will be given plenty of notice should masking protocols change.

“We will make sure that any changes to our masking protocols give parents some notification,” Martin said.

Additionally, Martin said that she has met with local health officials from UPMC, Geisinger and the Bucktail Medical Center.

“What we’re finding from those local officials is that the folks who are vaccinated are faring much better. They’re not getting as sick and certainly there are a reduced number of deaths,” Martin said.

Martin said that while there have been breakthrough cases of COVID-19 to those who are vaccinated, the virus is less likely to be fatal.

“They’re seeing that there is some success rate with the purpose of the vaccination and they’re continuing people to look at the research and make a good decision for themselves. My message is please look at some reliable sources of information, check out the CDC website and consult with your own physician,” Martin said.

The case counts of COVID-19 in Clinton County are on the rise. However, the numbers of vaccines administered has remained stagnant, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

“I think it’s pretty compelling to show what’s happening in our community,” Martin said.

Martin also pointed out that the ages of those getting sick and hospitalized with COVID-19 has shifted.

“It was originally affecting our elderly population, but they have a higher vaccination rate. The people who are falling victim to COVID at this point … are in the age range of 40-65. That also is a lot of the population of our staff. I want to make sure that we’re making responsible decisions to protect our staff with all of our mitigation efforts,” Martin said.

Martin said that the district will continue to monitor local data.

“Before we lift any mask mandate, I will be consulting with local data as we’ve been doing,” she said.

The board will meet again for a work session at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 6 at the high school. The meeting is open to the public and masks are required. The meeting will also be streamed live via Zoom through the district’s website.