During an Emergency School Board meeting on Thursday, October 27, 2022, the board voted 6-0 to highly recommend masks be warn in schools if deemed to be in outbreak status by the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention (MCDC).  With 16+ confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Cape Elizabeth High School, the MCDC has deemed that the school is in "outbreak status."  Following advice from the school's medical professionals and MCDC, Superintendent Christopher Record canceled classes at the high school for Friday, October 28 in order to allow custodial crew to implement a deep cleaning of the building.

During the emergency meeting, the School Board voted to amend their May 10 vote to require masks for all students, staff, and visitors inside any school that is determined to be in outbreak status.  The board's policy shift, which now strongly recommends mask use during outbreak status, includes using other mitigation measures set forth by the MCDC and school medical team.  In an October 27 email to students and staff following the emergency meeting, Record wrote, "I invite you to watch this meeting  when you have the opportunity  to hear their individual reasons for supporting this approach.  We recognize that many of you will appreciate masks remaining a family/individual decision and others will be disappointed with the Board decision.  Let's continue to try to support each other even when we disagree."

Outbreak status is defined by the MCDC as having  15% or greater absenteeism among students and staff in a school in a single day where the majority of those absences are due to a specific illness.  In order to leave outbreak status a school needs to have fourteen straight calendar days with less than !5% absenteeism among students and staff.  At the time of his October 26 letter to students and families, Record reported that absenteeism at the high school was at 20.8%.

School Board Emergency Meeting - October 27, 2022