WORCESTER – The mask mandate has hit all city public schools.

Less than 24 hours after the city manager mandated masks in all municipal buildings, the Worcester Public School Committee followed suit by unanimously approving a similar mask mandate on Tuesday, August 11. The order will require all school staff and students in grades pre-K through 12, which includes all 51 public school buildings, to wear masks during the upcoming school year.

School Superintendent Maureen Binienda made the recommendation to mandate masks schoolwide after two weeks of meetings with local health officials.

Binienda said while discussing the spread of the highly contagious COVID Delta variant, their focus was on “how we are going to provide safety for our students and our staff. The information of course is changing on a daily basis so we are keeping in touch with that information change. From most of the research … that we have been involved with, I’m going to recommend … that the Worcester School Committee adopt that all students in pre-K through grade 12 wear masks while they are in school.”

The mask mandate in all school buildings was approved by a 7-0 vote by the school committee. “I definitely think everyone is in agreement on the masks,” said Mayor Joseph M. Petty, who also serves as chairman of the school committee. “I think that is a definite.”