By BERNADETTE

SUKLEY

Special to The Press

On Dec. 10, Northwestern Lehigh School District Superintendent Jennifer L. Holman, issued the following letter to the community via the district’s Web page to provide families with an update concerning the state’s face covering order.

“Late this afternoon, Dec. 10, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated the school mask mandate and the decision about face coverings in schools returned to the local school districts.

“Our Health and Safety Plan states: ‘Upon expiration of the order, the district will reinstitute the Face Covering Tiered Mitigation Measures Matrix, therefore, NWLSD will reinstitute our Face Covering Tiered Mitigation Measures Matrix effective immediately.

“As a reminder, the purpose of this decision matrix is to provide the Northwestern Lehigh School District the ability to enact a level of face coverings determined by local data and other metrics.

“Based upon our current data, Northwestern Lehigh will be instituting Tier 3 (Universal) of the matrix whereby face coverings are required in all indoor areas.

“Note: This is the same level of face coverings in place since September.

“Our goal continues to be to keep students in school consistently and keep our students and staff safe.

“We will continue to closely monitor all levels of state, county, and local data so that we can make an informed decision to move to a lower tier when the data permits.

“If additional changes are required, we will communicate them to you as soon as possible.

“Thank you for your continued support and understanding.”