THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, Fabruary 11, 2022 Page 15 Banner Found in Forestdale Cemetery Maldonians receive second-quarter honors at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School T he following Malden residents were named to the High Honor Roll for the second quarter at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School: Grade 12: Adam Housni, Rintaro Inomata and Son Tran. Grade 11: Eric Wang. Grade 10: Lukas Deguire, Alicia Leung, Breana Nansamba, Angelica Nocera, Ameya Panchal, Alexander Sokolovic, Ashley Tham, NhatMinh Tran, Aimy Tran and Jasmine Zhao. Grade 9: Brianna Gesnaldo, Sophea Giech, Isabella He, Sophia Marcus, Anthony Rutkauskas, Sierra Soares, Crystal Tang, Matthew Weng and Winiel Xie. Grade 8: Yukino Inomata, T his banner was turned into The Advocate after it was found in Forestdale Cemetery in Malden. Anyone with information about its owner is asked to contact The Advocate at 617-387-2200. Shravya Medarametla, Britney-Meghan Nayiga, Celeste Offiong, Amanda Thuy Pham, Addison Romprey, Robensline Seide, Minhduy Tran, Mathew Xie and Iris Zhao. Grade 7: Kai Danoff, Laila Eddaouia, Madot Guesh, Sadra Hashempour, Noah Henok, Nai Osman, Saloni Parikh, Angelina Kailyn Ricciardone, Amira Sabir, Willie To and Afnaan Zeabi. To be on the High Honor Roll, a student needs to finish the quarter with no grade lower than an A-. To be on the Honor Roll, a student needs to finish the quarter with no grade lower than a B-. The following Malden residents were named to the Honor Roll: Grade 12: Allen Bulic, Olivia Correale, Gianna Gray, Dhyey Patel, Ashley Pham, Shamus Royds, Kim Tran and Amora Velic. Grade 11: Asal Bahrampouri, Andy Chen, Jasmine Chen, Ryan Chen, Isabella Chu, Ryan Diep, Isabella Elmoussaoui, Alexandria Manseau, Daniel Nguyen, Rayan Oukani, Amy Pham, Euba Tafese and Jack Vejar. Grade 10: Rim Badaoui, Jonathan Brandano, Stephen Carter, Nora Fatimi, Ryan Hartnett, Makda Johannes, Kavinprasad Kanagaraju, Gabriella Lajoie, Inssaf Machouk, Coralie Mondesir, Mahum Sheikh, Nari Steele, Diora Velic, Crystal Wu and Jason Yan. Grade 9: Adrian Chang, Jayden Chu, Ethan Danoff, Christopher Janvier, Calvin Lam, Christ Leconte, Neisha Maurin, Melissa Moura, Anirudh Seethamraju and Roodlyana Seide. Grade 8: Lucia Antonucci, Christian Antonucci, Michael Brandano, Nicolas-Armando Caballero, James Cahill, Reem Chaouchi, Cain Chen, Cody Chen, Serina Chen, Eseta Guesh, Kyle Hoang, Luciano Jacques, Diane Joseph, Ateng Kuany, Udhayjeet Kumar, Jacob Lee, Keenan Lee, Nicholas Li, Cameron Martins, Carolina Notaro Machado, Caitlin Nylin, Raphael Orcino, Josh Pereira, Courtney Twist, Arleigh Wilde and Edwin Zhang. Grade 7: Amisha Arora, Emily Bradbury, Henley Cabe, Cady Chen, Madison Correia, Melat Dawit, Noah Elbadaoui, Remisha KC, Darren Kearney, Marisa Mantilla, Nora Moudni, Sayuri Panchal, Sep Pierre-Louis, Jatin Punj and Abbey Timothee. Statewide school mask requirement will be lifted on Feb. 28 D epartment of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jeffrey Riley recently announced that the statewide mask requirement for K-12 schools will be lifted on February 28. At that time, DESE and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) recommend, students and faculty should still wear masks in certain scenarios consistent with DESE’s COVID-19 protocols. The decision was made in consultation with infectious disease physicians, DPH and other medical experts. Vaccinations are the best protection against COVID-19, and Massachusetts has among the highest vaccination rates of young people and is a national leader in overall vaccination. In Massachusetts, 52 percent of all individuals who are fully vaccinated have received a booster dose, compared to 42 percent of the national population. Massachusetts also has nation-leading school testing programs, including a newly launched at-home testing program for students and educators. These testing options will remain in place. “With Massachusetts a national leader in vaccinating kids, combined with our robust testing programs, it is time to lift the mask mandate in schools and give students and staff a sense of normalcy after dealing with enormous challenges over the past two years,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “We have all the tools to keep schools safe as we move into dealing with the next phase of managing COVID.” “Schools are safe environments, most children now have had access to vaccinations that greatly reduce the risk for severe disease for several months, and thousands of families across the Commonwealth have taken this opportunity to protect their children,” said Lt. Governor Karyn Polito. “This is the right time to lift the mask mandate, and we will continue to encourage vaccination and host clinics at any school that wants to hold one to further protect their students from COVID.” The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) will also lift the mask requirements currently in place for all licensed child care providers effective February 28, and EEC will allow programs to develop policies specific to the children they serve. EEC will release additional guidance for programs next week. With the lifting of the statewide mask requirement, school districts no longer need to request a waiver from DESE to remove masks in school buildings where 80 percent of staff and students are vaccinated. Masking will be a community choice in schools across the Commonwealth, regardless of vaccination rates within a school; however, a school district could establish a local requirement. Many schools across the Commonwealth have already reached the vaccination benchmark and requested permission to remove masks. To date, DESE has received 68 requests from schools that submitted attestations that 80 percent of their students and staff are vaccinated. DESE has approved 42 requests and is in the process of reviewing another 21 requests before the statewide requirement ends. “In a state with one of the highest vaccine acceptance rates in the country and the state with the second highest vaccination rates among 5- to 11-year-olds, we must navigate the careful transition into opening up our society while simultaneously employing public health mitigation strategies. We are moving from mask requirement to mask optional, and we want school districts to move along with the state by making it optional, while still creating supportive environments for students and staff who choose to wear a mask,” said Education Secretary James Peyser. Several other states, including Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, have rescinded their school mask requirements in recent days. The state’s nation-leading, robust school testing programs will remain in place. Last month DESE and DPH launched updated school COVID-19 testing options, including providing participating teachers and staff with at-home rapid tests weekly, to optimize in-person learning. The two departments also released updated data on the pooled testing and Test and Stay programs, showing low transmission rates and very few positive cases. With more than 2,000 public and private schools in the Commonwealth participating in COVID-19 testing, DESE and DPH have gathered robust data about the prevalence of COVID-19 in schools that clearly illustrate schools are safe environments for teaching and learning. Schools are one of the few types of settings in the state where individuals are tested on a regular basis. Data collected over the past few months from the Test and Stay program is compelling around what it reveals about school safety. Students and staff individually identified as asymptomatic close contacts and repeatedly tested in school through Test and Stay test negative more than 90 percent of the time. As of January 9, 503,312 Test and Stay tests had been conducted; 496,440 of them were negative (nearly 99 percent). “During the past two years, the impact of COVID-19 on children has caused a strain on their mental health, emotional well-being and academic success. We are relieved to now be in a place where we can provide young people additional relief from COVID-19 restrictions so they can continue to return to normalcy in the classroom,” said Riley. Masking continues to be required on all school buses, per federal order. In August 2021, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education gave the commissioner the authority to require masks for public school staff and students (ages five and older) in all grades through at least October 1, 2021. The commissioner used his authority to extend the requirement three times.
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