Glenn Youngkin

Morning Poll: Tax cuts or funding boosts?

By ARLnow.com
Virginia Capitol in Richmond (staff photo)

Good news: Virginia is flush with cash.

State tax revenues have been unexpectedly robust — billions more than first anticipated — and that has Republicans and Democrats in Richmond at loggerheads over what to do with the money.

From the Virginia Mercury last month:

Virginia’s new governor marked his 30th day in office with a state tour meant to build support for his tax-cutting plans, which have gotten a mixed response in the politically split legislature.

Parts of it, such as a plan to give every Virginia taxpayer a one-time rebate of $300, have passed with strong bipartisan support. Other proposals, like eliminating the state’s grocery tax and suspending a scheduled increase in the gas tax, have been a tough sell in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The budget remains in flux, with the state legislature adjourned until a special session is called, allowing lawmakers to work out their differences. While Republicans are calling for nearly $5.5 billion in tax cuts and rebates — plus, more recently, a temporary gas tax holiday — Democrats want more modest tax cuts, targeted to those with lower incomes, while boosting funding for priorities like education.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

The House budget includes almost $5.5 billion in tax cuts and rebates, but the Senate continues to insist on deferring the centerpiece of the governor’s tax plan — the doubling of the standard deduction for income tax filers — until a joint subcommittee completes a comprehensive study of Virginia tax policy in the coming year. Doubling the standard deduction would reduce state revenues by $2 billion over two years.

The Senate has agreed to partial repeal of the 2.5% sales tax on groceries, but has balked at eliminating the 1% that goes directly to local governments and has approved a less generous tax exemption for military retirement income than the House. It also has approved smaller tax rebates this year than the House and rejected a 12-month rollback in the gas tax as meaningless to soaring prices at the pump.

In general, what do you think the state should do with its unexpected extra revenue, if you were to select one thing as Richmond’s top budget priority?

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
As seen along Fairfax Drive in Ballston (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Board Calls Out Youngkin’s Auditor Veto — “The Arlington County Board said Wednesday that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s veto of its police oversight bill was ‘deeply frustrating.'” [WTOP, Arlington County]

Sen. Kaine Has Long Covid — “Sen. Tim Kaine got covid-19 in the spring of 2020, and nearly two years later he still has mild symptoms.
‘I tell people it feels like all my nerves have had like five cups of coffee,’ Kaine said Wednesday of his ’24/7′ tingling sensation, just after introducing legislation intended to expand understanding of long covid.” [Washington Post]

Volunteers Clean Up Muddy Trail –From the Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail: “Before and after of the Gravelly Point mud puddle which was removed by volunteers on Saturday while edging the trail. Make a difference on the trail when you register for one of our upcoming volunteer events.” [Twitter]

It’s Thursday — Partly cloudy throughout the day. High of 53 and low of 35. Sunrise at 6:39 am and sunset at 6:05 pm. [Weather.gov]

JUST IN: Youngkin vetoes Arlington police auditor bill

By Jo DeVoe
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin in Tysons (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated at 1:55 p.m.) Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s first veto could mean Arlington’s police oversight board cannot be led by an independent policing auditor.

Today (Tuesday), the Republican governor vetoed his first bill: HB 670, put forward by Arlington’s Del. Patrick Hope (D). It would have granted the Arlington County Board permission to appoint an independent auditor who would oversee the Community Oversight Board (COB), which is tasked with handling civilian complaints of misconduct by Arlington police officers.

Arlington County Board Chair Katie Cristol told ARLnow this morning that the Board wants to work with Youngkin to clarify the powers of the county’s police oversight board and the role of the auditor in hopes that he will rescind the veto.

The Arlington County Democratic Committee decried the veto as “play[ing] politics with a commonsense measure that passed the GOP controlled House.”

The policing auditor would have been a County Board-appointed position and the person filling the role would have answered directly to the Board. Most other top managerial positions report to the Board-appointed County Manager.

Should Youngkin’s veto remain in place, Cristol says the COB would still be led by an auditor, but this leader would instead answer to County Manager Mark Schwartz. That would mean a weaker auditor, she adds.

“It was really important that the independent policing auditor be just that, and not be under the chief law enforcement official of the county, which is the County Manager,” Cristol said.

Cristol says the Board wants to work with Youngkin because it seems — by his press release — that he misunderstands what the COB can and cannot do. She said the governor may have vetoed the bill based on a faulty understanding of the new body’s powers.

“Based on his press release, I think he made this action without full knowledge of what he was vetoing,” she said. “Specifically, he says, in referencing his vetoing of the bill, the Community Oversight Board would ‘make binding disciplinary determinations, including termination and involuntary restitution.’ Our ordinance didn’t empower the COB or the independent auditor to do that.”

Hope’s bill was merely an “administrative fix” to a bill passed last year, she said.

“Assuming this does stand, we are incredibly disappointed,” she said. “It’s not an expansion of [the] Community Oversight Board in the Commonwealth. It puts Arlington into parity with other jurisdictions in the Commonwealth.”

Del. Hope explains that his bill corrects for a shortcoming in the county charter that requires the County Board to get permission from the General Assembly to make any hire. He says Youngkin’s response is a new one.

“In my 13 years of service, I don’t ever recall seeing a Governor vetoing a local Charter bill,” he said. “To say that I’m disappointed the Governor would use his veto pen on a Charter bill to make a misguided political statement is an understatement.”

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BREAKING: Masks optional at Arlington Public Schools as of March 1

By Jo DeVoe

(Updated at 4:10 p.m.) Arlington Public Schools is effectively repealing its mask mandate for all students and staff.

The move, which takes effect tomorrow (March 1), responds to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, which was released on Friday. No opt-out form is required for those who do not wish to wear masks.

The CDC changed how it measures the severity of Covid at the local level and relaxed its masking guidelines. Now, it advises most Americans to wear a mask only when Covid-related hospitalization rates are high so as not to overwhelm hospitals. When that rate is low or moderate — it’s currently low in Arlington County, according to the CDC — people can forego face coverings.

More from a School Talk email sent to APS families this afternoon:

Dear APS Staff and Families,

On Friday evening, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published updated guidance that included new metrics for measuring COVID-19 community levels.

The CDC’s new guidance lists Arlington’s current COVID-19 community level as low, and states that masks should be optional in communities at the low level.

APS will continue following the CDC’s guidance for operating safely to allow everyone — students, families, staff and visitors — to decide whether they will wear a mask at school and on the school bus. This change takes effect March 1, and there is no opt-out form required. APS will adjust these requirements, should community levels change. More information is available online.

Mask-wearing is a personal decision based on individual circumstances, and I ask everyone to support our students and each other. We will continue to foster inclusive, safe and supportive learning environments for all. Families, please talk to your student(s) regarding your expectations for mask-wearing and remind them to be kind and respect their peers as they exercise decisions to wear a mask or not.

Although APS is dropping its mask mandate, Arlington’s Public Health Division is waiting for more guidance from the state, says spokesman Ryan Hudson.

The county has required visitors to county facilities to wear masks if they can’t maintain six feet of distance from others. Arlington Public Library has required visitors age two and older, regardless of vaccination status, to mask up since August, which also won’t be changing right now, says library spokesman Henrik Sundqvist.

“In light of the CDC updating the way it monitors COVID-19’s impact on our communities, Arlington County is awaiting updates on the Virginia Department of Health’s mask guidance,” Hudson said. “At this time, there are no changes to the mask policy for County employees and government buildings.”

Right now, the VDH page on masking recommendations is blank save for the following message: “VDH is currently reviewing its mask guidance. Thank you for your patience; updated information will be available soon.”

Once a decision is made, Hudson said, the county will update residents via newsletter, website updates and social media.

“Layered prevention strategies — like staying up to date on vaccines and wearing masks — can help prevent severe illness and reduce the potential for strain on the healthcare system,” he noted.

There hasn’t been a blanket mask mandate in Virginia since former Gov. Ralph Northam lifted it for those who are fully vaccinated in May of last year. But Arlingtonians have had to wear masks in public schools, county buildings and libraries. Anecdotally, residents also stepped up voluntary masking whenever Covid cases surged.

(more…)

W-L students give away books they say could be ‘banned’ under new bill

By Jo DeVoe
Washington-Liberty High School students browse copies of “Beloved” and “Maus” (courtesy photo)

(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) This afternoon, a group of Washington-Liberty High School students are giving their peers more than 100 copies of two politically controversial books.

The books are “Beloved,” Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel following a Black family during the Reconstruction era, and “Maus,” Art Spiegelman’s award-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust and his father’s life during World War II. Both have explicit content that has some parents and politicians questioning their place in schools.

Controversy around “Beloved” is part of the origin story for a bill passed by the state Senate earlier this month, which would require teachers to label classroom materials that have sexually explicit content. “Maus,” meanwhile, rocketed into the national spotlight after a Tennessee school board voted last month to remove the book from its curriculum due to “inappropriate language” and an illustration of a nude woman.

In addition to labeling classroom materials that have sexually explicit content, the new law requires teachers to notify parents if they are going to teach the materials. It gives parents the right to opt their children out of these lessons and request alternative materials.

But some high school students in Arlington and Fairfax counties are calling the law “backdoor censorship” and organized the distribution in response. It began at 3:15 p.m. in Quincy Park, near W-L.

“Great thinkers and proud Virginians like Thomas Jefferson, Maggie Walker, James Madison, George Mason and Oliver Hill — men and women who understood the importance of education and the value of studying difficult and divisive ideas — are rolling over in their graves,” W-L freshman and giveaway organizer Aaron Zevin-Lopez said in a statement.

Zevin-Lopez tells ARLnow he teamed up with George Marshall High School student Matt Savage — who has been facilitating distributions in Northern Virginia schools this month — to host a book giveaway in Arlington.

“Kids at my school understood that the Governor was attempting to limit reading rights within schools, so we thought that handing out the books beforehand could be a great way to spread the message of resistance and making sure the youth understands our past, both good and bad,” Zevin-Lopez said.

The two students are leaders of the Virginia chapter of a Gen-Z political advocacy group called Voters of Tomorrow, which is providing financial support for the giveaway.

“When the government establishes laws to label literature in terms of a single factor like ‘sexually explicit’, regardless of that factor’s significance to the larger world of literary merit or meaning, it edges closer to censorship,” said Savage, president of Voters of Tomorrow Virginia. “It means we are labeling content for the sole purpose of suppressing it.”

The students say requiring teachers to define their lessons in terms of how much “sexually explicit” content it contains will dissuade them from using anything that may be considered “objectionable.” They add that the law will force teachers to draft two entire lesson plans for one class on the objection of just one parent.

The bill is similar to one passed in 2016, which became known as the “Beloved” bill because it was inspired by a mother’s attempt to have the novel removed from her son’s English class. It was vetoed, however, by Gov. Terry McAuliffe — and his veto narrowly avoided being overturned by the House of Delegates.

The question of parental involvement in education became a central theme of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial campaign after McAuliffe said during a debate, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Passing the law was a campaign promise of and priority for Youngkin when he assumed office. The Republican governor unsuccessfully tried to pass other laws, including one rooting out curriculum based on critical race theory, and created a tip line for people to report teaching strategies they object to.

APS must make masks optional by March 1, will present new policy today

By Brandi Bottalico
The Arlington School Board at a meeting

Arlington Public Schools will present a new masking policy at a school board meeting tonight (Thursday) in light of a new law that requires masks be optional by March 1.

The school system hasn’t yet outlined how it will change its policy, which currently mandates students wear masks indoors, but the new state law allows parents to opt their children out of mask requirements.

“APS has been reviewing the latest health guidance and planning for when we can safely ease our masks requirements,” spokesperson Andrew Robinson said in a statement. “We will present our plan and revised policy at Thursday’s School Board meeting. We have come far together as a community in maintaining safe, open schools, even during the Omicron spike, and we will continue that work together.”

Arlington Public Schools has continued to require students to wear masks, bucking Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order after a temporary injunction was granted.

The Arlington School Board and six other Northern Virginia school boards sued Youngkin challenging his power to prohibit local mandates and were able to continue requiring masks until the lawsuit was resolved. But Senate Bill 739 makes that suit moot, establishing the order as law.

“This new legislation supersedes the Executive Order, so the injunction in the Arlington case is moot starting March 1,” a spokesperson in the Office of the Attorney General told ARLnow.

The bill ultimately passed the state Senate last week and the House of Delegates Monday before it swiftly made its way to Youngkin for a signature.

And as APS may have to roll back its masking requirement, the school board is also set to vote on whether to pause an in-house Virtual Learning Program (VLP) it debuted this school year for families who preferred keeping their kids home due to the ongoing pandemic.

“VLP families fear that many, faced with an impossible choice, will be forced back into APS facilities,” said the VLP Parent Coalition, which represents families in the program, in a statement. “Immunocompromised children and families will have no choice but to put themselves at risk for COVID-19 infection.”

APS has said that students may continue with virtual instruction through the state’s online learning platform, Virtual Virginia, if they or a family member has a medical condition that complicates going to school every day. APS staff will supplement whatever Virtual Virginia courses don’t cover and will support students during the transfer to their home schools.

But this alternative will likely result in less live, remote instruction for students when they have already experienced learning loss due to the pandemic and to understaffing when the VLP got started, the parent group said.

Jo DeVoe and Matt Blitz contributed to this article.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
A 97.1% waxing gibbous moon rises over a construction crane in Rosslyn (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Mask Optional Bill Heads to Governor — “As had their state Senate colleagues the preceding week, members of Arlington’s delegation to the House of Delegates were unanimous in their opposition to legislation ending mask mandates on students in Virginia’s public-education system. But the opposition did nothing to stop the bill’s momentum – the measure on Feb. 14 won final passage in the House of Delegates and is on its way to Gov. Youngkin.” [Sun Gazette]

More on Roosevelt Bridge Work — “The Roosevelt Bridge connecting Arlington and D.C. got a close-up inspection Monday after transportation officials ordered emergency road work to the bridge over the weekend. D.C. Department of Transportation Director Everett Lott said the bridge, which is 58 years old, was given a ‘poor’ rating during an inspection in 2018 and a “fair” rating in 2016. Lanes will be shut down on the bridge for as long as six months due to a rusted beam.” [NBC 4]

Homeless Shelter Moved Everyone to Motel — “Staffers at Arlington County’s largest homeless shelter for adults have spent the better part of the past two years trying to keep the coronavirus in check. They tested everyone regularly, moved any person who caught the virus into isolation. They had strict protocols, high vaccination rates among the nearly 100 homeless residents who use the facility and required that face masks be worn indoors… But then came omicron.” [Washington Post]

Preservation Bill Dead for 2022 — “Advocates of historic-preservation legislation patroned by two Northern Virginia lawmakers will have to wait until 2023 to try and win enactment. The House of Delegates Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns voted Feb. 11 to delay final consideration of legislation patroned by Del. Hope (D-Arlington) to next year.” [Sun Gazette]

Towing Accountability Bill Fails — “A measure its patron said would provide more teeth to Virginia’s statutes regulating the towing industry died a perhaps predictable death in the House of Delegates. Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington-Fairfax) had patroned legislation that would have made violations of state and local towing rules subject to the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. It also would have provided ‘meaningful civil penalties’ for towing malfeasance, the patron said in comments to a subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation.” [Sun Gazette]

Small House Fire in N. Arlington — From the Arlington County Fire Department: “This morning at approx. 0920 crews were dispatched for a reported structure fire in the 3600 BLK of N. Vermont St. Crews found a small fire with minimal extension. No injuries were reported.” [Twitter]

W-L Track Wins Championship — “For what is officially supposed to be an indoor sport, the Washington-Liberty Generals improvised quite well and won a Liberty District boys track and field championship as a result. The Generals finished first with 128 points, with the Yorktown Patriots second with 88.” [Sun Gazette]

It’s Tuesday — Today will be sunny, with a high near 40. Sunrise at 6:58 a.m. and sunset at 5:46 p.m. Tomorrow will be sunny and breezy, with a high near 54. [Weather.gov]

County Board signals support for Arlington schools in mask clash with state

By Jo DeVoe
Board Chair Katie Cristol during the recessed meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022 (via Arlington County)

The Arlington County Board says it’s on the side of Arlington Public Schools in the battle with the state over mask mandates.

Arlington and six other Northern Virginia school systems filed a lawsuit Monday challenging Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order on Jan. 15, his first day in office, prohibiting school systems from requiring students wear masks.

The order states parents should be able to “elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the child’s school or educational program.”

During the County Board’s recessed meeting yesterday (Tuesday), Board Chair Katie Cristol and Vice-Chair Christian Dorsey affirmed masking as an important COVID-19 mitigation strategy and pledged to support APS.

“I think I speak for all of us in saying that we are supportive of Arlington Public Schools, the School Board and superintendent and all of their efforts to keep students and teachers safe and therefore learning in person,” Cristol said.

Dorsey said the Board believes the school system’s actions are lawful and “absolutely the right thing to do.”

“We will figure out how we can support them any way possible,” he said.

He criticized the executive order — which also requires School Boards to marshal up additional resources to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 — as being vague and counter-productive while lacking funding.

“There’s a great question as to whether communities broadly, not just school systems, are going to be held to certain standards of making certain spending to offer COVID-19 mitigation that are currently being met with masks,” he said.

But the County Board stopped short of showing its support with a vote, a step the Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors took yesterday (Tuesday). The Fairfax County School Board is another plaintiff in the lawsuit, alongside the school boards of Alexandria City, Falls Church City, Hampton City, Prince William County and the City of Richmond.

The lawsuit claims Youngkin can’t make an order that supersedes the right of school boards to enact policy at the local level. It also claims the order contradicts a recently adopted law directing school boards to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s health and safety requirements.

Arlington Circuit Court, where the suit was filed, scheduled a hearing in the suit for Wednesday, Feb. 2. While Arlington awaits a ruling from the judge on the complaint, it had already determined it would continue its school mask requirement despite the order, which was set to take effect Monday.

The governor’s press secretary said in a statement they are disappointed in the school boards.

“The governor and attorney general are in coordination and are committed to aggressively defending parents’ fundamental right to make decisions with regard to their child’s upbringing, education, and care, as the legal process plays out,” she said in a statement to FFXnow.

Following the executive order, the Virginia Department of Health issued updated guidance Friday on preventing COVID-19 in schools, which reiterates points made in the executive order emphasizing parents’ rights, keeping schools open and providing a safe environment.

(more…)

Arlington School Board sues to challenge Youngkin’s mask order

By Brandi Bottalico

(updated at 3:35 p.m.) The Arlington School Board is suing to stop Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order that doesn’t allow school systems to require students to wear masks.

The lawsuit filed this morning (Monday) challenges the order issued by Youngkin on Jan. 15, his first day in office. Arlington joined school boards from Fairfax County, Alexandria City, Falls Church City, Hampton City, Prince William County and the City of Richmond in the suit.

The order states parents should be able to “elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the child’s school or educational program.”

The order was supposed to take effect today but school districts across the state, including Arlington, already made decisions at the local level to go against the order and keep a mask requirement in place as part of a strategy to reduce the spread of Covid and maintain in-person instruction.

The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the executive order, and defends the right of school boards to enact policy at the local level. The lawsuit also claims the executive order goes against Senate Bill 1303, which was adopted in the General Assembly’s 2021 special session. The law states school boards should follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s health and safety requirements.

“Everyone in our community plays a role in keeping schools open and safe for students through consistent mask wearing and other mitigation measures,” APS Superintendent Fransisco Durán wrote in an email to families. “Our shared goal remains to make sure every student continues to access in-person learning five days per week. We look forward to the opportunity to ease these requirements in APS once public health guidance indicates it is safe to do so.”

APS spokesman Frank Bellavia said the schools continue to follow the same guidelines in place since the beginning of the school year.

“If a student is not wearing a mask, our schools are advised to speak to the student and provide them a mask to wear,” he said.

He said the vast majority of APS families support and adhere to the health and safety guidelines and when students arrived at school Monday, there were “very few incidents.”

The Arlington School Board put out a statement as well, stating it “stands together with participating school boards across the Commonwealth to defend our constitutional right to set policies and supervise our local schools. We continue to make decisions that allow us to keep schools open and safe for in-person learning, in accordance with Virginia law SB 1303 and the CDC’s guidance regarding the use of universal masks and other layered prevention strategies.”

Over the last seven days, 467 students and 98 staff members were positive for Covid, according to the school system’s COVID-19 dashboard.

The full press release from Arlington Public Schools is below.

Today, the Schools Boards of Alexandria City, Arlington County, City of Richmond, Fairfax County, Falls Church City, Hampton City and Prince William County, filed a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of Executive Order 2 issued by the governor on January 15, 2022. The legal action, representing over 350,000 students across the state, defends the right of school boards to enact policy at the local level, including policies that protect the health and well-being of all students and staff.

This legal action centers on fundamental questions about the framework of public education in Virginia, as set out in the Virginia Constitution and by the General Assembly. At issue is whether locally elected school boards have the exclusive authority and responsibility conferred upon them by Article VIII, § 7 of the Constitution of Virginia over supervision of the public schools in their respective communities, or whether an executive order can unilaterally override that constitutional authority.

Also at issue is whether a governor can, through executive order, without legislative action by the Virginia General Assembly, reverse a lawfully-adopted statute. In this case, Senate Bill 1303, adopted with the goal of returning students to safe in-person instruction five days a week in March 2021 and still legally in effect, provides that local school boards should follow The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) health and safety requirements.

Without today’s action, school boards are placed in a legally untenable position — faced with an executive order that is in conflict with the constitution and state law. Today’s action is not politically motivated. These seven school divisions would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the governor to ensure the safety and welfare of all students.

This lawsuit is not brought out of choice, but out of necessity.

With COVID-19 transmission rates high, our hospitals at crisis level, and the continued recommendation of health experts to retain universal mask-wearing for the time being, this is simply not the time to remove this critical component of layered health and safety mitigation strategies. School divisions need to continue to preserve their authority to protect and serve all our students, including our most vulnerable, who need these mitigation measures perhaps more than anyone to be able to continue to access in-person instruction.

Most-read Arlington stories of the week: Jan. 17-21

By Brandi Bottalico

This week was yet another filled with plenty of news about snow, but unlike previous January weeks not a lot of actual snow.

Using its last traditional snow day allotment, Arlington Public Schools closed Thursday for what turned out to be a bust — a rainy, cold day. Lucky for students looking to enjoy the weather when school’s closed, this weekend should at least be sunny, albeit a little cold, in Arlington.

Now, here are the most-read Arlington articles of the past week.

  1. Feds release new details about Jan. 6 weapons cache at Arlington hotel
  2. JUST IN: Winter Weather Advisory issued ahead of Thursday morning snow
  3. BREAKING: APS closes schools Thursday due to expected snow
  4. Morning Poll: Should APS continue to require masks in schools?
  5. The shift from rain to snow delayed in Arlington, NWS decreases possible accumulation
  6. Guaranteed income pilot program moves forward without any county funding
  7. NEW: Covid cases falling in Arlington, following regional trends
  8. Winter Restaurant Week to feature 18 Arlington restaurants
  9. ‘Old Lee Highway’ gets new name: Cherry Hill Road
  10. JUST IN: APS says masks still required for students, despite Youngkin’s order

Feel free to discuss those stories or anything else of local interest in the comments. Have a great weekend!

Catholic Diocese of Arlington tells schools to follow Youngkin’s mask exemption order

By Jo DeVoe

The Diocese of Arlington is advising Catholic schools to follow Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) executive order exempting families from school-based mask mandates.

One of Youngkin’s first acts in office was an executive order intended to let parents decide whether their children wear masks to school. It goes into effect Monday and rescinds former Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order last year requiring masks in schools.

In a letter to school leaders explaining what this means for schools in the Diocese of Arlington — which encompasses 21 counties and seven cities in Northern Virginia — Superintendent of Schools Joseph E. Vorbach III says state requirements supersede local public health guidance.

“Throughout the pandemic, our Catholic schools have been directed to follow state and local public health directives,” he writes. “Where those have been in conflict, the state requirement has primacy.”

The executive order says parents of a child enrolled in elementary or secondary school or a school-based early child care and educational program “may elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the child’s school or educational program,” the order reads.

The state legislature, however, passed a law that some schools systems interpret as protecting their ability to establish mask mandates in order to offer in-person instruction. The executive order’s legality has since been challenged by some parents who sued. Attorney General Jason Miyares has already asked the lawsuit be dismissed.

In response, Arlington Public Schools, as well as other public school systems, including those in Alexandria and Fairfax County, have come out with guidance defying Virginia’s new governor. Last night (Thursday), the Arlington School Board voted to retain the school system’s mask requirement.

But Catholic schools in the sprawling Diocese of Arlington, which reaches from Arlington to Shenandoah County, are being told to follow Youngkin’s order while keeping up other mitigation strategies recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Diocesan direction to our schools is to continue following local public health guidance, without however, violating the rights of parents as described in Executive Order 2,” Vorbach said. “The governor’s executive order is clear on the right of parents not to have their child be subject to a mask mandate.”

As for how school administrators should walk this tight-rope, Vorbach says schools should provide updated, school-specific guidance to faculty and parents and maintain other COVID-19 protocols.

“The diocese continues to elect to follow CDC guidelines for isolation of those who contract COVID-19 and quarantining for those who come in close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19,” he said.

Spokeswoman Amber Roseboom tells ARLnow that one way administrators can navigate this shift in approach is to identify “which parents prefer their children to wear a mask in school.”

In addition, she said, the schools will keep up with other public health recommendations related to isolation and quarantine.

“Local public health guidance remains very important, and our schools are continuing to employ a variety of COVID-19 mitigation strategies,” she said. “We are following isolation and quarantine recommendations to the greatest extent possible. Our schools communicate with local public health offices regularly. The Executive Order allowing parental choice on masks is a new variable our schools will work with, as we have done in each situation over the past two years.”

The CDC, which recommends masking, has published studies showing more COVID-19 cases among schools without universal masking policies, although some have questioned the science behind this guidance.

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