Mask Mandate Decision Coming In Hopatcong Schools: Superintendent

HOPATCONG, NJ — Hopatcong Borough Schools, which advocated for a mask-optional environment before Gov. Phil Murphy's Executive Order, expects to release a statement about where the district stands on the mask mandate “in the coming days,” according to its superintendent.

Murphy announced on Monday that he expects to drop the state mandate on March 7 and leave masking decisions up to each school district.

Hopatcong Borough Schools Superintendent Joseph Piccirillo told Patch in an email on Monday that he had reached out to the district’s Board of Education and union leadership about the topic, following Murphy's announcement.

Families will be notified of the district's update in a joint statement by email, he said. The district also plans to post the statement on its website, Piccirillo added.

Former Superintendent Art DiBenedetto and Piccirillo — who was then assistant superintendent —sent a letter to Murphy in June asking him to consider leaving mask mandates at local levels for the 2021-2022 school year. The district had originally planned on a mask-optional environment for the start of the school year before Murphy’s Executive Order.

In August, a group of parents planned to challenge the school’s order. Heather Fiore, who was then running as an independent candidate for Hopatcong Borough Council, was one of those parents. Fiore told Patch her son had learning delays in kindergarten during the 2020-2021 school year because of the mask mandates. At her request, her son repeated kindergarten for the 2021-2022 school year because she felt he did not develop the writing and speaking skills needed, with both he and his teacher masked.

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