Littleton School Committee Drops Mask Conditions, Adds Diwali as School Holiday

LITTLETON — March 3, 2022 — Littleton School Committee unanimously drops all mask-flexibility conditions and adds Diwali as a school holiday. The board voted 4-0 Thursday on both measures, ending the district's pool-testing requirement for students who wish to go maskless and aligning Littleton with neighboring districts that moved to mask-optional status when the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education lifted its mandate on February 28. Member Jen Gold, who had helped negotiate the original three-condition agreement with the Littleton Board of Health, called the situation "a very strange" outcome: "We started out really progressively, really forward thinking, and we ended up in a place where we're way behind almost every other town." The Diwali vote, driven by an organized campaign from LMS eighth-grader Aria Wachsender and the LHS DEI Club, places the holiday on October 24 in the draft 2022-23 calendar, which sets a September 7 student start and a June 12 last day. The committee also voted unanimously to remove the federal mask requirement on school buses and vans, and separately accepted into the first phase of the Massachusetts School Building Authority's eligibility process for a potential new Shaker Lane Elementary School — a project the superintendent said is realistically five to six years from completion if the district clears all MSBA checkpoints, with a feasibility study estimated at $700,000.