Students at Jim Thorpe Area schools won’t be required to wear masks when they return to school this fall.

School board members overwhelmingly agreed to eliminate masking requirements for students regardless of their vaccine status.

It was a last-minute change to the district’s 2021-22 health and safety plan, which the board adopted Wednesday night.

“We should leave it open to the parents to say which way they want to go with their child - either having them wear masks, no masks, get shots, no shots, but it should be in the hands of the parents, what they think,” said school board member Paul Montemuro.

The decision applies indoors and outdoors during the school day, and during sports.

Students will still have to wear masks riding the bus, in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for mass transit.

Districts across the commonwealth are taking different approaches to masks in the 2021-22 school year. The School District of Philadelphia plans to require masks for all students, but many others made the same decision as Jim Thorpe.

Elected officials such as Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, said they don’t think masks are necessary.

The secretary of education hasn’t released any requirements for districts, but said he will likely urge schools to follow CDC recommendations.

Before the school board vote, the plan said that unvaccinated students should wear masks, and vaccinated students could wear them if they wanted to. There were no vaccine mandates included in the plan, but it notes that doctors encourage families to have their children vaccinated.

The school board didn’t change the plan’s requirements for teachers. Unvaccinated teachers will be required to wear masks.

The district plans to hold a vaccine clinic open to all residents of the school district on July 28 from 4-6 p.m. The Pfizer vaccine will be used.

Under the approved plan, students will be back in school five days a week. Last year, students were virtual at least one day a week.

The plan says if there is an uptick in cases in Carbon County, the district could modify the layout of classrooms and keep groups of students together like it did last year.

There are no plans for mandatory temperature screenings, and it will be up to parents to report positive cases.

“Let’s get back to normal. Let’s get our kids back to school, and let’s get this education rolling. The kids are not learning in the situation we have,” Montemuro said.