The South East Cornerstone Public School Division is examining its mask mandate as a part of the school, with just over a month of classes left this year.

At a meeting held last week Friday, some parents told the school board that they believe the mask mandate is not worth the negatives and should be scrapped.

The parents also told the board that masks were ineffective due to how small the COVID-19 virus is and that there was excessive hand sanitizer use.

Lynn Little, the superintendent of education for the school division, said that they've been following the province's guidelines.

"We've been following Saskatchewan's safe school plan from its inception which was developed last August by the government of Saskatchewan," said Little. "So our school division has a southeast cornerstone safety and response plan which is directly aligned with that safe school plan.  The whole point of the plan is providing a safe teaching environment."

Little talked about how the mask mandate has benefits not just for the school but for the community as a whole.

"The benefit is simply a health benefit in that a mask is an added layer of protection similar to social distancing and they reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus," Little said. "From my understanding, it keeps us safe but it also keeps our family and other folks we may contact safe."

While Little does not believe that getting rid of the mask mandate is the right move, she is sympathetic to those who have issues with masks.

"This is not something any of us would have chosen - would we all rather be unmasked? Certainly," said Little "While we understand that masks can be uncomfortable and they can provide some challenges, they have allowed us to provide a face-to-face learning environment for the majority of the year, and that was our goal."

Little says that the school division is also excited to see the province go through reopening, and is working to boost vaccination numbers.

"We've been working really closely with the three health network services regarding the school-age vaccination clinics. We intend to send out information through e-mail to parents shortly."