The Toronto District School Board is moving forward with lifting the mask mandate in its schools next week after the province rejected its request for additional time to remove COVID-19 measures.

 Alexander Brown, Chair of the Toronto District School Board, wrote a letter last week to Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce, and Toronto's Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa demanding the mask removal scheduled on the student return day on March 21 for an indefinite period of time.

Brown wrote that removing such measures as masking, distancing, gathering, and daily screening protection at the same time would conflict with our layered approach to protect our school communities from the spread of COVID-19.

In a post on its website on Thursday, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) said the province "reiterated its previous stance" in response to the board's letter.

Meanwhile, in her response to the TDSB letter, de Villa reiterated that policies regarding masks in schools "fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial government."

She added that, according to the latest update to the Reopening Ontario Act, "local medical officers are prohibited from issuing instruction letters to implement local measures, including requiring masks in schools or other locations."