Two board members agree with 75 percent of teachers who want mask mandate; three board members see it differently
At the end of a grueling school board meeting, Greene County school superintendent Tim Christensen delivered a bit of good news related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The USDA has extended funding for free breakfast and lunch for all students for the remainder of the school year. The change is to assure all students have access to nutritious meals.
More difficult portions of the meeting were also due to the pandemic. The result of more than an hour of discussion split between the regular meeting and the preceding work session is that effective Thursday, all students and staff in district buildings must wear a face mask when they aren’t able to maintain a 6-foot social distance.
A motion to “freeze” the district on yellow in the mask matrix was approved by a three-two vote, with directors Catherine Wilson, John McConnell and Steve Fisher voting in favor and directors Steve Karber and Mike Dennhardt voting against. The vote was the same in August when Wilson, McConnell and Fisher voted for the matrix. Karber and Dennhardt then voted against the matrix, having lobbied the board for a mandate.
“Yellow” refers to a matrix adopted by the board in August, with green meaning masks are not required, yellow meaning masks are required when social distancing isn’t possible, and red meaning masks are required at all times. Where a building is on the matrix is determined by the number of positive C-19 cases among staff and/or students. All three school buildings have been at red at least once this school year.
Christensen said according to the Greene County department of public health, there have been 29 cases of C-19 among staff and students. Of those, in more than 20 cases the contact with someone contagious was not at school. The letter also asked the board to do what it could to increase mask wearing.
Board president Fisher opened the floor for comments at the work session. Keeping students in school was mentioned many times.
Michelle Fields’ eighth-grade daughter was recently quarantined for 14 days. She said although the teachers worked to make remote learning the best experience it could be, there were sporadic technical difficulties and her daughter’s grades slid from As and Bs to include a C and a failing grade.
Fields said she’d like to see masks required at all times. “That will give us the best chance of keeping them in school. They’ll have the best success in education if they’re actually at school.”
She later told the board, “My expectation of you is that you do whatever you can to keep our kids in school.”
First grade teacher JoAnn Rasmussen said maintaining a social distance is impossible at the elementary level and she’d rather see masks mandated at all times. “We (teachers) want to be in school. Our kids want to be in school. Our parents want us to be in school,” she said, and then asked the board to mandate masks at the elementary until public health advises they aren’t necessary.
Elementary school nurse Lita Bauer called wearing a mask “the simple way to stay in school.” “People want their kids to be in school and we have a very simple way to do that. Have them wear masks,” she said.
High school teacher Darren Jackson and high school instruction coach Pat Heinrichs both said there were no complaints from students when the school was at red and masks were required. Jackson called being at yellow “the biggest headache” as students argued when and where they were keeping a social distance.
Directors Karber and Dennhardt both championed a mask mandate in August rather than the matrix, and they did at the October discussion as well. “We’re making a bad decision if we don’t mandate masks,” Dennhardt said.
Karber, a retired physician, answered McConnell’s questions about the effectiveness of masks and restated information that has been publicized by the media – that masks don’t protect the wearer from getting C-19, but they keep the wearer from passing it to someone else. “You wear a mask for me and I wear one for you,” Karber explained.
Christensen opened discussion at the regular meeting saying a decision about requiring masks was “extremely challenging,” and one he wishes “someone at a higher level” had made.
Fisher pointed out the Centers for Disease Control’s current recommendation is to wear masks when social distancing isn’t possible, which corresponds to yellow on the school’s matrix. He said he understands parents’ and students’ frustration when schools move from color to color, but that at the high school students should be given a choice.
He said we went to the meeting, prior to hearing comments from staff, that the district should stay at yellow. “That would give teachers, when they’re in their room alone, an opportunity to take off their mask. Or if kids needed a break, there’s room at the high school where they can sit someplace by themselves. I’m hesitant to pass a mandate for all three buildings when all three have different situations,” he said.
Wilson agreed, saying students should have a place to take a break without a mask. She said students are stressed and we have to look at how the pandemic is affecting children mentally and emotionally.
Dennhardt agreed that students are stressed. “Don’t think I don’t think about not being able to look at people…. But it is upon us keeping these kids in school. I think this is going to be a ‘normal’ for school. You don’t want to wear it at home… I totally agree with that.”
Despite teacher Jackson calling yellow “the biggest headache,” Wilson said “If it’s at yellow, if they’re closer than six feet, they’ll have their mask on. They should be able to stay in school. There will be no reason (to be quarantined).”
Dennhardt pushed, asking Wilson, “How are you going to police that? I absolutely agree students should take responsibility, but they won’t…”
Christensen told the board that based on his conversations with teachers, about 75 percent favored a mask mandate.
A three-person majority of the board didn’t oblige them.”
