Students in all three Greene County Schools buildings will be able to choose whether or not wear a face mask starting Monday. Masks will still be required on school busses with maintaining a 6-foot social distance isn’t possible.
The board of education decided by a 3-2 vote at its regular meeting April 21 to move to “green” on the mask matrix for school buildings and to yellow on buses. The vote was the same as votes earlier in the school year dealing with face masks as mitigation against the Covid-19 pandemic, with board members Catherine Wilson, Steve Fisher and John McConnell voting against requiring masks and Steve Karber and Mike Dennhardt voting in favor of requiring masks.
The discussion was heated, with Wilson and Fisher leading the case against masks. Superintendent Christensen opened the discussion saying things were “going well. We haven’t had a lot of cases.” He said the school nurses’ concerns have been primarily related to knowing when to quarantine students.
Fisher asked Christensen for a reminder of the guidelines – students are quarantined if they’re closer than 6 feet for more than 15 minutes to a student who tests positive for Covid. If both students are wearing face masks, there is no quarantine, but if either or neither student is wearing a mask, both students are quarantined.
Board president Karber, a retired physician, explained the quarantine guidelines. Fisher asked if they came from the county public health department or the Centers for Disease Control and then asked for a written copy.
Wilson then asked Dr Chad Schwander, a chiropractor, to speak. He came prepared with several pages for board members to read. He spoke for 8-1/2 minutes, first thanking board members and school staff for their efforts the past year. “I know you guys do what you feel is in the best interest of all our children… Right now, what is best for our children is to get the masks off their faces,” Schwander said.
According to Schwander, nationwide the number of persons age 25 or younger who died from Covid-19 is .02 percent of the total deaths, and nearly all these persons had other health conditions. He drew much of his information from “the Stanford study.*
Schwander said of 815 reported cases in Greene County, 12 percent were in children. The 10 deaths in the county were all persons with other complicating health issues. According to him, local and national statistics don’t support a wide intervention, and available scientific literature says masks don’t work. He also said no mask is available that would filter out something as small as the virus that carries Covid-19.
The Stanford study names harms in wearing masks including decreased oxygen, increased carbon monoxide, an increase in stress hormones and muscle tension, aggravation of the instinctive fight or flight response, stress, fear, insomnia, mood disturbances, fear, and more.
“Right now what’s best, what’s healthy, and what’s right is to take these masks off our kids and let them be kids,” he said in closing.
Wilson asked Christensen how many students have had Covid since the full mask mandate was put into effect in February. Christensen answered “a handful.” Wilson then asked if any new cases had been identified in students since the district moved to “yellow” two weeks ago, meaning students need to wear a mask only when social distancing isn’t possible. Christensen said there had been no cases among students and staff, but a case of a parent having Covid; Wilson specified her question was only students and staff “because we’re not responsible for the public.”
Karber spoke before Wilson’s motion was seconded. He said the Stanford study was only a hypothesis, not a study, but as he continued, Wilson interrupted him and talked over him. When he could continued, he explained that masks don’t stop the virus because it’s extremely small, but that masks do stop droplets, which can carry thousands to millions of virus.
“It’s not like the public health profession and physicians are lying to us. They’re trying to use their best information to give us their best advice,” Karber said.
Karber said the most important thing is to keep students in school, and that requiring students to wear masks when they can’t social distance is the best way to do that.
Greene County public health director Becky Wolf via the YouTube live link encouraged the continued use of masks, saying, that children with mild symptoms can still spread Covid. “I know everybody is getting tired of the masks, but the masks are working,” she said.
Senior Alex Roberts was at the meeting to speak on another topic. He favored continuing requiring masks when social distancing isn’t possible. “There are only 20 days of school left for seniors, 30 for everyone else. Can’t we just stick it out til the end? Something’s been working because I’ve seen less kids go missing… We’ve got such a short time left. I don’t want to see my senior year get ruined by something crazy like my junior year did,” he said.
“We need to somehow try to figure out a way to respect people who have legitimate concerns and yet allow people who also have legitimate concerns on the other side to not have their kids encumbered with a mask,” Fisher said.
Wilson’s motion to put the entire district at green on the matrix had not yet been seconded when transportation director Robert Stofer reminded the board that some bus drivers had stated they’d be unable to continue working if students didn’t wear masks on busses.
At that point, Wilson amended her motion so that mask matrix would be at green in all district buildings and yellow on busses. The motion was approved on a 3-2 vote. The effective date was set for April 26.
In other business, the board approved summer projects and purchases including a school bus a van; a JCB; carpet, a carpet extractor and a floor machine for the elementary school; carpet, cafeteria flooring and a walk-in freezer for the middle school; a floor machine for the high school; and a core switch for the district technology office. Total cost is estimated at $291,000. A mower/tractor may be added to the list.
The board also approved purchases to be paid from federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds for Covid relief. The district received $780,000 in ESSER funds, which must be used in the next two years on projects approved by the state. Funds will be used for HVAC improvements at the middle school, including adding air conditioning in the auditorium; heat pumps at the elementary school; Chromebooks for students and teachers; and Clevertouch displays and carts at the elementary. All buildings will have the state-of-the-art Clevertouch displays. Those purchases total $769,000.
High school seniors Alex Roberts and Makala Kafer, along with teacher Kelley Gray, did a presentation on the Ram Fanatic social media class and internships with local businesses. Students in the class assist school staff with social media postings. Students are writing and posting Ram of the Week profiles for the spring sports teams, they’re live -tweeting from sporting events, and they produced team previews for Facebook.
Students are also working with the Retail Revamped downtown merchants on social media use. The Greene County Community Foundation funded a grant for three students to do internships with merchants. The interns will create content for the merchants to use on social media – Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. The goal is to reach a younger generation that doesn’t rely on newspaper advertising.
Seniors Lily Muir, Makala Kafer and Alex Roberts are working with two businesses (six businesses total) for two hours each week. The internships will run May through July.
“I never anticipated the community would get involved like they are,” Christensen said. “Internships is something we talk about a lot. It’s getting kids out in the real world. I think it’s extremely exciting.”
He suggested adding supplemental pay for Gray for handling the program.
School technology director Brent Gersema also likes the program. “I can’t say enough good things about Ram Fanatic and the work they’re doing,” he said. Students are now doing all the digital signage in the district, providing content for the various electronic display board in the district. “It’s the best it’s been since I’ve seen digital signage. They do such creative and neat things.
Funding from the Community Foundation grant provided five iPads, a camera, tripods, and more.
*According to FactCheck, which fact checks science-based claims, the paper was written by Baruch Vainshelboim, who had no affiliation with Stanford University. Julie Greicius, spokesperson for Stanford Health Care and the university’s School of Medicine, said Vainshelboim’s affiliation with Stanford was a one-year term as a visiting scholar in 2016 on matters unrelated to the paper. Greicius also stated that Stanford Medicine strongly supports the use of face masks to control the spread of Covid-19.
