The Greene County School Board held two lengthy discussions regarding wearing masks earlier this week.
The Board heard from 12 parents, teachers, school nurses and administrators, including elementary principal Scott Johnson about the nearly impossible situations of socially distancing children in the classroom.
“They’re in close contact because they’re in that classroom all day together. So for example, we had 19 kids in a class, 18 of them wear their masks and one child that didn’t wear his mask came out as a positive COVID case, we would have to put all 18 of those kids in quarantine at that point.”
It was mentioned that district-wide, there have been 29 positive cases of COVID-19, but only nine that could be traced back to a school-related situation. There have been another 212 students and 41 staff that have been quarantined, due to possible exposure. Board member Mike Dennhardt had advocated for a mask mandate.
“(If we’ve got) public health, we’ve got doctors saying it’s the right thing to do, I don’t care about other communities, it’s the right thing to do. I don’t care about your religion or what you believe in, if it’s keeping kids in school, then we’re making bad decisions if we’re not voting mandatory masks.”
Board President Steve Fisher said the biggest concern was the confusion of moving to the different color levels on the district’s mask matrix from green (masks are highly encouraged), to yellow (masks must be worn if social distancing can’t happen), and red (masks are required). He talked about the decision to wear a mask comes down to personal responsibility, especially at the middle and high schools, if they stay on the yellow level.
“It respects the rights and the freedom of people a little bit more. And it gives them a reason to do a better job of wearing a mask when they can’t distance because they know they can get away and get a break from them from time to time.”
There were a number of ideas and motions made, including Board Vice-President Steve Karber wanting to mandate masks, which was seconded by Dennhardt, only to withdraw the motion before a vote took place. The Board ultimately voted 3-2 to freeze the mask matrix at yellow for all three buildings and re-address it at their next meeting in November. The Board members that voted in favor of the measure include Fisher, Catherine Wilson and John McConnell. Superintendent Tim Christensen said each building will develop its own set of guidelines of what situations warrant a mask and don’t.