Not all schools dropping mask mandate

School districts throughout Iowa are scrambling to adjust their mask policies after new guidance from the Iowa Department of Public Health on Friday, recommending optional masking for students and staff.

School boards in Fairfield, Mt. Pleasant and Washington met Monday night in special meetings to revise district policies.

The results were mixed. The Fairfield board voted to keep its mask policy in place through the end of the school year, less than two weeks away. Mt. Pleasant and Washington boards voted to make mask wearing optional.

The decisions in those three districts mirrored decisions throughout the region. Washington Superintendent Willie Stone said that of the 13 schools in the Grant Wood Area Education Association that had mask mandates, nine voted to remove mandates while four voted to maintain them.

On Friday, Iowa Department of Public Health Director Kelly Garcia announced that the state is revising its guidelines for schools and child care settings. The state revision came after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most circumstances.

“While COVID-19 positive and symptomatic children should be excluded, exposed children should no longer be required to stay home, regardless of mask usage,” Garcia wrote in a letter to educators Friday. “Moreover, when there is a positive case, parents should be given information around exposure to COVID-19 in order to make their own informed decisions regarding risk.

“To that end, while we acknowledge that some parents may want their child to continue to wear a cloth face covering for reasons that make sense for their family or that child’s individual health condition, we urge schools and child care settings to provide parents and students with the option to make their own decision about mask usage.”

Fairfield

The Fairfield Community School District board of directors voted unanimously Monday to keep the district’s mask mandate in place through the end of the school year.

School Superintendent Laurie Noll said this means that the policy will continue through May 28, the last day of school.

Christi Welsh, chair of the school board, said the Jefferson County Public Health Department recommended the district continue its mitigation efforts against the COVID-19 virus. She said that the most recent news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the organization had not altered its recommendations for schools.

The CDC earlier this month noted that it was safe for fully vaccinated people to go without masks even indoors, in most circumstances.

Welsh noted that not everyone in the district is vaccinated, and that most students are not vaccinated since the Moderna vaccine has only been approved for people 18 and up, and youth ages 12-15 were just approved to get the Pfizer vaccine last week.

Welsh said the board will have opportunities over the summer to revisit its mask policy.

“Our hope is that we won’t have to have masks in the fall,” she said.

— Andy Hallman

Mt. Pleasant

The Mt. Pleasant Community school board voted Monday night that the school district will change to a mask optional policy effective immediately.

The Iowa Department of Public Health urged schools to move to a mask optional policy in its letter last week. The director said schools should treat COVID-19 like other childhood illnesses.

The state health department also altered school quarantining protocols last week. They moved from quarantining students that have come in close contact with a positive case, to only recommending that they monitor for symptoms.

According to Mt. Pleasant schools Superintendent John Henriksen the change in recommendations and the change in quarantine protocols was a big factor in Mt. Pleasant’s change in masking policy.

“They not only said that masks were optional, but they also changed the quarantining protocols. Our concern for the last two to three months as the community spread has continued to go down, our concern remained the quarantining protocols. We still, unless the protocols changed, we’re going to lose a large number of kids if there was a positive case,” Henriksen said.

“Once the protocols were changed we were much less concerned about losing kids to quarantine. We felt like we could move forward with going masks optional because we weren’t going to lose those kids,” Henriksen added.

While the school board moved to a masks optional policy, board members and administrators still support those who are choosing to remained masked.

“We support the health and safety of any one who continues to wear masks whether you’re a student or staff member,” Henriksen said.

— Liam Halawith

Washington

Following Iowa Department of Health guidelines released last week, the Washington Community School District made masks optional for all students and staff effective Tuesday.

The school board held a special meeting on Monday night to debate and decide the issue.

The board voted 5-2 in favor of lifting the mask mandate, with board members Jim Almelien and Sonia Leyva voting against it.

“When this whole thing started, we specifically said we were going to have a mask mandate because that’s what the Iowa Department of Health said,” board member Troy Suchan said. “All along, we have followed the Iowa Department of Health guidance.

“To not follow it now would be very hypocritical, so I believe we should drop the mandate as per their guidance.”

Board member Heidi Vittatoe said that she agreed with Suchan’s argument.

“Lifting the mask mandate right now sends a signal that we’re not in perpetuity and when fall comes, we’re moving on,” she said.

Superintendent Willie Stone said that of the 13 schools in the Grant Wood Area Education Association that had mask mandates, nine voted to remove mandates, while four voted to maintain them.

Board President Eric Turner said, “We have to rely on guidance. We need to set policy on the guidance we’ve been following. I feel more confidence following the guidance than I was in August.”

“Given that there only a few days of school left, I think since we’ve gone this far, I really am for continuing what we’re doing, because it’s really going to be so confusing,” Leyva said.

Almelien pointed out that masks will still be required on buses because that came from a federal mandate and is not subject to state guidelines.

“The buses will still require masks, because they’re still under federal guidelines,” he said. Why would you want to have conflicting deals?”

Leyva added, “How to we tell kids you have to wear a mask on the bus but don’t have to wear them in school?”

Stone said that he polled staff on the issue, with 45 percent wanting to remove the mandate and 54 percent wanting to maintain the mandate.

“We can make this really simple or really difficult, going halfway toward a decision,” board member Jason Hamilton said. “I think it should be parents’ choice or staff’s choice.”

The motion, which passed, including making masks optional for staff as well as students.

— James Jennings