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20201202-144709-mask mandates.pdf

BELLE — The Maries R-2 Board of Education approved a mask mandate Nov. 24 with a 4-2-1 vote. The mandate is set to begin at the beginning of the second semester in January, following Christmas break.

Superintendent Dr. Lenice Basham told the board of education that the Phelps-Maries County Health Departments asked that the district consider a mask mandate to decrease COVID-19 related school quarantines.

“It went with the new governor’s decision — or DESE, the Department of Health all together — saying that ‘if all staff and students would wear a mask then you would not have to quarantine those students from school. Now they would remain quarantined everywhere else. They can’t go to extracurricular, they are not supposed to hang out with friends — it really is just about not quarantining them from school — if everybody has a mask. If the person who is positive doesn’t have a mask on, then they still have to go into quarantine.”

Basham said the health department is strongly recommending the district enter into the mask mandate for fifth through 12 grades — with the exclusion of elementary school students.

“Unless you pass the mask mandate, even if you wear a mask, you have to quarantine according to the health department,” Basham explained. “We physically have to make a decision to pass the mask mandate in order for the mask to prevent non-symptomatic students who have been exposed from going into quarantine.”

Maries R-2 is one of the last districts in the area to discuss and implement the mandate, which Basham noted to the board.

“I’ve noticed in the last week that a lot of schools have put the mask mandate in,” Basham said. “Probably my biggest concerns are what are the consequences and I don’t want to implement this too quickly and then not have consequences ready.”

Basham said Belle High School (BHS) Principal Garrett Haslag will be fielding questions from parents and students about the mask mandate and she wants him to be able to answer questions.

“If we put a mask mandate it, there are going to be kids who won’t wear it,” she began. “So what do we do when those kids won’t wear it? That is a conversation I want to have quickly because I don’t want to put something in and find out that is not how it works.”

Board President Joey Butler II asked Basham to explain what she meant when she said all students and staff will be expected to participate in the mask mandate. He asked Basham to describe a scenario where everyone had a mask on.

“Right now, even if we all had a mask on, it wouldn’t make a difference,” Basham said. “If I am positive and you guys are within six feet of me, you are in quarantine for 14 days. With this, if I have a mask on, and you all have a mask on and I test positive, you don’t have to quarantine from school. You can still come to school. Everybody still wears the mask, they get to come to school — they can’t do sports practice or athletic events. This is just allowing them to come and have in-seat instruction.”

Butler asked if there would be exemptions to the mask mandate.

“The policy from the health department says they would need a written document from the doctor excluding them from the mask mandate,” Basham said. “Now, if they are positive and they don’t have a mask on, everyone goes into quarantine.”

Basham said one of her biggest concerns is if they are wanting to increase the in-seat instruction and 50 percent of students say they won’t wear a mask, what do they do with those students?

“Do we say ‘if you don’t wear a mask then you go on virtual’ —  then 50 percent of my kids are on virtual who would have been here in-seat instruction,” Basham said.

She added that except in the case of the boys basketball team, they have not had high numbers of students in quarantine. Since the teams played each other during practice, that incident would have resulted in the same number of quarantines with or without the mask mandate.

“29 percent of our kids were impacted by the basketball team quarantine,” Basham said. “They are not going to wear a mask at practice, so that would have happened anyway.”

She added that on average, five or six students are put into quarantine at the highs school per positive case.

The board asked about cases at the middle school and Basham said quarantines are fewer at the middle school because there have not been as many cases.

“They tell us the older the kids, the more the spread happens,” Basham said.

Butler asked if this was the right course of action.

“Besides from the fact that we want more in-seat time, is a mandate the best thing to do? So if there are kids at the middle school, high school, wherever, that are positive, but they have a mask on, but we are going to go ahead and keep them in school—”

“Not the positive ones,” Basham interrupted.

“But I mean even though you don’t know — are you still going to be sending home people with symptoms?” Butler asked.

Basham said the nurse would still send home symptomatic people who have been exposed to a positive case, even if they were wearing a mask. The mask mandate would allow students who are not showing symptoms to remain in-seat.

“We have had zero cases where a student who was exposed at school has become positive,” Basham said. “Because they have all gone home and are in quarantine. We have had one high school case where we do not know where she got it.”

The majority of students have become positive because the parent tested positive and then the student tested positive after being quarantined in the home with the parent.

“All this time since March we have been listening to the health department,” Basham said. “Now they are asking us to listen to them again; so you guys can make a decision on how you want to proceed.”

Director Garret Bialczyk asked if all three health departments, Gasconade County Health Department, Osage County Health Department, and Phelps-Maries Health Department were on the same page?

“I think that is going to be the hardest part because each of the local health departments has their own decisions,” Bialczyk asked.

Basham said they were all willing to send a representative to speak with the board, but added that they work for the state health department and would be willing to support that decision.

“It would be hard for them to not go with this because it is being encouraged by — yeah,” Basham said.

Bialzcyk said he has heard through MSBA that some of the health departments don’t agree with the mask mandate and wanted to make sure all of the local guidelines were on board with the mandate.

“I think there is a concern by one of them that we are allowing students that have been exposed to a positive case to remain in school, and that there is a danger that ‘okay, they have been exposed and are asymptomatic, we have allowed them to stay,’” Basham said.

Butler said that is where he was going with his earlier questions if students have been exposed but they allow them to remain in-seat and they are asymptomatic.

“They have been exposed, they are asymptomatic, but they had a mask and were still allowed to stay in school. That means those germs that are potentially there are still circulating in the school. Would you rather quarantine them for 14 days even though it happens three or four times in a row or they make nine kids sick?” Butler asked. “We will never know that until something happens.”

Director Tom Kinsey said parents who are concerned about their children needing in-seat time should send their child to school with a mask on whether there is a mask mandate or not.

“That way if there is an outbreak and their student was a close contact, they are not going home,” Kinsey said. “If you don’t want your child to be sent home, then you need to make sure your child goes to school with a mask on and make sure they wear it.”

Basham shook her head that it doesn’t work that way currently.

“Until recently that wasn’t true,” Butler told Kinsey.

“It still isn’t unless you pass the mask mandate,” Basham said.

Kinsey said most school districts are not 100 percent on board. Director Amy Kiso made a motion to pass the mandate so they could continue discussing the recommendation.

“Many are going to be asymptomatic,” Board Vice President Dawn Hicks said. “Many of us here are going to be asymptomatic. How are we going to know?”

Director Brent Stratman asked about the kids who have tested positive.

“Have they had anything?” he asked.

Basham said a sore throat or very mild symptoms have occurred.

Kinsey said there will be consequences to all the mask-wearing, whether it’s a flu bug or a dust mite.

“When they take the mask off, things are gonna happen,” Kinsey said.

Director Kenda Sanders said that from her experience and having a student who would be out of quarantine the next day — it isn’t just the in-seat instruction, but the mental health of the student that she worries about.

“Because she is not around her friends, she is not having that social aspect that she thrives off of,” Sanders said. “In-seat instruction is very important, but the social aspect, to me, is just as important.”

Hicks said missing the in-seat instruction is a “double whammy” since they aren’t getting as good instruction and have no friends to rely on.

“Even if they are quarantined outside of school, they aren’t quarantined in school,” Hicks said. “I have one that wears a mask continuously and one that doesn’t. I see both, but the three months they had off really set a lot of kids back socially because it was more depressing to be at home alone.”

Hicks said she was torn between wearing and mask or not because she has her own views, but feels to keep the kids in school for social and learning reasons, maybe.”

Stratman says he doesn’t think the mask will stop the spread, but it keeps a lot more kids in school.

“I agree with you there,” Hicks said. “Mask or not, when your hands are on your face, you are exposing yourself. You have got to keep your hands away from your face. Whether the mask is on or off.”

Basham said the mandate only applies if the masks are worn at school and exposure takes place at school. If they are exposed at home, it doesn’t change anything.

“Well, if you are at school and you are touching doorknobs, and doors and lockers and then touch your mask,” Kinsey said.

Kiso said it isn’t about the in-seat learning or being social.

“We may never know how many other potential people like me who have these illnesses and are exposed,” Kiso said, referring to her cancer diagnosis. “Luckily my child who is still in school chose virtual and that was the main reason. So she wouldn’t bring it home to me. However, I do not believe or know how we can enforce any consequences.”

She referred that one city has brought in the National Guard to police mask-wearing. Kiso added that she could get it anywhere though.

“We are going to have national consequences and unfortunately, that may result in some of your loved ones dying,” Kiso said. “That being said, I can get it from anywhere.”

Bialczyk said things are different from in March and April where COVID-19 was a thing happening somewhere else. But now it is prevalent, no denying it.

“I think probably the least we can do is maybe ask the kids to wear a mask,” he said. “I don’t think this is just something we can sit and not ask the kids to do something.”

Bialczyk said he had a call from a grandparent a few weeks ago who was concerned that packets were sent home that her student didn’t understand and didn’t know what to do. Sanders said the amount of dedication to the homework also depends on the student, and they may not do well on that assignment in-seat.

Hicks asked about the consequences and guidelines that Gasconade R-2 in Owensville will be using, adding that she had read out of school suspension was an option and they were implementing the mask-wearing in as a dress code violation. Basham said they don’t have anything yet. BHS Principal Garret Haslag said he has only had one or two dress code violations.

Butler asked who would supply the masks, and Basham said they would have to purchase them.

“Right now they don’t want the cloth masks, they want us to use disposable,” Basham said. “The cloth mask apparently retains bacteria and sweat.”

Maries County Bank donated lanyards for masks, and FEMA gave the district 3,000 cloth masks that they will use until they get more disposable masks in.

“The consequences are going to be the big one,” Basham said. “When 50 percent of the parents are saying they are not going to make their child wear a mask, according to the survey we got, what do you do with those 50 percent of those kids who will not wear a mask?”

Haslag told the board he would implement the mask mandate however the board wanted him to, but he did want direction first.

“I recommend we don’t implement the mask mandate until January because I think by that time we will see some schools who already have the mask mandate in are going to have some experience with what worked and want didn’t. Owensville already implemented those and so did Rolla, but consequences don’t go in until next week,” Basham said. “I hate to see us suspend a kid for not wearing a mask and then he misses finals. If we are saying you have to wear a mask, then we need to give parents time to allow their students to go virtual, and that time would be at the end of this semester, beginning of next semester.”

Students have three more weeks until the end of  the first semester. Students who are in quarantine during finals but are not COVID positive will take finals at the Administration Building.

Once a student tests positive, they don’t have to go out on quarantine due to a close contact for 90 days after, which is how long natural antibodies against the disease are thought to remain in the body.

“No matter what we do, we are going to upset about 50 percent of our population,” Kiso said. “It’s going to be impossible to — I don’t want to see kids suspended because they are not wearing a mask.”

Hicks suggested surveying the students, and Butler said he thinks that is a bad idea — like going around the parents because the school didn’t like their answers.

Kiso suggested positive peer pressure with praise to wear the masks. Basham said there would be peer pressure for someone refusing to wear a mask and then getting COVID-19 and causing their peers to be quarantined.

Butler asked if they needed a vote, and Basham said yes. Dec. 14 is the deadline to sign up for virtual learning, and they want to give students go virtual if they don’t want to wear a mask.

Kinsey said he didn’t think further discussion was necessary because those present most likely know the way they are going to vote.

The board passed the motion to implement a mask mandate in school with a 4-2-1 vote, Butler and Kinsey voted no and Hicks abstained. Mask will be encouraged for the remainder of the semester and will be mandated upon their return in January.

“It puts a lot of responsibility on the parents and the students,” Bialczyk said.