By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
Whitewater students will cap off the final weeks of the school year without a mask mandate in classrooms and outdoor settings. The decision was reached after vocal parents pleaded with the School Board to loosen restrictions.
About a dozen parents weighed in on the hot-button topic during a lengthy discussion at Whitewater Unified’s School Board meeting May 24. Multiple speakers stated they would remove their children from the district if the mandate remained in place.
The board’s decision runs against guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Updated language from the federal agency on COVID-19 mitigation measures includes a recommendation of schools maintaining mask mandates “for at least the remainder of the 2020-21 academic school year.”
The guidance, in part, was based on low vaccination levels for youth, many in age brackets still not eligible to receive it.
School Board President Casey Judd, who was the only elected official to vote against ending the mask mandate, said he took the CDC guidance to heart and believed it should be followed.
“I think the goal is we want to get back to normal,” Judd said. “I don’t think the people at the CDC (and other federal, state and local agencies) made these rules because they want to annoy people. I am going to recommend that we follow the guidance.”
But other board members said they believed it was time to move forward, particularly after hearing from parents who asked that the requirement end in the final weeks of the school year in the hopes of looking to the fall with more pre-pandemic normalcy.
“More recently, districts all around us have given their families back the freedom of choice,” said Samantha Allan, a parent of three children in the district. “Your job as a board is to put students first. You were elected by the community for the community and have not been listening.”
Allan was among the speakers who said she would consider open enrolling her students into another school district if WUSD continued to adhere to its existing protocol.
The district this entire school year has grappled with declining enrollment as some families have chosen open enrollment as a mechanism to attend schools inn other communities, particularly last fall when WUSD had a virtual-heavy approach to instruction.
“I waited anxiously to hear my children’s first breaths, and I won’t allow them to be muffled any longer,” Allan said. “I want to tell my children they can show their smile at school tomorrow.”
The School Board’s motion does come with several caveats, including a requirement all students continue wearing masks while riding school buses. Other safety protocols, including social distancing, will still remain in place as well.
Board member Steve Ryan shared reservations about the pivot, but ultimately did vote in favor of removing the mask mandate in classrooms since it still will be required in certain settings.
While parents at Monday’s board meeting were collectively against the mask mandate, Ryan said he has heard from parents who are in favor of it.
Ryan also said he believes WUSD’s strategies to date could back up the low positive case numbers linked to the virus in recent months
“In my view, that shows that what we’ve been doing works,” Ryan said. “We’ve kept the numbers down. I wish people could look at it that way.”
