As already posted, the Appleton Area School District Board of Education voted 5-2 to update the District’s Covid-mitigation policy effective 02/28/2022 to include optional masking for K-12 classes when a school’s student population has less than a 2% positive Covid case rate. I also recapped the presentations the Board received leading up to their decision.
I thought it would be useful to go back and, in more depth, recap the discussion that took place after the presentations leading up to their final vote.
Board member Deb Truyman started things out by making a motion to reinstitute as of 02/18/2022 the Covid mitigation guidelines initially approved by the Board on 11/22/2021.
Board President Kay Eggert seconded that motion.
Board member Jim Bowman was supportive of the change for three reasons. (1) The trajectory of cases and hospitalizations was positive even if cases were still higher than they might hope. (2) At a 68% vaccination rate in Appleton, vaccination levels were higher than they were in the past. He would hope that they were higher, but he thought that the number of people who acquired natural immunity through infection probably pushed that immunization level significantly about the 68%. (3) AASD had new filters in school and “there is solid evidence that the viruses can be filtered out.”
He stated, “With all those changes I’m comfortable with optional masking with a threshold.” He did hope that the District would provide vaccination opportunities for students and thought that perhaps moving to masks being option would increase vaccination uptake from hesitant individuals.
Deb had a couple of slides to share with the Board.
She reminded the Board that back on 01/10/2022 Chief Financial Officer Greg Hartjes had shared that school districts where masks were required had a student Covid positivity rate of 0.64% as compared to 0.73% in districts where masks were optional. [Her point being it was essentially a wash.] She said that she had asked about the current data and was told that many of the districts weren’t even tracking it anymore. She concluded that those districts had gone to optional masking and decided that case counts didn’t even matter.
Superintendent Judy Baseman did not think that they could project the reason why districts were no longer tracking that information. That had been an internal piece of information that one superintendent in their regional group had requested, and she said they should be cautious about why it was no longer being tracked.
Deb responded that that was her conclusion. The fact that they were not keeping track of it anymore meant they had moved on.
She reviewed slides she had brought comparing the community case counts in cities where the school districts allowed optional masking as compared to in Appleton where the school district mandated masks be worn by students. Each of the slides (Hortonville vs Appleton, Little Chute vs Appleton, and Kaukauna vs Appleton) showed similar community case rates and trends in spite of the difference in the public schools’ Covid responses.
Kay clarified with Deb that the rates were for the entire population of the regions shown not just for the student populations. She thought that was important to point out.
Deb responded that they were concerned about community spread [certainly community rates and the impact of Covid on the local hospital systems had been discussed during the presentations to the board earlier.] but these slides indicated that the spread in a community didn’t increase when the schools did not require masks. She thought people were afraid that AASD moving to optional masking would cause a higher rate of spread, but the slides didn’t show that.
She finished up by showing a slide about the Hierarchy of Controls for to minimize exposure to Covid-19 as laid out by Stephen Petty a certified industrial hygienist. Respirators were among the least effective ways to reduce exposure risk, and masks weren’t even on the chart.
She concluded by pointing out that school mask mandates or lack of mandates didn’t appear to make a difference in the rate of transmission in the communities surrounding Appleton.
Board member Kris Sauter again clarified that the graphs Deb shared were not for school aged children but for the entire community. She felt that the information was not helpful in reaching a conclusion because it included people who were not masking at all.
Deb responded that there had been concern [I took this to be a reference to feedback the Board had received from community members] that if AASD allowed optional masking that that would affect the spread of Covid in the community because students would go home and transmit Covid in multi-generational families. Based on these slides, it did not appear that was the case. In addition to that, the information Chief Financial Officer Hartjes had presented at the 01/10/2022 Board of Education meeting regarding rates in masks vs non-masked schools indicated the difference between the two was very small. The comparisons of community spread and the rates between the masks and un-masked schools made her question the need for a mask mandate.
Kay thought they needed to be cautious about talking about these things because it may just be a correlation and not causation. She didn’t think they could draw conclusions for some things. “This is not studies; these are observations.”
Deb answered that they had received a lot of letters from people arguing that if masks were taken off the kids would bring Covid home and spread it. That’s why she brought this up.
Jim Bowman asked Superintendent Baseman if making these changes effective the next day would be an issue.
Superintendent Baseman answered that whatever the Board directed them to do they would make work. She would, however, request that they be given until 02/21/2022 so that they could update communication and signage and communicate with staff and families, and so that families would have some time to talk with their children and make decisions.
Deb made a motion to amend her original motion to change the effective date from 02/18/2022 to 02/21/2022.
Board member Ed Ruffolo supported the idea of allowing optional masking, but he was concerned that 02/21 was too soon. He preferred waiting until 02/28 so that case rates could come down more.
Jim Bowman asked if the was saying masks should only be optional if cases continued to come down.
Ed answered, “No, I think we need to pick a date. I agree with that. I’m just wondering out loud if the 28th is better than the 21st.”
Board member Amanda Stuck agreed that the 28th was better because it came them time to communicate.
Deb said, “I know parents are very interested in this. To give people time—I guess, time for what? Because originally, we were going to do this on January 18th, with the idea that that would give people time to get vaccinated, that would give people time to switch schools if so needed, that would give times for parents to talk to their children. I would think that that would all have been done already. Based on the data on wearing masks I really—I think Monday [the 21st] would be just right.”
Kris said, “If we are considering moving away from mandatory masking, I think it’s really important that we provide the safest environment possible for our staff and our students, and that includes the immunocompromised students and staff as well as those who have immunocompromised family members.”
She said that at the elementary level students and staff are in very close proximity for extended periods of time. She was also concerned that the vaccination rate for 5–11-year-olds was currently on 25.9% fully vaccinated with 33% having received at least one dose. That was much less than the 68.1% of 12–17-year-olds who had received at least one dose.
She went on to say, “I guess I’m wondering what we can do as a district to provide some safety measures for both the students and the staff who may find themselves in difficult health positions because the staff won’t have a choice. They will need to be in school and—as well as the students. Yes, they could choose, their families could choose, but again I find that really challenging to think that students who are immunocompromised and their families would now make this decision in 1 day, 4 days, or even a week from Monday.” [I would have thought that, at this point, anyone who was really frightened about getting Covid would have moved to virtual school.]
She wondered if the District could provide n95 masks for staff. She didn’t know what was available for children although she had heard there were some higher quality masks that were becoming available to children She wondered if anyone had knowledge about the availability of these items and how long it would take to procure them.
Assistant Superintendent Polly VandenBoogaard said they had kn95 masks for adults. “We have plenty on stock, and staff have been working with their school nurses if they feel uncomfortable to add that extra layer of protection.”
Superintendent Baseman said they currently didn’t have any child sized kn95s, but she believed they were available. If they could work with the city to make those more accessible, they would certainly pursue that opportunity. [Child-sized kn95 masks are readily available on Amazon at a variety of price points with 2-day shipping. I would expect parents could handle this.]
Ed said, “The CDC did release something—a study that showed that the n95, kn95s block 83% and some have shown as high as 95%. So that might also be a good reason to wait for the 28th is to give the district time to secure those high-quality masks.” He went on to say, “a big reason why I’m supporting going to mask optional is knowing that people can make that choice if they are immunocompromised or just their own family risk, personal risk tolerance, they’ve got a good choice so that if others aren’t wearing masks they can still be protected.”
Deb asked if there would be more vaccination clinics held in schools.
Superintendent Baseman said they were hosting one at North that evening, and they were working with a community coalition that includes Hmong American Partnership, Casa Hispana, and others to promote and use as many opportunities across their various communities that were available. They also had another clinic coming up at one of the middle schools. They were providing the facilities and assisting with publicity to make those opportunities available.
James Bacon felt they should consider a longer timeline because of all the reasons mentioned regarding giving staff and families time to prepare themselves and also so that the District could work with the city and/or others to see what they needed to do on their end to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Deb appreciated the thought in letting families know but, “I guess my concern is when we talk about social and emotional learning for all students, I think we’re forgetting the social and emotional part of a majority of our students. The longer we mask, the more a majority of our students are hurting. “
The Board voted 7-0 against amending the motion to go into effect 02/21/2022 and then Ed made a motion to amend it to go into effect 02/28/2022.
Deb asked, “And this is coming with no strings attached?”
Ed confirmed that was the case.
Deb called up one last slide and said that last time when they voted on masking, they considered public input and a majority at that time had been for masking to be mandatory. She had reviewed the feedback they received this time and calculated that 85% of the public input they received was in favor of masking being made optional. Additionally of the emails they had received since January 24th 89% were in favor of masking being made optional. The community input they received was definitely leaning toward masking being optional.
James Bacon [who during the 01/10/2022 meeting had calculated that 69% of the feedback they had received had been in favor of keeping masking mandatory] said he appreciated that information. He did however think that due to the date and time of this meeting which was on a Thursday morning instead of the Board’s normal Monday evening time that some people in the community had just found out about it and were not clear on the timeline and the public comment deadline. He thought they should recognize that the community might not have known how to participate in this meeting like they normally do, though he acknowledged that the data Deb had presented still stood.
Kris said, “I will say that I am really struggling with this decision. I listen and hear that the CDC is our gold standard and we are—we may make a choice not to follow the CDC standards, and yet we’ll wait and see what they say in the next week or two.” She pointed out that although UW Oshkosh had changed their restrictions and dropped their mask mandate on much of their campus, people would still be required to wear masks in classrooms, labs, the student health center, and the Covid 19 testing and vaccination site. The vaccination rates of students and staff were also higher than in Appleton. She was concerned about the low vaccination rates at the elementary level.
She was also concerned that students who continued to mask would experience peer pressure to not mask. She mentioned some letter they received from students. “One student noted their perception of the division and tension currently between those who resist wearing a mask and those who wear a mask for personal safety. Another student asked us to consider a policy regarding the harassment of those who choose to wear a mask and wanted us to be concerned about what would we do in that case.
“I have every confidence in our staff to address those issues when they know about them, but I am worried—I am worried about the peer pressure and I’m worried because we have seen in our community a lot of vitriol and a lot of personal attacks in this body and in our staff and I am concerned for those students who may feel threatened because of their wish or their family’s wish to remain masks and for safety reasons. So, I just want that to be out there, so that we are conscious—conscientious and make sure that we are addressing those issues should they become something that we hear about.”
Kay wondered how they should message the update in rules. Should they use language such as “masks encouraged” or “masks recommended” vs saying “masks optional”.
Superintendent Baseman thought that they had used the phrase “masks encouraged” during summer school when masks had been optional and said that they had been pleased with how having masks be optional during summer school last year had worked. No concerns had been brought forward at that time. They had prepared staff with social stories and ways to talk to kids. She thought that waiting until 02/28 to implement changes would give them extra time during their social/emotional learning time and advisory groups to talk with students about their expectations for behavior ahead of the change.
She did have confidence in staff and students to step up but stated, “They have not always had good examples, you know, just in society and communities. I mean, it’s just been so polarizing.” [It would have been nice if she had acknowledged the role some of the AASD staff had played in that polarization. After all, it wasn’t random community members who implemented a “snitches get riches” rewards program to tattle on students not wearing masks correctly. It was an AASD staff member.]
She said they would prioritize their Pillar 1 standards of creating a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment in their messaging and make sure that expectations are clear.
The Board voted 7-0 to approve the amendment to implement the changes 02/28/2022. They then discussed the motion as amended.
James Bacon shared many of the concerns Kris had brought up. He was happy that they were trying to give a little more transition time was still conflicted about it, stating, “My view is that we are educational experts as a district and as an institution, and we have followed the guidance for health issues as they relate to our community and our students from our public health institutions for at least decades, and I worry I guess that we keep having these debates and it just continues to take our focus away from I think the things we all care most about no matter what side you might personally fall on around this particularly issue.
“And, you know, also in light of today’s conversation knowing that, you know, this has been a moving target as we’ve all discussed—we’re always learning more as a society and our experts and all of us and the CDC is hopefully going to be putting forth new guidance. My concern in some ways about a vote right now is that, you know, we might get new guidance that I don’t know—does that complicate things more in the very near future?
“And, you know, I think it is a big statement to, as a district, break our traditional practice of going not in line with those experts and institutions that are charged with this kind of information. ‘Cause I certainly don’t claim to be an expert in that regard myself either, and as we all know there is almost infinite amount of data and information and things out there where you could find almost anything you want to be true to be true out there. And there’s so many opinions that have been shared over the course of time from our community in all directions, and I find a lot of them personally compelling as a human that cares about our kids and our staff and our community. We hear from stories on both sides that sometimes want to break your heart with how much they care and how much they feel personally impacted by no matter what decision we’re making.
“But to me I just struggle to, you know, say that that’s how we have to, like, continually make sense of the values and how we’re driving our decision here.”
He went on to say, that there was a different between the larger community where masks were not required and school, because “School is a required thing for students to attend, and there are even laws in place around what that looks like, and so to me, knowing that we have a required place where kids are meant to be in relatively close quarters with each other, I just have a hard time going against our health experts and saying that we are not following the expert guidance on what they recommend is going to keep our kids as safe as possible, and then by proxy their siblings, their families, and even our larger community as safe as possible, given that it’s not an option to just not go to the store if you’re not comfortable because they don’t require masks.
“Kids have to come here every single day and so I just wanted to share that. You know, I feel conflicted. I’m hopeful masks are not something we have to live with forever. I understand they’re not ideal from a personal standpoint, even for many educational purposes. But that is kind of where I currently stand.”
Ed said, “I agree it’s a very hard decision, but I’m trying to look at it through the lens—because we hear from many parents that their children are not tolerating masks well and they feel the downside to masking is greater than the protection that they’re receiving. And in the past, I’ve always been comfortable having a mandatory mask policy because the choice a parent may make for their own child if it impacts other people’s children then I think it’s appropriate to ask.
“So, I’m kind of trying to weigh and measure at what point is the risk low enough that we can say ‘we’re not going to override the parental decision; we’re gonna let each parent decide what’s in the best interest of their child.’ And with the vaccinations being widely available, certainly people have natural immunity that may have gotten it, and there’s been really strong evidence now that the higher quality masks do a very effective job and the case count is just so low in our districts.
“I think it may be time to take that step back and—not to say do masks work or not; I believe they do work—but to say we should let each individual family decide what’s best for their child. So that’s kind of the other side that, like you, I struggle with.”
James Bacon said that they were getting to a place where he personally felt more comfortable not masking in more situations. “I just also struggle when we are making decisions on behalf of large groups of people that are legally required to interact with each other in a certain way in certain contexts and all the different implications about how we really think about keeping all of them safe, because, like I mentioned, it’s not a personal choice for kids to come to classrooms on a daily basis. It is—you know, that is a requirement of them.”
Deb thought they needed to remember that they weren’t just throwing the gates wide open. They were still encouraging masks and still had the 2% stop gap measure. He really believed it was time to let parents decide what was best for their children. She understood that people said to follow the science, but they were dealing with children who have emotions and are suffering. “I’ve said it before: there’s more to health than a negative covid test. We have to remember we are not—we have different sides to us and people need different things.”
Kris said, “I hope someone here can help me to look at the CDC guidelines and then to say—I am not a health expert—that I should override those CDC guidelines. I’m really struggling with that. So, if anyone can help me, I’d really appreciate it.”
Deb responded, “I think the answer comes in the fact that they’re guidelines, they’re recommendations, they’re for the whole country, and I think after that, it comes down to what do people really feel they believe is best for their community. That’s why I don’t have a problem with that. You can’t put a blanket over the whole country and say everything is the same just like we can’t put a blanket over the whole district and say, well—or over a whole classroom—and say well I’m gonna give all students the same thing. We try to differentiate and I think that’s—I feel comfortable differentiating for that reason.”
Jim Bowman noted that AASD’s student population is younger than the national average. The CDC was talking about population in general [I’m not sure what he was talking about there because, right now, the CDC has specific recommendations regarding students which includes universal indoor masking.], but the students were younger and there was evidence that younger people are less susceptible to hospitalization and serious effects of the virus. He also pointed out that AASD had installed improved ventilation systems in its schools and MERV 13 filters. He said there was evidence that they did reduce the presence of airborne viral particles
He finished up by saying, “I also think the CDC—although I really have liked what they’ve done in general—they have a cautious side to them because they are a bureaucracy so they might be a little slower to react to change than a school district could be.”
Kay said that obviously the CDC was still the gold standard that everyone wanted to put faith in, but they also haven’t been nimble or responded quickly. Last year everyone kept waiting for new guidelines and when those were released, they didn’t provide as much guidance as had been hoped. They had wanted the CDC to provide a nice manual to navigate this uncharted territory, but the CDC didn’t do that.
It did come down to a risk reward assessment. They were not going to eliminate all the risk, and they also needed to look at how much risk could be tolerated and what they could do to minimize the risk. The all recognized that it had been a hard process over the last couple years.
Things were showing a good trend. The hospitals were in a better situation, good masks were available, the numbers continued to improve. Waiting until the 28t would give them time to communicate. “Covid likely is not done with us and society but we’re in a better place than we were. And so, it is a new normal.”
The Board then voted 5-2 to reinstate the November 22 Covid mitigation guidelines effective 02/28/2022.
View full Board of Education meeting here: https://youtu.be/pvYHS_B7h0g
View meeting details here: http://go.boarddocs.com/wi/aasd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CAUW3D836FE6
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