On 02/17/2022, the Appleton Area School District Board of Education by a 5-2 vote approved “reinstating the November 22nd mitigation plan of optional masks and face covering for elementary, middle, and high school staff and students, the continued requirement of masks and face coverings for EC and 4k students and staff and on public and school transportation and a 2% threshold for positive student cases in schools to be used for requiring masks or face coverings for 14 days beginning Monday February 28th.
Deb Truyman originally made a motion to reinstate the November 22nd mitigation plan effective 4PM on 02/18/2022. The other Board members expressed concern that that was too soon.
When Superintendent Baseman expressed a desire to wait until Monday the 21st in order to give the District time to communicate with families and change signage, Deb amended her original motion to go into effect the morning of 02/21/2022. The rest of the Board still felt that that that was too soon and that a longer transition time was needed so that parents could have time to talk to their children and purchase high quality masks if needed.
After the motion to amend was voted down, Ed Ruffolo made a motion for it to go into effect the morning of 02/28/2022 which the Board passed.
They then discussed and voted on the motion to reinstate the November 22 mitigation plan effective 02/28/2022.
James Bacon and Kris Sauter both expressed concerns about disregarding CDC guidelines which still include the masking of students, given that the Board of Education members were not health experts
Jim Bowman was comfortable making this change in light of the decrease in cases and hospitalizations, the availability of vaccinations, the number of people who were either vaccinated or had acquired natural immunity through infection, and the installation of high quality air filters in the schools.
Ed felt it was a hard decision but they had heard from many parents that their children were not tolerating masks well. Given that vaccination was widely available and there was strong evidence that high-quality masks such as n95s and kn95s were effective at protecting from Covid he thought it was time to let each individual family decide what was best for their children.
Deb Truyman pointed out that they were not just throwing the gates wide open. They would still be encouraging masking and the 2% stop gap measure would be in place. She felt that they were dealing with children with emotions who were suffering, that their social and emotional needs were important, and there was more to health than simply not having Covid.
Board members Jim Bowman, Kay Eggert, Ed Ruffolo, Amanda Stuck, and Deb Truyman voted in favor of the motion, while James Bacon and Kris Sauter voted against it.
View meeting details here: http://go.boarddocs.com/wi/aasd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=CAUW3D836FE6
View full meeting video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvYHS_B7h0g
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