The Mahomet-Seymour Community Schools Board met on Monday to discuss their regular agenda ahead of the 2021-22 school year.
One of the lively topics of debate right now in the community is if students and teachers will be required to wear masks during the school day. The board announced they will have a special meeting on Thursday, July 22, to determine masking safety plans for the year.
Superintendent of Mahomet-Seymour Schools Dr. Lindsey Hall began the discussion by saying she wanted to make this school year, “the best the kids have ever had.” But this optimism was quickly curbed by the mention of new medical reports, liability issues, and potential quarantines for children.
She mentioned that the board had heard from many in the community, some in favor of mask mandates while others were opposed. Hall said that masks were complicated by “liability issues.”
When the discussion went to the other members of the board, Dr. Jeremy Henrichs wanted to take action on the mask mandate and make a decision immediately, and other members agreed.
He questioned what additional information the district needed to make a decision.
Board member Meghan Hennesy said that she agreed the topic should have been on Monday’s agenda with the school year only a month away.
“I think it is unfair to students and parents and the agreement (with the MSEA) to not make this decision,” Hennesy said. “I agree with you that it’s an all or nothing.
“I think that once that decision is made, there are other decisions that are going to have to be made with respect to making equity for people, and what does that look like. There’s a whole host of work that’s going to come after that so I don’t understand why it was on this agenda.”
President of the board Max McComb confirmed the special meeting will take place at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday at Middletown Prairie Elementary. They will be inviting the public and representatives from the Mahomet-Seymour Education Association to give their thoughts on the topic.
Several medical outlets have come out with their announcements for what schools should be doing with their students and teachers to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated their recommendations for K-12 Schools in the United States on July 9. Some of the key takeaways include that safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall of 2021 is a priority, and promoting vaccination can help the safe transition both in the classroom and for extracurricular activities.
For those not fully vaccinated, the CDC recommends masks should be worn indoors by all individuals over the age of 2 who are not fully vaccinated. They also say that schools should, “maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms, combined with indoor mask wearing by people who are not fully vaccinated, to reduce transmission risk.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced a more cautious approach to the matter. They recommend universal masking for students and teachers throughout the school.
The AAP arrived at this conclusion because there is no legal way to regulate who has been vaccinated, and many children attending these schools are not old enough to receive a vaccine yet. However, they do recommend that there should be in-person education this year, and that everyone should continue to be safe and socially distanced.
“The AAP believes that, at this point in the pandemic, given what we know about low rates of in-school transmission when proper prevention measures are used, together with the availability of effective vaccines for those aged 12 years and up, that the benefits of in-person school outweigh the risks in all circumstances.”
Although these recommendations provide information for schools to make their decision about mask mandates, each district in the state of Illinois has the power to choose their own masking regulations they place on their students and teachers for the upcoming school year.
As of today, students who take the school bus are required to wear a facemask while on the vehicle, and that will not be up for discussion at the special meeting on Thursday.
If you are unable to make the meeting in person, it will be streamed on BulldogTV YouTube page.
