Kutztown school board votes down COVID-19 vaccine mandate
Panel returns to in-person meetings with police presence
Kutztown School Board has voted down a motion to require COVID-19 vaccines for teachers, staff and volunteers, and also unanimously approved returning to in-person meetings with a police presence.
The board members participated via Zoom from their homes at the Oct. 4 virtual meeting.
Board President Karl Nolte III called mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for teachers, staff and volunteers a horrible idea and a bad move for the district.
There is no vaccine mandate for schools in Pennsylvania, only a mask mandate. California last week enacted such a mandate for schools, which would be phased in.
“This is a choice that an individual gets to make, not mandated by a school board,” Nolte said, anticipating the district would lose bus drivers, coaches, cafeteria workers and others. “It will be a mess.”
While the majority of the board spoke against making vaccines mandatory, Al Darion said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the vaccine for full use, ruling that it is safe and effective.
“They are our kids while they’re in school, and all the information that I’m able to get says that it is far less likely for a vaccinated person to get sick and transmit the disease than someone who is unvaccinated,” Darion said. “To keep our under-12s, who have no option of getting vaccinated, as safe as possible I believe the adults they have contact with ought to be.”
Michelle Batz countered Darion’s comment, saying a parent is always a parent even when their child is at school. She also noted that the district has about a 90% vaccination rate already.
“We don’t have cases where it’s the teacher spreading it to a student,” Batz said. “While I believe in science, I also believe in personal choice. There have been far too many people in my life that have been negatively impacted by the effect of the vaccine to simply say I know better and everybody should just get it. That has to be a personal decision … with their physician.”
Later, Darion said board and public comments were convincing and he changed his mind, but he remained the lone vote to approve making vaccines mandatory for those in the district working with students.
Public comment
During public comment, Eric Landquist spoke against mandatory vaccinations citing legality, adverse reactions and those who already have immunity due to having the virus in the past.
“I’m sure the intention is all well and good, that you have the health of the community in mind, and I commend that,” he said. “However, I would strongly advise against it.”
Amy Friday said the school board has no right to force someone to take the vaccination or make their medical decisions for them, regardless of whether the FDA has approved it.
“You do not know someone’s medical condition or if this is best for them …” she said. “Are you prepared to be responsible and liable should you have a teacher, staff member or volunteer either have a reaction or die from the vaccination? One should not have to choose between making a living and God-given rights.”
Kutztown High and Kutztown University alum and parent Chris Yoffee, a teacher in another district, warned that mandatory vaccines could lead to staffing and volunteer shortages.
“If you know anything about science, viruses constantly mutate, so it’s their best guess as to whether or not it’s going to protect us,” Yoffee also said.
Parents Greg and Jennifer Kaufinger also spoke against forcing a vaccine on teachers, staff and volunteers.
“We heard liability, liability, liability — you don’t want the liability of somebody getting COVID on your watch. That’s why we’re virtual,” Jennifer said. “Death, stroke, blood clots, myocarditis and a host of other things: Are you ready for that liability?”
‘Zoom fatigue’
The board also agreed that a return to in-person meetings would be beneficial.
“I think we can agree that it’s a lot easier to hold discussion in person,” Batz said. “I think there’s a lot of Zoom fatigue.”
Board member Eric Johnson wants to return to in-person meetings as quickly as possible, but he is concerned about meeting disruptions due to protests
against mask wearing.
“You would hope that people would abide by it simply because we are forced to do it by the governor,” said Nolte.
Those in attendance at meetings will be required to wear a mask. Anyone refusing to comply will be removed from the meeting place, but Nolte hopes that it wouldn’t come to that.
Police will be present at meetings.
Darion said meetings were made virtual to avoid a confrontation.
“I think we would still hope to avoid a confrontation,” he said.
“We tell our kids in school and we tell kids when we’re parenting, ‘You don’t have to like the rules; you just have to obey them.’
“I think that applies to adults as well, and I would just hope everyone who comes to a meeting will behave in a mature way that we can conduct business as we had been doing.”
“We went virtual, which was only intended to be temporary anyway, and that was action due to people not putting a mask on and just flat out refusing to obey the mandate from the department of health,” said board member Randy Burch. “Assuming people can now be compliant, I am OK with returning to live meetings. But again people have to abide by the rules.”
In other business, the board approved requests for two disabled veteran tax-exemption requests.
Committee meetings on Oct. 11 will be held in the Middle School commons and via Zoom with Policy and Curriculum Committee at 6 p.m. and Facilities and Extracurricular Committee at 7 p.m.
The monthly school board meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 in the Middle School commons and via Zoom.