Board adjourns meeting due to unruly, unmasked crowd of protesters
ROYERSFORD » A planned discussion about potentially lifting the mask mandate in Spring-Ford schools never got off the ground Tuesday night because too many people protesting the mask mandate refused to wear masks at the meeting.
As the meeting was called to order, School Board President Margaret Wright reminded the signcarrying crowd that as per current policy “masks are required. If you intend to stay, wear a mask. If you do not have one, one will be provided for you.”
She told the crowd “if you do not abide by this, the board has
the option to adjourn the meeting, at which point, you would not be able to offer public comment or be able to discuss school business. So please put a mask on, or please leave our meeting.”
The school board then took a 10-minute recess.
When the board returned, little had changed.
“I remind you it is a requirement when in our facilities to have a mask on and I have asked that you comply with this so we can go about the business of the board,” Wright said after re-convening the meeting.
After a moment, during which people continued to talk and shout, she asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting, saying “we are not able to hold our meeting and conduct the business of the board due to the all the talking.”
“I cannot hear a single thing you just said,” replied Vice President Erica Hermans as the crowd got louder.
As the vote progressed, board member Colleen Zasowski tried to settle the crowd down.
“I just walked in, please sit down,” she said. “This is extremely unfortunate. Please stop or we can’t have a discussion. This will go and it will be done.”
Three times, she asked the crowd to “calm down. We need to have a discussion. Listen,” but to no avail.
The board voted 6-3 to adjourn, with Zasowski and board members Clinton Jackson and David Shafer voting against adjournment. District spokesperson Erin Crew said no new meeting has been scheduled, and the next scheduled school board meeting is the voting meeting on Feb. 28.
It’s unclear whether board members will vote on changes to the health and safety plan on Feb. 28 given that it was unable to discuss the matter at the prior work session meeting as is their usual practice.
In a special video posted on the Spring-Ford School District website on Friday, Feb. 18, Superintendent Robert Rizzo had alerted the community to the likelihood that changes to the health and safety plan were pending and would be discussed at the Feb. 22 meeting.
In the video, Rizzo said that COVID-19 case rates and percentages were coming down in the district and “we’re close to the point where we have to have that discussion” about lifting the mask mandate.
He noted that as of Friday, while the district’s numbers were still high enough to keep it in the “high” category of more than 100 cases per 100,000 of population, “our numbers are trending drastically downward. It’s a stark difference from where we were a few weeks ago.”
He also noted that new guidance from the CDC and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia which would alter mask guidelines — and that using different metrics other than the community spread figures most districts have used for the past two years — are all pending and might also be up for reconsideration.
He said the Feb. 22 discussion, which never happened, “is going to be critical” to the district’s ability to change the plans and make masks optional, as several other districts have already done.
“So stick with us, we’re getting there. We’re seeing a light and we want to see it through to the end,” Rizzo said.
On the same evening that Spring-Ford failed to discuss the matter, the Owen J. Roberts School Board voted unanimously to lift its mask mandate, and the Pottsgrove School Board discussed the conditions under which it too would move to make masks optional.