Masks optional in plan for fall
Parents offer dueling opinions
LANSDALE >> The plan is now in place, and at this point masks will be optional.
The North Penn School Board voted unanimously Thursday night to approve a health and safety plan for 2021-22, with no requirement that masks stay on in schools.
“Regarding face coverings, at the secondary schools and at the elementary schools, at this juncture those face coverings would be optional,” said Superintendent Curt Dietrich.
“And we do have in the health and safety plan, that if the incidence rate goes above 20 cases per 100,000, and the positivity rate is over five percent in the county, the board would commit to revisiting whether or not the masks would remain optional,” he said.
Over the school year that ended last month, staff and the school board have held several rounds of talks about returning from online learning and reopening schools to in-person instruction, as state, county and federal guidelines surrounding COVID-19 have been eased. In June, Dietrich and the board previewed a draft return plan and timeline for finalizing preparations, and the latest version of that plan was presented Thursday night, prompting nearly two hours of resident comments.
“This conversation would be guided by recommendations from local health officials, based upon the data in our particular area, and the vaccine availability and eligibility,” he said.
“It does note that the district would reserve the right to universally require masks if the incidence rate or positivity rates rise in the community, or in a school environment, and they could vary from school to school. And we would make those decisions in collaboration with the Mont
gomery County Office of Public Health,” he said.
Board member Christian Fusco asked Dietrich to clarify language in the updated plan around requiring students who test positive for COVID-19 to quarantine. Dietrich said the latest plan language is based on public health regulations from the county.
“There is a public health regulation in Montgomery County that does require quarantining, and requires contact tracing. However, the current regulation with the Montgomery County Office of Public Health is that those who are vaccinated would be exempt from the mandatory quarantine,” he said.
“If that should change, we would take that guidance from the Montgomery County Office of Public Health,” he said.
While masks would be optional for students in schools, they’d still be required on school buses to and from schools, and that’s due to a federal order recently clarified by the state’s Department of Education, according to the superintendent.
“We did get notice from the Pennsylvania Department of Education that, despite the fact that Governor Wolf had lifted the mandatory masking, that there is actually an applicable federal order regarding transportation,” he said.
“PDE interprets the public school buses as public transportation, and therefore we were to notify our community that masks would be required on school buses, per that federal order,” Dietrich said.
Discussions are also continuing at the county level about possible use of rapid COVID testing that was not available last year to cut down on those quarantine periods, according to the superintendent.
“That has not yet been adopted, that’s in discussion, but I want our community to be aware, so we will stay tuned on that,” he said.
The revised health and safety plan, and an accompanying “time template” stating the school year will
start on Aug. 30 and end on June 10, 2022, were both approved unanimously by the board, with minimal discussion beyond asking Dietrich to clarify details. Parents sounded off on the plan both before and after the vote, detailing their feelings on mask mandates and the board’s decisions over the past year.
Fred Froehlich, a Lansdale resident and Republican candidate for school board, asked the board to continue being as transparent as possible, and said he was unsure how he would have handled conflicting advice from authorities.
“We need to know as much as we can, so we can get behind things. We need to know as much as we can, so we can support you when need be, or if we do need to challenge you, we can give you a respectful challenge,” he said.
“Thank you for doing what you did, but those people still can’t agree, ‘cause even today, the World Health Organization says ‘Mask up,’ the CDC says ‘No mask.’ No matter what you choose, I’m sure you’re trying to do what’s in the best interest of the kids,” he said.
Katie Hersh of North Wales asked how the plan could change in vaccinations become available for elementary students, and how the plan calls for revisions based on “community input” from parents and residents — and whether a packed meeting room was excluding those watching online.
“Look at this room. We barely have enough capacity for the people who can show up. What about people who work a night shift? Who can’t make a meeting at 7 p.m., but can step out or take a ten-minute break” to comment online instead of in person. “We are excluding a vast majority of our population, who are not having their thoughts and opinions heard.”
Jessie Bradica, also running for school board, asked how the new plan squares with district goals to close learning gaps and achieve educational equity between certain demographic groups.
“Virtual learning widens those gaps, especially among certain non-white demographics. Yet this board closed schools, and did not make full in-person learning optional for all students until March, and implemented a summer remediation program virtually,” she said.
“If you decide to quarantine only those who are unvaccinated you are continuing to go against your own equity policies, that taxpayers are investing in,” she said.
Amanda Butler of Lansdale said she has two children in district schools, one on the autism spectrum, “and he had a very difficult time, just without being able to read other people’s faces.”
“We can’t lump every child into one group. Every child is different. Every child has their individual needs. I have a few friends that have children that have very significant needs, and they just can’t wear the masks,” she said.
Leslie DiNapoli of Lansdale thanked the board “for being the adults in the room” when making decisions, saying “our children, and our community, is safer because of the hard, hard decisions that you all made.”
“One of the things I hear about is freedom. But with freedom comes responsibility. Because freedom without responsibly is just adolescence,” she said. “Patriotism is not ‘I,’ it is ‘we.’ It is not ‘me,’ it is ‘us.’ We, as a community, are true patriots, if we give up this much for the greater community as a whole.”
Jason Lanier of Lansdale said he “couldn’t disagree more” with DiNapoli’s comments, saying he’s asked the board for the data they use to make decisions, and warned of possible data breaches and sales of student testing data, with little response.
“To say that you guys have been an awesome resource, in terms of distributing rightful information, and what your decision was, that’s not true. There is not a majority of people who agree with you. It’s just not happening,” he said.
Donna Ross of Montgomery Township said that she’s a senior citizen who worked at election polls in a district school, “and was just blown away” by the district’s COVID precautions, including distancing and cleaning.
“I wear a mask. I am vaccinated. I also am at risk because of immunocompromise. It is an obligation, and a duty, for this school board to maintain the utmost safety practices for all 13,000 children across this district, all of which are special, all of which are wonderful, all of which have unique needs. But the bottom line is, safety first,” Ross said.
Owen Wilcox of Hatfield said he supported the board’s stated goals “to return to school as close to normal as possible,” and said he thought relatively high county vaccination rates and low case counts meant “it would be hard to argue the community is not as protected as we may be for some time.”
“Let the parents make their decisions, based on their comfort level,” he said.
Marilyn Tontoni of Montgomery Township said she hoped those who make medical decisions for their child do so with the advice of doctors too.
“I can’t believe we’re this far into a pandemic, and peo