School district in Stanislaus County makes immediate change to COVID mask enforcement
Oakdale Joint Unified School District no longer will exclude students from class for not wearing a mask and will instead rely on education and notification for the nine remaining school days under California’s K-12 school mask mandate.
Stanislaus school officials for the county’s other largest districts said in messages sent to families Monday that they will follow state officials’ directions and make masks optional March 12. Masks still are required inside school buildings until then.
Oakdale trustees and Superintendent Dave Kline said their district’s new plan, which takes effect immediately, satisfies their legal obligations to uphold California’s public health rules. A couple of trustees said the resolution passed Monday night provides for the individual choice that people have loudly advocated for at board meetings and protests throughout the school year.
The resolution “has nothing to do with caving in to anybody,” Trustee Tina Shatswell said during a special meeting Monday evening.
The meeting was held the same day California state officials announced the mask mandate for K-12 schools will lift March 12. Kline said by email Monday that school officials called the meeting before they knew the mask mandate would expire.
A resolution to modify the district’s mask enforcement was the only item on the board’s agenda. Three trustees approved the resolution, one opposed and the fifth was absent.
District officials previously removed from classrooms students who refused to wear a mask. When hundreds of students protested the district’s enforcement of the mask mandate in early February, school officials moved them to a cafeteria or gym to complete their schoolwork unmasked. More than 5,000 students attend Oakdale schools.
After those protests became disruptive, Kline said students who chose not to wear a mask would be asked to enroll in independent study.
The protests led to misinformation spreading and threats to school officials, who then postponed a Feb. 7 school board meeting due to safety concerns. Trustees said at the rescheduled meeting last week that they would confer with other districts that have stopped enforcing the state mask mandate.
Trustees say they didn’t cave
Though the board room appeared crowded, only two people spoke on the issue during public comment. A student, reading from a phone, asked the board to consider student opposition to the mask mandate when deciding whether to modify enforcement.
An Oakdale resident, Toby Stime, thanked the board members for their hard work in the face of criticism. He encouraged trustees to vote against what he called a “flawed resolution” and instead “finish strong” until the mask mandate expires.
His main concern, Stime said, was the negative message the resolution sends to teachers, staff, students and parents. It says to staff, “we give up,” he said. It’s a “slap in the face” to teachers who have supported the board’s position until this point, Stime said, and it shows students they have to follow only the rules they like or understand.
Trustee Michael House, who ultimately voted in favor, said to the public that he hopes they don’t believe the board has been intimidated into making a decision, nor believe they can intimidate the board on another disagreement.
He said he felt conflicted but voted yes because he favors individual choice and the resolution satisfies the district’s legal obligations.
“I’m disappointed in the way a number of you have behaved in board meetings,” House said. “I’m disappointed at the way you’ve shouted out, insulted, called us names and threatened people. I’m disappointed that you haven’t shown a little more class.”
Shatswell said she agreed with House’s comments. Trustee Terri Taylor, a veteran educator in the district who was appointed in December, voted no. “It’s my responsibility to follow what the state of California says we are supposed to do so we don’t open ourselves up to liability,” Taylor said.
Shatswell, House and Trustee Larry Betschart voted yes. Board President Diane Gilbert and student board member Brooklyn Tolboe were absent.
Resolution on mask enforcement
The Oakdale resolution states that school officials have a responsibility to protect students’ social, emotional and mental health in addition to their physical health. It also says the board “strongly supports individual responsibility and personal choice” regarding health decisions.
“Excluding students who choose not to wear masks from their classrooms has adversely impacted the learning environment in the District well beyond any corresponding benefit to student safety,” the resolution states.
Schools may tailor enforcement mechanisms of the state’s mask mandate to local circumstances, according to the resolution.
The district will notify students “on a regular basis” to wear a mask and will “regularly remind parents” that students must wear a mask.
The resolution prohibits disciplinary action against any student who does not wear a mask. In an email to The Bee on Monday, Kline said the district has not previously disciplined students who don’t wear masks.
The district will offer masks to teachers, staff and students daily, the resolution states.
Oakdale Joint Unified previously adopted a policy stating no student will be denied in-person education based on their COVID-19 vaccination status, according to the resolution. When California’s vaccine mandate takes effect, it will instruct districts to refer unvaccinated students without exemptions to enroll in independent study.
About 65% of district staff are vaccinated, Kline said by email Tuesday morning. He could not immediately provide the number of students who are vaccinated, but the resolution states that “many district students are fully vaccinated and/or have COVID-19 antibodies from prior infection(s).”
Other reaction on end to mask mandate
In a press release issued Monday, the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency said “schools should assess their ventilation and the vulnerability of their students to severe COVID-19 and implement protective practices that provide the best learning environment.”
COVID-19 rates in Stanislaus County remain high, and the omicron variant is still spreading widely, according to a press release Monday from the Health Services Agency. The omicron variant peaked here in the second week of January, however, and cases continue to decrease.
Local public health officials still strongly recommend wearing a mask indoors in public.
Turlock Unified School District reported 36 COVID-19 cases from Feb. 19-25. By contrast, the district recorded more than 150 cases in the first week back from winter break in January.
In Modesto City Schools, officials recorded 91 cases Feb. 12-18. (The district updates its weekly data on Tuesday evenings. More recent data was not yet published by the time of publication). Toward the end of January, the district documented about 800 student cases and about 70 staff cases, its COVID-19 dashboard showed.
“MCS is committed to ensuring our school and district sites continue to remain a healthy and safe learning environment through our enhanced cleaning protocols and various ventilation upgrades that the District has made over the past 2 years,” said an email and voicemail to Modesto City Schools families Monday.
Turlock Unified School District asked the community for support and patience in a statement posted to the district’s website.
District spokeswoman Marie Russell said in an email that she did not have a comment by The Bee’s deadline on whether the district would move forward with its lawsuit against Trustee Jeffrey Cortinas after the mask mandate for schools expires.
The district and school board sued Cortinas because he has refused to wear a mask at board meetings, as the state’s public health rules require. The lawsuit’s next hearing, to consider a temporary restraining order for Cortinas, is scheduled for March 8.
Ceres Unified School District officials thanked families for their support in a message sent Monday afternoon.
And in a statement Monday, Patterson Joint Unified Superintendent Phil Alfano said of the upcoming end to the mask mandate, “I believe this to be good news for our parents, students, and staff!”
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 1:08 PM.
