Barrington School District 220 Superintendent Brian Harris reported to board members recently that the district will continue to require students to wear masks and follow other pandemic public health mitigation steps even into summer school.
Harris said at the June 1 school board meeting that the same novel coronavirus protocols in effect the final week of the regular school year would carry over into summer school, which started Monday.
Harris told board members he participated in a recent webinar with State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala that she specifically said current mitigation requirements will carry into summer school.
“What that basically means,” Harris said, “is contact tracing will still be in place, the mask requirement will still be in place, as well as the 3-foot social distance.”
Harris also said he was aware the entire state is expected to move to Phase 5 of the governor’s reopening plan as soon as June 11. When that full reopening comes, it is expected to lead to new guidance on health and safety from the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Lake County Health Department and, of particular interest to Barrington schools, the Illinois State Board of Education, he said.
He has said at other board meetings that his responsibility as superintendent is to follow the guidance of those three agencies.
Board member Erin Chan Ding said she recently participated in an online meeting where it was made clear that ISBE guidance on health and safety matters should be considered hard and fast rules, which if ignored could lead to loss of state school funds.
Board member Steve Wang continued to push for a relaxation of the mask requirement for students. He cited emails and a petition signed by hundreds of parents asking district officials to drop the mask requirement.
At the last school board meeting in May, Erin Shechtman, who identified herself as a Hough Street Elementary School parent, cited data she said showed masks are not effective in preventing the spread of coronavirus particles. She said she was very concerned about what she sees as health risks to students forced to wear masks outside in hot weather during strenuous activities — including at the end-of-school-year field day that had been planned at Hough.
At the June 1 meeting, another parent, Josie Croll, who was the only speaker during the public comment portion of the meeting, came at the mask-wearing question from a different perspective.
“The issue I want to address this evening is your insistence on continuing a mask mandate for those with ‘natural immunity,'” Croll said, calling the policy “both unscientific and dangerous.”
Croll claimed research shows that people who have had the virus and have developed antibodies have lasting immunity to the virus. She also claimed that there is a 99.98% survival rate for the virus among children under age 19.
Croll called on board members to exempt those with antibodies from wearing a mask, possibly even before exempting those who have received what she called the “experimental vaccine.”
Board member Barry Altshuler seemed to speak for several other members in saying he thought it was too early to make any decisions on masking or other mitigation.
“A lot of things are going to happen over the next month or so,” Altshuler said. “But I don’t think we can make any commitments (on masking) now.”
Harris, who is retiring at the end of the month, agreed.
“My opinion for next school year, I think this conversation is premature,” he said.
Board members finally agreed that they would aim for a decision on masks and other mitigation steps by their July 13 board meeting.
Graydon Megan is a freelancer.
