Students in Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 returned to class Tuesday with mask requirements and other COVID-19 mitigations still in place, while school officials asked for an increased police presence during morning drop-offs following the prior night’s contentious board meeting, which included accusations, disruptions and personal attacks.
After more than three hours of public comment, with nearly 60 of the 75 speakers calling for schools to be mask optional, the District 64 Board of Education, meeting Monday at Emerson Middle School in Niles, voted 3-3 on a motion from Board Member Gareth Kennedy to eliminate mask and quarantine requirements for students and staff. The tie vote caused the motion to fail, leaving the requirements in place.
An earlier motion that was not voted on by the board would have eliminated social distancing in schools, including during lunch periods.
Voting in favor of lifting the mask and quarantine requirement were board members Kennedy, Tom Sotos and Phyllis Lubinski. Voting against were board members Carol Sales, Nicole Woitowich and Board President Denise Pearl. Board member Rebecca Little was absent, with Pearl stating that Little had a family emergency that prevented her from attending.
Woitowich, who was attending remotely, said the district should follow the recommendations in place from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Cook County Department of Public Health and American Academy of Pediatrics — all of which call for masking in schools.
After the vote, the board quickly adjourned the meeting without placing a new motion on the table. A video of the meeting can be viewed on the district’s YouTube channel, though the speakers are not shown.
Several Niles police officers were present throughout the meeting and Park Ridge Police Chief Frank Kaminski said the district requested an added police presence at its Park Ridge schools in the morning as a precautionary measure and out of a “general concern” due to the at-times fiery debate over mask mandates occurring throughout the state.
Indeed, the board’s vote Monday drew anger and shouting from audience members who had urged the removal of mask requirements and stayed until nearly midnight to hear the board’s vote. Some shouted that the meeting had been a “waste of time,” one man yelled profanities at the board and superintendent, and another audience member declared “masks off tomorrow.”
District 64 Spokesman Nick Shepkowski said students who attend school without a mask and refuse to wear one will have their parents contacted to pick them up, which has been the protocol throughout the school year. He said Tuesday that while there were some instances of students arriving at school without masks, it was not a frequent occurrence.
Some parents who spoke during Monday’s meeting said their children were turned away that day when they arrived mask-less.
The special District 64 School Board meeting, which was called by board members Kennedy, Lubinski and Sotos, occurred on the heels of a Sangamon County judge’s ruling to temporarily suspend mask and quarantine mandates in schools that were put into place through executive orders by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
District 64 was not among the school districts named in the lawsuit that went before the judge.
A number of speakers who addressed the board voiced an opinion that the district should follow the order.
District 64 School Board members heard from board attorney Steven M. Richart, who suggested that there could be liability issues to the district if masks are made optional and suggested there could be “bargaining demands” from teacher and support staff unions, as well as requests for special accommodation from medically vulnerable students and staff.
He did not specifically recommend that the district lift its mask and quarantine mandates, but did say that the question of whether individual school districts have the authority to require masks if they choose was unanswered in the judge’s order.
The nearly five-hour meeting was a contentious one, with capacity restrictions placed on the meeting room and a small group of people disrupting the proceedings early on by entering through the stage area and chanting “unmask our children.”
The group, who were not wearing masks despite district officials initially saying they were required in the building, clashed with other audience members, with one woman shouting that she did not have to wear a mask because it was “not a law.”
The incident occurred while parent Brian Nelson was addressing the board and expressing his support for masks in school due to being immunocompromised from chemotherapy treatments and not wanting to be potentially exposed to COVID-19 from his children attending school.
“Just because it’s uncomfortable or it’s unsightly, it’s a public health thing,” Nelson said of masks. “The mask is for everybody and if the mandate is lifted I don’t know what choice I have, if my kids have to go back online or I just pull them out (of school). My health is going to be an issue and there are other people with underlying conditions.”
“To those who want the masks to go away: Where did our empathy go as a community?” asked Dustin Harris, the parent of a special needs child who, he said, has an increased risk of complications from COVID-19 exposure. “Why aren’t we taking our most vulnerable into account?”
Erin Breen, president of the Park Ridge Education Association, the union representing District 64 teachers, urged the board to postpone a discussion of lifting mitigations until the appeals process on the Sangamon County case is complete.
“I ask that we do this together, gradually releasing restrictions when the time is right,” she said, calling masks “important right now.”
Many speakers countered that masks do not work to contain the spread of COVID-19 and are impacting the social, emotional and mental health of their children. After two years of education impacted by the pandemic, several said they just wanted school to return to “normal.”
Several children also spoke of their dislike of masks, while one parent, Peter Juris, downplayed the severity of COVID-19 infection while wearing a t-shirt advocating unmasking children.
“It’s time to grow a backbone,” Park Ridge resident Virgil Lloyd told the board. “Just say no to masks. We’re at a point of ridiculousness.”
Board President Pearl frequently paused the meeting after audience members ignored board rules against clapping and cheering for speakers.
Some of the comments made during the meeting became personal attacks. Parent Peter Popovic called school board members “evil” and hurled an insult at parents who had spoken in favor of masks. This drew applause from many in the audience.
Pearl said the board had received over 200 emails from parents as well and they would be part of the meeting record.
While some suburban school districts have announced they are dropping COVID-19 mitigations in light of the Sangamon County court ruling, districts surrounding Park Ridge have said masks will continue to be required. They include Maine Township High School District 207, East Maine School District 63, Niles School District 71, Golf School District 67 in Morton Grove, Niles Township High School District 219, Des Plaines School District 62 and Chicago Public Schools.
District 207, which was one of the school districts named in the Sangamon County lawsuit challenging the governor’s executive orders, said in a statement that it plans to keep mask requirements in place until a final decision is made following “all appeals” to the judge’s ruling.
Parents and students also turned out to District 207’s Monday night board meeting to object to the continued mask requirement.
Superintendent Ken Wallace told the crowd that the district did not want to lift the mask rule only to reinstate it in a week or two should an appeal of the judge’s ruling be successful.
“Just bear with us,” he said. “Let the appeals process play out.”
The School District 64 school board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for Feb. 17, but it remains unclear if the issue of COVID-19 mitigations will be discussed. A special meeting could be called in the interim, Shepkowski said.
A policy committee meeting to review policies related to board meeting participation and a student tuition waiver for full-day kindergarten is scheduled for Feb. 10.
