Students, staff members and visitors to Rockwood School District buildings will no longer be required to wear masks when the second semester begins.
The Board of Education voted 6-0 on Dec. 16 to recommend, but not require, that masks be worn in district buildings starting Jan. 18.
Along with voting to make masks optional, the board agreed to change how the district handles students and staff who may have been exposed to COVID-19. In addition, the district will stop having building-wide notification of positive cases.
The board initially was asked to have the changes go into effect Jan. 3, when school resumes after the winter break that started Wednesday.
However, board member Tamara Jo Rhomberg made a motion to change the start date for the changes to Jan. 18, and her motion was seconded by Keith Kinder.
The board voted 4-2 to change the start date to Jan. 18. Board members Jaime Bayes, Lynne Midyett, Kinder and Rhomberg all voted for the later start date, and Randy Miller and Tom Dunn voted against it. Loralee Mondl was not at the meeting.
“It is a natural break in the semester for students who need to relocate or choose to do online learning,” Rhomberg said of the reasons she wanted the later date. “It gives parents and individuals the opportunity to get vaccinated.”
She also said the later date allows for more time to pass following the winter break, when many people have traveled and attended gatherings.
Miller declined to comment on why he voted against the later date. During the meeting, he said he believes the district is “ready” for the change.
Dunn said he felt it was time to adjust the district’s mask policy.
“It would have been a great little gift to the community to come back from winter break maskless or mask optional,” he said.
Under the district’s updated policy, students and staff who show multiple symptoms associated with COVID-19 will be excluded from, or not allowed to attend, school until they have a negative test or a doctor’s diagnosis that says they do not have COVID-19.
Previously, staff and students who were suspected of being within close contact of someone with the virus were excluded from attending school, even if they didn’t show symptoms related to COVID-19.
Rockwood will require students and staff to wear a mask in buildings if 4 percent of a building’s population is excluded from school after testing positive for COVID-19 or if they were in close contacted with the virus and are displaying symptoms.
For schools serving students in Eureka, that threshold is 78 positive cases or exclusions at Eureka High School, which has 1,950 students and staff members; 39 positive cases or exclusions at LaSalle Springs Middle School, which has 957 students and employees; 29 positive cases or exclusions at Geggie Elementary School, which has 702 students and staff members; 21 positive cases or exclusions at Blevins Elementary School, which has 509 students and staff members; and 22 positive cases or exclusions at Eureka Elementary School, which has 528 students and employees.
The district will stop contact tracing Dec. 23.
Masks will still be required on school buses, due to a federal requirement.
Bayes said the change to the
COVID-19 mitigation guidelines had nothing to do with Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sending a letter to all public schools and health departments saying they have no authority to issue mask mandates or quarantine orders after a Cole County Circuit Court ruling in November.
She said the changes have been in conversation for months.
Public comments
The board heard from 22 people during the public comment portion of its Dec. 16 meeting. An hour was dedicated to comments, and 45 people had signed up to address the board.
Most of those who spoke said they wanted Rockwood to stop enforcing a mask mandate.
Mary White, a music teacher at Eureka High, said she wanted the district to continue to require that masks be worn.
“I love my school,” she said. “I love my job. I don’t have enough words to express how much I love my students, but I’m almost 50 years old and I have three pre-existing health conditions that make me at extremely high risk for a COVID-related death. I am vaccinated and I received the booster, but my primary care physician warns me about the great possibility that I would not survive the contraction of COVID.”
Eureka High School freshman Kenny Diekmann said he wanted the district to stop requiring masks.
“I’ve seen firsthand how masks affect students here in the Rockwood School District,” he said. “We’ve seen an increased suicide rate, higher rates of depression and a lack of interest in goals.”
Diekmann said some teachers and administrators care more about mask compliance than taking time to get to know their students.
“It is well studied that masks take away one’s sense of identity, but this is not just about masks, this is about our voices and rights,” he said. “If we do not have the right to choose between wearing masks or not, then when are we going to have to wear a uniform? When are we going to be forced to attend only classes that someone else tells us to take? These past few days, our rights afforded to us by the Missouri Constitution and our voices have both been taken away.”
During the meeting, which lasted four hours, the board asked two people to leave and took a recess while they left.
One student was told to leave after yelling a curse word. A group of other students left with him, and at least one member of the departing group made an obscene hand gesture toward board members on the way out.
An adult was told to leave for yelling out a question while board members discussed the mask policy.
“We need to remain focused on students and kids, and student achievement and it’s challenging when that gets interrupted, particularly when it’s in a disrespectful, or disruptive manner,” Bayes said.
She said she hopes board meetings can return to “respectful and civil conversations.”