PW-S School Board rejects Covid team’s mask plan

By BILL SCHANEN IV

Ozaukee Press staff

The Port Washington-Saukville School Board on Monday overwhelmingly rejected a recommendation from administrators that, like last school year, students and staff members be required to wear masks indoors if the Covid-19 infection rate hits 3% in a particular building.

Instead, board members, who acknowledged that mask-wearing remains highly controversial in the district, approved a motion that states students and adults may wear face coverings indoors and calls on the district to revisit Covid-19 mitigation measures if the infection rate in a particular building hits 10%.

“Why do we have to be the arbiters of masks instead of the state or local government?” board member Doug Miller asked. “Why do we have to be in the line of fire?”

Board President Brenda Fritsch said, “I don’t know when we let go and don’t have a threshold (for wearing masks) and say we’re just going to live with this (Covid-19).”

Yvonne Klotz was the only board member to vote in favor of the administrative recommendation and against the School Board motion. Board member Brian McCutcheon was not at the meeting.

“We’re not experts, but they (administrators) put a plan together for us and it’s a safety net, and I would like to support it,” Klotz said. “We may never reach the 3% threshold, but at least we’d have something in place in case we did.”

The district’s Covid Response Team, comprised of central office administrators, principals and the school nurse, recommended that students and staff members be required to wear masks indoors only if the infection rate at a particular building reaches 3%, and then for 20 days and until the rate drops below 3%.

Director of Special Services Brian Sutton, who heads the district’s pandemic response efforts, said the recommendation was intended to help ensure uninterrupted, in-person learning and prevent a return to online instruction for the duration of a school year in which new Covid-19 variants may spread.

“Our recommendations are based on us wanting to have our students here in school all the time,” he said.

Supt. Dave Watkins said, “If there is a new variant, this is the best chance for keeping us in school five days a week.”

Of particular concern, administrators said, is having enough teachers to staff classrooms if the infection rate reaches 3%.

“If you get close to 3%, there are also a lot of unconfirmed cases and you’re getting close to not having enough staff and potentially having to go to online teaching,” Watkins said.

The infection rate reached 3% at some schools last school year and students and staff members had to wear masks, but at the time the isolation period for those who were symptomatic or tested positive was 10 days. The district changed the period during which people are considered Covid-19 positive to five days to mirror guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and since then no school has reached the 3% threshold.

Yet board members questioned the 3% threshold.

“I’m wondering, given the advances in treatment, is 3% still valid?” board member Karen Krainz asked. “Have we gotten to a point where we’re not having as much hospitalization?”

Fritsch said other area school districts are planning to start the school year without any mask requirements and Miller noted other public facilities, like gyms, don’t require face coverings.

“It’s hard to tell students and parents that they don’t need to wear masks when they go to the YMCA but they need to wear them at school,” he said. “I’m just saying follow the CDC guidelines.”

According to the CDC, wearing a properly fitting mask correctly reduces the spread of Covid-19. It recommends universal mask-wearing indoors when the spread of the virus in the community is high.

School officials noted, however, that the district needs some sort of Covid-19 mitigation plan to ensure it remains eligible to receive pandemic assistance through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

“We have to have a plan to get ESSER funding, but not this plan,” board member Brian Stevens said, referring to the recommendation from administrators. “I don’t think masks did anything for us (last school year) except make us feel good.”

Director of Business Services Mel Nettesheim said it’s unclear how thorough a district’s mitigation plan has to be to qualify for ESSER funds.

“There has been scrutiny about going to virtual instruction,” she said. “If we have a mitigation plan that hasn’t helped us avoid going virtual, does that hurt us?

“Ultimately it comes down to keeping kids in school.”

Several parents attended Monday’s meeting but did not speak. Board members, however, said they have heard from their constituents on the subject of masks.

“I’ve received a lot of input from families,” Krainz said.

A key part of the district’s Covid-19 defense last school year — a state-funded testing clinic at Port Washington High School — will return this school year, although in what form is unclear.

Sutton said the district has been notified that the state will pay for 15 hours of testing per site per week, far less than the roughly 40 hours of testing that was offered last year at Port High.

The presumption, he said, is the district could open multiple sites to secure more hours of testing, but “I’m not sure that makes a lot of sense, so I need to get some clarification.

“The bottom line is that we will have a testing site in the district.”