Regarding Item L on the 15 Apr 2021 Regular Board meeting agenda

Colleagues, this is the motion I have prepared for tonight on Item L:
“I move that the following two clarifications to the TEA Public Health Guidelines be adopted in RRISD effective Apr 19, 2021 though the end of the 2020-2021 school year. Firstly, make it clear that masks are optional for students under the age of 10. And secondly, make it clear that masks are optional outdoors under all circumstances and that masks are not required indoors while exercising for all persons.”

Given the drastic decline in the data including cases, but most especially the uncoupling of the link between hospitalizations and deaths state wide and here locally, it’s time to pivot to data driven decisions when it comes to requiring children to wear a mask in order to receive a public education. TEA Public Health Guidelines first published on March 12, 2021 are entirely appropriate as our starting point. The two clarifications I put forward in my motion are reasonable clarifications and address legitimate learning and development concerns for our youngest students. They also address safety concerns as temperatures rise here in central Texas. The fact that putting a mask over a student’s mouth and nose has been prohibited by the Texas Education Code for years should remind us that looking for an exit ramp to this practice must be prioritized. The data speaks for itself and provides that exit ramp. The good news is that TEA Public Health Guidelines already make it clear that masks are not required when persons are able to socially distance, even indoors. This applies to all persons on RRISD property.

As trustees we have received much communication from the community including many parents, teachers and school nurses in recent days. We have also heard from area physicians, nurse practitioners and nurses. We are getting conflicting guidance, articles, research and perspectives from all of these community members and I appreciate their input. There is no consensus among our school nurses, teachers or area healthcare professionals on whether masks should be required in RRISD any longer. The CDC has published the results of their research on the efficacy of masks in a public setting. Their own research found a 1.8% difference in the spread of Covid when mask mandates are in place versus when they are not. This negligible difference means we are now at a point where the downside of requiring children and staff members to wear a mask all day long far exceeds the upside. This is why we are seeing state and local mask mandates being lifted. Furthermore, over 90 school districts across the state have lifted their mask rules originally put in place in 2020.

As a trustee of this school district, I feel compelled to acknowledge that I do not believe that continuing to require persons to wear a mask while on public school property is going to withstand legal scrutiny for much longer.

The mental health and academic progress of our youth has taken a beating over the last year. I want these things reversed and tonight’s motion is a good first step. I commend our teachers and staff for rising to the tremendous challenges this year has brought.

Regardless of how the board votes on my motion tonight I want to make it clear that I think it’s extremely important to provide this community with clarity sooner rather than later on what they can expect next school year regarding masks. Parents deserve to know what educational experience they can expect for their children and staff members deserve to know what working conditions they will be under as well. All stakeholders need to know what to expect in time for them to plan accordingly for the 20210-2022 school year. We owe the community that clarity.

Trustee Vessa, I am glad to learn that you see value in providing the clarity I called for in last night’s meeting to our community re: masks. Stakeholders deserve to know sooner rather than later whether masks will be required in RRISD during the summer months and in the 2021-2022 school year so that they can plan accordingly. Thank you for soliciting the thoughts of all of us. I am happy to share mine.

I was disappointed that just as statewide and local mask mandates are being lifted, my colleagues voted last night for even more restrictive masking requirements than the TEA Public Health Guidelines mandate. I don’t think this decision will age well and that’s why I warned against it last night.

Covid-19 isn’t leaving RRISD any time soon. It will be with us for a while, masks will not. We cannot delay moving to a mask-optional standard until Covid vanishes or until there is zero risk. It’s likely that many (if not most) of the staff and students who have tested positive for Covid and/or been hospitalized with it did not acquire it in RRISD. A virus is impossible to control or track 100%. Leaders are charged with weighing risks and making decisions.

The three data points I have been looking for with regard to making masks optional in RRISD have been:

1. An on-going trend of low data points (cases/hospitalizations/deaths). This trend began in late January and has continued to where it is now at a very low plateau. As an example, today in Williamson County, there were 12 new Covid cases. I haven’t seen that number that low since I started tracking this daily in November 2020. WilCo has 600k residents. But mostly I look at hospitalizations and deaths. The data clearly shows that the link between Covid hospitalizations and death has been successfully broken, probably since the vaccine has reached a majority of the most at-risk population. Travis county has a population of 1.3M and their data is proportionately similar to that of WilCo.

2. 100% of RRISD staff age 65+ being granted access to the vaccine. We know that this population has suffered the wrath of Covid more than any other group. Dr Presley briefed us in January that 100% of our 279 employees over the age of 65, 100% had been given the opportunity to be vaccinated. As I recall, around 70 of these employees opted out of receiving the vaccine.

3. Every RRISD adult staff member (of all ages, including those in the extremely low risk age groups) having access to at least the first dose of the vaccine. As I previously stated on this message board in a separate post, I was briefed by the county on 19 March 2021 that this metric had been achieved by this date (19 Mar 2021). Out of an abundance of caution, I waited until the end of March (30 Mar 2021 to be exact) before formally requesting the topic of discussing mask rules be added to our meeting agenda as soon as possible. Pres Weir added it to the 15 Apr 2021 meeting (last night’s meeting).
These metrics are very meaningful. All 3 reduce the likelihood of not only acquiring the virus, but also these metrics mean that for anyone who does contract the virus, the symptoms will be lessened and the likelihood of hospitalizations or death reduced significantly. These metrics do not guarantee zero risk. No reasonable metric will guarantee that. These metrics provide a prudent exit ramp. Given that the metrics I needed to see had been met, I was 100% comfortable in moving to a masks-optional standard in RRISD on 30 Mar 2021.

Since I did not believe that a majority of my colleagues would join me in this move, I scrutinized the TEA Public Health Guidelines and looked for reasonable edits that could be made to address the biggest pain points among students with masks for the remainder of this school year while maximizing safety. I developed two edits to the guidelines and presented them in a motion last night. These edits were born out of many e-mails we’ve received from parents, teachers and school nurses ever since I was sworn in in late Nov 2020.

First, it became obvious that requiring our youngest students to wear a mask was very problematic. I’ve learned that mask wearing for a young child and teacher is a big barrier for students who are trying to learn to read and learn their phonics. I have learned how important it is for student and teacher to be able to see each other’s mouths when learning these basic skills. Teachers have explained this to me. This is just one example of how mask wearing is especially problematic among our youngest students. There are additional psychological and physical harms that it brings as we have all learned in the e-mails we receive. Thus, my suggestion to not require children under 10 to wear a mask was born.
Second, it was clear that wearing a mask outdoors is very problematic as well as wearing a mask indoors while exercising. I didn’t need to see this in the e-mails to realize this, but there it was, over and over again. This has always seemed obvious to me as I have never worn a mask outdoors and never indoors while exercising. This is common sense. As an example, I have learned that children have been required to wear wet masks (whether from sweat or rain) all the way home while riding the school bus. This is obviously problematic. Why not put the mask away when it’s raining or when it’s sweaty? Thus, my suggestion to not require masks outdoors at all or indoors while exercising was born.

I was surprised and disappointed that my motion to adopt these reasonable edits failed.

I do not support any threshold for moving to a mask-optional standard to hinge on vaccine legalization or availability to minor children. It never occurred to me that this would ever be put forward as any sort of decision criteria for moving to a masks optional standard in our public schools. I do not support delaying a decision on making masks optional in order to wait on a vaccine for children. I also do not support some classrooms requiring masks and some not. That would lead to a logistical nightmare. I believe anyone, in any classroom or facility, should be free to wear a mask(s) whenever they choose.

Furthermore, as I said last night, I do not believe that requiring masks in our schools is going to withstand legal scrutiny any longer. Just this afternoon, the Katy ISD Superintendent released a statement to his community stating, “Katy ISD will return to a completely normal operations on 1 Jun 2021. Students and staff will no longer be required to wear facial coverings and daily COVID-19 notifications will cease.” This is significant for several reasons. First, recall that Katy ISD is the defendant in a lawsuit that has been levied by a group of parents challenging their mask requirement. This statement from KISD changes the dynamic of that lawsuit meaningfully, virtually rendering it irrelevant. Additionally, Katy ISD has a student body of approximately 80k, over 30k more students than RRISD. KISD is now the largest ISD I am aware of that has set an end date for their mask requirement. This is their exit ramp.

Where is our exit ramp? I can only speak for myself. I want masks to be optional in RRISD now.
Ninety Texas ISD’s have already taken the exit ramp.

I want to suggest that whenever we finally do move to a masks-optional standard, can we please provide an N-95 surgical mask for any staff member who wants one? These masks are MUCH more effective that the cloth masks virtually everyone is wearing now. This might help those who are still very concerned feel safe when masks become optional for all.