The recent Boulder County mask mandate in school was the hot topic at last night’s school board meeting.
Parents signed up to speak about the recent mask mandate exceeded the 30 minute time allotment for public comment at the school board meeting. Many parents in attendance asked the school board and the district to ignore the county’s mandate. Others asked that parents be allowed the choice to decide whether or not their children wear a mask, while others wrote in to commend the district for mandating masks.
During the superintendent’s report portion of the meeting Superintendent Don Haddad began by saying, “sometimes there are solutions that we can find, where across the board you get some type of consensus. In this situation, it’s one of those things where regardless of a decision that is made, we know it is not a decision everyone agrees with and we’ve come to terms with that.”
Haddad too was speaking on the mask mandate issued by Boulder County.
Stating that he would never willingly place another person in harm’s way, Haddad explained to parents that he has been asking some very hard questions to people in the state and county public health offices.
Many parents commented that they did not understand why the summer was spent without masks and that continues to be the case in public, however, children are required to wear masks.
Haddad agreed as he said he too questioned why policy was inconsistently applied to public health outside of schools and again so among school districts in the state, stating surrounding school districts have optional or no policy for masking in the upcoming school year.
The state of Colorado has left COVID public health policies up to the counties, Haddad said. In turn the counties regulate what is best for the schools. For SVVSD, the masking policy is a mandate issued by the public health agencies and out of the hands of the school district, Haddad said.
However, Haddad said he spent months gaining a meeting with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials to discuss quarantining policy.
Last year quarantines were issued to students who were potentially exposed to the virus. This kept many students, many of whom never became sick, from an in-person education.
To Haddad, having students in class the full five days a week is important as he believes a shorter week erodes the education of students.
Through the meeting with CDPHE, Haddad was able to get into writing that quarantining will look much different this year, with the hope that more students will be able to avoid being quarantined if they are wearing a mask.
Some parents expressed concern that their student might be bullied for choosing to wear a mask or even not wear one.
Haddad said he has pressed upon his staff that no person will be asked to verify their vaccination status nor will that individual be singled out based on their choice to whether or not to wear a mask.
“We are going to have zero tolerance for people making fun, bullying, harassing, asking questions, causing discomfort. Our teachers and our principals understand clearly that they will need to monitor that. We are not going to allow for environments to become divided. Our children’s education is going to be focused on the learning and is not going to be distracted because we have kids who are questioning each other’s beliefs or ideas ... ,” Haddad said.
With the same idea in mind, Haddad asked the community to agree that each person is allowed a difference of opinion and still get along.
Haddad said he was committed to continuing the conversation at all levels and encourages community members to reach out to him with all their questions.
“We have the same common objective and it’s important that we come together … I am not perfect, the board is not perfect, the teachers are not perfect and neither is the community but we are all working hard for our children … my focus is on our children and doing what’s best for the community,” Haddad said.
