In an emergency meeting Sept. 16, the Luverne School Board unanimously supported dropping the mask mandate that was instituted Sept. 14.
The emergency meeting had one agenda item: “Due to the lack of community support, the Luverne School District is not able to institute the mask mandate at this time. The administration recommends returning to CDC and MDH guidelines effective Sept. 17, 2021.”
Both the Centers for Disease Control and Minnesota Department of Health recommend indoor masking for everyone.
About 75 people attended the 8:45 p.m. meeting. People both for and against the mask mandate crowded the board room, with some standing in the halls and the administrative office hallway.
Board members talked for 15 minutes before voting to end the mandate.
They called for everyone to be more respectful of authority and to work together in protecting the health of students and staff.
“I hope we move forward in a better direction,” said board member Katie Baustian. “This has been chaotic and it was not healthy for anybody in school. It was awful.”
Several board members mentioned the disrespect to authority exhibited in school Sept. 14-16 when the mask mandate was in effect.
They also pointed to false claims that the district violated open meeting laws and that the board announced no masks at the start of the school year in order to increase attendance numbers for funding purposes.
Board member Reva Sehr, who spoke emotionally at times, criticized those who took to social media with the false information that the board intended to implement facial coverings all along.
“That was very, very false and it hurt me because I am not looking at kids as dollar signs,” she said. “People say we don’t care for the kids. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t.”
Board member David Wrigg clarified with Superintendent Craig Oftedahl that if the CDC and the MDH mandated masks, the district would abide by the decision.
Oftedahl said yes.
Masks are seen by the medical community as one way to prevent the virus from spreading. “It’s hard as a community we cannot support keeping our kids in school,” Wrigg said.
“I see our medical community here — and I have a wife in the medical community — and they are getting stressed (with caring for influx of sick patients).”
When the district issued the mask mandate, seven positive COVID cases were reported in the first week of school. The decision to mask was an attempt to mitigate further spread of the coronavirus among the 1,200 students and staff.
“We need your help in respecting authority. Are we attempting to make law here? I don’t think so,” Wrigg said. “I think we are attempting to protect our kids.”
Sehr added that the district didn’t roll out their mask mandate perfectly, something that the board will try to do better.
For the start of the school year on Sept. 7, Minnesota school districts were given control of the coronavirus precautions they would require within local buildings and on school grounds.
Last school year, the state mandated that masks be worn indoors. A federal mandate is still in effect for mask wearing while in school vehicles.
Luverne administrators communicated a local mask mandate through electronic mail about 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 13, stating the mandate would be in effect the following morning through Oct. 1.
On Tuesday, Sept. 14, about 50 parents and students gathered outside the district offices before the start of classes.
The group questioned the district’s decision-making process through the incident command team and said they wanted input into the rights of the children.
A public listening session with the school board was scheduled for Friday, Sept. 17. Due to the decision at Thursday’s special school board meeting, the listening session was canceled.