Wrong topic
When the Colby School Board has its monthly meeting on Aug. 16, board members may be forced to confront an issue they thought was safely in the past. Last school year was a tumultuous one for the board, as they repeatedly had to turn down demands from parents who wanted them to lift the district’s mask mandate.
It wasn’t until May, with less than a month left of school, that Superintendent Steve Kolden made the call to make mask-wearing voluntary. The board offi cially backed up his decision with a vote at its May 17 meeting, but not until after hearing more pent-up anger from parents who want more control over decisions related to their kids’ health.
We supported the decision to keep the mask mandate in place during the worst of the pandemic, but we also criticized the board for delegating that decision to the superintendent. As elected officials, board members should have kept that power for themselves, since they have direct accountability to voters. Instead, they handed off an important decision to a single person, but then made sure to vote in his favor after he made a popular decision.
Looking ahead, we unfortunately see the board about to sidestep another crucial discussion. As a refresher, the parents who spoke at the May 17 board meeting said they wanted a policy in place that gives them ultimate control over any healthrelated decisions involving their children.
Depending on what is expected by these parents, we question whether this demand is realistic. If the goal is to prevent mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, the law already provides parents with an opportunity to assert their discretion with a waiver based on religious or personal beliefs. However, if parents think they can force a school to ignore quarantine orders and let their students attend school even if they have COVID, that’s a step too far.
The board’s policy committee was supposed to discuss this thorny issue at a meeting last week. However, due to a dubious change in the May 17 minutes, the committee ended up having a mostly pointless discussion about “community engagement.” It’s clear from looking at the board’s policies and its strategic plan that opportunities for public input and interaction are more than adequate.
The real question is how does the district proceed now that COVID numbers are starting to inch up again? Will the school board follow the latest advice from the CDC and reinstate the mask mandate? Will quarantines become as commonplace as they were last fall and winter? Is the district going to stick by the statement in its back-to-school plan that says “Vaccinated students and staff will not be quarantined”?
School board members can’t avoid these questions forever, especially once the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19 takes hold in this area. Although case numbers are still way below the peak from last winter, Clark and Marathon counties are seeing noticeable jumps in cases. As of Monday, Clark County had 29 cases, compared to four a week earlier. Unfortunately, Clark County still has an embarrassingly low vaccination rate, with less than a third of residents having received one or two doses. Members of the Colby School Board need to be straight with parents, even if it means upsetting or disappointing them. When it comes to a “parental control” policy, district officials should point out that parents already have the power under existing law to exempt their children from vaccinations. If the board wants to extend that exemption power to masks, that’s their prerogative; in fact, we feel it is worth having an up-or-down vote on the matter just so it is settled.
Because the minutes were changed — even though the motion itself was never properly rescinded — the policy committee never really had the conversation they were supposed to have. The Aug. 16 agenda should include an item to address parental control, which is what parents asked for in the first place.
The Tribune-Phonograph editorial board consists of publisher Kris O’Leary and editor Kevin O’Brien
