Don’t delegate
Not with a bang, but with a whimper. That is how the Colby School District’s mask mandate met its end last Friday after an announcement by superintendent Steve Kolden, who made the decision one day after meeting with seniors at the high school.
We feel conflicted by how this decision was arrived at. On the one hand, we appreciate the effort put forth by Kolden to respond to a petition by high school students seeking to make the masks voluntary. His decision to bring in the senior class for an open discussion on the topic was empowering for a group of students who are about to receive their diplomas and enter “the real world.”
To see the seniors actively engaged in a polite discussion about an topic that directly affects them was encouraging, especially in an era of rancorous rhetoric. It could truly be called a “teachable moment,” when our newest crop of adults was invited into a conversation that has been raging across the country for more than a year now. In many ways, it was the best civics lesson they could have.
At the same time, however, we question whether it was a good idea to completely remove the elected school board from the decision-making process. Actually, it was the board members themselves who did this last July, when they voted to give Kolden the sole authority to impose mask mandates when “deemed essential.” This is a lot of discretion to give one administrator, and it removed a lot of authority from a board that is supposed to make important decisions for the district.
To be fair, it’s not like the board was completely insulated from the debate over the mask mandate. Starting last fall, when doctor’s notes were first required for exemptions to the mask mandate, the board heard quite a bit from parents who were unhappy with the new rules. For several months in a row, the board’s meetings were filled with parents who vented about the mask rules and demanded more flexibility. After the January meeting, we applauded the board for standing its ground based on the advice of public health officials.
Finally, in February, board president Bill Tesmer declared that the mask debate was “over,” and that the board was sticking with the policy of requiring masks to be worn by students unless a written exemption could be provided by a doctor. For the next couple of months, in March and April, the board’s meetings became a lot quieter, as the mask issue was left off the agenda.
During this same time period, the arrival of vaccinations started to change the equation when it came to COVID cases. Teachers and other school staff were among the first to get the vaccine, with the first shots being delivered directly to local schools in March. The number of new COVID infections started to drop as more and more people were immunized. So too did the number of quarantines, which had been incredibly disruptive to schools last fall when hundreds of students were sent home for weeks at a time.
With all these changing circumstances, it’s unfortunate that the Colby School Board did not get one last chance to address the mask issue at a meeting before the end of the school year. Waiting until the next regular meeting on May 17 may have been too late, but perhaps a special meeting was in order after students presented a petition. It would have given parents and others on both sides of the issue one more time to speak their minds before board members made a decision. Instead, a decision was made for them, and parents were only given one day’s notice before the mandate was lifted.
Other school boards, such as those in Medford and Loyal, recently voted to make masks voluntary. You can argue the merits of those decisions all you want, but at least elected officials got to make a decision after public debates. It’s routine for boards to delegate many decisions to administrators, but we don’t think the mask decision should have been one of them. Going forward, with other important COVID-related issues to address, we urge board members to retain their role as decision-makers.
The Tribune-Phonograph editorial board consists of publisher Kris O’Leary and editor Kevin O’Brien
