Add Union Public Schools to the growing list of area school districts requiring masks.
Citing rising COVID-19 case counts, the Union school board voted 4-0 at a special meeting Friday afternoon to approve two separate recommendations from Superintendent Kirt Hartzler to temporarily require students, staff and visitors to wear masks while inside district buildings starting at 7 a.m. Wednesday.
Exemptions can be requested in writing for medical reasons, religious grounds or strongly held personal beliefs.
On Wednesday, Union had 181 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its staff and students. By comparison, its highest single-day case count during the 2020-21 school year was 118.
“I recognize that if that trend continues, we will not be able to have in-person learning,” Hartzler said. “Certainly that is not what we want. We want our kids to be in school. That is where they should be. We know that is where they have the optimum learning environment.”
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Since classes started on Aug. 18, a handful of individual classrooms throughout the district have had to switch to distance learning. However, with reported cases scattered across the district rather than concentrated at one or two sites, Union officials have not had to shift any campuses to distance learning.
As an additional challenge to continue in-person classes, Hartzler noted during Friday’s meeting that Union is facing a staffing shortage, both among support personnel and certified teachers. He said up to 14 classrooms are not able to be covered on any given day and that the district is on the verge of canceling bus routes for secondary students due to a dearth of drivers.
“I want people to understand that this is not something we take lightly, by any means,” Hartzler said. “It’s more than one front. We’re not just fighting COVID, but we are also fighting serious staffing shortages unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my 36 years in public education.”
During the course of the 20-minute meeting, several board members noted that they had been inundated with phone calls and emails from constituents both for and against implementing a mask requirement since the special meeting was announced on Thursday.
“Even if we disagree with each other, there’s still passion and love for our kids,” board President Stacey Roemerman said. “My goal is to keep this year in person as long and as safely as possible.
“This is a blunt tool. It’s not a panacea, but it is a tool we can use to keep things going a little longer.”
Board member Dr. Chris McNeil was absent from Friday’s meeting.
Union’s vote came less than 48 hours after an Oklahoma County District Court judge filed a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of Senate Bill 658, which prohibits public school districts from requiring masks on campus unless a state of emergency is declared by the governor. Gov. Kevin Stitt has said publicly multiple times that he has no intention of making such a declaration.
The temporary injunction allows districts to require masks as long as they provide some of the same exemptions that are already in place for school vaccinations, including religious and medical grounds.
Other area public school districts currently requiring masks on campus include Briggs, Glenpool, Hulbert, Keys, McAlester, Ponca City and Tulsa. Tahlequah Public Schools will start requiring masks on campus starting Monday. The Jenks school board voted Thursday night to start requiring masks on Tuesday.
Featured video:
Sept. 7, 2021 video. Speaker is Dr. Travis Campbell, Chair, Department of Pediatrics/The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis
