GREENFIELD — School Committee members rejected a motion Wednesday night that would have enacted a mask mandate for the week after Thanksgiving break.
“I don’t think it’s fair for the committee to impose a mask mandate when no one is successful in any community mandating masks,” commented Vice Chair Jean Wall. “That didn’t work when we were all scared we were going to die; I don’t think it would work now. I think suggesting masks — perhaps having them available at school to wear — I’m for that, but mandating, I can’t support that.”
Wall was among the five votes against mandating masks. Chair Amy Proietti and members Susan Eckstrom, Kate Martini and Mayor Roxann Wedegartner also voted “no,” while members Glenn Johnson-Mussad and Elizabeth Deneeve voted “yes.”
The discussion stemmed from a conversation between committee members about the feasibility of having remote learning as an option if COVID-19 cases were to spike, as they previously have after the Thanksgiving holiday. Assistant Superintendent Karin Patenaude, however, explained that state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) policy states that if the district closed preventatively, it would have to make up those days in the same way they do snow days. Waivers can be filed, she acknowledged, but they are rarely, if ever, granted.
“I think we can anticipate a spike in COVID and other infectious diseases after the Thanksgiving vacation and after Christmas,” said Johnson-Mussad. “I’m disappointed to hear that (DESE) is not supportive of schools taking preventative action around remote learning. I think that’s very disappointing because I think it could be a very effective strategy to stop the spread.”
In the absence of that option, Johnson-Mussad said he wanted to direct the superintendent to mandate masks for the week after Thanksgiving. Deneeve, who has a child at a school with a mask mandate, said she fully agreed with Johnson-Mussad.
Others, however, disagreed.
“I can’t imagine the community would accept us making a mask mandate,” said Eckstrom. “I think making a mask mandate would be difficult for us to enforce, as it was previously.”
Wedegartner felt similarly.
“I think we could do a recommendation,” she said. “I think people, by and large, should follow the guidelines we set out when your children are sick or you are sick. Keep them at home, get tested, and yes, wear a mask for the appropriate amount of time you have to do it.”
Johnson-Mussad said when he voted in March to lift the mask mandate, he had felt that it was becoming “COVID-theater,” with masks being worn in classes and removed as soon as students sat down in the cafeteria for lunch.
“Then I read a study that there were two schools in Massachusetts which continued with mask mandates … and those schools had better outcomes in terms of COVID,” he said. “It made me think that even if it’s not able to be enforced perfectly, it does seem like having the mandate does have beneficial outcomes in terms of slowing the spread.”
Although she has seen mandates work successfully in other districts, Martini still had concerns about how a temporary mandate would be enforced, especially given that DESE no longer allows schools to discipline students for not cooperating with mask mandates.
“I would still have the concerns as I did then (when the mask mandate was lifted) … that our teachers weren’t really being given the tools and support to enforce a mandate,” she said. “I feel that contributed to behavioral issues that were rampant in schools last year — giving the message it’s OK to flout school rules and disobey guidance given by teachers about this, then why not something else? I would like us to be much more consistent about enforcing the policies we do have and supporting our teachers as authority figures in our schools.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.