COVID-19 policies dominates testimony at Mat-Su School Board meeting

The Mat-Su School Board heard extensive public testimony on the subject of mask wearing at its regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday evening.

Students, parents and medical professionals expressed their opinions during the meeting.  Feelings were mixed, with many parents and students imploring the administration to protect students vis a mask mandate. Student Trinity Hopkins felt that the school board is not acting on behalf of students, but on parents who disagree with medical advice.

“If we value education, we should also value the medical advice from our educated medical professionals.”

Some students and parents felt that a mask mandate undermines their freedom of choice and that masks are unsanitary.  Some parents don’t believe the School Board has the authority to mandate masks and that doing so equates to discrimination.  But others pointed out that the district has a dress code and that mandating masks is similar to that policy.

Various local medical professionals urged the district to mandate masks, and a presentation by Dr. Anne Zink outlined numerous studies that pointed to mask wearing being an important component in keeping schools open.

The meeting was held as two elementary schools in the district are currently closed due to high levels of Covid outbreaks.  According to a district school nurse, Butte Elementary has incurred double the cases in the past two weeks than during the entire previous school year.

Superintendent, Dr. Randy Trani is in favor of continuing a mask-optional policy, saying that the community is too divided on the issue to make the change.  He also defended his current position for requiring masks at “medium risk” schools. He displayed charts showing an extremely high absence rate in schools compared to last year, reaching almost 30% during the first ten days of school.

In the end, the School Board did not take up the issue, but thanked the public for their opinions.