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NEW WATERFORD – With the highest COVID-19 count of any school in the county, schools in Crestview will revert to mandatory masks starting Wednesday.
The masking will remain in effect until the next Education Council meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. on October 18. With reluctant approval from at least three board members, Superintendent Matthew Manley said he would implement the policy under the same authority that allows him to cancel school due to bad weather.
After hearing from parents at a Superintendents Advisory Committee meeting last week who were against a return to mandatory masks in school, board members heard a call for help from the school nurse in longtime Janet Leipheimer at a special board meeting Tuesday morning.
“Our administration, our directors, our superintendent, our staff that we work with every day have been wonderful working with this crazy, unprecedented, moving, whatever other word you wanted to describe over the past three years. “, says Leipheimer. “Personally, there are days when I don’t want to come to work. The other reason I’m here today is to ask for help. Difficult does not begin to describe what we experience every day here. We are placed in impossible situations, circumstances with unrealistic expectations from people who do not understand what we are facing. We need help.”
Crestview has had 61 confirmed cases of COVID-19 this school year between staff and students, including several requiring hospitalizations. Leipheimer questioned the long-term health effects for them. Crestview’s COVID-19 numbers are the highest numbers in the county, higher than major schools.
Just a month after the start of the year, Manley said the school had already had to cancel more after-school activities than last year. There are enough out-of-school staff that he and other administrators are forced to replace, working in classrooms and serving food in the cafeteria. There are not enough qualified replacements for the specialized classes.
Leipheimer begged parents of children with symptoms of COVID-19 or other infectious diseases to keep them at home and have them seen by a healthcare professional.
“Please don’t send them to school sick or waiting for COVID testing. “ says Leipheimer. “Please support the nurses in your school… Please don’t insult us, don’t threaten us, don’t yell at us. Please don’t disparage us on Facebook or other forms of social media, this is bad behavior on the part of adults… Please don’t lie to us. Please answer the phone when we call. Please answer and answer contact tracing questions honestly. Please follow public health guidelines, excluding your child is not a task we look forward to. “
Leipheimer said the goal of nurses is the same as everyone in the school district – to have students who are able to go to school, learn in person, and also stay safe and healthy. as possible.
Absenteeism rates continued to rise at Crestview Schools despite the best efforts of nurses and staff. As of Friday alone, Manley said there were 214 absences, some with COVID, some in quarantine and some with unknown illnesses where their parents just reminded them.
“Some families have told us that they did not have the students tested and that they will not do it, because they know that if it is positive, the people around them will have to go home and the people will go home. get angry with them “, Manley said.
Over the weekend, the school district had to quarantine 50 students from a classroom where they did not have a mask, but if they or their teacher had worn a mask, only one person should have stayed in. the House.
A relative, Megan Wagner-Buckley, who attended another meeting recently to request masks, resumed her request.
“I’ll be that boring parent who showed up for two board members and begged you to help our community,” she said. “I don’t think I need to stress that there are an incredible number of sick children and teachers, that too many students are being quarantined, that our staff, administration and students are under enormous pressure. . “
Wagner-Buckley said other schools that don’t wear masks either aren’t safe, just lucky, and will end up being in the same place as Crestview.
“Please mandate the masks” she said. “If you are not doing it so that the students can stay in school and receive a great education and have access to available resources, then do it for the many families in our community who are living on paychecks and need that. their children are in school so that they can earn a salary.
Board member Dr Edward Miller said he believes the masks work, but whether or not it will stop the spread at school is also affected by what students and families do when they leave school every day.
“For some reason, we are still debating whether the masks work,” Miller said. “They clearly work. But I think the internal debate has been about what the public wants and I can certainly agree with the feeling of keeping kids in school. I think one of the challenges you have is you can’t be anti-vax, anti-mask, and anti-distance learning. One of these things is going to happen.
Board member Doug Dattilio has said he hates wearing masks as much as anyone, but he doesn’t think the school can continue to have 150-200 students absent when the majority of them are in good health. Additionally, Dattilio said that when an entire first-grade class is forced to stay home due to quarantine, a parent has to stay home to care for them.
At the same time, Dattilio said he did not want to see schools forced to close again as students were forced to try to do their homework at home and not attend events.
Several board members said they felt they were put in an impossible situation by the state of Ohio, which has provided them with advice and mandates for the past two school years, but this year it was left to local school boards.
Board chair Missy Wellman stressed that she is not a medical professional and does not believe that board members have the right to make a medical decision that should be left to families.
“We will continue to have quarantine problems even with masks”, Wellman said, noting that she believed their job as a member of the school board was to find a way to continue educating the students kept at home. “against their will.”
“We tell them you can’t come here and then we don’t offer them education,” Wellman said.
Since the start of the school year in Crestview, 268 students have had to stay home for 1,001 lost teaching days.
As part of his presentation, Manley said he wanted the board to consider hiring two tutors, who can work to help students start catching up. Mid-term starts this week and some students have been quarantined twice, missing most of the school year.
Board member Preston Straney noted that even with masks, students will be required to self-quarantine if they are not socially distant. When following the flowchart provided to schools by the Ohio Department of Health, keep unvaccinated students at a social distance, at least three feet from each other whenever they are together for 15 minutes or more, as well as wearing masks can alleviate the quarantine of many healthy students. .
Manley pointed out that it was easier last year when 30% of students were learning at home, making buildings less cluttered. It is also more difficult in some parts of the buildings than in others. The halls of the college are older and smaller. Despite the markings telling students where to stand or sit, older students sometimes sit together before they are reminded.
As board members began having to leave for work on Tuesday morning, Manley urged them to make a decision or at least plan to meet again this week to do so.
“We can’t wait any longer” Manley said, stating that the situation is on fire right now. “We’re going to close eventually.
Even though the board members weren’t all on the same page, they gave Manley the go-ahead to implement the mask mandate on a temporary basis, something they will revisit in a month, when they can see if it makes a difference or if COVID-19 numbers have been reduced, making it unnecessary.
“If you put it on and it doesn’t change the data, why would you leave it there?” “ Manley said he thinks the board is wise to proceed this way. “You don’t keep something all the time, you examine it. Does it make a difference? I’m not here to argue whether it works or not, but we are trying something to get more kids to school.
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