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“It’s a terrible position,” said Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, in an interview. “We have a huge crisis and no one wants to make a decision… You leave the superintendents wide open to fall under pressure from their community.”
Viral videos of parents shouting obscenities at school board meetings, recall votes for board members – even death threats – highlight the pressure school leaders face as they battle against a virus much more contagious than the one that circulated last year.
The prospect of waves of school closures or, worse, a pandemic among children, is a nightmare for the Biden administration, which hoped July 4 would mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
Instead, it marked the start of the last wave. The number of daily infections has increased six-fold since early July, with the prospect of another year of lost learning, widening socio-economic and racial gaps and parents forced to take time off work in order to be able to stay at home with their children.
“With the Delta highly contagious the variant spreads and most children aren’t immune, it’s a perfect recipe for transmission in schools, ”said Thomas Dobbs, Mississippi state health official.
Ash Fork, a small district in Arizona, canceled classes just days after the school opened because several teachers tested positive or were caring for someone who did.
A Mississippi school district told parents on Friday that two high schools would be moved apart “due to the high transmission rate of COVID-19.” On Tuesday, the district announced that its college would do so as well.
And on Friday, the Austin Independent School District in Texas, where cases are skyrocketing, announced a virtual option for children under 12 because they are not eligible for the vaccine.
The move comes even as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has said the state will not count virtual attendance when it distributes school funding, meaning the district is risking millions of dollars.
This is one of many examples where school leaders, at odds with Republican politicians, insist that students and staff wear masks even though new laws forbid them to do so.
Phoenix school officials announced last week that they will need masks, defying state law and Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey.
“It was unacceptable and very short-sighted for our legislature and governor to take action to ban mask mandates,” said Kathy Hoffman, Democrat and elected superintendent of public education for Arizona. “I’m talking to principals who have said their hands are tied, they’re frustrated and worried. They’re worried about epidemics, they’re worried about having to send kids home to quarantine when it’s time to go. last thing they want to do. “
Officials in Broward County, Florida – home to one of the largest school districts in the country – announced Monday that they were dropping plans to require masks just five days after the school board voted on the unanimity to make them mandatory. The boost came after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order on Friday allowing parents or guardians to choose whether their child wears a mask in schools and granted the state the power to suspend funding for schools requiring masks.
President Tuesday berated governors who had blocked mask warrants.
“I say to these governors, ‘Please help me,’” Biden said. “If you’re not going to help, at least stay away from people who are trying to do the right thing.”
Mark Lane, the superintendent of Decorah, a small town in northeast Iowa – where Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds recently praised a law she signed in May which bans local officials of the adoption of mask requirements – said the most difficult dynamic of the new school year is loss of control.
Lane said he only had to cancel one event last year – thanks, in part, to the masks. Now he fears that everything from a fall football game to a school musical could trigger an epidemic.
“I am proud of what we have done as a school district and the way we have managed this last school year. Then to come into this year feeling less in control of what we’re going to do than a year ago is just weird, ”he said. “I didn’t think we would be here.
Of the 200 largest school districts in the country, 69 impose masks, according to Dennis Roche, co-founder of Burbio, which aggregates school data. Districts around DC, including Arlington, Fairfax, Montgomery, and Prince George, are enforcing the masks. The same is true for New York City, which operates the largest school system in the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics both recommend covering your face in school, but the mitigation measure has become, for many, a personal affront to freedom.
Some of the same parents and Facebook groups opposed to school closures and mandatory masking also oppose anti-racist education in their schools, creating powerful conservative organizations focused on changing policy at the local level.
“The number of letters we get and the number of speakers we get, just repeating the wrong information on the internet is really disheartening,” said Tom Lando, board member for Chico Unified School District in north. California facing a recall election. “It’s like, ‘we googled why the masks were bad, and we copied and pasted and added a few swear words.'”
Clovis Unified in Fresno County, Calif., Voted last week to give parents the option to exempt their children from wearing masks, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces his own recall, has said. appointed last month.
Other small school districts are scrambling to draft resolutions, attempting to regain local control of the decision, stressing demands for “parental choice” and “return to normalcy.”
The CDC, in addition to masks, suggests that students stay 3 feet from each other and that schools regularly test students and staff for symptoms, but these recommendations are only advice, leading to a mishmash. -mix of rules that are played in the different states.
Students in Jackson, Mississippi have a mask warrant, but those in the neighboring Rankin County school district do not. In North Carolina, Durham students are required to wear face coverings and stay at least 3 feet apart. But in Gaston County – outside of Charlotte – students can go maskless.
“School officials choose from a buffet of protections,” said Brian Castrucci, president of the Beaumont Foundation, a charitable and public health policy organization. “State by state, community by community… We have created in the United States the perfect environment for the perpetuation of the pandemic. ”
The Delta variant – which is much more contagious than the previous strains – is a wrinkle few people anticipated and it forced dozens of last-minute changes.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, announced Monday that he is reinstating a statewide mask mandate in all indoor locations, including K-12 schools and colleges.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, recalls the in-session legislature and implores it to change a law he signed so district leaders can decide for themselves whether to implement a mask requirement .
In some states, officials are waiting for advice on everything from quarantine to distance learning.
Last week, the New York State Department of Education took the unusual step of calling Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state’s Department of Health for taking so long to provide advice.
“The urgency and frustration you feel as September approaches is palpable and shared by the ministry,” wrote Betty Rosa, the state education commissioner.
The general sentiment of board members, directors and superintendents fluctuates between frustration and resignation. Many hoped the worst of the pandemic was behind them and that vaccines coupled with a year of experience would ensure that the next school year marks a return to normal.
“In June, everyone thought that in September we will resume our activities,” said Domenech, the head of the association of superintendents. ” This is no longer the case. This optimism is gone.
Rachel Roubein and Mackenzie Mays contributed to this report.
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