City and school district plans to adjust mask requirements were accelerated by the state government.
In the early hours of Thursday, May 20, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law HF847, a bill that eliminated mask mandates at schools and communities across Iowa, among other measures.
Local government bodies had prepared to end many of their requirements at the end of the school year. This included the City of Mount Vernon, which had planned on ending its mask wearing resolution June 1.
“I’m disappointed in our state’s immediate ban of the mask mandates,” said Mount Vernon council member Stephanie West. “The Governor’s Covid-19 emergency declaration was set to end on May 31. I knew she probably wouldn’t extend it. After our mayor announced lifting his emergency declaration on June 1, after a lot of consideration I was comfortable with my own decision to agree with that date.
West said that Mount Vernon’s decision to keep the mask requirement in schools through the rest of the academic year was important, as many students haven’t had a chance to be vaccinated yet.
“With so few days left in the school year, I’m very unhappy with the challenge the state placed on our schools,” West said.
“As a district, we are still encouraging anyone who has not been vaccinated to wear a mask, as the majority of students do not yet have access to the vaccine or are not yet fully vaccinated,” said Greg Batenhorst, Mount Vernon superintendent, shortly after the repeal of the school’s mask ordinance. “Families and staff members who choose to no longer wear a mask need to be respected, as do those who will continue to wear masks.”
The City of Mount Vernon issued a statement May 20, noting that local businesses no longer have to operate with mask or face covering requirements that were established in the city resolution. The bill does not preempt businesses in Mount Vernon from requiring mask or face coverings before entering those spaces.
All city facilities in Mount Vernon, including the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center will continue mask requirements through June 1.
Earlier in the weekIt was already a busy week for many of the area city and schools before Thursday’s announcement, as many of those groups were working to adapt their mask ordinances that were in place in light of the recommendations with the Iowa Department of Public Health’s guidance released late Sunday, May 16.
On Monday, May 17, the City of Mount Vernon voted to let its own mask resolution elapse Tuesday, June 1. That came to a 3-2 vote, with council members Scott Rose and Debra Herrmann providing the dissenting opinion.
Along with the mask resolution, the City of Mount Vernon was looking to repeal mayor Jamie Hampton’s declaration of emergency from last April, when supplies for helping combat COVID-19 were in short supply. That declaration was no longer relevant, as the supply chains are flowing correctly and masks and other supplies could easily be purchased by the city and with council approval.
Mount Vernon city administrator Chris Nosbisch said the city still recommended people who were not vaccinated to wear masks when in public.
Nosbisch reiterated points that he raised in the State of the City address – that dealing with the conflicting information on public health measures from the Center for Disease Control, federal government and IDPH has been a struggle.
Mount Vernon city council member Stephanie West noted that with vaccines being opened to youth 12 to 15 years of age and available to all citizens at this point, she felt better with lifting the resolution, as there is ample opportunity for people who want to get the vaccine to easily do so now, and a vaccine clinic had been scheduled at Mount Vernon Schools.
“My concern with this is a lot of the measures we’re doing rely on hope,” Rose said. “The hope people get vaccinated and the hope that anxiety lessens in the community and we’ll get closer to herd immunity. What I’m failing to see is a time pressure for us to remove this mask resolution instead of waiting until we see us reaching those benchmarks.”
Mount Vernon city council member Tom Wieseler said that over the course of this pandemic, the council has erred on the side of public health, but he feels that the trend in the community has been to getting vaccinated as public health officials have requested, he moved to lift the mask resolution and the mayor’s emergency proclamation.
Also Monday evening, the Mount Vernon School Board voted to extend their own mask mandate through the end of the school year, though state action altered that decision.
Lisbon Schools, which had stuck with the Iowa Department of Public Health guidelines early in the school year, chose to make masks optional at the district Tuesday, May 18.
““It hasn’t been fun struggling with these inconsistencies in guidance, and we’re choosing to stick with the Iowa Department of Public Health guidance, as that’s what we’ve committed to at the beginning of the school year,” said Lisbon school board president David Prasil.
In a statement released before the unanimous vote explaining their decision, the school board noted that members of the board and administration have faced cruel words and threats over the decision to continue the mask mandate throughout the school year.
Maskdemonium: Mandates forced to elapse due to legislative action
May 27, 2021
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.