The Lisbon School Board will continue to leave COVID-19 mitigation efforts the responsibility of individual families for the time being.
The board had held a work session with Springville School District in order to discuss the search for a new superintendent. The meeting also provided the first time since a federal injunction was passed striking down the Iowa state law barring mask mandates that the school board could discuss the matter of masking in schools.
“I think this is a political issue, and the injunction could be changed at any time,” said Lisbon School Board member Jen Caspers. “I think families need to continue to choose what is best for them. If the numbers increase, I say we reevaluate.”
Current numbers for the district have elementary cases fewer than six, high school zero and staff and teachers at less than six. Those numbers are updated every Tuesday on the district’s website.
Lisbon School Board member Allan Mallie said unless the numbers increase dramatically, this topic should be revisited at October’s board meeting.
The district will continue to follow the Iowa Department of Public Health’s guidance.
Lisbon School Board president David Prasil said he was upset with the decisions by Linn County Public Health, encouraging school districts to break a law in order to allow masks to be worn in the buildings.
Prasil also said that because Lisbon is a building with all grades shared, it would make no sense to him for only kindergarten through sixth grade to have to wear masks when everyone else isn’t — an option chosen by the Mount Vernon School Board.
“Those students share the same hallways, share the same band rooms and chorus rooms, share the same lunch room as older students,” Prasil said.
That the issue was thrown back on the board’s lap upsets Lisbon School Board member Abbe Stensland.
Stensland said she had been okay with removing the mask mandate at the district last year because COVID vaccinations had been rolled out to teenagers and adults at that point, giving people an option to protect themselves from the virus. That vaccination, however, hasn’t been approved for youth in kindergarten through sixth grade age levels.
“My instinct is to protect students who don’t have the option to vaccinate,” Stensland said. “I wish this wasn’t a political issue. We’re lucky our numbers of infection are low, but I’d say if we see numbers increase, we should discuss mask mandates again.”
That’s going to be an unpopular decision for a majority of Lisbon parents and students, Lisbon School Board member John Prasil said, noting the comments made about Lisbon’s work session meeting seen on social media throughout the day.
“The overwhelming majority of people in this district do not want masks to return,” John Prasil said. “I get why people are concerned, and I know whatever decision we make is going to be wrong to someone.”
Lisbon principals Aaron Becker and Justin Brown said that students have been respectful to one another’s decisions on this issue, and unless there is a significant uptick, would be comfortable with the school doing what it is doing.
The number of parents who are being overly cautious and keeping kids home has been heartening, Becker said, but the district is also only able to act on the COVID data parents tell them about.
Board members asked at what level they should hold meetings to discuss mitigation efforts, and superintendent Pat Hocking said if cases get above double digits at the elementary levels, that the matter should be visited. If that occurs, Hocking will communicate with the board president, and a meeting will be scheduled and publicized about the matter.
Hocking reiterated families should follow their personal choice in COVID-19 mitigation in the interim.