FAIRFIELD — School officials have extended the district’s COVID-19 measures until Feb. 15 so that the policy committee can take a deeper look at potential changes.
The 6-3 vote came after parents and students urged the district to have consistent COVID approaches between the schools and to speak to the state about lifting the school mask mandate.
Superintendent Mike Cummings said the district understands the concerns families and students have raised and intends to implement mask choice if the state mandate is lifted.
“Our commitment is to do right by our kids,” he said at the recent Board of Education meeting. “If this mandate, when this mandate, goes away across the state, we’ll follow the next direction and if that’s mask choice, that’s what we’ll pursue.”
He said the leadership team is already looking at the messaging and guidance to pass along to families, students and staff if mask choice goes into effect.
“There are people on every side that get comfortable or uncomfortable with the change and we have to help people through that change, but we also have to hold them to that expectation and in this case, the option,” Cummings said.
Gov. Ned Lamont has said he’s considering lifting the school mask mandate and giving local school boards the option to institute their own policies.
The state House of Representatives is set to vote on Feb. 10 to extend some of Lamont’s executive powers, which are set to expire on Feb. 15.
About a dozen of the speakers at the last Fairfield school board meeting asked district officials and school board members to speak out on behalf of the parents and students. This includes asking the state to hold public hearings on the school mask mandate and to lift it.
Some spoke of the emotional and learning impact it was having on their young children, especially in terms of speech development. They also said the lack of human contact was harming the elementary school students and making school not fun anymore.
They also said at the local level that there was inconsistency between the different schools with some allowing visitors and others not. One parent said she hasn’t been in her son’s classroom since he was in kindergarten and he’s in third grade now.
Board member Jennifer Maxon-Kennelly said the policies the school board extended were bigger picture and not the daily classroom functions. Some of the aspects included in policies are families calling in if a student tests positive, transportation, visitors and using the gym for lunch if the added space is needed.
“It’s the big-picture COVID policies,” she said. “This is not the day-to-day function of the schools — the running of the schools. The rules of the classroom, these are not things the board has voted on.”
Most of the policies were set to expire at the end of January but the board wanted the policy committee to review them this week to see if any should be updated and kept for the rest of the school year. The revisions will come back to the full board at the Feb. 15 meeting, when the extension ends.
“The hope is after that most of them will not be needed,” Chairwoman Christine Vitale said.
Among the biggest policies is the one concerning remote learning and how that affects attendance for students who are in isolation or quarantining due to COVID. The district modified its approach to remote learning last month due to the high number of absences related to COVID.
Some of the mitigation efforts have already been rolled back, including allowing visitors in the building and more fans at sporting events.
Cummings said there has been some confusion at the school level with different buildings interpreting the guidance in different ways, such as with snack, but he’s spoken with administration about it so there is a consistent approach district wide.
“We have an expectation everyone is going to follow the same (rules),” he said.
Vitale said anyone who sees it not being allowed in their schools should contact the building principal. She said the communication has already gone out and administrators will be reminded of it.
“We want our schools to be as welcoming, as open as possible,” she said.
Board member Crissy Kelly pointed to the unmasked officials and audience members as an example of the inconsistent protocols within the district, illustrating masks weren’t required at the school board meeting but are in the schools.
“I don’t think that we have to look any further than this room to discuss that there are some serious consistency issues,” she said.
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Fairfield schools may implement mask choice if CT ends mandate - Fairfield Citizen
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