Highlands School Board could make masks optional next week

The Highlands School Board next week will consider reversing its mandatory mask policy, allowing students, staff and visitors the option to choose.

“We should not be imposing rules on our parents,” board member Judy Wisner said. “They should be free to make their own decisions.”

Wisner added that “the sooner people get (covid) and get over it, the shorter time we’ll have to deal with this.” That comment startled some audience members, who rebuked her.

“Don’t give medical advice if you are not a physician,” resident Suzy Bajack said. “For you to say their antibodies will be stronger is inappropriate. You don’t know how anyone is going to react. … Listening to someone say that my kid should get this and get over it, is bull.”

In addition to a possible masking change, board members during an agenda meeting on Monday said the district’s quarantine policy was tweaked to align with CDC guidelines that require only a five-day quarantine after a positive covid test.

People who are exposed and asymptomatic, regardless of vaccine status, don’t have to quarantine at all.

Superintendent Monique Mawhinney said that would change slightly if masks become optional.

Close contacts would not have to quarantine if they are asymptomatic but would need to quarantine if symptoms arise.

Mawhinney said the district has had 50 confirmed covid cases since classes returned after the holiday break Jan. 3.

If the board votes to make masking optional, district officials will have to “do their best” to keep moving forward in terms of allowing small-group instruction, holiday parties and other close interactions, she said.

“If we’re going this route, I don’t want to go backwards,” Mawhinney said.

A Dec. 10 state Supreme Court decision overturned the Department of Health’s mask mandate for all schools, allowing districts to make their own policies.

Board member Kelli Canonge said, if masks are optional, it naturally would impact rules on social distancing in order to keep students in class.

“With 50 cases since break, the quarantine numbers would’ve been high if we were without masks,” she said.

Wisner said if families use “common sense” and keep sick children home, it would be a year like any other.

“Have we not had 50 students out with the flu?” she asked. “We have to learn to live with this.”

Resident Adelle Carpenter said she appreciated the discussion around masking and feels people should be free to choose.

“If you are sick, stay home,” she said. “We have to get back to some normality.”

Resident Shane Cheser said the board should consider that there are safety issues that come with wearing masks and that mandating face coverings is a violation of parental rights. Cheser, who was fired from an Allegheny County Parks Department job for refusing to adhere to the county’s policy requiring a covid vaccine, said the board needs to do a better job of serving “both sides.”

In December, the Highlands School Board voted to keep masking policies in place, largely because of a surge in numbers and with the omicron variant spreading quickly.

The policy extends to students, teachers and visitors on all district campuses.

The vote was 6-3, with board members Nicole Kocon, Gene Witt and Judy Wisner voting against it.

During the board’s agenda meeting Monday, resident Nathan Petrak said he believes dropping the masks now is going to hurt attendance.

“We’re finally to a point where covid could be peaking, and we could be on a down-slope in a couple months,” he said.

The Allegheny County Health Department maintains a covid dashboard that shows 2,993 new cases per day over the last seven-day period, up from 1,275 cases per day in the previous seven days.

Hospitalizations, however, do not appear to be skyrocketing at the same pace. The county dashboard shows 34 new admissions, up from 28 the previous week.

The district in December offered a vaccine clinic where 84 people received the shot, Mawhinney said. A follow-up clinic on Jan. 4 saw 91 people get vaccinated.

Resident Kelly Powell said the objective is to keep students learning in-person.

Current policies have kept the case count down and allowed children to be in class, having small-group learning, she said.

“I feel like taking away the masks is taking a step back,” she said. “We want to keep them learning in school and in small groups, and we would just throw that out the window by making masks optional.”

Powell also blasted Wisner for what she called a cavalier attitude.

“It’s disrespectful to people who have suffered or lost family members, to sit there and laugh while people are talking about this,” Powell said. “To say how we all have to just get it and get over it is appalling.”

Contacted after the meeting, Wisner said she has not shied away from speaking her mind. She has avoided in-person meetings for months because the district required masks and she doesn’t want to wear one. Instead, she participates via Zoom.

“As for those upset at me, that is OK,” Wisner said. “We still have that freedom and may we never lose it.”

The board meets next at 7 p.m. Jan. 19 in the high school library. The meeting also is available on Zoom.