This week, the Healdsburg Unified School District (HUSD) Board of Trustees voted unanimously to eliminate its mask requirement, making masks optional but strongly recommended starting March 17 for secondary schools — Healdsburg Junior High School and Healdsburg High School — and starting Monday, April 11 for elementary schools.
“It is going to be a transition for some students, but hopefully a happy one,” said Healdsburg Unified School District (HUSD) Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel.
Vanden Heuvel brought the recommendation to switch from required masking to optional masking to the HUSD school board on March 16. On Feb. 28, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state would move from a mask requirement to a mask recommendation after March 11.
Prior to bringing a recommendation to the board, the Healdsburg Area Teachers Association (HATA) and the HUSD conducted surveys to get an idea of how parents and teachers felt about removing the mask mandate.
Thirty-seven elementary teachers and 51 secondary teachers were surveyed. According to the HATA survey results, 50% of elementary teachers indicated they’d be OK with optional masking and 41% said they’d want mandatory masking. Nine percent had no opinion.
Seventy-six percent of secondary teachers indicated optional masking and 12% said they’d want mandatory masking. Another 12% indicated no opinion.
For the HUSD family survey, 187 elementary parents were surveyed. Thirty-five percent said they’d be OK with optional masking starting March 17. Seventeen percent chose optional masking starting March 28, and 48% said to continue with mandatory masking.
A total of 305 secondary families were surveyed — 49% said they’d be OK with optional masking starting March 17, 15% chose optional masking starting March 28 and 36% said to continue with mandatory masking.
HUSD student trustee Annie Petersen said she conducted a survey of Healdsburg High School students to gauge how students felt about transitioning to optional masks and she said the majority of students said, “let’s not require masking in school.” Petersen said about 28% said “let’s require masks.”
Three individuals submitted public comments online prior to Wednesday’s meeting. The comments were read for the record by superintendent executive assistant Karen Mendonca.
In his statement, community member Lance Macdonald said he was in support of making masking optional.
In part, his statement reads, “Our children need to go back to an environment of some normalcy.” Sarah Petersen was also in support of making masks optional.
Parent Maria Ortiz opposed removing the mask mandate. In part, her statement reads, “I’ve heard on the news that COVID-19 is still not gone and is still here in our community and it’s still spreading. As a parent this is a big concern to me and our two children because I do have underlying conditions and so do my children.”
Vanden Heuvel said because of some elementary parent concerns, district staff wanted to recommend waiting until either April 4 or April 11 to remove the mask mandate at Healdsburg Elementary School and at the Healdsburg Elementary Fitch Mountain campus.
“We would recommend, given the higher rate of teacher and parent concern as evident in the survey, that we wait a little while longer. I think it is understandable, vaccines have not been available for the younger kids quite as long and I think there’s questions in people’s mind about getting their younger children vaccinated, so we’re recommending we do it either on April 4 or April 11,” Vanden Heuvel said. “This takes us a week past spring break or two weeks past spring break on April 11 and it would give us time to watch the rates and where things are going so that we make sure everything is safe when we do decide to remove the masks for the younger students.”
For both secondary and elementary schools, students and staff members will always still have the option to continue to wear masks.
“I want it to be very clear that all students and employees will have the option to continue to mask without stigma or negative repercussions. We will continue to (make) masks available, including KN95s for our employees,” Vanden Heuvel said. “I can speak anecdotally that in other school districts that have made it optional this week, many — between 20 and 50% — have continued to mask. It is a personal choice.”
School board trustee Donna del Rey agreed with Vanden Heuvel’s recommendation, as did the other school board trustees.
“I think it is a prudent approach. I’m happy to hear about a real focus on no judgment, no bullying around whatever your choice is. That is a really critical part of this for families who do choose to continue masking and for families who choose not to,” del Rey said.
Trustee Aracely Romo-Flores said it will be exciting to see student’s smiles and expressions once again.
“I think it is time to make it optional,” she said.
Board president Mike Potmesil suggested the board move to wait until April 11 to remove the mask mandate for the elementary school. Potmesil made a motion for the April 11 date and for the March 17 date for the secondary school and it was voted in unanimously by the board.
Vanden Heuvel made it clear that at some point, the mask mandate could return. “It does not mean they are gone forever,” he said.
He said the district could choose to reinstate the mandate if case rates start to rise again or if there is an exposure or outbreak in a class. The district is required, per health guidelines, to have any student or staff member who is exposed from an exposure or outbreak to wear a mask for five days following exposure.
“And per Dr. (Sundari) Mase, she indicated that should the benchmark be at 20 (cases per day per 100,000) and be on the uptick again, that she would institute mandatory masking in schools. So everyone needs to understand that they are not necessarily gone forever,” Vanden Heuvel said.
