Puyallup school officials ready to follow mask, potential vaccine mandate
The Puyallup School District plans to follow the mask mandate and potential vaccine mandate despite loud objections from parents and employees.
With the recent surge of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, Pierce County’s reported cases continue to grow, and school officials are worried.
Pierce County’s 14-day case rate has reached 355.4 cases per 100,000 as of Aug. 13. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s reported case rates are reaching the same highs as the April/May surge.
The Puyallup School District plans to follow state-mandated mask guidance, Board President Kathy Yang said. The state has announced that school districts who do not follow the mask mandate will have funding withheld.
“We really don’t have a choice in this matter,” Yang said. “Rates are rising rapidly, and we have to do what we have to do to try to get kids back to school.”
School starts Sept. 2.
As of July 28, the state is requiring all school district staff and students to wear face coverings, regardless of vaccination status.
The Washington State Department of Health confirmed Wednesday its continued plan for a mask mandate this upcoming school year.
Over the summer, parents and employees across East Pierce County school districts organized protests, started letter campaigns and spoke at school board meetings in opposition to mask requirements for students.
Luke Fox, a district employee, was one of them. While he doesn’t like wearing a face covering, he wears one because he understands that it makes others more comfortable. He doesn’t like the mandate forcing people to wear one.
“I’m about personal choice. I want to be treated like an adult,” he told The News Tribune.
Yang said it was surprising to see scores of parents show up to school board meetings over the summer.
While there has been public outcry, Yang believes there may be a silent majority of parents and employees who are fine with kids wearing masks.
“This is a very vocal group, but I don’t know that it’s necessarily the majority. Sometimes, when groups have loud voices, it seems like there’s a lot of support, but we also definitely hear the other side that please comply with the mask mandate.”
Puyallup Education Association’s President, Bob Horton, said the teachers’ union is in conversations and working with the district to make the schools as safe as possible.
Asked if there have been complaints about the mask mandate, Horton said, “at this point in time I haven’t heard one way or another. We will wait and see as we get closer to school.”
The school district saw 400 fewer kindergarten students than planned last school year, and staff are still waiting to see what this year will look like.
“I don’t know what percentage of people were withholding their children because of masks or just because of the remote learning from last year,” Yang said.
Yang is optimistic that the district will be able to avoid returning to remote learning this year.
The district is continuing to offer an online academy and hybrid learning for families who choose to remain in remote learning.
The board president believes the recent surge in COVID-19 cases will keep the mask mandate in place for a while, but there are more options to remove them.
Children will not be required to wear masks outside, and continue to only interact with their “cohort,” or a small group of students. Guidelines for sports and performing arts have also been relaxed.
“Students may remove face coverings to eat and drink, and when they are outside,” the state requirements said.
When students are eating inside, the state recommends that districts’ expand the distance between students.
Other required measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus include frequent hand washing, physical distancing and improved ventilation.
School districts also are required to ensure access to “timely diagnostic testing” among students with symptoms or have been in close contact with someone who has recently tested positive for COVID-19.
The guidance on state requirements said there is a possibility in the future that fully vaccinated people may no longer be required to wear masks indoors.
Potential vaccination mandate
The state’s top education official, Chris Reykdal, sent a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee on Aug. 12, asking to consider mandated vaccinations for all public employees in K-12 schools.
The state superintendent wrote that the order requiring vaccinations for state employees and licensed healthcare providers should be extended to school employees.
“… I am strongly encouraging you to issue an executive order requiring all employees working in public K–12 schools to get their vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition of employment, consistent with the order you issued on August 9 for state employees and licensed healthcare providers,” the letter to Inslee said.
He estimated in a news conference Friday that 70 percent of state education employees are vaccinated and “expects” an announcement from Inslee’s office next week.
Fox said mandated vaccinations is where he draws the line. He has been with the district’s technology department for at least six years, but he would leave if the school district required vaccinations for employment.
“It’s going to be a gamble if they mandate it. I know a lot of school districts are hurting,” he said. “If they let go of all unvaccinated people, it could be a major blow to the school district and our society as a whole. It would create further division we do not need right now.”
He isn’t against others getting vaccinated, and said he probably would have gotten a vaccine by now if he felt less pressure from the government.
“If they had said, ‘look we have all these vaccines available and we highly recommend them but they are optional,’ I’d probably be vaccinated by now,” Fox said. “It’s when they are dictating, you are doing it with an iron fist, it makes you stop and go ‘woah.’”
Yang said the district will continue to follow any state mandates.
