Masks come off at some schools, stay on at others

Masks will continue to be required through the end of the school year at the older Wimberley ISD schools while the requirement will be lifted next week at the younger schools.

The Wimberley ISD Board of Trustees voted 5-2 in favor of accepting the recommendation of the school’s COVID-19 Task Force, which was put in place over a year ago to help guide the district through the pandemic.

The task force recommended that the requirement be lifted at Jacob’s Well Elementary on April 26. Only part of the school required masks as the previous rules were based around children older than 10 years old. Because of the age stipulation, Blue Hole Primary students were never required to wear masks, which will continue.

Wimberley High School and Danforth Junior High students will still be required to wear a mask through March 27, which is effectively the end of the school year for in person class purposes. This would allow masks to be optional for graduation, which will be held outdoors at Texan Stadium.

By April 22, all teachers who wished to get the vaccine would have had the opportunity to do so. They also would have had enough time to get a second dose and be considered fully vaccinated. District Nurse Darrell Jordan stated that the reasoning to remove the mask requirement for younger students is “a compromise… to allow more risk in the schools where (children of that age) are less effected” by the virus.

While the school’s COVID-19 task force remained collectively steadfast in their recommendation, multiple local healthcare professionals, include Jordan, at least seven other local doctors, multiple nurses and Hays County Epidemiologist Eric Schneider, signed on to a statement requesting that the school leave the mask requirement in place.

“Up until now, Wimberley ISD has taken a reasoned, evidence-based approach to the pandemic and in-person instruction to great success,” the statement said. “…After reviewing the supporting literature, we continue to support the CDC recommendations for mask wearing and three feet or greater of social distancing. Until the number of immunized individuals increases to the level needed to end the current pandemic, especially in light of the appearance of novel variants, mask wearing will remain essential to maintaining the safety of our schools and the health of our community.”

The school surveyed parents and teachers about the potential changes to mask protocols. At the high school, 31 percent of teachers who answered the survey wanted to lift the mask requirement and 61 percent did not. At the junior high it was 30 percent in favor and 55 percent against. The numbers shifted at the younger schools where 50 percent of Jacob’s Well Elementary School teachers wanted to lift the requirements while 37 percent did not. At Blue Hole Primary, where masks are currently not required, 55 percent wanted to lift the districts’ mask mandate while 36 percent did not.

Parents were more in favor of lifting the requirements. By campus, 60.8 percent of high school parents surveyed wanted the requirements lifted while 34 percent did not. At Danforth 55.2 percent wanted the requirements lifted and 37.8 percent did not. Jacob’s Well was 61.9 percent in favor of lifting the requirements with 31.8 voting against and Blue Hole parents voted 62.3 percent to remove the requirements and 30 percent against.

The school board took about an hour and a half of public comment on the topic. In contrast to the April board meeting, most of the comments were in favor of leaving the mask requirements in place. Multiple board members discussed the difficulty of the decision even calling out some of the disparaging comments they have received from some members of the public on the topic.

“I am so torn because I know COVID is spread by droplets. The science says that… I don’t know where to go,” Ken Strange, Board of Trustee who is also executive director of the Wimberley EMS, said. “I am Ken Strange. I am a medical professional, of sorts… I’m a school board member and my own daughter says don’t lift the mask mandate… When I look at the evidence, what does it prove? It proves we have a minute minority of people who have COVID… I don’t know what to do. I want to go mask optional, and then I look at it and think does that make sense?”

Traci Maxwell made the motion to accept the task force’s recommendation on how and when to lift the mask mandate. Lori Olson seconded the motion. Joe Malone, Lexi Jones and Strange voted in favor of approving the recommendation. Rob Campbell and Will Conley voted against the measure.