Mask up or opt out? Arlington school board considered, then rejected, another mandate
A divided Arlington school board rejected a proposal Thursday to require masks in district buildings while giving individuals the opportunity to opt out.
Board member Justin Chapa said the mandate while giving families and students the option to opt out would slow rising case numbers, while not directly flouting Gov. Greg Abbott’s order preventing school districts from making mandates. The school district has recorded 1,142 cases among students and 144 among staff members and visitors since the start of the school year, according to the district’s tracker at 1:11 p.m. Friday.
“It’s all about risk mitigation,” Chapa said. “If it reduces the risk of spread, it’s something worth doing.”
The proposal mirrored a recent decision out of Plano school district, Chapa said. That district voted in late August to require masks, while allowing parents to fill out a form noting their medical, religious or philosophical differences with the school policy, according to Star-Telegram media partner WFAA Channel 8.
Chapa suggested the opt-out policy after no board members seconded his proposal to revive the mask mandate the district observed last school year. The opt-out proposal failed in a tied vote. Board members Bowie Hogg, Sarah McMurrough and Melody Fowler voted against the proposal, and board member Aaron Reich was absent.
Fowler said she opposed going against Abbott’s order.
“Whether I believe masks are good enough, that’s not the issue,” Fowler said. “The issue is the governor has said we cannot mandate masks. If we go against the governor, we set ourselves up for lawsuits and we set ourselves up for a lot of bad press.”
In a prepared statement, Fowler said student and staff cases account for around 1% of the district.
“I don’t take that 1% lightly, but we’re in a better shape than we were last year,” she said.
McMurrough said she doubted the policy change would effectively protect students.
The board has twice voted against any effort to update its mask policies surrounding COVID-19 for the 2021-2022 school year. The school district joins agencies around Texas that have evaluated pandemic-related protocol as the U.S. experiences a fourth wave of cases due largely to the delta variant. Medical professionals and agencies have urged the state Legislature to take up vaccine and mask mandates during the special session slated to end Sunday.
Arlington board members voted against reviving the mandate from last school year during an Aug. 19 meeting. The board also indefinitely tabled discussion on whether to sue Gov. Greg Abbott over his order.
Hogg, a vocal opponent of mandating masks at schools, reprised his concerns Thursday evening, while raising issues with the lack of parameters surrounding the “opt-out” proposal.”
“We can’t just make a generic term,” Hogg said. “We don’t vote on anything else in here without seeing how some things are actually going. So what’s the opt-out?”
Chapa argued that the board frequently makes policy decisions before delegating the logistics and parameters to district staff and administration.
“We do that all the time,” Chapa said. “Here, I don’t even think it’s that difficult.”
Board President Kecia Mays asked staff to consider concerns and solutions that students put forward, both in comments during the meeting and send over e-mail, to better protect students, such as staggering class dismissals.
“That’s all I’m asking — what else can we do, and at the end of the day, are we doing all that we can do to help mitigate?” Mays asked.
