TORRINGTON – This weekend, parents, students and community members met at the Bucking Horse Grill to discuss the upcoming school board meeting.
About 15 people attended the gathering, which was open to the public and organized mostly through Facebook and word of mouth. Danielle Murphy and Marie Flanagan organized and led the meeting.
The Goshen County School District Board will meet in the Torrington High School Auditorium on Tuesday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. for a special meeting and board work session.
One item on their agenda is to consider the approval of applying for a mask variance for the remainder of the school year.
According to Murphy, an approved mask variance would allow students to choose whether or not to wear a mask at school.
“I don’t want to go into this as ‘anti-mask,’” Murphy said, “I want everyone to have a choice.”
The group is encouraging students and parents to fill the auditorium and speak to the board.
“If you feel led to speak, speak!” said Flanagan.
They discussed what arguments to make and the right approach to addressing the board.
According to Murphy, one of the strongest arguments in support of a mask variance is that vaccinations are now open to the public.
“The teachers who wanted to be vaccinated have had the opportunity to do it,” she said.
Murphy listed other school districts that have had variances approved by state health officers.
“It’s not like what we’re asking for is something out of reach,” she said.
If the board decides not to apply for a variance, several attendees suggested organizing a walk-out for students who don’t want to wear masks.
Murphy and Flanagan said they do not have a strong idea of what the board’s decision might be.
Earlier this month, Superintendent Ryan Kramer started receiving emails requesting the district to consider applying for a mask variance. After this, Kramer said he and Board Chairman Mark Jespersen decided to put it on the agenda for the special board meeting.
Superintendent Kramer expects the turnout at the Tuesday board meeting to be high.
“It’s been a pretty hot topic in the community lately,” he said, in reference to applying for a mask variance.
Kramer recommends the opposite: the district should not apply for a variance.
Kramer said his main reason for this is to keep students and staff in school and out of quarantine.
In K-12 school settings, according to the department of health, a person is not considered to be a close contact if they were wearing a mask at the time of exposure.
“We’ve been able to minimize quarantines because of those face coverings,” Kramer said. With prom and graduation coming up, he said a large number of quarantines are probable without face coverings.
He also said he is concerned a mask variance will drive parents to pull their kids out of school, to homeschool or do online schooling. This would impact school funding, Kramer said, since the schools are funded on daily average attendance.
Kramer said his ideal situation is to get through the next eight weeks of school, still requiring face coverings, then reassess.
