As Waterloo Superintendent Brian Charron said at Monday’s school board meeting, “it is a very complicated year.” 

With discussions on mask policies and school bus driver shortages taking up the majority of the proceedings, many can agree he’s not wrong.

Mask madness

In accordance with Gov. JB Pritzker’s Executive Order 2021-18, the Waterloo school district is requiring all who enter its school buildings to mask up unless they have a medical exemption. Anticipating discussions on this topic, the meeting drew a large crowd, some of whom donned “Unmask our Kids” T-shirts. 

Due to the large number of attendees, the meeting was moved from its usual location across the hall into the Gardner Elementary cafeteria.

Of the four community members who addressed the board, three voiced dissatisfaction with the school district enforcing the mask mandate. 

Jared Massey took to the microphone first, stating it should be up to parents to decide if their kids need to wear masks while at school – something Chris Sellers, the second parent to publicly comment, also relayed to the board.

“Why are people in prison breathing more fresh air than our kids are in school?” Massey said, prompting some in the crowd to erupt in applause. 

Sellers said he believes fear has driven decision-making in schools, citing schools are concerned with losing their recognition status and lawsuits should they not comply with the mandate. He said parents fear retaliation for speaking their opinions as well. 

“I would imagine this virus is, in one form or another, here to stay. We are all going to have to decide how we want to live,” Sellers said. “I would personally pick freedom over fear. I don’t want our kids to wake up one day and not be free people. Now that’s something to be scared of.” 

Monroe County Health Department Administrator John Wagner spoke on the sanctions a school board can face by disobeying the mandate at the meeting, while also fielding several other questions from the concerned public. 

Last week, Illinois Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala outlined such sanctions in a letter to administrators. She stated Pritzker’s executive order has “the force of law” and “noncompliance is not an option.” 

Ayala wrote that schools who do not require people to mask indoors invite themselves to face “extraordinary legal liability – potentially without any insurance to cover damages,” which Pritzker also said during the press conference in which he announced the mandate. 

Both Pritzker and Ayala said the Illinois School Board of Education has the authority to remove a school’s recognition. 

“A district would first have its recognition changed to ‘On Probation’ and would be asked to submit a corrective action plan,” Ayala’s letter said regarding non-compliant schools. “Failure to address the deficiencies would lead to nonrecognition, meaning total loss of access to state funding and loss of the school’s ability to engage in any Illinois High School Association and Illinois Elementary School Association athletic competitions.” 

As the Chicago Tribune recently reported, Red Bud CUSD No. 132 received a probationary letter, and its superintendent confirmed they were not abiding by the state’s executive order. 

Wagner cited Red Bud as an example of the consequences Waterloo would face should they disregard the mandate. 

“Good for Red Bud!” one crowd member exclaimed at the school board meeting, while an “at least they did something!” followed from another upset parent. 

These consequences, Wagner said, essentially mean the Waterloo school board has no option but to follow Pritzker’s order. 

“You’re battling the wrong board,” Wagner told meeting attendees. “This needs to go to the state. (The Waterloo School Board) has no control whether your kids wear masks in schools or not … so, take it up to the state level. These boards can’t help you. There’s too much at risk for them.”  

Throughout the meeting, Charron held firm. 

“We will be doing universal masking as long as it’s an executive order,” Charron said at the meeting. 

Busing issues

The school board also approved a resolution aimed at helping ease issues the district is facing due to a bus driver shortage. It’s problem is not limited to Illinois, but rather is cropping up nationwide. 

The resolution permits Charron and his “designees,” which will primarily include the athletic director and coaches, to determine which extracurricular activities will receive district-provided transportation. 

In the cases where there are not enough bus drivers to provide transportation, parents must decide how their student will get to their sporting event. 

“It’s not that the board is specifically saying that we’re not going to do it for activities that have to leave before 4:30 p.m. The board is acknowledging that we are going to have to tell parents that for certain activities, we have to have no bus available. We’re going to try to limit this as much as we possibly can, but it’s an unfortunate reality due to an industry-wide shortage of workers,” Charron explained after the meeting.  

Charron said this is of particular concern for games which require students to leave before 4:30 p.m., as the few drivers available are taking students home from school at this time. The athletic director, coaches and athletes will work together to figure out any transportation issues that arise from the shortage of drivers. 

Many school bus drivers are already double-routing to and from school in order to make up for the current shortage, Charron said. 

Illinois Central School Bus Contract Manager Cynthia French said the company currently has 28 drivers and needs 34 to comfortably fill routing responsibilities. As discussed at the meeting, French said some students have had to wait 20-25 minutes extra due to drivers needing to fill multiple routes. 

French noted bus driving is “the perfect job” for stay-at-home parents, as drivers can bring up to two non-school age children on their bus routes. If their children attend school in the district, they can also bring their kids with them.

Until the vacancies are filled, French asks for patience from parents. 

Return-to-school plan 

The board also adopted the district’s 2021-22 Safe Return to School Plan, which was issued Aug. 9. The plan addresses all aspects of returning to in-person instruction during the pandemic – including the mask mandate, disinfecting procedures and quarantine protocol. 

Board approval of the plan was a stipulation for the district to receive its third round of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funding. Charron explained this funding, which exceeds $900,000, is to be used on costs incurred due to the pandemic, including the district’s plan to address potential learning loss. 

The district also needed to compile public input on the plan, which Charron said was prepared and given to board members. Once the district publishes the draft budget outlining how the funds will be spent, they will once again seek community feedback. 

“We’re addressing (learning loss) by hiring staff to reduce class size … sometimes if our class sizes are too high it’s harder for our teachers to address all the individual needs of students,” Charron said. 

The budget will also reflect the district’s decision to hire another social worker, as the pandemic has caused additional concerns for student well-being. 

The Safe Return to School Plan said the district is working on setting up an optional screen testing program for COVID. Charron shared the district is considering the University of Illinois’ Shield Illinois Saliva Test. Before bringing Shield to the district, Charron said they will gather community input to determine if they will even have enough participation, given the testing would be on a strictly voluntary basis. 

“Bottom line, I can’t even promise that we’re doing it,” Charron summarized after the meeting.  “Our board has now adopted this resolution that recognizes our Safe Return to School Plan that identifies this is something we might recommend to our families, so now we will continue that process of trying to make that available, and at some point we’ll be polling families to say ‘How many of you will participate in this if we provided it’ (along with more information)?” 

The district will also consider where to hold testing and how to supply the personnel needed to run the test. Charron said the district will be sending out additional information on the COVID test along with a link asking parents if they would want their children to be tested. This will most likely come as an email and text alert, Charron said. 

The Republic-Times previously reported the CDC’s Test to Stay protocol would allow an asymptomatic, unvaccinated close contact to return to school provided they test negative for COVID-19 on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 following their initial exposure. 

The protocol is applicable if both the close contact and the individual who tested positive for COVID were masked, which will be guaranteed under the mask mandate. However, if the executive order is reversed and the school board decides not to require masking while indoors, student exposure will not be applicable for the Test to Stay protocol.