Liam HalawithMaroon Echoes New Editor-In-Chief The Mount Pleasant Community School Board of Directors approved the district’s current Return-to-Learn plan with a 6-1 vote at their regular monthly meeting Monday night; member Chuck Andrews being the lone dissenting vote.
The plan’s biggest point of contention, a face mask requirement for students and staff, came with bouts of disagreement Monday night. Board member Chuck Andrews was against requiring masks. He motioned that the language be stricken from the plan; however the motion failed. “I’ll make a motion to approve the return to learn program with the exception of making face masks/coverings highly recommended and not required,” said Mr. Andrews Dr. Joe Tansey, an orthopedic surgeon at Henry County Health Center, pleaded for the board to require masks at all times with exceptions, in addition to the social distancing part of the policy. “Masks should be mandated in schools if you want to prevent the further spread of this disease. If you want to avoid Hybrid learning, if you want to keep your school and staff as safe as possible, you must have everyone wear a mask all the time.” said Dr. Tansey. Tansey used HCHC as an example of the effectiveness of proper PPE, “At the hospital, we don’t catch COVID. At the hospital the only time we’ve had the staff catch COVID was from the community, and the reason why is there are some people who go out in the community and don’t wear a mask.We don’t catch COVID because we are always wearing masks.” Board member Willy Amos agreed with Dr. Tansey saying, “If even one child passes away I could never forgive myself for not mandating masks.” The board considered removing the social distancing language from the policy but decided to leave it as is. The current policy states: “Face coverings/Shields will be required of all students and staff when 6-foot physical distancing cannot be maintained.” Meaning that facemasks are only required indoors if you are unable to maintain social distancing. Face masks are also not required if you are eating, drinking, or outside. John Henriksen, the district superintendent, explained that there would be other circumstances when masks would be allowed to be removed, “ Face coverings are a mitigation effort and you are expected to wear a mask or a face shield and it is reasonable to assume that there will be circumstances that it will need to be removed to provide educational programming.” Although masks are not the only mitigation effort used by the district. According to Mr. Henriksen mitigation efforts are 3 pronged using heavy sanitation requirements, PPE, and social distancing to reduce the possibility of an outbreak. The plan also states that the district will start in “Face to Face” instruction on August, 24th. All students will be required to wear masks and social distance when possible. There will also be other safety and sanitation procedures in place, like bottle fillers, hand sanitizer stations, three lunch shifts, and more. For more on specific guidelines see the attached link for a PDF version of the approved plan. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bUIOTYWG8NF6Wyn-bdXdM6j8tUVfnl_a/view?usp=sharing The board has recognized that the plan will have to change as more is learned about Coronavirus. Most parts of the district’s plan will have to remain fluid but the heart of the plan should stay the same.
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