‘If not now, when?’ Fayette schools keep mask mandate despite parent push back

Some parents are pushing to get rid of the mask mandate, but Fayette school officials say they aren’t ready to give up face coverings yet.

COVID cases among students, staff and community members are dropping, but are at such a level that health department officials are “highly recommending” that the district continue requiring masks, Fayette Superintendent Demetrus Liggins said Monday.

“If not now, when?”’Todd Burus, a leader in the Facebook group called Fayette County Kids Matter, said after the school board’s Monday planning meeting. Members of that group have written Liggins and the board members asking them to remove the district’s mask mandate.

Burus said the board’s default position should be that masks are optional with measurable justification for why it should ever be any stricter than that.

“This can’t be an issue we just return to in a planning meeting, unannounced, every 6 months and then try to sweep back under the rug,” said Burus. “We need clear metrics on when and why students should be masking. “

A decision needs to be a formal agenda item at the board meeting on February 28 so the public can be prepared to attend “and the board members can go on record for how they vote on a matter that is of great importance to their constituents,” Burus said.

Board member Tom Jones said his constituents were asking what conditions would be in place for the mask mandate to be removed.

Some school districts in Kentucky have made mask wearing optional.

Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday said if COVID cases continue to plunge, some school districts might be able to make a “rational” decision to not require masks in mid-March.

But he noted that last week was still the sixth highest week of cases in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Parents certainly, you want to have your kids in masks when they are in a place where people aren’t very vaccinated and there’s a ton of them and they’re close together, that’s school,” Beshear said at a news briefing.

Liggins said he and staff are giving the school board the latest data and health department recommendations because school board members will make the decision.

He said he is meeting the new Lexington-Fayette County health commissioner Joel McCullough Tuesday. Liggins said he talks to health officials every week about the mask mandate.

“The current state guidance makes it very clear,” said district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall. “If we drop the mask mandate, we go back to quarantining and contact tracing which increases student absences.”

“It’s a difficult balancing act,” Debbie Boian, district coordinator of Health Services told the school board at Monday’s planning meeting. “We have just as many want the masks... as don’t.”

“We are hoping we will be in a better place in a month or so,” said Boian.

Boian said she did not have a definitive answer on what it would take for Fayette schools to stop the mask mandate or provide an exact date of when that could happen.

In December, Fayette schools had 447 students who were positive for COVID and 94 staff cases. In January, 3,467 students were positive and 810 staff members were positive.

So far, as of Feb. 14, there have been 650 student cases and 115 staff cases.

Boian said as of Feb. 14, health department officials told her the community seven-day average last week was 760. This week it’s 485.

“We are trending in the right direction,” Boian said, but this isn’t the time to “consider things normal.”

The district has ramped up its testing to be able to stay in school and not switch to at-home learning, she said.

This story was originally published February 15, 2022 at 7:41 AM.