Students and staff in Merrimack Valley School District will wear masks indoors when COVID spread in Merrimack County is “substantial,” the school board decided Monday, in a change based on updated state guidance.
In an emergency board meeting held in the Merrimack Valley High School gymnasium, the school board voted 8-3 to follow a state-recommended decision matrix for COVID-19 safety protocol, which institutes universal masking when community spread is “substantial.” Exceptions will be made for people with a medical inability to wear a mask.
The meeting was called to address some “contradictory” language about masks in the reopening plan the board passed two weeks ago, in light of new mask recommendations from New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The contradictory lines in the document included a statement that district will “follow New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services recommendations in regard to the use of masks on school property,” followed by a statement that said students and adults “will have the option of wearing masks regardless of the NH DHHS.”
“When we re-approved the Stay Open Framework two weeks ago, none of us really realized that they were going to be contradictory, or we wouldn’t have done that,” said board chair Seelye Longnecker. “Furthermore, the DHHS recommendations came out two days after our meeting and that sort of made the whole thing that much more confusing.”
Longnecker and board members Tracy Bricchi, Lorrie Carey, Andrew Chalsma, Owen Harrington, Hirsh-Dickinson, Jessica Wheeler Russell and Laura Vincent voted in favor of following the recommended matrix, while board members Peggy Jones-Blanchard, Bobbi-Jo Michael and Melissa Muzzy voted against it.
Members seemed to have different understandings of the document they had voted to approve on Aug. 9. Board member Chalmsa said he thought he was voting to follow DHHS recommendations, based on the words in the framework. Muzzy said she thought they had voted to make masks optional, based on the discussion held beforehand.
To fix the issue, board members voted 8-3 to delete the line saying students and adults will have the option of wearing masks regardless of the NH DHHS guidelines. Superintendent Mark MacLean said this line, which he wrote back in the spring, had originally been intended to specify that folks could keep wearing a mask even when it wasn’t mandated.
“Monday morning quarterback, looking back on this, I can completely understand how that was confusing for people,” MacLean said.
From this point on, mask-wearing will be determined by a decision matrix that establishes universal masking when community spread is “substantial,” masking for certain folks when community spread is “moderate,” and optional masking when community spread is “minimal.”
The board debated at length whether to define “community” as county or town when measuring spread. A majority of board members voted to define community as “county.” A minority of board members wanted to define community as “town,” saying that numbers from nearby non-sending towns shouldn’t be used to determine the status of Merrimack Valley schools, but they were voted down twice. At one point, Muzzy made a motion to make masks a “recommendation” rather than a requirement, but it was voted down.
Tensions were high among audience members at the meeting, which lasted four hours. Over 25 people spoke during the public comment section, both for and against masking. Attendees were rowdy at times, largely ignoring Longnecker’s requests that they stop applauding during public comment section and shouting “no” whenever the board discussion turned to masks.
“We don’t have to comply,” one father yelled into the mic during the public comment section. “What are they going to do, suspend them all?”
A brief uproar ensued after the school board voted to strike the line about masks being optional, and another father left the room, swearing.
“You work for us, remember that. We voted you in,” he yelled.
“I am disgusted with some of the things that happened here tonight,” board member Bricchi said. “The way that some of the townsfolk treated us was incredibly disrespectful. That somebody somebody could actually walk out of the room and yell the f-word at us is totally unacceptable and I think that that needs to be dealt with.”
The board made several other updates to the reopening framework, including increasing the temperature at which children are required to stay home from school from 100 degrees Fahrenheit to 100.4 degrees, at the request of school nurses. Merrimack Valley athletics will follow NHIAA recommendations with regard to COVID safety protocols.