Community News

TRUSTEES REJECT REVIVING SCHOOL MASK MANDATE

STAFF COVID-19 SICK DAYS ON DOWNWARD TREND, SUPERINTENDENT SAYS

RICHARD LEITNER rleitner@hamiltonnews.com

Hamilton's public school board has rejected a call to revive a requirement to wear masks in schools, but will continue to recommend their use and make them available to anyone who wants one.

At its May 9 meeting, trustees voted 8-3 against a motion by Maria Felix Miller to reinstitute an indoor mask mandate until the end of the school year after hearing COVID-19 staff sick days continue to drop.

Human resources superintendent Jamie Nunn said about eight to 10 per cent of daily staff absences for the week of May 2 to 6 were COVID-related, "a stark contrast" from the 16 to 18 per cent a month earlier. Miller's motion had initially been presented at the April 25 board meeting but had been put on hold to allow for more information on staff absences and how many staff and students were voluntarily wearing masks.

Trustee Alex Johnstone, who originally supported the motion, said she had "a reverse of opinion" after seeing a significant decrease in Hamilton's COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks.

But she said she still wants the board to have a "progressive plan" on preventive measures to avoid school closures should cases rise again this fall.

"Masking becomes very much one of those tools and I think that we should be responding to local needs as they appear," Johnstone said.

Miller, whose motion was supported by Paul Tut and Cam Galindo, thanked staff for the updated sickday data and continued efforts to encourage masking indoors, but didn't change her stance.

"I believe that masks indoors in all of our buildings provides a safety net for staff, for our students," she said. "It protects our most vulnerable and it is a proactive way to ensure that we're staffing our schools correctly in order to deliver the education that we are dedicated to deliver."

Student trustees Aisha Mahmoud and Deema Abdel Hafeez opposed reinstating the board's mask mandate, which ended on April 1 and didn't require medical documentation for exemptions.

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2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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