Practice What They Preach
How one downstate school district stood up to Pritzker's tyranny and stayed true to its re-opening plan
(Photo Credit: Jennifer Garrison)
Thursday morning, a high school in Vandalia, IL, located approximately 250 miles south of Chicago and 70 miles northeast of St. Louis, opens its doors for the first day of school.
Vandalia High School is one of thousands of Illinois schools to begin the 2021-22 school year this week and next. What’s unique about Vandalia is how on the first day of school the Vandals (the school’s nickname), are under probation.
Tuesday, the superintendent of District 203, Jennifer Garrison, received a letter from Illinois State Board of Education notifying them of their probationary status.
One section of the letter read:
“…effective the date of this letter, the recognition status of Vandalia CUSD 203 and all of its schools is hereby lowered to “On Probation” for exhibiting “deficiencies that present a health hazard or a danger to students or staff.”
The ‘health hazard’ referred to in the letter is about forced masking.
In July, Garrison and the Vandalia board of education agreed on a mask optional mitigation as part of re-opening plans for the 2021-22 school year. The mask optional mitigation was shared by thousands of Vandalia’s peers in Illinois, including large unit school districts in Chicagoland like District 214 (northwest suburban) and D200 (Wheaton). But a August 4 executive order from Governor J.B. Pritzker sabotaged mask optional plans, prompting districts to reverse original policies and require masking.
Vandalia considered the order. It was conscious of the actions of other districts in their county, neighboring areas and the rest of the state.
And it stuck to the original plan.
It’s three-layered mitigation plan is as follows:
Layered mitigation strategies:
The vaccine is widely available in Vandalia for ages 12 and above and the single most important prevention strategy.
75-80% of staff vaccinated, 25% recovered from COVID-19 during the ’20-’21 school year.
Staff and students must stay home when that are sick with COVID-19 like symptoms or illness.
COVID-19 positive cases must quarantine per FCHD/IDPH/CDC.
Handwashing and respiratory etiquette.
Cleaning and maintaining health facilities.
Updated HVAC and bipolar ionization units installed in cafeterias and gymnasiums.
Diagnostic testing for staff and students with parental consent.
Appropriate accommodations for children with disabilities with respect to health and safety policies.
Physical distancing of 3 feet to 6 feet when possible.
Correct wearing of masks.
Consistent with the CDC July 9th, 2021 Guidance, the Superintendent is directed by the Vandalia CUSD #203 Board of Education to implement a layered mitigation system based on levels of risks of COVID-19 spread inside our buildings as the primary indicator with community transmission as a consideration.
Level 1-Minimal Transmission
Level 1 status is defined as low transmission rates, low positivity rates, and limited risk of COVID-19
Layered mitigation strategies using 1 through 9 of the above list implemented with fidelity.
Distancing will consist of educational best practices.
Masking option with the recommendation for all per CDC
Metrics Threshold: Less than 5% internal positivity rate. Possible consideration: less than 8% positivity rate within the community for two consecutive weeks.
Level 2-Moderate Transmission
Level 2 status defined as moderate transmission and positivity rates are increasing internally or in the community.
Layered mitigation strategies using 1 through 9 of the above list implemented with fidelity
Distancing will consist of increase physical distancing at lunch and the hallways.
Mandated and/or targeted use of situation masking:
–Students in grades PreK through 6th grade who are not eligible for the vaccine.
–Specifically impacted grade levels or buildings within the district.
–Recommendation for all per CDC
Metrics Threshold: 5% internal positivity rate or a confirmed outbreak of 5 or more cases linked. Possible consideration: 8% positivity rate within the community for two consecutive weeks.
Level 3-Substantial Transmission
Level 3 status is defined as an increase in significant positive cases internally or in the community.
Layered mitigation strategies using 1 through 9 of the above list with fidelity.
Increase physical distancing in all spaces to the greatest extent possible.
Masks mandate for all.
Metrics Threshold: 8% internal positivity rate. Possible consideration: 15% positivity rate within the community for two consecutive weeks.
Any reversal from a ‘mask optional’ directive would occur if Vandalia reached Level 3 or ‘Substantial Transmission.’
Monday night, D203 held a school board meeting. With the district at Level 1, there would be no call to require masking in schools.
At the meeting, Garrison said she anticipated Vandalia receiving a letter from ISBE telling the district they’d be put on probation for violating Pritzker’s EO.
“I want to clarify this evening and let the board discuss as you know it’s now coming,” Garrison said about the ISBE letter, in audio published on VandaliaRadio.com.
Later in the meeting, Garrison addressed concerns about the consequences of “On Probation” recognition status by ISBE.
In previous letters to schools defying the mask mandate, most notably to Timothy Christian Schools in Elmhurst last week, ISBE had threatened significant sanctions— non-recognition of graduating seniors, removal of tax scholarships and making athletic teams ineligible to play their seasons.
Garrison downplayed those possible outcomes to board members Monday night:
Are we really not going to allow our kids to play sports? Are we really going to lose our state funds, our federal funds...when talking Covid mitigations, I'm looking at two weeks at a time. Do I think, believe this board is responsible? Yes, I do. Do I think you would jeopardize our kids getting their high school diploma? No, I do not.
Kevin Satterthwaite, D203 board of education member, concurred with Garrison’s statements:
I don’t think anything has changed…we made a decision that we know we will have to potentially adjust, pivot, see how it unfolds. Stuff changes daily.
The decision to stand behind its mitigation plan comes at a time when D203 is in the planning stages of a building expansion project.
“We are working on a building expansion and renovation of two schools. This is a proposed summer 2022 project,” Garrison told The Kerr Report via email.
Since March of 2020 when schools shut down at the outset of Covid, districts have cited the loss of state funding, along with other hold backs, as reasons for not opposing state public heath guidelines.
Vandalia, with an upcoming construction expansion planned next summer, does not share worries about the potential loss of state funding, dollars that could be directed to its building renovation project.
During Monday’s meeting, Garrison cited the timeline of the probationary process and the flexibility of its layered mitigation plan when addressing any community anxieties over probationary status.
“You as a school board, a committee, will then speak to the state school board. They will then say, ‘do you know there is a mask mandate?’ And that’s our opportunity to tell our story board with where we are at with our layered mitigation plan,” Garrison said.
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, as of its latest statistics dated Aug. 1 through Aug. 7, Fayette County (where Vandalia is located) is labeled a ‘blue’ county, which ‘indicates that the county is experiencing overall stable COVID-19 metrics.’
Wednesday, Garrison told The Kerr Report that the district, which includes an elementary, junior high, high school and vocational school, remains in the Level 1 (green) stage of its layered mitigation plan.
“We are tracking our internal (inside the building) spread as the primary metric,” Garrison said, adding how Thursday’s first day of school will be the district’s first chance to measure internal metrics for the 2021-22 school year.
Vandalia is not alone in ignoring Pritzker’s EO.
As of Tuesday, the recognition status of a little more than two dozens schools is labeled “On Probation,” according to the ISBE website.
Several of them, including Timothy Christian, Franklin, Macon and Williamson have backed off initial plans to resist the mask mandate and as stated in the ISBE list, ‘voted to comply and provided verification.’
Vandalia has no such plans. It will stick with guidelines that includes a ‘mask optional’ mitigation. At least for now.
“The appropriate way to characterize the outcome is we are moving forward with our plan using the CDC recommendations. This is the plan before the EO when we had some local control over all COVID mitigations,” Garrison told The Kerr Report. “Our goal is to tell our story leading with local control. We know our community best. In our community we are putting our best foot forward leading with the principles of equity and unity rather than division.”
I want to add a short editorial component to the Vandalia story.
As can be read in the district’s layered mitigation plan, forced masking is just one piece of that plan. This was the case with every district before the governor’s EO.
What does that mean?
District officials wildly misread (or ignored) the toxicity of public opinion over forced masking as compared to how they interpreted its importance in re-opening schools this August.
About a week ago, I had a conversation with John Burkey, who runs LUDA, the Large Unit District Association that has dozens of members in Chicagoland.
In June, LUDA wrote an open letter to ISBE. In the letter, the organization did not address masking as one of its primary concerns in advance of the 2021-22 school year.
From Burkey about the intention of the letter:
For our districts and superintendents, I should say, meaning that what was the purpose of our letter, we were really frustrated with back in June, was the guidance to open fully in-person. They were not able to do that with the social distancing guidelines. It was three-to-six feet depending on the circumstance, I had schools just could not get a hundred percent of the kids in school. That was the biggest issue that our superintendents were facing. They're like ‘I'm gonna be breaking the rules one way or the other.’ and that was what really frustrated us. It wasn't mask issues. We were looking at, ‘hey, wait a minute. Our restaurants are full capacity now. You can go watch the Cubs down at Wrigley Field. Look at Lollapalooza.’ I mean you have something that’s pretty crowded. So that was really the frustration, was wait a minute, why are why are we still at three feet/six feet distance if that keeps us from being in school full-time? When they finally came out with the guidelines, which, you know, they just basically totally did adopt the CDC guidelines. The biggest thing, the first priority is in-person learning and that was an incredibly positive thing for us because what that told our districts was if you can't meet three feet all the time, which they can't in certain circumstances, that doesn't mean don't put all your kids in school. And we felt, I think most of our superintendents felt very positive about that guidance because it put in-person working as the top, top priority.
Based on Burkey’s comments, what mattered most to LUDA members was opening doors to all students five days a week.
On the subject of forced masking, more from Burkey:
Fast-forward a couple of weeks and our districts all started school board meetings in July. And the mask issue comes up because of course, the guidance is, you know, were masks mandated? But it was part of a cocktail of mitigations. Like, you know what? You could do the three feet or the six feet, the guidance was basically saying we recommend that, but it may be okay not to if you can’t do that. So you know, mostly I think my districts were good with that but what happened was this mask issue. It's just become incredibly political and it's just tearing communities up. So they're coming to school board meetings because you know they they can't go talk to Pritzker. So what do you do? You go talk to your superintendent you go complain to your local school board and so I think it is becoming very, very polarizing issue in our communities with districts having to decide what to do. And one thing I wanted to point out is there was another letter that a bunch of superintendent signed that did ask for that, for local control. And we purposely did not do that. We're not the experts on that, and that we're okay with, you know, the health experts making a determination, we want local control over the education issues. I don't have a percentage for you, but I think many of the district I represent are happy to see guidance on masks on what to tell us what to do because it has become such an incredibly polarizing issue.
I spoke to Burkey before the Aug. 4 EO from Pritzker. Districts were still deciding individually what to do about masking, many large ones in LUDA (3,500 enrollment-plus) voting mask optional.
Two weeks ago, that choice was taken away from them by the governor.
So there’s some insight on where forced masking ranked on the list of concerns amongst administrators (not all of them, but generally speaking).
If it didn’t matter that much then, it’s certainly is not a battle most are willing to fight now.
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