The mandating of masks has been a very heated and divisive issue and I expect that there will be several people who will want to address this with the board. Since the board cannot engage in dialog or correct misinformation during public comment, I am providing a timeline of events leading up to this point. *Note: this email is very long. However, every detail is critical for a complete understanding. Please read it in its entirety.
July 2021
- Douglas County School District publishes its plan to return to learning in the fall. No masks, cohorting, social distancing...a return to normalcy.
- July 14, 2021: Global Village Academy-Douglas County Board of Directors Meeting. Stacy Bush presented the “In-person Learning for All” plan which included revisions to COVID-related policies based on recommendations from Douglas County School District and Tri-County Health.
- July 19, 2021: Communication was sent to parents regarding the “In-person Learning for All” plan
- July 29, 2021: During the Tri-County Health Department School Leader Meeting TCH released COVID guidelines for schools. These guidelines included recommendations that all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask in indoor public places, including teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools.
August 2021
- Aug 1, 2021: Communication was sent to parents regarding TCH’s recommendations and GVA-DC’s "In-person Learning for All" plan.
- Aug 5, 2021: DCSD announces that they recommend that all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask in indoor public places, including teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools.
- Aug 17, 2021: Tri-County Health issues a Public Health Order requiring children ages 2-11, staff, and visitors to wear a mask when indoors. DCSD writes a letter to all neighborhood school students and staff stating, “This evening, the Tri-County Health Department Board of Health voted to implement a public health order changing their stance on mask-wearing for children ages 2-11 from recommended to required. In alignment with DCSD policy, “management of common communicable diseases will be in accordance with Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment or Tri-County Health Department guidelines.” Given that Tri-County Health Department has the legal authority to issue public health orders, DCSD is obligated to follow their mask-wearing requirement. Neighborhood, private, magnet, and charter schools within Tri-County Health Department’s jurisdiction all fall under this public health order.” A copy of the letter was emailed to charter school principals at 8:00 pm that same evening.
- Aug 18, 2021: The DCSD Charter School Alliance convened a meeting of area charter school principals to process through the letter sent by DCSD and the public health order (PHO) issued by Tri-County Health.
- Aug 19, 2021: At the Douglas County Commissioners meeting the commissioners opted out of the PHO. Therefore, the PHO no longer had the force of law and was not applicable to all schools. The GVA-DC Board schedules a special meeting to discuss the implications of the past week's events and posts the meeting agenda both on campus and on the school’s website.
- Aug 20, 2021: DCSD opted to continue following the PHO and invoked policy JLCC Click to see the JLCC Policy to force charter school compliance. The Charter School Alliance along with member principals and legal counsel met to discuss policy JLCC and why the district was choosing to enforce it now when it had not been implemented in previous years. Charter leaders were advised to seek clarification from the DCSD school board.
- Aug 21, 2021: Following a full-day Board of Directors training with all GVAs, the GVA-DC BOD met to discuss the events of the prior week including Tri-County’s implementation of a Public Health Order, Douglas County Commissioners opting out of the PHO, and recommendations that charter schools should try to waive out of DCSD’s JLCC policy. (Note: Waiving out of policy JLCC DOES NOT mean that GVA-DC would never mandate masks. It does mean that GVA-DC would retain its autonomous nature as we have always done - as a charter school. For example, if the JLCC policy would have been enforced last school year, we would have been unable to return to in-person learning in the fall of 2020. Rather, we would have had to learn remotely for most of the 20/21 school year like the DCSD neighborhood schools had done.) The BOD voted yes to allow GVA-DC administrators to sign the waiver to opt-out of DCSD Policy JLCC..
- Aug 23, 2021: Communication was sent to parents regarding our decision to stay the course with parent choice regarding masking their children and the information used to inform that decision.
- Aug 25, 2021: Charter Principals had a “check-in” with DCSD leaders including Superintendent Corey Wise. This was the first time charter leaders had the opportunity to communicate directly with DCSD leadership regarding the mask mandate. When asked how local schools were enforcing the mandate, Superintendent Wise clarified that DCSD schools put in place a “soft” mandate. Meaning, students arriving at school without masks were not sent home. They were offered a mask from school personnel however if they refused they were left alone. In addition, DCSD leadership shared that they were reviewing the process for charter schools wishing to waive out of JLCC. Principals were given the go-ahead to continue with their current policies until such time as a waiver process was determined. Kelly Rossman, GVAC Executive Director, Laura Widhalm, GVA-DC Board of Directors President, and Stacy Bush, Principal, met with legal counsel and developed a plan to comply with policy JLCC including providing forms for medical and religious exemptions as required by law.
- Aug 27, 2021: Communication was sent to parents regarding GVA-DC’s revised “In-person Learning for All” plan that included requiring facial coverings for all students in K-5 as well as all teachers, staff, and visitors in the building.
- Aug 29, 2021: Communication was sent to parents further explaining the revised school policy on masks.
- Aug 30, 2021: Masks are required for all students in grades K-5, teachers, staff, and visitors. Medical and religious exemptions forms are available upon request as required by law. Tri-County Health held a Special Meeting that same day, in which they revised their PHO to include universal mask mandates for all students in grades K-12. They also declared that counties would not be allowed to opt-out of this PHO.
- Aug 31, 2021: Douglas County shared a medical exemption form with charter leaders. Religious exemptions were not provided for in the PHO. Communication is sent to parents regarding the revised medical exemption forms.
September 2021
- Sept 1, 2021: Charter Leaders checked in with DCSD Leadership regarding the revised PHO. DCSD shared that it was working to revise its medical exemption form to meet the requirements outlined in the PHO. DCSD will share the revised form when it is completed.
As is demonstrated by the timeline above, there was (and still is) a lot happening in a short amount of time. We have spent countless hours reviewing recommendations, requirements, and mandates meeting with the board, GVAC Leadership, legal counsel, the Charter School Alliance, DCSD Leadership, and others to navigate the many moving parts related to this mask mandate. We have acted in good faith and have openly communicated with stakeholders. In addition, at no time did GVA-DC receive any formal written notice of being in violation of our charter contract.
Moving forward, we will still be seeking clarification in the ways of mask mandates knowing that the Douglas County Commissioners will be moving away from Tri-County Health this week and creating their own board of health. However, for the time being, we will continue to require masks for everyone when students are present in the building.
This has been an extremely challenging time for our students, families, teachers, staff, and administrators. I want to thank all of our families for the quick transition to mask-wearing this week in response to the new public health order from the Tri-County Health Department. I recognize this is difficult and that the mask requirement sparks many emotions and opinions. However, like DCSD Superintendent Corey Wise shared in his weekly update, “I hope we can all begin to empathize with varying viewpoints while remembering to treat each other with respect in the classroom, at athletic events, and even on social media. We all greatly want to have control of what feels like an uncontrollable situation. However, we can control how we treat others with kindness, empathy, and as neighbors and humans.”
Sincerely,
Stacy Bush
Principal
With Support from the GVA-DC Board of Directors