Board of Ed special meeting on masking

 agenda is here

Commissioner (coming in midstream; looks like he had a slide or two on rising COVID rates?)

Looking for "off ramps on masking"
"hopeful that this will be the final hurdle of the pandemic"
can't rule out that masking "may be required intermittedly throughout the year"
(INTERMITTEDLY?)
does not mean vaccination will be only measure for unmasking, but stress importance
"now recommend that we take this one additional" step

Peyser: thanks Commissioner "for his leadership in putting forward this proposal"
Smooth opening of school
"reinforce the importance of vaccination...create incentives" for districts to get all eligible vaccinated
moving to fully normal experience...get everyone vaccinated

West: acknowledge thousands of those who have written to us
"want to reject the notion is a simple matter of following the science"
questions efficacy of masking(?) and concerned about not seeing teachers faces(?)
concern about masking being imposed in schools "and not other places first"
question if the conditions exist such that such authority needs to be extended
"to prevent the need to quarantine large numbers of students in schools" (from your lips to God's ear as they say)
continued conversation with educators on how to 
lack of clear end date on masking
"I don't think the continued default of masking" can continue for elementary
unmasking around vaccinations: don't want students have to explain vaccination status or why they're unmasks

Rouhanifard: "I'm on a no on this vote"
"masking is not a hill worth dying on"
tying to vaccinations "is really bad public policy"
"ethically precarious" 
"a more reasonable off ramp would have been tying to community spread"
surprised Governor has endorsed this as usually supports his "technocratic policy solutions"
"if you look at hospitalization and death rates, it remains remarkably low"
"have an obligation to...open the door til normalcy"
"I think erring on the side of caution loses sight of the bigger picture"
practicing social distancing and masking "sounds like a religion"
drives to the tendency of divisive public policy
"worry about where we're headed"

Hills: "people should vote the way we want...and be respected for it"
"regret some people on the Board" attacking another on how they voted at a prior meeting
move without regard to prior decisions
leaders "have done exactly what we should want them to do"
pandemic "which isn't over yet"
Commissioner "has been very deft" in how he has uses the power he has asked for
"as a Board member, Jeff is exactly the sort of person we'd want to entrust with this responsibility"
"straightforward to me, not because it's perfect, but we don't have the luxury of only voting when the situation is perfect"
hope we have a smooth opening to the school year and in a month "are talking about" relaxing the standards

Craven: thanks Board members "and all the citizens who have written to us over the last 72 hours"
Calls for vote

VOTE: all save Rouhanifard in favor, motion passes 9-1