DeKalb superintendent to develop new COVID-19 mitigation plan at direction of school board

DeKALB – Days after DeKalb schools made face masks optional, the DeKalb school board Tuesday voted to give Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez authority to develop the district’s own mitigation plan in the absence of state mandates amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 4-2 vote was held during a DeKalb School District 428 special board meeting Tuesday. Members Jeromy Olson and Amanda Harness voted no on a resolution similar to one the school board passed last year which will allow the superintendent to formulate DeKalb-specific COVID-19 mitigations to implement in the event the district determines virus spread requires additional measures to keep students and staff safe.

Masks will still remain optional but highly recommended come Wednesday, however, confirmed School Board President Sarah Moses after the meeting Tuesday. The board also unanimously approved Garcia-Sanchez to develop a mitigation plan and implement it at the district’s discretion.

“The superintendent [and designees] are authorized and directed to make changes to the COVID-19 mitigation plan as appropriate,” according to the resolution. “Upon making changes, the superintendent will notify the board president. It is understood that changes to the COVID-19 mitigation plan may require a return to measures which had previously been relaxed, modified or otherwise removed.”

District 428, the largest in DeKalb County, was the only one left as of Friday still requiring face masks. The requirements were lifted in neighboring districts over the past two weeks, as mandates from Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health faced legal challenges almost two years into the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter emailed about 10 a.m. Saturday to district families, Garcia-Sanchez said that come Tuesday the district would highly recommend masks be worn for students, staff and visitors, though all other mitigations would remain in place. Masks still are required on school buses and when in a school building health office.

[ Masks optional come Tuesday in DeKalb schools ]

In her Saturday letter, Garcia-Sanchez cited a downward trend of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations following a record-breaking surge after the holidays fueled by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

As of Wednesday, according to the IDPH, 56.9% of DeKalb County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In the DeKalb zip code, that number is 49.78% as of Feb. 9, and 65.61% in Sycamore.

DeKalb, the largest city in the county, has the fourth lowest vaccination rate, in front of Shabbona, Kingston and Kirkland, data shows.

Three parents spoke out against the resolution and continued pandemic-era mitigations Tuesday, citing concerns over what they claimed was a violation of personal freedom.

Board member Jeromy Olson, who was the only school board member not wearing a mask at Tuesday’s meeting, voted against the resolution. He said he didn’t believe the school board should have the authority to require masks in schools, and said he believed it would be a violation of civil rights.

“This is a very individual and contentious topic,” Olson said. “And we should not have the autonomy as a board or a superintendent, frankly, to tell people they need to mask their kids when no one else in the country is doing so.”

Board member Samantha McDavid pointed out that the district isn’t following current federal guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Well the CDC is recommending masking for students in school right now and we are not following that recommendation,” McDavid said.

Since 2020, the District 428 has been consistent in its pandemic-era policies. Before Pritzker issued a statewide school mask mandate in August, District 428 was the first district in the county to decide to initiate its own mask mandate.

“We also required masking before the executive order and we passed a resolution like this last year and we do have the authority to,” said Moses. She said the board could choose to revise or end the mitigation plan in the future.

Moses said the resolution and direction for the superintendent to formulate a plan will help DeKalb schools draw up a plan to eventually off-ramp pandemic mitigations as virus data allows.