Board member Darbi Boddy argued against members wielding the authority on student masking, which she contends belongs only to local and state health officials and not to local school boards.
Lakota adopted a mask policy in fall of 2020 — as classes returned to operation after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 shuttered all Ohio schools for the last quarter of the 2019-2020 school year.
Lakota’s current policy for protective facial coverings for students and staff is that masks are recommended but not mandatory.
Boddy said “we should rescind this mask policy.”
“Lakota is not the health department,” she said.
Boddy also proposed a board resolution to rescind all COVID-19 policies in Lakota but the board rejected it by a 4-1 vote, with Boddy the lone supporter.
The board took no action Monday on changing its mask policies for the 17,000-student district and members will continue discussion prior to a required second public meeting reading and a final vote on the proposed resolution.
“Our (mask) policy needs updating,” said Lakota Board of Education President Lynda O’Connor. “We are no longer in an emergency status … we need to evolve our policy.”
COVID-19 impacts have declined significantly in Ohio in the past month. In mid-January, there were more than 6,500 Ohioans hospitalized with COVID. On Monday, a month later, that number had fallen by two-thirds, to 2,199.
Lakota residents at the meeting spoke for and against retaining a mask policy.
Resident Tony Kruger told the board “I believe we are in a different situation than we were two years ago with the Omicron (COVID-19) variant … and we are hurting our children,” by continuing to recommend masks.
In other action, the board discussed the first reading of a proposed resolution to expand the school board’s powers to review curricula in the district, which has been accused in the past by Boddy and fellow newly elected member Isaac Adi of teaching Critical Race Theory or variations of such lessons.
Lakota officials have repeatedly contended CRT is not taught in its schools.
Superintendent Matt Miller told the board there had not been a curricula audit in the district since 2016 but a new audit is now planned for this spring for the district’s K-6 grades social and emotional learning curriculum.
O’Connor said “we have had parent complaints and we are being responsive with a curriculum audit.”
Adi said he welcomed the audit, saying “there have been a lot of concerns expressed” about what is being taught to students.
“It’s time to do a curriculum audit to clear the air.”
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