Ironwood to hold meeting on masks

IRONWOOD — With their children planning to start classes next week, concerned parents attended the regular Ironwood board of education meeting at Luther L. Wright High School on Monday in large numbers.

During the start of the meeting, when citizens are permitted to address the board about items on the agenda, some parents expressed their fears about sending their children back to school without masks being required for all students. Others threatened to withdraw their students if the school required masks.

Travis Powell, the school superintendent, said he met with the Western U.P. Health Department before the school board meeting. He said that masks are currently not required for students, but the health department released information that may change the requirement status.

“The health department released information that, frankly, I’m not finished processing. The things that they listed as requirements are the quarantining of students and quarantining of staff who are positive and/or had close contact to known positives. They require contact tracing. That’s the information that the school needs to provide to the health department. The things that they are still recommending are masking,” he said.

The board of education moved in June to no longer require daily health screenings for staff and students. Masks are currently recommended for non-vaccinated individuals and social distancing is encouraged whenever possible. Powell said that there is a clause that says that this action can be changed when conditions require it to be different.

However, Powell said that he doesn’t recommend taking any action to change their current status until he receives legal guidance about what the requirements for the board of education are.

“We may also be powerless to do anything about it. We are required by law to impose certain things, like quarantine. We, as a governmental entity, have what’s called governmental immunity. Basically, what that says is as long as you’re following the rules, if somebody gets hurt during the normal course of whatever it is that you’re doing, you’re protected. You have immunity. But, if there’s a rule and we say we’re not going to follow it, and, as a result, someone gets injured, we have pierced our governmental immunity. We make ourselves liable for folks to sue us,” Powell said.

The board agreed to have a special meeting to discuss COVID-19 on Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Study Hall 230 at LLW.

“This board has to make a call because everyone above us is too scared to make a call because they want to get reelected,” board president Clancey Byrne said. “I don’t see I have any power. I do see I have responsibilities. I’m going to ask that we do a special session on Wednesday, when we’ve heard from our attorneys.”

Byrne encouraged the parents at the meeting to talk to their doctors and ask their opinions before the session on Wednesday. They will allow public comments at the meeting, Byrne said.

Jack Temsey from the Michigan Association of School Boards attended the meeting virtually to present a condensed version of the school’s new strategic plan for the 2021-2025 period.

“I was the consultant with elevating the Ironwood Area School through the strategic planning process. Throughout the last eight months, we’ve been developing a strategic plan that we can move forward, align some goals with our mission and vision statement, and move us into success things,” Temsey said.

The school’s new vision statement is “Inspire and equip all students for life!” The mission statement is “Students will be provided a core academic foundation, opportunities for personal growth and tools for success, in a safe and inclusive setting.”

Temsey and the board members set smart goals for the following areas: academics/programs, learning environment/culture, communications/community engagement, personnel/leadership and operations.

The board approved the MASB Strategic Plan as presented. The strategic plan summary will be ready for the public after the board’s approval, Temsey said.

In her report to the school board, K-12 principal Melissa Nigh said that the majority of her time in August was spent searching for candidates for open teaching positions, but they secured teachers for all open positions except one.

Nigh also said that K-3 teachers will use a new phonics-based program for 30 minutes every day. She said that the teachers are excited about the new program. They will assess students at the beginning of the fall and the end of the year to see the effects of the program. Nigh hopes to see “substantive growth.”