Are face masks required at McAllen ISD? No one seems to know.
Officials, employees and community members at the school district have recently painted a confused and inconsistent picture of their understanding of the district’s policy toward face coverings.
Assistant Superintendent Todd Miller told the school board Monday evening that masks are not required for students, and while the district nominally requires its employees to wear them, those policies are not being enforced. That stance seemingly contradicts a county mandate that requires masks in Hidalgo County schools unless a school board votes to opt out of it.
In a statement Wednesday, the district said that it adopted that mandate but is not enforcing it, essentially rendering it a dead letter.
“We have not opted out of the County mask mandate because we want students and staff to wear their masks and the vast majority are doing so,” the statement reads. “However, there has been no enforcement protocol of the mask mandate that has been imposed since the vast majority are wearing a mask. Therefore, there will be limited instances where students and staff do not wear their mask. While there are no penalties for not wearing a mask, we continue to encourage its use.”
The spokesperson also apologized for telling The Monitor on Monday and Tuesday that the district had no mask requirement and hadn’t had one in place at any point this school year, a statement he later characterized as a mistake after The Monitor cited a variety of materials indicating the district at least began the year with a mask requirement.
The spokesperson’s not the only employee who was uncertain about the district’s mask policies.
The Monitor contacted 26 of the district’s campuses Wednesday, asking receptionists whether masks are required at their school: 16 said masks are required, one specified that masks are optional in the lobby but not in the main campus, and nine said masks are encouraged but not required — among them McAllen High School and Nikki Rowe.
Most of those receptionists seemed uncertain about their own school’s policy. One said masks aren’t required, then called back to say that they were. One paused and said it’s required; after all, a sign on the school’s entrance says so.
Others said there was no requirement, or that there was some leeway.
“If you’re just going to come in and out, then you’re fine,” a receptionist at Morris Middle School said.
The district certainly started off the year with a more assertive tone on mask wearing. Communication from the district described it as a requirement, signage and board presentations described masks as a “must.”
Multiple news reports also described masks as a requirement. For weeks before and after the first day of school, the board faced tirades from angry community members opposing masks on campus.
The district even made it on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s list of entities not in compliance with a state prohibition on mask mandates, though that list appears to no longer be visible to the public and it’s unclear if McAllen ISD is still on it.
The district made some subtle changes to its mask policy in mid-October, around the time County Health Authority Dr. Ivan Melendez indicated he would let his mask mandate lapse before reversing course a few days later and announcing its renewal on Oct. 14.
The district revised a living document that describe its COVID-19 policies on the 15th, including three revisions noting that masks there are “highly encouraged.”
“McAllen ISD highly encourages the use of masks while on campus and on school buses,” one of those revisions read.
That revision precedes a page that included a copy of the county’s order requiring masks, an order the district has not opted out of.
Other districts in the county have made a move against mask requirements since the school year began.
Weslaco ISD eliminated its mask requirement all the way back in September, citing legal counsel based on new guidance from the state. Sharyland followed suit a month later, although that district opted out of the mandate through a board vote, a stipulation that was not followed by Weslaco.
Despite no longer requiring masks, those districts say face coverings have remained popular on their campuses.
A Weslaco ISD spokesperson said Tuesday that COVID-19 cases have been trending downward there and that voluntary mask wearing is estimated at 95%.
A Sharyland spokesperson said voluntary mask wearing is estimated between 90% and 95% at the district’s elementary campuses and 50% at its secondary campuses.
Sharyland’s board voted to abandon the mandate in a meeting open to the public and livestreamed online. Weslaco’s administration posted its updated policy on social media two days after it went into effect.
Until Wednesday, McAllen ISD seemed to have never publicly clarified that it wasn’t enforcing its mask mandate, despite community members, parents and local media operating under the impression that it was enforced.
One resident who believed masks were actively required by the district is Sylvia Tanguma, the district’s American Federation of Teachers president. She didn’t know otherwise until contacted by The Monitor on Tuesday.
She said the union has been advising its members that masks are required.
“It kind of makes it seem like we don’t know what we’re talking about,” she said.
Tanguma says she supports a mask requirement, and says the lack of clarity surrounding the district’s mask policy raises questions about transparency.
Christina Salinas, the mother of two students enrolled at Rayburn Elementary, said teachers there told her a mask policy would be enforced at the beginning of the school year and wasn’t aware anything had changed until contacted by The Monitor on Tuesday.
“From what I see, everybody’s wearing them. So I thought they were required,” she said.
Although Salinas said she would prefer the district require masks, her children have been vaccinated, and she’s feeling a little more confident about the pandemic. It’s not a huge issue for her.
In Monday evening’s board meeting, Trustee Conrado Alvarado said the district’s policy on face coverings was worth explaining to the public.
Alvarado characterized masks as being optional during that meeting, and spoke largely positively about that flexibility, mentioning COVID-19 vaccines becoming more widely available to children.
“To me, that’s the most important thing right now that we can do, is get vaccinated. Protect yourself, protect your kids,” Alvarado said.
Alvarado noted that he himself wasn’t wearing a mask at Monday’s meeting, along with the majority of the board and others in the room. He said based on other school districts he’s visited recently, that’s often the case for everyone on campus.
“It’s really just a night and day difference — and I’m not saying that that’s where we’re at right now, but what I’m saying is there’s some parents that want to do that, and they have the flexibility to do that with their child,” Alvarado said.
Teachers, he said, also have the latitude to remove their mask when they feel they need to while speaking. Trustee Debbie Crane Aliseda did just that to voice her support for encouraging mask wearing.
“So I highly encourage everybody to continue wearing their masks, continue wearing them, and then we can revisit this January after the holidays,” she said, temporarily doffing her mask to do so. “But I highly recommend and highly encourage both staff and students to continue to wear their masks.”
A statement issued by the district Tuesday said the health and safety of students has been a “guiding force” for MISD.
