SAN BENITO — Nearly a year since the school board challenged Gov. Greg Abbott’s order prohibiting governments from mandating face coverings, the San Benito school district remains one of the area’s last to keep masking up.
When board member Oscar Medrano proposed giving students and staff the option to wear masks, board members unanimously agreed to delay action.
Now, the board’s waiting for students and staff to return from Spring Break to determine whether it might lift the mandate.
“When they come back to our schools, we want to make sure we can do what we can to mitigate any type of spread that may come from that,” board member Ariel Cruz told trustees during a March 8 meeting, referring to maintaining the mask mandate.
Cases low going into Spring Break
Across the district, students’ COVID-19 cases were down to three as of last week, dropping from 928 in January to 223 a month later, Janette Rodriguez, the district’s health services coordinator, told board members during the meeting.
While cases have dropped to “low” levels in Cameron County, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending students from pre-kindergarten to 12 th grade continue to wear masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus, she said.
“We normally see a spike in cases after we’ve had a break,” she told board members. “So that’s something to consider and maybe revisit that in April to see if our cases have remained low.”
Meanwhile, there’s still a shortage of teachers, Andrea Cruz, the district’s assistant superintendent of administrative services, said.
“Vacancies are hard to fill right now,” she said. “Guest teachers are hard to find right now and the district has done a very good job of keeping COVID at bay, as best we can.”
Weighing concerns
During discussions, board President Ramiro Moreno told trustees some residents are questioning when the district will lift its mask mandate.
“Personally, I’m tired of them,” Moreno, who works as a principal with the Rio Hondo school district, said, referring to wearing masks. “This is not a way of life. We’ve already been wearing these masks for two years. I personally hate them.”
“When you work at a school district, as most of you do, and as I do, kids are tried as well, and having the mask mandate forced on them rather than making it optional is kind of tough.”
At the Rio Hondo school district, he recommends students wear masks, Moreno said.
“One of the things I repeatedly say to my students on my campus is it’s highly recommended and we highly recommend it,” he said, referring to wearing masks to curb the virus’ spread. “I want to say 99 percent of our teachers and students from pre-k all the way to our seniors — they wear their masks, either because they want to or because their parents want them to.”
Now, Moreno said he wants to give San Benito parents the option of determining whether their children wear masks to school.
“I’m hesitant as far as removing the mandate but, by the same token, like I said, and I’m very blatantly honest about it, it’s tough,” he said. “It’s very, very hard, very difficult. We get sweaty — it’s uncomfortable …. So, at this point, I would agree with taking off that resolution and basically making it optional for the parents.”
Call for survey
Meanwhile, board member Orlando Lopez proposed district officials conduct a survey to determine whether students and staff want to lift the mandate.
“It is extremely, extremely cumbersome but I’m a frontline employee and if it’s good for people in the hospitals and airports and stuff like that, it’s for a reason,” Lopez, who works as a hospital official, said.
“At the end of the day, we’re in public education — we’re here to take care of our students and our staff,” he said. “If our staff gets sick, then they’re not educating our kids.”
“My role up here is just to make sure we do everything we can to make sure that we keep our staff and kids safe and out of harm’s way in every situation possible — and we’ve done that for two years now,” he said. “At the end of the day, what does our staff want, what do our parents want?”
Amid debate, Cruz warned cases could spike after students and staff return from Spring Break.
“I agree with everybody up here who say they hate these masks because I also hate these masks, but I have to wear them all day also at my job,” Cruz, a pharmacist, said. “My personal opinion’s always been if there’s someplace where you’re forced to go and you’re forced to be around people, just like our kids — they’re forced to come to school and our staff is forced to come to work — then we should have the mask mandate. I wish we could get (rid) of these masks but I’m hesitant to do that. It’s always harder to put back a mask mandate than to rescind it.”
