001good evening we're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order dr foley roll call of the board please let the records show that all members are present thank you we're going to go ahead and have a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance the united states one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right i moved that we approve our agenda with a modification with the removal of item 3.1 board comments second any questions or comments regarding the agenda all those in favor aye aye motion carries 5-0 the next item on our agenda is the request to speak we value input from our constituents this time has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board please remember this is not an
002appropriate venue to evaluate discuss or criticize district personnel policy keb provides a process for complaints about personnel speakers should be aware that false statements about individuals may result in civil liability members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ars 38-431 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and a decision at a later date please limit your remarks to three minutes i will try and pronounce names properly and please forgive me if i do not we will start with jen sauer thank you for allowing the opportunity for the public to speak and for the countless hours you've spent the last week trying to
003make another challenging decision i've had the chance to review the presentation proposal that will be shared tonight for amending the mass policy to continue to require masks to be worn indoors for the remainder of the school year thank you for doing the right thing for all students and staff in husd schools as i shared in my email to you last week wearing masks is not only the number one recommended mitigation strategy from the cdc for schools it is also what every parent every parent sitting in this very room agreed to when they sign their child up for in-person schooling this year in addition it allows for all children who are currently attending school in person to be able to finish the school year and participate in the activities they were looking forward to in the
004safest manner possible i believe your proposal to amend and adopt a face map mask policy that would still require masks to be worn indoors keeps the health and safety of the students and staff at the center of your decision i want to also encourage you to not be premature in making a decision tonight about what will happen beginning on june 1st in the presentation posted for tonight you use the current cdc guidelines as support for why you are continuing to require coverings indoor for the remainder of this year we do not know what cdc guidelines and recommendations will be come july if these guidelines inform your decisions about safety today then they should still inform your decisions regarding safety in july we cannot just pick a date and say well we gave it our all
005that's it we're done if you're committed to the health and safety of all in husd not just for the rest of this school year then you owe it to the community to use the cdc guidelines as the standard for deciding when it is safe to completely remove the requirement of face masks for summer school and next year therefore i'm asking you not to suspend the policy as of june 1st but rather set a meeting to review the plan this summer with the most current guidance from the cdc we are all tired from the pandemic nobody can deny what a truly exhausting year it's been but this pandemic is not over we are getting closer to everyone who chooses to being protected being able to do so however until then we have to be willing to
006work together as a community to keep everyone as safe as possible don't give up what has been working and what has allowed our children the opportunity to learn in person this year please continue to require masks for the remainder of this year and then review this summer where things are at for next year thank you thank you all right we will go on to janae mclean hello i feel underprepared after that last i think she did amazing um i am in complete agreements with her as to everything that she said as far as keeping the mass i feel mass are very important for not only solidarity and showing the rest of the community who has not yet had um covid that we are still supporting those people who are waiting to get their vaccination as
007of today i saw that only 27 of arizonians have received both copic vaccinations we're looking at about 40 percent who have gotten one dose it's also my understanding that some people are only getting one dose and not actually doing the second dose for myself i am a dental hygienist which means that i am not able to socially distance when i do my job i am not able to have somebody around me wearing a mask i did end up with covid i got concerned that when i got coveted it was from a patient and how many patients did i possibly infect because i'm so close in working conditions with these people however i found out that i got coped from a co-worker when i was unmasked at lunch not wearing proper ppe i could not imagine
008doing my job without the proper ppe that i use every single day the last pandemic that we had is actually what brought about a lot of the ppe that i wear on a daily basis that peop that excuse me pandemic being hiv aids so while this is temporary for the rest of the public this is something that is long term for health care professionals and something that we need to stick together with as a community thank you thank you all right our next speaker stacy finter thank you guys for letting me speak um just wanted to let you know i've i removed my second and fifth grader from chaparral right before school started because i did not want to send my children to school masked because of their physical mental health they attend prenda school
009with nine of their other friends and they are unmasked and they thrive as you know there's many harmful effects but i won't go into that my second grader though has a speech issue and there is no way that he nor others can correct that with a mass teacher and friends the physical effects will linger for many years to come i decided to send my seventh grader to cooley since he is in all accelerated classes and needs a challenge i was told that they would be given mask breaks and had someone from the district meet with him and tell him what his rights were and how to take past breaks he was never allowed these breaks starting the following day the teachers refused to allow him to even take a drink in the classroom they wouldn't
010allow him to go to the back of the class either he tried out for cross-country and was the fastest kid on the team but was told that he'd have to fully wear a mask over his nose in order to participate and i want to know who can run six miles with a mask on because that's not okay um he did the same thing for soccer and was told to sprint and do suicides for two hours fully masked with the mask over his nose and no breaks from it the coaches just told him that it's building their stamina that's not the truth my son has more stamina than almost any kid out there he walks the stairs in the hot halls with a crazy heavy backpack and he can't remove his mask at lunchtime he sits
011alone principal refuses to allow him to sit at his friend table since he is the seventh child to arrive from his class one day he was forced to sit outside alone he had a bird poop on him and in his food so he left his poopy food and continued to clean himself up in the bathroom for the remainder of the lunch period he came home depressed and he still hasn't forgotten about it he is picked on daily now knowing that he's the seventh child to arrive at that table and almost daily sits alone my ninth grader started at williamsfield this year she suffers now from anxiety and adhd which was diagnosed a few months ago she also met with the district as person to show her how to take mass breaks she too was never
012given the option after that day she can't breathe in walking up the stairs with her gear and face mask she then hyperventilates and panics and has a full-on panic attack at times she frequently eats lunch in the bathroom or outside by herself and she can't find smiling faces and people she knows to sit with she's had multiple respiratory illnesses this year from the masking and her anxiety is at an all-time high so much that the doctor has put her on medication to be able to handle going to school she can't find smiling faces of acceptance she's learning spanish and can't see the teacher's face properly so they are instructed to use online platforms for their learning governor ducey has removed the masked mandate for a reason and the teachers have been vaccinated if they choose
013to and also parents the children are not suffering from covid and it seems to not be spreading in our community and i ask that you understand that it is a parent's right to choose you know what is for the best for their children so i hope that that you guys are able to understand the long-term effects also on the kids and they need to be free and they need to be happy and if their parents choose for them to be mass that is their choice thank you thank you very much all right our next speaker andrea andrea nielsen thank you board and admin for all you've done this year i'm also very grateful for the teachers in our district and all that they've done um it's been a really hard year for all of us
014um our child's pulmonologist was in the icu in july with covid his wife is also his nurse practitioner and two weeks after we after his her husband got out of the hospital we had a telehealth visit with them for my child's asthma we were given a mask exemption um so he wouldn't have to wear a mask um she said that it did not increase the risk for covet issues with asthmatics and that the mass could increase his risk so because higley did not provide for any mask exemptions we had to move him to a different school we have another child who's in kindergarten and we will be moving her as well if we don't if we aren't able to get the things that we need from higley um sorry so i want to know for
015each of you when does the fear of potential illness outweigh actual mental and physical illness or lack of connection in our kids what are the unintended consequences of keeping masks on our children for the next four weeks some of the kids who were online got to see their teacher's piece they saw their friends faces they got to connect with them in different ways that our children who've been in school all year have not my kindergartner has not really seen her teacher's face she adores her and loves her and never wants to leave kindergarten because she loves her so much at the after school pickup i've seen kids with masks with black spots on them they've been stepped on they've been chewed on they've been dropped they've been touched all over there's other things going into
016our children's bodies that's not coveted i'm concerned with what they're breathing in with the masks on my children have suffered headaches difficulty breathing dizziness and more from wearing masks all day all year they refuse to go to the nurse to get tylenol because they're going to get sent home for 10 days my overall happy compliant kindergartner who loves school more than anything has had to take mornings or entire days off from school because mask is just too much that day looking back at the august 25th board meeting i found some comments from parents and teachers who were concerned about going in person so they wanted to follow the data and the science on it a teacher said if we look at two to three weeks of data we will know for sure if their model
017is protecting students and staff so that was in relation to getting back into school they wanted to see what other schools were doing another was a parent says science matters and if we will listen to what it says a few more weeks we'll let us see what happens in the other districts it is our job as adults to make sure it is safe for our kids teachers and staff many charter schools in the area have not been enforcing masking for weeks my son has not had to wear a mask all year they are doing better than schools with zero mask exemptions these schools do not have credit recovery courses lined up for the summer or for the next quarter because their kids are thriving my son is thriving at a different school my kids who
018are in higley unified are struggling and they are not kids who typically struggle do the requests made in octo august 26 from the other parents and teachers follow science to follow the science and the data do they not apply today my kids challenges from the unintended consequences of the policies in place now are too personal to share in this setting who will protect our kids from the unintended consequences of mask wearing what in unintended consequences have your children faced if you refuse to unmask all of our kids please consider unmasking our youngest kids they are the least at risk they are the least at risk of spreading thank you would love to have the teacher thank you so much all right our next speaker heather mays i start my words with you this evening with
019comments from my daughter who's a seventh grader at coley middle school i asked her what she thinks about wearing masks at school and these are her words first of all the mask mandate has been lifted for all the schools in arizona by the governor i see why people might want to still wear masks but if they are uncomfortable not wearing them they should have the choice to do online school or continue to wear them at school also if the teachers are vaccinated why are they still required to wear masks questions which i did not answer to her at the time if she says if our parents don't feel the need to make us wear masks then why should the school they should let students have the option to wear them if they want to but
020not be required to wear them another student also enrolled at cooley says masks make it hard to focus and hard to breathe it's hard to understand other people some personal comments from a senior who is attending williamsfield high school says masks have personally made me feel like i'm hiding behind something i got anxiety from being locked in my house for so long and then i had to try and show up for school already uncomfortable i wore my mask and still got covered even though i was being lectured every day to wear a mask so i didn't get it i think it's awful how if anyone feels insecure they can just hide behind a mask it's really affecting kids mental health these thoughts and feelings are straight from our students in our district they should be
021allowed a voice in something that directly affects their daily lives i've personally heard other kids saying things like i like wearing a mask i don't have to talk to people as much and i like that i can hide behind my mask these masks are not only causing potential physical harm but the mental and emotional harm they are causing for our children is detrimental depression is thriving behind these masks and we cannot let that continue i ask that you consider making mask wearing an option and not a requirement this decision that affects our children's physical mental and emotional safety can and should be left to the individuals and their parents lastly i just want to say thank you for the opportunity to share these comments and also thank you and our teachers for the time and
022effort that you all put forward on behalf of our children thank you thank you our next speaker is jen larson hello thank you for allowing us to be here and thank you for holding this meeting especially to talk about masks and giving us so much time to express our concerns i've tried so many times over the last year to put myself in your shoes i know that none of you actually signed up for this part of being on the board um it's a little surprising i'm sure what you're having to deal with but um i feel i've often thought that it probably feels like you're in a no-win situation for every single parent telling you that their child will be harmed by removing masks there is a child that will be harmed by keeping the
023mask mandate in real in reality there are countless arguments as to why we should or should not wear masks i'm sure you felt like it's quite the tug of war it seems in the past year we have tended to error on the side of catering to those that prefer masks we have somehow disregarded the concerns of those that are negatively impacted by wearing them and there are many negative impacts most of which we don't even know because we've never done this as a society this has never been required of k through children k through 12 children or society in general [Music] anxiety claustrophobia any kind of breathing or respiratory issues psychological harm speech impediments hearing problems or a few there's harm to social connections misunderstandings in tone and delivery and instruction of instructions and a
024lack of human contact there is countless research stating what a simple smile can do for someone that is having a hard day so what do we do i can only see one option and that is choice everyone has a choice it always has been the only option there are countless ways we can protect ourselves at this point there are vaccinations there's online school there's grocery pickup there's restaurant delivery and on and on we go we've created a very safe society if you have concerns about coven no one is negating those but we all should be able to choose for ourselves what we need to do in addition experts have actually altered their original view that mask wearing only protects others according to the cdc it does protect the wearer you can continue to wear a
025mask even if the mask mandate is lifted if you feel it necessary if someone has concerns with how much protection that one mask gives they're welcome to wear two they can do online school they have their options but when we continue to keep these mask mandates we take the choice away from those of us that no longer think that this is necessary we can't continue to pretend that there's only one solution to a very complex problem every time you choose to enforce masks and cater to one group of children you are in fact harming a different but equally important group of children choice is the only answer i've heard from perspectives i've heard from kids and their perspective that or i've heard from parents that their perspective is that because they had returned to school
026thinking that we were going to be wearing masks that we should continue through the end of the year i sent my children to school this year knowing that once the mask mandates would be lifted that i would have a choice and this last couple of weeks does matter i have very big events for my children like graduation dance concerts these things should not be impacted just because it's easier to say let's just finish out the year thank you so much thank you our next speaker is sarah lunder hi members of the board my name is sarah lunder and i have a six-year-old boy who should have started kindergarten at cortina this year and an eight-year-old second grader at cortina elementary i had so much i wanted to say tonight but three minutes is so short
027so i just wanted to focus on some facts maths were implemented at the beginning of last year to number one make sure hospitals were not overrun and number two to protect the elderly and the vulnerable we are now into this over a year our hospitals are at the lowest number they've ever been since this started we have three vaccines and every adult 16 years and older who wants the vaccine has had ample opportunity to get it mass have been optional in the community for over a month and our spread has remained well under five percent public schools have lost nearly 50 000 students in the state of arizona over their handling of covet gilbert public schools have just announced that they're laying off hundreds of teachers due to low enrollment is this what we want
028for higley charter schools have gained over 18 thousand of those students and are on wait lists all of the charters in the area along with queen creek and combs have made mass optional listen i am all for those who want to wear masks being able to wear them i would stand shoulder to shoulder with them any day of the week and fight for their right to do so unfortunately that feeling does not seem mutual they have told me to sit down and shut up and put my mask on myself and my children this is not how a community functions we do not mask four five and six-year-old children because we as adults can't make common sense decisions covet is here to stay it will be a seasonal virus that mutates every year just like the
029flu we had better learn to live with it because we certainly can't hide from it here's the bottom line it does not have to be us against them you can deal with this in the best interest of everyone involved you swear to govern in the best interest of all higley students now let's stand up and do the right thing for everyone and make masks optional for all higley families thank you our next speaker chris gilligan madam president members of the governing board dr foley and members of the cabinet my attendance at the governing board meeting on april 21st i absorbed the board enter the chamber mast unmasked to speak mass back up to come to the floor for pictures and to hug and congratulate award recipients return to their seats and unmask again if the
030surgical and cloth masks worn by the board during that meeting were effective what effect does the board think they had on their efficacy through the repeated removal of and then re-masking do you think you compromise the efficacy of your face covering through these practices do you think that your students age five to 18 do a better job of not compromising the efficacy of their face covering each school day what are we doing i also observe cabin members periodically wearing and not wearing their mask with some cabin members wearing over the mouth and below the nose what are we doing i'm talking about adults during a meeting which the duration was two and a half hours am i to assume the board dr foley and the cabinet where they're face covering for seven hours or more
031each school day the same of what is required of higley's students to do are you i observe cabin members struggle to remain awake and alert no doubt due in part to their dysregular co2 and o2 levels breathing in their own carbon dioxide how do you think my children with asthma anxiety and autism are doing by enduring the same day and day out for seven plus hours what are we doing i realize that with face coverings you have those that are for and those that are against convincing the other party to change their mind is extremely difficult the only way is through education as educators perhaps you can answer the following questions what are the long-term effects on mass squares such as headaches arising from impeded breathing do the mass shed fibers or substances that are
032harmful when inhaled supporting continued face covering policy without knowing the answers to these questions is irresponsible educators will you apply critical thinking to your decision or will you be complacent the proposed update to the current policy of not requiring students to wear face coverings at school bus stops and changing physical distance from six feet to three feet is not enough it's lazy it reeks of fear for taking a real stand and creating a warranted positive change now unacceptable doing the minimum is not a high bar end the fear and the current face covering policy it's not too late to walk back the proposed update discuss during your executive session and make the change that is in the best interest of higley unified school district parents teachers staff and students thank you thank you all right
033our next speaker anna van hook hello my name is anna van hook i'm a medical freedom and parental rights advocate i am also the vice president of children's health defense arizona chapter i have lived in this district for 15 years my oldest went to higley school district for nine years sorry i ended up pulling my children from higley in august after the district violated their own mass policy at the time and refused my children a mask exemption when they were aware of their medical conditions and my oldest had an iep my children were moved to a school district that allowed them a mask exemption and they have been in school since august 17th without masks and without ever being sick even though my kids no longer attend higley school district i still fought the district
034i will continue to fight for other people's children to be free of these bacteria felt cloths the metrics were initially the metrics initially said that the mass would be removed when it reached a certain number of cases and then the department of health decided to secretly change those metrics and keep the mass on children for good every mass specifically states that do not they do not prevent the transmission of viruses you are quickly quick to implement the masks when the governor said to do so but now that he removed the mandates games are being played our children are not to be toyed with enough is enough schools can create rules as long as they do not supersede existing state statutes and the arizona parental bill of rights is an existing statute which needs to be
035upheld there is no current law or executive order that requires children to be in masks therefore by denying or parental rights to choose is a violation of the law per ars 1-601 the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing education health care and mental health of their children is a fundamental right ars 1-6-0-2 all parental rights are reserved to a parent of a minor child without obstruction or interference from this state any political subdivision of the state any gov any other government entity and any other institution including the right to direct the education of a minor the right to direct the upbringing of a minor the right to make health care decisions for a minor this includes a medical device such as a mask the right to consent in writing before a biometric scan of
036a minor is taken such as a temperature check the numbers are obvious and this and so is the science there is currently no pandemic and kids were never impacted even the safely returned to in-person instruction clearly states the state of arizona does not make any express or implied warranties regarding the face covering the state won't even accept what they're putting out there the only reason the emergency order is not ending is because the vaccine is only approved for emergency use and it cannot be administered if that emergency order is over you need to think about the emotional and mental well-being these kids play together have sleepovers and even play sports together outside of school they then are forced to keep their distance and mask up when they're in school with the same kids it's absurd
037and lacks common sense far more kids have committed suicide and od'd than have been impacted by kovid it is beyond time to stop playing politics and get these rags off of our children's faces thank you thank you all right and our last speaker kevin jacobs i have to say this is a difficult topic and and i'm very happy that i'm not in your seats because because it's been a tough discussion today and there's been a lot of motion both ways and um it's not easy so we've heard a lot of talk about the kids who can choose to stay home we've done that with our children our children have been at home since the beginning we're really lucky that my wife's a stay-at-home mom so she's been able to do that i have a four-year-old
038that i would love to have in over at cooley in the preschool but we we haven't felt safe doing that even with the masks my wife's health compromise and we've had family that's passed away from it unfortunately and other friends who've been long-term illnesses it's it's not an easy decision you're going to have to decide what's best for our kids and and we appreciate it whichever it is we're hoping to bring our kids back to school whichever way that goes if if we keep the masks and they still have the option to do that then at least they can wear the mask and they can be protected and and i'm sorry for the how difficult this has been it's been hard for our kids as well this last quarter has been really hard for those
039who stayed at home we have not had the support that we had the first three quarters the number of kids that are staying home is getting smaller and it's getting harder as we look at whether it's right to be wearing masks or not there's some other similar items that have limited our our freedoms and as i talk about mass my four-year-old loves his mask like we get out go to the store and as we're starting to loosen up and say you know like there might be cases where we don't have to wear a mask outside or other spots where the science is supporting it he's hesitant he takes that mask as a safety and so he shows that even the small kids can do it but um we don't allow people to drive drunk in
040the u.s we feel like that we take that freedom away from you that saves about ten thousand year lives a year in the entire us we force people to wear a seat belt that only saves about fifteen thousand lives a year and we force kids to sit in these tight destructive child deceits and if you don't sit in one your child can be taken away from you and again it doesn't save more than ten thousand lives a year so as we make this decision of whether we feel like it's it's time yet and i know it's a hard one um we just asked you to think about those of us who are or i think the the minority in this case but but are still trying to be safe for the last few weeks this
041week as we stay there and thank you for this time thank you all right now our last speaker andrea fortenberry thank you board sorry for the disruption i had signed up online i don't know how my form didn't come through but i am here today to ask you to please make the mask mandate optional or to make masks optional at all higley schools effective immediately and i would like to say that as parents of two children in higley i have been very thankful for the leadership of our district i was very grateful that last spring we got an email that said that masks would be optional going into the next school year but then the county and the governor came down with the executive orders requiring mass at schools and our two children who thrive
042in school had a very hard time in virtual schooling and so we decided that the best move would be for them to attend in-person schooling and we are very grateful that our district gave parents the choice of in-person schooling or virtual schooling for their children i feel that we have all been very patient with this mask policy but with the governor ending the executive order requiring masks at k-12 public schools i believe the time for change is now every family should have the right to choose whether their children wear masks at school just as parents were given the choice as to whether their children would attend in-person or virtual schooling removing the mask requirement really is a win-win solution for everyone those parents who want their children to continue masking at school are able to
043do so and those of us who wish for our children to not wear masks at school would have that option as well it is hard to believe that children who are primarily not affected by this virus have had to wear masks at school for eight months now our children who are generally healthy have complained of headaches anxiety and overall discomfort from wearing a mask for seven hours a day and as a mom i have guilt and anxiety for requiring them to be at school in a mask for seven hours a day now that we all know more than we knew back a year ago about this virus i believe that it is cruel for us to continue requiring them to wear masks for seven hours a day to learn to be in pe to play
044sports and to play together outside on the playground i ask that you please consider the mental health and well-being the social well-being of our children please consider that although we only have 22 days of school left that means more than 150 additional hours that our children would be required to be in mass at school all day i do not believe that we should be forced to put our children through those 150 hours of masking if we as their parents do not feel it is in their best interest for us to do so i ask that you would please put our children first and move our district to a mask optional policy and put the choice back into the hands of parents thank you thank you all right thank you for everyone taking the time to
045come speak and share your thoughts with us we appreciate that as well as the countless number of emails we've received so thank you with that we're going to go on to our next agenda item which is 5.1 uh it's an informational item for face covering recommendation for the remainder of the 2020 2021 school year dr foley president reese members of the board um it was a week ago today that the whole conversation of mass has consumed good awakening hours of all of our administrative team so tonight i'd like to bring to you the conversations and the information that comprise our mitigation plan that we have worked with our entire admin team and that includes all of our general administrators who are principals directors in this district for feedback as we look at how do we
046navigate moving forward from now to the end of the year and then and then beyond um next slide so obviously the impetus for our conversation tonight is as many of our speakers tonight eloquently captured we have been under an executive order the mask requirement but we had two uh mask requirements that required us to have that it was an essential part of our mitigation plan and has been as far as because our mitigation plan also dictated to us how and what we did to communicate when we had positive cases on campus who was primary who was secondary when did we quarantine what did the cleaning protocols look like so when we talk about mitigation plans it's far more than just the wearing of the face masks obviously next line when when the governor last week
047unhinged that it causes us to look at this a little bit differently one of the things that was very clear in his his communication was is that legally there was not an executive order that held it now the issue is you still had governing board policy that we are governed by that was initially in place because we were required to have it um one of the interesting things and we've been all week in conversation with administrators and superintendents across the state and with our own attorneys we've been getting on on the day legal guidance and updates what does this mean now what about these questions one of the things that um one of the things that has come through this is because there's the part in there that we have policies that legally we're allowed
048to continue to have them if we so choose to implement them our attorneys have informed us that we are not violating even though there are other things in place that we have the right to put a mass policy in place but there again is um the fact that we don't no longer legally have to have one in place so next slide obviously though you don't have to have a mask in place but your mitigation strategy is obviously you you're still navigating through as again many of our speakers eloquently said tonight we're still navigating and we'll continue to navigate through at our last meeting we talked about one of our strategic initiatives is how are we going to begin the school year safely and evolve from this obviously social emotional being a huge part of what's
049very very important for us so all of us are very very aware of this we have received hundreds of emails we have read we've gotten emails we've gotten things through social media we've gotten some of us to us directly some through public relations and we have thoroughly read all of them we've heard from parents we've heard from employees we've heard from students who have very very im very diverse opinions we've heard um many of them tonight the social emotional want to see faces want to see emotion want want our faces free and have very clearly said that then we have heard from many saying you i agreed to come back with these understandings we have employees who are saying i agreed to these mitigation strategies i i have very very much do not want the
050rules to be changed we have heard passionately from both sides so we are once again in a position where ultimately whatever we decide to do there will be those who are unhappy with whatever is decided and so we're trying to navigate through the multiple factors here which have led to our our recommendation tonight so one of the things that we do and that we've done well i think in higley is is that we don't operate in a vacuum we work with our entire team just like we did this summer with our task force where we have our principals and our assistant principals and teachers and different representation on the group we did the same thing here quickly too first thing tuesday morning we had late friday monday night last week we were getting everyone on
051the phone saying need these people in the room need get a pulse check find out this information we need more information on this tuesday morning we start working through what are the issues you're hearing what are the what are the concerns from our sites what are our issues with our employees what are their concerns if we were to do this if we were to do that principles what are you thinking directors issues what are your concerns and hearing from them obviously when you look at our administrative team we're all over the place with our own thoughts and feelings about this very thing as well so again there's much diversity amongst even those of us who've worked all through this process we've talked with our employees once we got a plan in place we also shared
052this with representation of higley's education association beat it up what are our issues what are our concerns what are the what are the thoughts and obviously we have reviewed and considered several ideas um every day we have been part of talking through so what now what okay and so again we bring to you that the challenge is is that um there isn't a one answer that will will will make everyone happy but right now what we're proposing to you is considering multiple factors in our mitigation plan and going back to these filters we first saw these when we were putting together our mitigation plan this summer and going into this next year understanding that yep health and safety is important what what that looks like and how we address it this year will be important
053what we do with instruction is huge um and wanting to make sure that that becomes a focus for us no matter what that we're respecting of and accepting diverse opinions that we're not all going to agree um and then again ongoing communication and and communicating quickly and timely with people as soon as decisions are made so that they are able to respond for themselves to the best of their ability so tonight our recommendation that we're bringing to you has two parts again multiple considerations in this and a lot of these are tightly connected with the fact that we are still while we are not unhinged from from a um we're unhinged from a mass ordinance we are still in concert with when there are positive cases in the classroom and we have positive cases that
054continue to happen we are thrilled that we have fewer than we had but again tomorrow morning as you see every day you get the daily updates we currently today have five um who will hit the dashboard tomorrow and again we've had days with zero and the great news is we're trending in the right direction and then we also have days where we're trending up so we have to continue to focus on whatever we do how will we handle what happens in classrooms when there are positive cases so our recommendation has two parts the first thing that we were looking at is your face covering policy we looked at multiple things the parts that are in red would have been what we would have modified or added in the things that we struck were things that
055we would remove up and this is the exact policy this is two sections there's obviously a much larger policy but these were the only two spaces that would require modifications that would be the face covering should be worn individually indoors and then it would be we've removed bus stops being that that is outside and that we would add a component that face covering should be recommended for outdoor activities and events on district property where physical distancing is more possible where you're outside again what the anas was heat begins to continue to rise there's a lot of things that are connected with some of the guidance that is part of cdc that is actually getting ready to to forthcome loosening up outdoor restrictions with masks the other piece was updating in that policy from uh in
056alignment with the cdc recommendation of three from six to three were the two pieces um that we would amend in that policy so why would we amend rather than just immediately suspend and this consumed an awful lot of our conversation and discussion with our administration and i'm going to ask hospital for jillian to share from the arizona department of health services guidance with us at this time too so one of the things we're looking at is this at this moment we have 22 days left of this school year starting tomorrow this year has felt like it has flown by and it's felt like a hundred years all the same we are looking at we have students and families who entered into instructional models and with their current employment contracts with the understanding that we would
057follow certain mitigation strategies we'll talk with you here in a minute but if we immediately suspend our mass policy we go from our definitions of primary and secondary to just plain exposure and it just changes our communication structures and who when when and how we have to quarantine which will give examples here in just a minute we did have a lot of families who returned to us from spring break with the idea that we would be following this mitigation we have heard from a lot of those families um our current we if we hold this it allows us to keep our current mitigation and communication protocols in place with primary and secondary exposure and again this one also allows aligns with outdoor recommendations that are connected with cdc guidance with again more space and again
058would allow us for outdoor activities or events for instance such as graduation to be where where there would be an optional or highly recommended but i'm going to ask mrs fulton to share for just a little bit more a little bit about the health harrison department of health services feedback and guidance to us that also had a large part in our our recommendation to you this evening on the amending portion president reese members of the board i'm here this evening i want to give you health background information related to our recommendation the health department is not changing their guidance as of the webinar with the maricopa county department of public health on thursday april 22nd nothing has changed with face covering guidelines or contact tracing and they have no plans to change anything in that
059regard they do have a lot of concerns and they do not agree with face coverings going optional right now why we would suggest that we wait until next year we have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours combined putting our mitigation plan in place including the communication and implementation of it if we move to face covering optional now we move completely away from our communication protocols that have proven effective and our community is accustomed to expecting this will be a shift from primary and secondary exposure to everyone has exposure the current primary and secondary exposure protocol in alignment with the health department our current husd mitigation plan has outlined primary and secondary exposure these definitions drove our mitigation plan our communication protocols and consequently our potential quarantine guidance for example today i had as dr
060foley told you five cases and we had a scenario where there was a very high probability that i was quarantining an entire class because everybody in that class had their masks on i did not need to do that that definitely would have been a snowball effect because when we're looking at the contact tracing with the health department the way most classes are set up and kids are going to different parts of the school whether it's specials in an elementary level or if it's different class schedules at secondary the way they combine in the way that they're moving around it would have snowballed into quarantining many more classes over the next few days full classes of students when we went back to in-person learning options in september we gave our community an expectation and outlined what
061our year would look like waiting to go face covering optional gives our community a common expectation of our year ahead and allows current mitigation plan and communication protocols to stay intact we do not want to change the rules as students families and employees entered this instructional model and their current employment contracts with understanding we would follow our mitigation strategies through the end of the 2020-21 school year we will then begin summer and fall with new updated plans that can be communicated prior to their start why we are recommending the modification of the policy our recommendation aligns with the health department's current recommendations of exposure while students are inside they could be sitting next to a potential case for longer than 10 to 15 minutes students that are outside at recess or pe have a much
062lower risk of potential exposure due to the amount of time they are around each other students outside for recess pe or other educational opportunities with their face covering software moving and playing are not considered a high risk of exposure because of the potential for social distancing exposure protocol when we go to face covering optional when we move to face covering being optional the primary and secondary exposure distinction goes away if there is a positive case in the classroom everyone in the classroom will be notified of potential exposure it will then be a case-by-case basis with the health department's recommendation we may need to quarantine an entire classroom even if they are wearing face coverings depending on the number of cases in the class the risk of quarantine could happen at any point and that risk
063will likely be higher when face coverings are optional that's it sorry i was waiting for him next slide so with additional information one of the things that we would recommend then is that we would keep this effect that if that this policy or our suggestion would be to amend this policy that would basically beginning effective immediately tomorrow we would hold indoor um indoor masks in place until the 31st but would option make make outdoor utilization of face coverings optional until the 31st the second part of this if you will this next slide would be effective immediately then june 1st that you would suspend the wearing of this is requirement but make this an optional for families that way those who are choosing to those who are choosing to teach or those who are choosing to
064attend summer school have are understanding what we're agreeing into the mitigation would then obviously our mitigation plan will change our communication protocols and structures will change we'll have to have a mitigation plan for next year but it would look different because we would be wearing optional face coverings any questions dr foley can you just explain we heard from someone tonight that said you know carefully about suspending the june 1st face mask policy can you talk a little bit i believe when it was discussed that it's there's less kids in the class can you talk a little bit about kind of how that discussion went yes um president reese members of the board one of the things that we think would be kind of nice is to have summer school as an opportunity to test run
065our new mitigation with mask optional uh obviously summer school has smaller numbers we'll have smaller number of students will be able to do again we can update our our communication structures protocols people will be entering into this with an understanding the other thing is too is we can also monitor this i think what will be important is is that um again if if there were any changes in our numbers or the number of cases or we had to quarantine large groups of classrooms we may be looking at then having a conversation about what we've learned in this process and again would need to probably come with our guidance and recommendations based on this at this point we would be saying that we would we would would like to communicate with people that this would be
066optional with the information that we have at this time and obviously the summer school would allow us to see how how that plan was implemented we have already started we've already started the updating of the mitigation plan for next year and the communication structures what the letters would look like because it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when and we still have positive cases in the classroom and we'll need to be able to communicate with families and what are we communicating with families and what are those communication structures look like for some reason um i apologize for not getting this too sooner but my question is um for those that would be wearing a mask if they chose to wear a mask if it was optional indoors um if they were wearing
067it would they have to be quarantined or would they have to be quarantined is that my understanding no matter what even if president reece remember schultz yes and it would depend on the number of cases in the classroom so and here's here's what here's how this works is currently the health department understands that if we have people who are if we are aware if everyone is wearing a mask the assumption is everyone is wearing the master if there are more if for instance aia had different guidance into this and i may have julian help me answer this question aia had different kindness we have had to quarantine when we had teams who had multiple number of kids who tested positive who had expansive amounts of time in which they were not wearing masks now this
068is a classroom situation in which if they had not been wearing masks if if they had not been wearing masks we would have had to have quarantined now if i have a going into next year if i have students who choose to be optional and i choose to wear a mask right and there are multiple kids in a class who end up getting um coveted that's what they're considering an outbreak and then because there had been the extent of exposure depending upon the number of kids in the class depending upon the number of people who ended up getting it we may end up having to court we'd be able to be directed to quarantine anyhow and it would be on a case-by-case basis again you also know this year we had examples where we have
069special education classrooms for example where a student's conditions do not allow them to wear masks and when there were outbreaks in those classes we had to quarantine in this case if we had a certain number even if we had been wearing masks there was a high risk high transmission we would end up needing to quarantine president reece mrs wilson do we know how many kids are coming into our health offices with heat related illness i guess i would call it you know not feeling well headache whatever because of the heat that we've determined heat not covered um because i heard that a lot um it was an underlying theme in the emails that they're hot and um that they're you know getting sick from being so hot thank you president of vice president wilson that
070was a question that you had had curious about and i'll ask mrs fulton to follow up because she has conversation with the health department our health our health aides thank you thank you president reese um vice president wilson i surveyed our health offices with that and i started looking at all of our data in the system we have not had any students come in with with any heat related or you know wearing their masks from that i think if you don't mind if i can speak from the murmur from the crowd as a teacher i can say that i have had students in my class many times who say i have a headache i don't feel good i say go to the nurse they say no they're going to send me home so i am
071curious about the numbers in this case i'm not saying it's not real i'm just saying i i have personally experienced students refuse to go to the nurse many students no i'm sorry i'm sorry no [Music] no i i'm sorry i can't have you continue to speak we had our public comment thank you all right do you have any other questions before we move on to our next item okay i just have a quick statement mrs reese if that's okay mrs wilson when i was thinking about this highly debated topic i started looking back at my notes from august 2020 when we were deciding if and when to go back to in-person instruction i gave a small speech then and i want to echo some of the words that maybe have a little meaning today we
072have divided our community once again i've said it before and i'll say it again whatever is the right decision for your family make it it's the right decision don't judge others from their decisions you don't know what they're dealing with safe means different to every family and each person some feel safe others do not it's okay please continue to be kind and show your kids that kindness matters these are the words i spoke eight months ago and i continue to speak them today i've read every email i would encourage everyone to look at and empathize with your opposing view it doesn't mean that your viewpoint will change but give some empathy to your neighbor the teacher or the friend that maybe has a different view than you that's all i need to say today thank
073you all right then we'll move on to 6.1 i move that we amend our policy edb pandemic emergencies with the recommendation that face covering policy is amended to indicate face covering shall be worn at all times while individuals are indoors on district property or at a school function face coverings will be recommended for outdoor activities and events on district property this policy also amends the change to the physical distance separation of at least six feet to three feet between individuals i'd like to make an amendment to the motion we need a second answer i'd second that and then i'd like to make an amendment to the emotion i'd like to make an amendment to the movement that we make face masks optional effective tomorrow [Applause] i second that and can i make a comment yes
074mrs anderson i'm good evening you're all eager to get to the vote so i will keep this to the point my decision is based on three factors consistency student experiences in my experience as a current high school educator first consistency district policy procedure have not been consistently followed on husd campuses since january and even prior to january i've received photos and videos of students not wearing masks sharing food from the same bag with multiple students and that means many hands grabbing food touching your mouth and hands returning to the bag masks not worn over their mouth and nose and please understand this is not my attempt to ridicule the teacher or administration and i want to point out because i have trouble keeping track of mass in my classroom and i allow students to eat
075and drink in my classroom my point is that our students have already been close to other students on and off campus without math that's my consistency point also with consistency schools within our district in neighboring our district legacy queen creek unified school district mesa which is potentially phasing to mass optional ala and eva we have families with children that exercise school choice within their household and have different children attend different schools within that household and we also have students that attend our high school campuses and the ebay campus so they're going back and forth also with consistency all of the athletic leagues outside of the aia regulations playing in city and neighborhood parks that i have observed every weekend i got to drive my kid over the weekend places at minimum for months consists of
076k-12 aged children not wearing a mask while playing coaches aren't wearing a mask and attendees are not wearing a mask again i'm not stating this to ridicule these people i am pointing out the inconsistencies in mask wearing for school-aged children and their family members that have been going on since january i'm aware that their interactions are outdoors but children are in close proximity touching breathing rapidly and excessively excreting particles from their mouth and nose at higher rates children have been exposed due to masking consistency for months also with masking inconsistencies mask wearing hasn't been consistent after school hours as children gather and friend in social groups without masks i've witnessed this since the summer of 2020. families may have reduced travel and attendance to private events and family gatherings but they have continued since 2020
077and mass have not been worn consistently during those times also looking at our march and april numbers after spring break when travel and social gatherings occurred with mass inconsistencies our numbers are low and that's after families are very close together and traveling the second factor student experience students are noticeably less social quieter and some completely unhappy with masks on at school students exhibit sadness physical suffering difficulty breathing uncomfortableness and cannot focus because of the distractions created by mass hot itchy claustrophobic debilitating the word miserable has been used countless times in my classroom students have complained of acne headaches migraines stomach aches exasperated systems for panic and sensory disorders depression suicidal thoughts and speech delays in my in the school district i teach in since the mass have been removed there's kids that they're new they're
078new kids i'm sorry they're participating in my class like i haven't seen before it's pretty fascinating i didn't expect it i really didn't i just thought 90 of my students aren't wearing masks right now it's fascinating i'm sorry it's embarrassing um also some students don't mind wearing a mask but 93 of my students are currently choosing to not wear a mask in my classroom without masks on students have been happier and more productive students that sat slumped in their seats and hardly participated in class discussion are completing their assignments and their brand new students um there's mention of fear of bullying those that would choose to still wear masks i have not witnessed such behavior at all queen creek's got good kids i guess i don't know but i don't believe it's happening i'm not
079saying it wouldn't but i'm not seeing it um the day back i walked up and spoke to every single one of my students that wore a mask and i said if you want me to wear a mask i'll wear a mask if you want wherever you want to sit in the room it's your seat i had students sitting next to them say yes do you want me to wear a mask awesome thank you and it was appreciated and the students some students that were in math said you know it's your choice i choose to wear a mask and you choose not to wear masks you choose it's the most adult thing i've heard high school students say [Applause] i also want to just make just point out that some younger students have to wear masks
080much longer than others because they wear it during school then they have to go to after school care those hours get long those days get very long and i'd like to close with that third factor of my experience so in addition to my experiences and observations already stated i'm currently choosing to teach without a mask in the queen creek unified school district i would be a hypocrite to choose to not wear a mask and then make others wear them thank you i just want to make one comment um i made the motion to have it effective immediately but i still respect everybody's decision to wear a mask and i understand there are many families who are not comfortable and i want to give that choice to everyone but i do see for a lot of
081the reasons that miss anderson mrs anderson mentioned that masks aren't being worn properly and my kids pick their mascots off the back of the car off the ground and the germs that they're getting on their face so i don't see them being rare and effectively but if your family chooses to wear a mask i respect your decision and my children and my family and i hope everybody in the community continues to respect each other should this vote pass [Applause] president reece mrs kaler thank you mrs anderson for those eloquent words tonight i did not write a speech maybe i should have [Music] i've struggled this week i'll be very honest last year was so difficult as a board member and i thought we're kind of in the clear and then ducey comes out with this
082beautiful lovely announcement a month before school's over and it's really had me i'll be honest struggling because no matter what i vote tonight i'm a no win situation and that is a really terrible place to be to be honest because i do i am a people pleaser and i want people to be happy and it's not going to be that way tonight no matter what we do and we went through this last year and i'm so proud of higley and the decisions we made at the time we made them i remember in december dr foley was like do we have a meeting do we do we close our schools for two and you know you kind of had to hold me back because i wasn't sure what the right decision was back then even and
083now i know we made the right decision by staying open and keeping those kids in school thank you really no applause necessary this is this is not a glorious job by any means um one of my one of my struggles this past spring was spring break i'll be very honest i had i was seeing pictures blatantly thrown in my face from people who were adamant about not being able to work or go shopping or go anywhere but then i saw their pictures on beautiful places across our country and even out of our country and i really struggled with that i'll be very honest because i felt like that was a slap in my face as a board member where i was being told one thing and actions showed something different and i'm not calling out
084anybody particularly it was parents it was teachers it was it was across the board hypocrisy in many many ways um i i appreciate your emotion tonight i i've struggled i i've looked at this so many times and i thought okay do i do i amend another emotion and say something like well maybe can we meet in the middle two more weeks do we do we i want to end higley on a high note i'll tell you that right now i think everybody needs a high note in higley this year and if that's taking these masks off these kids and letting these teachers see their faces for the first time and having that again it's it is such a choice now and it's a choice everywhere we go you can go to costco with a mask
085or without a mask target everywhere we go there's choices now yes there are a few companies that are saying no you have to wear a mask or you can't come in or they're one trader joe's i love trader joe's one person in the store at a time can be on without a mask which i think is just silly but that's again and again we we've been sitting up here and we're being told make your make your decisions on um science well i get science every day sent to me where one day it's masks work and you better wear them and the next day another study comes out and says they don't work where to okay now we wear two masks i emotionally cannot keep up with what's going on in the world today and i
086don't think any of us up here ever expected to be sitting in the seat once again making a decision and it's going to be a no-win situation but in my humble list of humble opinions i believe our children need to end higley on a high note and they need they need to be free and so and and i know i know there's people going to be upset with me for that choice of my my views and that's okay um keeping a mask on if that's what you need to do then you need to do that and you need to you need to instill that in your child if that's your family's [Music] position i applaud you and i and i'm here to support you even my own children i'm guessing no matter what vote is
087tonight will go to school with a mask on tomorrow my own children so even in my own house it's divided and it's been not fun to have those conversations with my adult children um so anyhow it's kind of where i'm at tonight president reese this is we're open for questions correct that we can okay i just want to make sure dr foley um how would this be communicated since there's an amendment and there's some maybe a little curveball thrown at you today i just wanted to know how is this going to be perceived out if this vote were to pass i'm not saying it will um i don't know um i can't obviously poll but i just think that we should have all the answers before we have to make a vote thank you president
088reese vice president wilson your cabinet team has been prepared with whatever outcome would come up tonight obviously what we had to provide for you tonight was a recommendation from your administrative team based upon our protocols and our expectations but we also have been working very hard so we have multiple sets of communications and plans ready to go depending upon how the outcome of this vote goes tonight we will send immediate communication to the fam to families we have literally two versions of communication and between any amendment you're going to make we're going to make those changes so we will be here late tonight whenever it takes to finalize whatever is decided will be communicated we'll then follow up with our administration so that we are able to begin implementing it will require us to make
089some communication changes but we can make that happen and so regardless of how this goes tonight we're ready to implement and put in place your just make execute your decision thank you thank you everyone's had a lot of great conversation just the same as everyone who came to speak for either for or against i do have to say that while this is a very personal choice for individual families i want to thank everybody it was not nearly as emotionally charged as the decision to return whether we go in person or not so i want to thank everyone for the emails that we got with the exception of a few and maybe i'll just say those were very direct but it was a much different tone um than it was when we returned and like mrs
090keller said i don't think any of us expected to be again placed in an absolute no-win situation yes this is what we were elected for yes these are the decisions that we need to make and this is our job but as everybody knows in all aspects covet has thrown a complete and utter wrench in what we do we have to make tough decisions but again this one is very very divided and we continue to have a divided community um like you said it doesn't have to be in us against them but it has been for um almost a year now since covid started and and there's many factors for that so i know it's been said everyone needs to respect everyone's decision and um whatever the outcome of of tonight's vote is and it has
091been difficult when you read an email and you hear about the struggles and you know take our masts off and you're like oh my gosh yes i mean it's like i i have three kiddos at home too and it's like oh okay how many times walking out the door do you have your mask nope okay go in and get it we're driving down the street to go drop them off oh i forgot my mask um and so you read the the family situations you you understand with your own kiddos it's like oh wouldn't it be so nice and then you read another email and it talks about people who chose to do in person school because we have these mitigation strategies and the face coverings were part of that strategy and they talk about their
092situation and you're like oh my gosh yes we're almost done let's just make it through it and literally it's you're going back and forth and within your own um within minutes of each other when you look at it because you can see both sides of it you can feel for each person that you're reading their comments from so it has been a difficult decision and it has you know i appreciate the time that our staff and cabinet have put into what they feel is the best option for our schools we have kids in close quarters we have lots of kids in classes if we're having to quarantine entire classrooms we have from a high school level ap tests coming up what does that look like if they if their class is quarantined or if they're
093quarantined and they have to do it online we have finals coming up we have graduation coming up there and we've finally been able to move a little bit and get some events happening and what's going to happen if we start having an outbreak and these events get cancelled um and so you think about it from that side as well so um there is there's a lot and i appreciate everyone who's taken the time and we've purposely taken this time to be able to gather information to ensure what the health department was going to do what what it would look like on both sides so i definitely appreciate the countless hours and and the time that everyone has spent putting that time in president reece mrs kaler when you talked about the emails um yeah some
094are um you know quite inappropriate but uh one really touched me today that um it was an email from a sweet mama over at cortina and she actually gave us a picture of her son's mask at the end of the day and i have not witnessed something that gross in a while to be very honest and um i have adult children so my perspective is a little bit different they work and they're expected to wear a mask at work still and so they're a little more careful they actually asked me to wash them all the time um but when i saw that little kiddos mask i thought this this isn't good for him this is not helping him today and it and it really touched my heart in a way that i hadn't read an
095email before like that so um and it was really kind to the way she wrote it so i was very very touched by that email and other emails not so touched by [Music] i do appreciate all the emails um i think we'd be remiss if we didn't say that how many we got uh there were pages and scrolling and scrolling on my phone to the point where i had to do just three times a day checking that's it and i would read groups of them because that's all i could handle but it like president reece said you would get one and it would be just so moving one way and then honestly the next email it was back and forth and it's i think a divide and i think whichever way this decision goes i
096i want to just echo those words that i said earlier come alongside those friends that might not be on the same side as you of this vote and tell them it's going to be okay and you'll do what you need to do because man i just i feel for them either way our our campaign slogan of be kind let's be kind this last month of school more than ever let's be kind okay any other questions or comments on the amended motion so at this moment what we are voting on is mrs schultz's amended motion of to make face masks optional effective tomorrow so all those in favor aye all those opposed nay all right that motion carries for one then we will go on to the [Applause] we will go on to 6.2 second i'm
097sorry you're all ready for it so i moved that um does this one need you give me just a moment as like because it was president reese members of the board that was part two so i think there's no need to no need to suspend what you didn't amend so therefore um you have already you have suspended in your your um your amended motion that that passed you have suspended so so there is no need for 6.2 because the policy is already suspended based on the previous amended amended motion all right thank you for not seconding me all right with that i move that we adjourn second there all in favor have a good evening thank you for your time i went back and forth all day every day so