COVID rules pose dilemma for schools
Evolving COVID-19 regulations, municipal elections and changing circumstances made 2021 a busy year for K-12 and higher education in Butler County.
Colleges moved to adapt to challenging times, and school districts across the region responded to updated policies and deliberated over their own rules.
School board meetings saw increased input from families and constituents heading into the late summer and autumn as a new cohort of school board members were elected or reelected in November.
Gov. Tom Wolf's plan to provide one-dose COVID-19 vaccinations to teachers and school employees was announced, and in March, the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV distributed the vaccines, with districts working together to fill slots with employees seeking vaccination.
Butler lawyer and solicitor for a number of Butler County school districts Tom King defended a lawsuit the district filed against Wolf and other state officials for requiring the district to attest to use remote instruction or commit to safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.The Pennsylvania Department of Health lifted the order requiring universal face coverings on June 28.School districts across the county were required to submit their health and safety plans to the state by the end of July in order to qualify for American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding.These plans defined how schools would respond to the COVID-19 pandemic for the 2021-22 school year, with each district setting rules on masking, cleaning and quarantine policies. All Butler County public schools initially made masks optional in their health and safety plans.
Seneca Valley became the first school district in the county to require masks as part of its health and safety plan, revising to mandate face coverings for students and staff whenever Butler County is in the substantial or high category of local transmission of COVID-19 as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Parents, teachers and administrators across the county weighed concerns, and pros and cons of masking in schools, and some parents chose to place or keep their children in cyber school programs out of concerns about COVID-19 transmission and optional masking.In the meantime, COVID-19 exposures caused the high school football season to be disrupted early, with games regularly being postponed or canceled due to students testing positive.
Facing increasing cases and rising concerns about the delta variant of COVID-19, Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam signed an order mandating masks for all public and private pre-K-12 schools and day cares. The order overruled district-specific health and safety plan rules about masks and mandated the face coverings beginning Sept. 7.Parents, students and constituents spoke for and against the state mandate at local board meetings. Several parents of Butler County school children were among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the mask order, filed by King of Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham. Chestnut Ridge, Penncrest and West York school districts, of Bedford, Crawford and York counties, respectively, later joined as parties to the lawsuit.Even as the mask mandate took effect, school nurses found themselves juggling increasingly time-consuming COVID-19 responsibilities. Some described the situation as “chaotic” as contact tracing, health screenings and the everyday ins and outs of taking care of sick students grew more complex. School cafeterias also endured COVID-19 related supply chain disruptions at the beginning of the school year.
After a year and a half of COVID-19 pandemic challenges and several months of heated public comment at public meetings, a new group of school board members was elected and reelected across the county.Wolf announced that Pennsylvania school districts will be allowed to modify or end the mask mandate for K-12 students on Jan. 17. The statewide mask mandate flipped back and forth in courts multiple times over the course of November, first thrown out by a Commonwealth Court decision and then reinstated while the state Supreme Court considered the governor's appeal of the lawsuit.The state Supreme Court threw out the statewide mask mandate on Dec. 11, deeming it invalid by the court because it was imposed by the acting secretary of health without legal authorization. School districts across Butler County returned to their previously approved health and safety plans, largely making masks optional for students with the exception of Seneca Valley School District, which still requires them. Students continued to be required to mask on buses due to a federal transportation mandate.
