COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — Many Metro East school districts are now mask optional, but some schools are still considering their options.
For kids in Collinsville, parents are standing in line outside of the school board meeting to make one thing is clear.
“They need to be able to learn,” said Beth Habermehl. “They need to be in the classroom.”
The problem is they can’t agree on the best way to keep them there after a Sangamon County judge struck down a statewide mandate on masks.
“If masking is what keeps our kids in schools then we have to do what we have to do,” Habermehl said.
“They tolerated it all year last year and kept doing what they were told to get normalcy back,” said April Schaeffer. “There’s an opportunity to get it back, and they’re not taking it.”
Mask may be at the forefront of the minds of many Collinsville parents as they flooded into the board meeting Monday night, but the topic wasn’t even up for discussion on the agenda in a district where masks are still mandatory.
“You’re trying to balance on the edge of a razor blade with people’s feelings on these types of issues,” said Breese Central Superintendent Dr. Dustin Foutch.
Foutch has made masks optional in his district.
“We’ve got 620 students,” said Foutch. “We have 2 positive cases right now, so cases are extremely low.”
With that in mind, Foutch’s district is taking a tiered approach just in case COVID numbers go up.
“We have to leave some room in the plan to be able to take action if an unsafe situation presents itself,” said Foutch.
He’s trying to keep kids in class and his district out of court.
“We don’t want to put our parents in a situation where they’re having to incur a bunch of legal fees, and our district is having to waste taxpayer dollars on legal fees for us to fight a case we know we’re going to lose,” Foutch said.
However, he understands not everyone will like his plan.
“You’re not going to make everybody happy,” he said.
He’s preaching patience as the case heads to appellate court.
“I think everybody should just be as kind as possible and understanding throughout the whole thing until it all gets settled,” Foutch said.
