Masks for students at Northern Lehigh School District are optional for the upcoming school year, but some parents think that isn’t far enough.

On a 7-0 vote, the school board at a special meeting on Monday approved the district’s health and safety plan. The plan was required by July 30.

The meeting was held in the Northern Lehigh Middle School auditorium, and marked the board’s first in-person meeting since March 2020.

Before the vote, Superintendent Matthew J. Link said that the plan is required by all school districts in the commonwealth, noting that the template was provided to the district by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

“Our goal is to keep schools open; that’s the goal, five days a week,” Link said. “We need to work together to make that happen, which means that we are going to have some protective strategies in place.

“Right now, I want nothing more than our children to be in our schools and on our campus without masks. Our guidance from PDE and from our legal counsel is that on school buses, masks are required. In schools, they are not, we are making them optional.”

The board also passed an addendum that if an employee or student is symptomatic, whether they are vaccinated or not, they may only return to school upon written clearance by a qualified medical professional.

In lieu of medical coverage, the district will recommend following the then current isolated and quarantined guidance by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Parents comment

Heather Royer said her daughter is going to sixth grade, and that she had concerns about mask-wearing and contact tracing.

Royer said she did notice that masks were technically optional.

“My concern is all these things are in place, and I understand it’s for the health and safety of our children and the staff, but when is enough enough? If these all things can have no masks and no social distancing, I don’t understand why we can’t have school.”

Pauline Grady asked why the district even has a health and safety plan in place, as they are no longer under emergency declaration and all mitigation practices have been lifted.

“Who are we doing this plan for? Do we have a health and safety plan for the flu? “Do we have a health and safety plan for the stomach virus which typically wipes out our kids more than COVID did this past year-and-a-half?”

Grady also was concerned why the board has granted Link the authority to alter this plan without the approval of the board, as well as the wording in the health and safety plan, along with the quarantine measures.

Natalie Snyder said at this time they have collected 187 signatures to date on a petition to end masking of students in the district.

“I know our plan says we are going to make this optional at this time.” Snyder said. “What we really are concerned is we follow mandated binding law, and not just this guidance that is changing day to day.”

Chad Christman said he attended the meeting “to make sure that we are not losing touch in choices; making sure you guys as a school board respect us as parents to make choices for our children that we see fit.

“Regardless of what the plan is and how you guys plan to proceed, I just want to make sure that our kids are given the choice to mask, to not mask, regardless of their vaccination status, and to not be discriminated against in either direction,” Christman said. “We hope that you guys don’t follow blindly of guidelines and understand that enough is enough, we got to eventually move on. These kids have been all over the place in the summer time, we’re ready to resume normalcy (not new normalcy).”

Justin Jachowicz asked why there is only one plan.

“It’s kind of silly to me because it’s an emphasis on one virus, and not all viruses; particularly viruses that have more of an impact on students such as flu and pneumonia.

“I don’t think that masks should be required anymore. We want to them to get back to normal.

“I would just urge that we return to a real normal school year and forget about all of the COVID-19 restrictions because there is no state of emergency any longer.”

District’s stance

Link noted that the draft plan has been posted on the district’s website for anyone who wants to review it at www.nlsd.org.

“My goal, our goal, is to keep schools open five days a week,” he said. “That means some things are going to look different though.”

Link added, “It’s going to be a balancing act.”

Board President Gary Fedorcha said the board would prefer not to have to call special meetings every time something changes.

“I do know that he would not make anything drastically done without addressing the board on those issues,” Fedorcha said. “But I believe at no time would Mr. Link do anything drastic without consulting the board.”

Directors Robert Keegan Jr. and Michele Martineau were absent.