School Board members, superintendent oppose McDonald on masks

Palm Coast Observer
News

School Board members and Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt at a March 2 workshop rejected board member Janet McDonald's push to loosen school mask restrictions.

McDonald, for the second workshop in a row, had pressed her fellow board members on masks, which she says don't protect people from COVID-19 and are unhealthy. Those views are at odds with mainstream medical consensus and the advice of the CDC and Florida Department of Health.

"Where we are right now as a school district is, I think, where we need to be."

— CATHY MITTELSTADT, Flagler Schools superintendent

"We have new information come to us and we have to adjust the way we’re going," McDonald said. "Just to wait for somebody else to tell us, 'Oh, the light is green now, we can go,' is not being intellectually engaged and honest. We’re decision makers for 13,000 students, several thousands staff, and we're a voice for an educated perspective. So, let’s present that to the public and let's be open to information and open to exploring information and getting with or partners in the county and seeing what actually fits now, now that we’ve been in this COVID fog for over a year."

At a previous workshop in which McDonald inveighed against masks, saying they make people less healthy and impede social and emotional growth, her fellow board members were silent. But on March 2, two of them made their opposition clear.

"I hate wearing a mask. I do. I don’t like it. But I do it because I think it’s the right thing," board member Cheryl Massaro said. "Because I believe the science, I believe in our Health Department here in Flagler County, and I will support their efforts in whatever way that I can: It’s as simple as that."

Massaro was also tired of getting anti-mask emails from McDonald.

"I’ve asked before. I will ask now publicly: I don’t want these emails," she said. "I don’t believe in the same things my colleague believes in."

She added, "I will abide by whatever Flagler Health Department deems is necessary to keep our children safe — safer, in my mind. You know, I don’t care for the masks. But there are positive things that are coming out of it. And we’ve lost 500,000 Americans. 500,000. Yes, we’re going to come out of this COVID — hopefully sooner rather than later. But it’s something we all need to consider."

Board member Colleen Conklin said nobody enjoys masks. But she wanted to follow the data.

"For me personally, I’m not seeing anything that would make me feel comfortable at this point in time removing the masks right now," Conklin said. "For the start of next school year, I certainly hope the conversation is different: I certainly hope we are not in the same place that we are. I can’t imagine that we will be. But for right now, to change our policy or adopted procedures ... as many parents that may be excited about that, I think there would be a great number that would be very concerned about the health and welfare of their children, and in addition to that, the staff."

Conklin spoke of the importance of taking into account the district's experiences with COVID-19.

"We have lost a principal in this community, and it hit this community hard. It hit FPC exceptionally hard," Conklin said, speaking of the death of FPC Principal Tom Russell. "We’ve lost other folks to COVID who are staff, who are family members of teachers, and family members of students."

Board member Jill Woolbright said her practice on masks has been to defer to the person in front of her, wearing one if that makes the person comfortable but also not objecting if someone else wants to remove theirs.

"I think science is on both sides of the aisle and is viewed differently on both sides of the aisle," Woolbright said, "and it just really saddens me, the divide in our country. And I want to do everything I can do to bridge gaps and bridge education and understanding and respect of each others' views and respect of each others' right to have their views."

Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt was not interesested in changing current procedures.

"Creating a safe educational environment for day-to-day operations is my number one goal for every single student sand for all of our employees," Mittelstadt said. "Where we are right now as a school district is, I think, where we need to be. Moving forward, over the summer and into next year, I think there’s some unknown factors that we can continue to explore."