Esko School Board divided on Covid

In a room packed full with nearly 40 parents and teachers, the Esko school board chose to not alter the district’s current Covid-19 mitigation strategies despite tense discussion between board members at their meeting Monday, Feb. 7.

As of Monday, students in the district are not required to wear masks to class or school events, regardless of vaccination status. It’s a new policy for students in elementary school, and the same policy that’s been in place for more highly vaccinated secondary students since the start of the school year.

According to superintendent Aaron Fischer, this creates a “complicated” situation for the school nurse and office personnel, with the possibility of more cases needing contact tracing within the school. Prior to the removal of masks, the district had very low quarantine numbers due to the younger students wearing masks and therefore not needing to be quarantined after a contact. That will no longer be the case if students choose to not wear masks to class.

The current quarantine guidelines do not require students to quarantine after exposure if they are fully vaccinated, if they have tested positive in the last 90 days and have no symptoms, or if they were masked at the time of exposure. Fischer recommended to the board that they alter the Covid-19 mitigation plan to have students self-report whom they have exposed instead of staff spending time seeking out who has been exposed.

Board member Leona Johnson agreed with Fischer’s recommendation and expressed to fellow board members that she felt the current plan was discriminatory against unvaccinated children who would be forced to quarantine if they chose to not wear masks to school.

Board member Jeff Salo expressed frustration about the removal of masks in the district: “I don’t like masks, but it works. Our numbers have been down because of masking. I don’t want to come back in a few months and say, ‘I told you so.’”

Johnson responded by continuing to bring up the necessity of students being in school, whether or not they choose to wear masks or be vaccinated, and said to the board, “If the kids get Covid, so be it.”

Board member Todd Rengo reminded Johnson that many students, who might recover if they were to get sick, have immunocompromised parents who might not recover as easily.

Johnson responded to Rengo by claiming that those parents should be vaccinated and then went on to claim that the government is forcing vaccines onto everyone in a political way that is driven by money, and therefore she did not want to implement guidelines for the district.

Board chair Jerry Frederick reminded fellow board members that they are not doctors and should not be giving medical or scientific advice. Frederick said the emphasis should not be placed purely on hope, but instead on science and the recommendations of the experts.

After more discussion about perception of advice from medical professionals, Johnson made a motion to accept the recommendation from Fischer to stop contact tracing within the school and move to a less-complicated method of self-reporting. Board member Steve McConnell seconded the motion, but it ultimately failed by a 2-3 vote.

With no other motions made, the board left the mitigation plan as it previously stood, with the option to have Frederick and Fischer meet to change the plan if necessary before the board’s next meeting March 14. Along with having the ability to determine quarantine guidelines for students, they are able to reinstate the mask mandate if active cases are above 25 for the district.

McConnell made a motion to put the currently “active” Covid-19 case numbers back onto the school website, to be updated each Friday. This motion passed 5-0.

New scholarship follows donation

In other business, the Esko Educational Foundation announced to the board that an anonymous donor recently donated $375,000 for a new scholarship to be created by the foundation. The Esko Educational Foundation is a nonprofit that has awarded over $1 million to high school students since it began in 1994.

In 2021, the foundation was able to award more than $60,000 in scholarships to seniors pursuing trade school, junior college, or university studies. With the generous donation the foundation just received, they will be able to offer a new scholarship this year, which has been named the Rauha Scholarship; “Rauha” is the Finnish word for "peace." It will be a renewable scholarship. The parameters for qualification have yet to be determined. Its first award will be to the Esko High School Class of 2022.

Representatives wanted to remind current seniors that applications for scholarships close March 4. The annual awards ceremony will be held May 1.

Editor's note: The section of the story on the Rauha scholarship was corrected after publication for spelling and the fact that the scholarship will be renewable.