Broward School Board votes to keep masks mandatory, defying the governor’s order
The Broward County School Board on Tuesday voted to keep its existing mask mandate in place for the 2021-2022 school year. The decision defies the governor’s order, which requires face coverings to be optional and threatens to withhold the salaries of superintendents and School Board members who don’t comply.
“I have a moral responsibility to be my brother and sister’s keepers, even if it means that my salary is taken away,” said Broward School Board Chair Rosalind Osgood. “Even if it means I’m no longer in this seat, my conscience will be at peace because I can sleep at night knowing that I didn’t put parochial self-interest before people.”
The nine-member School Board voted 8-1 to retain the mask mandate members had previously approved unanimously on July 28. The mandate requires everyone — students, faculty, staff and visitors — to wear a mask inside schools and on buses, with exceptions for students with medical conditions or individual education plans. The only School Board member to vote against retaining the mandate was Lori Alhadeff of District 4.
The School Board also authorized the district to hire outside legal counsel to evaluate and challenge the state’s new rules allowing parents to decide if their children should wear masks inside schools.
Late Tuesday the Florida Department of Education sent Broward Schools a letter notifying the district that the state had launched “an investigation of non-compliance.” The rules imposed by the district are “inconsistent” with the governor’s orders, and if they remain in place, it could result in the department withholding the salaries of the superintendent and school board members, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran wrote.
Broward has until Friday to document how it is complying with the governor’s orders.
Tuesday’s school board decision was made after hours of deliberations and public comments. Going into the record were 373 public comments submitted online. None of the online comments were read aloud during the meeting. More than a dozen people spoke in person, including teachers, parents and students.
Many had the same message for the nine-member School Board: Don’t let Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bully you, and keep the mask mandate in place.
“We ask you to not be bullied by the governor and not play Russian roulette with our children,” said Marsha Ellison, president of NAACP’s Fort Lauderdale chapter.
The first day of class in Broward County is Aug. 18.
Broward is the only public school district in South Florida to mandate masks for the 2021-2022 school year. It briefly backtracked on its mandate last week before saying it would remain in effect at least until the School Board’s Aug. 10 meeting. While School Board members decided to keep the mask mandate, they also expressed interest in revisiting the policy through the year to see if conditions improve.
The School District of Palm Beach County was planning to make masks optional, but reversed course last week and made masks mandatory, but with an opt-out option for parents who don’t want their child to wear a mask. Masks are optional in Monroe County public schools.
The Miami-Dade County school district, which was originally planning to make masks optional for the new school year, is expected to make a final decision on a policy next week after its task force of medical and public health experts convene. The district is reviewing its policy because of Florida’s recent surge of COVID-19 cases, fueled by the spread of the more contagious delta variant. There is also no COVID-19 vaccine available for kids under 12.
School districts that don’t comply with governor’s order risk penalties
Others who spoke at Broward’s School Board meeting Tuesday asked for masks to be optional and left up to parents, in line with what DeSantis is calling for. One man tried to compare masks to the pro-choice “My Body, My Choice” argument.
Jenna Hague, who was wearing a “Socialism Steals” shirt, used the word “hypocrisy” to describe the School Board’s attitude toward mask mandates. She said her 10-year-old daughter will go to school without a mask. And if she felt “discriminated against,” Hague said she would use a state-sponsored voucher to enroll her daughter elsewhere to avoid “COVID-19 harassment.”
DeSantis opposes mask mandates in schools, and in the past two weeks, he issued an executive order that triggered new rules that say Florida districts must let parents opt their children out of mask mandates.
The statewide rules sent a ripple effect through the state just days before the first day of school on Tuesday for many Florida school districts. Some districts have decided to leave masks optional or have imposed mask mandates with an opt-out option for parents. Other districts are defying the state by requiring a doctor’s note to wiggle out of a mask mandate.
In response, the governor had made new threats. His office said the State Board of Education could deduct the pay of superintendents or school board members if a district’s opt-out policy requires a doctor’s note.
“When districts enact opt-out policies that require a doctor’s note, they are not giving all parents a free choice — only parents whose children’s doctors attest to a medical condition,” DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw said.
The governor’s office, however, is backtracking from more severe penalties listed on the governor’s own executive order and subsequent rules. The order states that the State Board of Education can withhold funds from districts that don’t comply with laws or rules regarding the masking of children.
Pushaw, however, said on Monday that “any possible financial consequences would be narrowly tailored to address the offense committed.”
“Children and teachers will not be punished or face adverse consequences for the decisions made by certain school board members and/or superintendents,” she said.
Broward School Board member Nora Rupert spoke about the possible consequences during the meeting.
“Lose our salary? Bring it,” she said. “Bring it. When you put that out there, it makes me work harder for our schoolchildren and families.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 3:20 PM.
