Eastern Iowa parents, school officials lament loss of mask mandate

CEDAR RAPIDS — When Megan Schmitt woke up to the news last week that school districts no longer could require students to wear masks, she was upset and concerned for the safety of her daughter in kindergarten.

Schmitt, her husband and her step-daughter, Lily, 13, are vaccinated against COVID-19, and were beginning to hope for the end of the pandemic and a return to normal.

But once Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a ban on mask mandates for schools in the early hours of Thursday, May 20, Schmitt again began considering stricter social-distancing for her family.

“We have three kids who aren’t vaccinated, so we’re still kind of in limbo about what we can or can’t do as a family,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt’s daughter, Maggie, 6, goes to Prairie Hill Elementary School. Throughout the year, Schmitt said Maggie has had “no issue” wearing a mask.

“She didn’t know any differently,” Schmitt said. “She didn’t know what to expect with all-day school, and a mask was just part of the deal. For kindergartners, it’s more of a shock not to be wearing a mask.

“I get home at night and have to remind her to take it off. She gets off the bus and doesn’t realize she’s still wearing it.”

Iowa City Community School District Superintendent Matt Degner said districts could see an increase in quarantine numbers now that they no longer can require students and staff to wear masks.

The Iowa City district’s COVID-19 mitigation strategy “relies on students being masked and protecting themselves,” Degner said.

In April, the school board relaxed its coronavirus quarantine practices to be in line with the Iowa Department of Public Health, after almost 1,000 students in the district were placed in quarantine.

If both people are masked correctly, a close contact does not need to lead to quarantining.

But, Degner said, “If students aren’t wearing masks, that changes the game on the number of kids that could be in a quarantine situation.”

The district is still “unclear” on whether or not students can be required to wear masks on school buses, he said.

In January, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that masks be worn at airports, intercity bus services and other public transportation. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes school buses as public transportation.

Iowa state officials have left it up to individual school districts to decide whether masks are required on school buses.

Degner said the district is working with legal counsel, who also is unclear on the rules.

“We’re working on the best policy,” Degner said.

The Cedar Rapids Community School District announced Friday it is recommending masks to be worn on school buses.

Janet Godwin, Iowa City school board member and chief executive officer of ACT, expressed anger with the new law, especially that it was signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds at midnight, May 20.

“In the middle of the night, literally, the rules changed,” Godwin said during a school board meeting Tuesday. “It’s hard for adults to make these kind of choices, but asking our kids to navigate that with no preparation was unconscionable.

“They felt the brunt of this change. As a leader of a large organization, I would never change the rules overnight for adults, much less for children,” Godwin said.

The law is a “continued erosion of local control,” Godwin said. “This has been the hardest year in our district, and time and time again we’ve taken curveballs and managed online learning, hybrid learning, 100 percent in-person learning, and we’ve all done it together.

“This last change came at us with so little time left in the year to pivot and respond.”

Teachers and administrators did a “commendable job” last week looking out for bullying or harassment of students both wearing a mask or choosing not to wear a mask, Degner said.

“Building leaders did a great job trying to reinforce care and compassion,” he said.

Jen Davis, whose children attend Wright Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, also is upset that the Cedar Rapids Community School District no longer can require masks.

“When we made the decision to send the girls to in-person school this year, we took into account the COVID-19 mitigation plan, and part of that was that masks were required,” Davis said.

“It happened overnight,” she said. “We’re sending our kids to school, and the rules changed. We could decide to keep them home, but that doesn’t seem like the right thing to do, either.”

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