Chatham School Board Unanimously Passes Mask, COVID Policies

CHATHAM, NJ — After a contentious public session at Monday night’s meeting, members of the School District of the Chathams Board of Education unanimously passed its policies by a 7-0 vote, on masking and other COVID-related rules for the 2021-2022 school year.

LaSusa’s Letter On Masking Ahead Of Meeting
Ahead of the meeting late Monday, Superintendent Dr. Michael LaSusa posted an update to the district’s website, advising parents that Gov. Phil Murphy’s Executive Order 251 is “not optional and a Board of Education cannot ignore it or create policies to circumvent it without facing potentially serious consequences.”

LaSusa said about one percent of the state's schools that are attempting to do so, are taking legal risks and could potentially lose state aid.

On a personal level, Board Members could also be charged with a disorderly persons offense, face ethics violations and be removed from the Board. Superintendents, school administrators or other school staff could face the same, LaSusa added, as well as face revocation of their professional licenses.

“I will not place any of my staff members in a position that could potentially risk their license and I will not place myself in that position either,” LaSusa wrote.

His update indicated that the district had a mask policy for a year and requirement in place, but the goal of the Board of Education on Monday night was to make it less restrictive, with the current policy on the books from the 2020-2021 school year requiring masks at all times in school.

He said requests for medical exemptions from mask-wearing are sent to the school nurse and then the district’s physician to decide.

LaSusa concluded in his letter that he didn’t like many of the rules and regulations in the State of New Jersey but he is required to “uphold the laws and rules of the state.”

“I have tried to work within those rules, alongside our Board Members, as best as I can over the past 15 months to provide students with the best learning experience possible,” he said. “I will continue to do that this year.”

For LaSusa’s full letter, click here.

Board Discussion Before Public Session, Vote
Board President Jill Critchley Weber described the board as having its “hands tied” in terms of their ability to make a decision contrary to Murphy’s Executive Order.

“Your hands are not tied,” Weber told the audience, noting that there were approximately 50 people there and 400 watching, who could write letters and go to Trenton.

Board Vice President Matt Gilfillan said the decision has been forced on the board from above.

“There’s no personal benefit to defying the order,” Gilfillan said.

Weber said that while as a board they initially aimed for a mask-optional year before the Executive Order, their policy up for adoption is less stringent than the one for the 2020-2021 school year; and allows students to be unmasked during specific times of the day, within the parameters of the Executive Order.

Michael Ryan, part of the district's policy committee, said the Board recognized both sides of the issue and above all, the community should work together to not be divided and to not label one another.

Weber said as a district, the board receives an equal number of correspondences from the community in support of mask mandates, as well as optional masking.

Public Weighs In
Members of the public who spoke, many for the mask-optional environment and others in support of the board, took about 40 minutes in total during the public session to express their views on the topic.

Tim Hyde disagreed with the board’s views telling them their hands were not tied.

Hyde said a law is passed by the state legislature - not Executive Order - and masks are optional wherever people go, yet in schools, children’s oxygen intakes are lowered for eight hours daily.

Lauren Petersen, who said she’s been mocked on social media, plans to unenroll her children, one of them with her at the microphone, who she said has gotten headaches and migraines from mask-wearing. When she said her child’s physician requested a medical exemption from the district, the district’s physician denied it.

“How is this not a blatant overreach of the district?” Petersen asked, stating her son was offered extra mask breaks, but with that, she worried what he would miss in class while taking breaks.

Rez Estevez, another member of the public, told the board she was disgusted with them and that they were “folding a knee to government overreach.” Estevez said the board should expect an increase in parents unenrolling their children and homeschooling.

Jonathan Wilcox said he couldn’t be happier than having an elected board “not shaken by a vocal minority,” stating the virus is on the rise even for the vaccinated. He said it’s his family’s civic duty to prevent diseases and he would be worried about the children becoming vectors for it.

Phil Ankel agreed and said the Board's decisions have kept the students safe.

Kyle Roberts said she was opposed to mandates, not masks and that parents should be able to make the decision, pointing out instances where Weber and Gilfillan had advocated for mask-optional environments in past board meetings. She also said the Board received a petition from close to 550 parents asking for the same.

Dawn Dewitt said the board “moved mountains” since the pandemic and like Peterson, she’d been mocked on social media, but called a “sheep” for advocating masks and vaccines. A school employee, Dewitt said she was vaccinated in order for children to have the ability to come to school daily.

Sandy Ruse suggested students were being used as shields for adults. She said in Sweden they're unmasked and there's been no transmission from student to teacher. She also said children are so afraid to remove their masks, she's heard of instances where a child has thrown up or sneezed in their mask and still left them on. She is concerned that children are also touching their masks during the day, including in bathrooms, where they're exposed to more bacteria from their hands.

She said the school should be concerned more with focusing on ventilation within the buildings.

RELATED: Chatham Schools Plans To Adopt Policies On Masks, COVID-19

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.