On Monday night, the Jefferson County Board of Education held a meeting in the Jefferson High School auditorium. The meeting was moved from the usual location of the library to accommodate the increased amount of citizen attendees.
The meeting opened with a presentation by epidemiologist Samroz Jakvani. During his presentation, Jakvani took his time to address and explain common misconceptions about mask wearing, as well as explain how it helps to slow the spread of airborne toxins.
The citizen comment section of the School Board meeting ran an unusually long length, running nearly two and a half hours, after being extended three times by the board. Throughout this time, those speaking mainly voiced their concerns regarding the district’s mask policy put in place at the last school board meeting. Some citizens brought their own stacks of documents to present to the Board to argue their points, others presented personal anecdotes, and some used their time to pray for the community. Some citizens were echoing George Floyd’s words “I can’t breathe”, comparing the masking of students to the murder of the Minnesota man.
The next item on the agenda was an update on the controversial covid policy of the district. After another twenty minutes of deliberation between board members, and frequent interruptions from the community, a motion was made to revert the covid response plan to its previous form, as it was on August 23rd. In a roll call vote, the motion carried 5-7.
After a ten-minute break, the board reconvened. Upon doing so, they received a report on programs for at-risk students, and also a report on the use of seclusion and physical restraint being used on students by the Director of Special Education and Student Services, Kathy Volk. Following Volk’s report, the only business left for the Board was to approve the second reading of the Revised Athletic Coach Position Description, which passed unanimously. After suggesting an update on COVID-19 procedures as a topic for the next meeting, the meeting adjourned at 11:10 PM.
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