Ranzau loses 2nd challenge to Valley Center mask mandate; nearly ejected from hearing
For the second time in two weeks, the Valley Center school district has upheld its anti-COVID mask mandate and rejected challenges voiced by former Sedgwick County Commissioner Richard Ranzau.
In a Monday morning board meeting, the district voted 6-1 to keep its mask mandate despite Ranzau’s assertions — made on behalf of another parent and her child — that it’s no longer necessary and that masks are doing more harm than good.
The decision parallels a ruling the board made April 8 in a claim brought by Ranzau on behalf of his own son. In Monday’s meeting, he was the sole representative of Tiffany Temple, a parent in the district, and her son, Caden.
Temple did not appear at the hearing, but asked Ranzau to represent her.
“Tiffany is saying, listen, the flu is a greater risk to her child, Caden, he has a name, he has a face,” Ranzau said. “Caden Temple is being harmed by the mask that he’s being forced to wear to protect him from a virus that is less harmful to him than the flu. And she has no say in that and she thinks she should have a say in that.”
“There are a lot of other people who believe that same thing,” Ranzau added. “Meanwhile we have respiratory issues, migraines, difficulty focusing, stress, anxiety, academic performance problems in children as a result of the mask.”
The board so far has held three special meetings to deal with issues voiced by Ranzau under the grievance provision of a state law known as Senate Bill 40. The new law forces the school district to hold a hearing within 72 hours on any complaint brought by a district patron challenging COVID rules.
On Monday, board member Brad Barbour criticized that law as an unfunded mandate from the Legislature.
“As I said at our last hearing, I think that Senate Bill 40 was a poorly thought out bill,” he said. “People in the Legislature complain and complain and complain about school districts, how they spend their money, what they do with their time. Our administration has spent lots of time on this. I know that there are attorneys that have been involved with some of this, which costs our district money.”
It may not be the last mask grievance Valley Center has to consider, with the end of the school year still a month away.
Temple’s original complaint was co-signed by about 70 other people.
Ranzau nearly got tossed out of the meeting in an argument over whether the board was complying with the SB 40 timeline in regard to the cosigners.
“If you want to accept the original request with all those people, we’re past the 72 hours,” Ranzau said.
District Superintendent Cory Gibson, appointed the hearing officer by the board, replied: “Well, state statute actually defines what hearing timeline is and it does not include weekends. That’s why we’re here this morning.”
Ranzau: “No it doesn’t say that. It says 72 hours.”
Gibson said any of the co-signers who want to withdraw testimony or their name could contact him by the end of the day.
“With all due respect,” replied Ranzau, “You haven’t followed SB 40 that says 72 hours. You did not receive a form (from anyone but Temple) signed as required by your own policies that you put in place.”
Gibson: “Mr. Ranzau, this is not the time to have a conversation.”
Ranzau: “No, it is, because we’re trying to clarify. You’re trying to put people in this that aren’t supposed to be here. And I’m not going to put up with these games that you’re playing.”
Gibson: “Mr. Ranzau, this is your first attempt, the second attempt you’ll be asked to leave.”
Ranzau: “Say again?”
Gibson: “If you act like that again you’ll be asked to . . .”
Ranzau interrupted: “What, that I respond to you when you trying to say thing like this . . .”
Gibson interrupted: ‘Mr. Ranzau, you may take a seat till you’re called back to the podium.”
Ranzau took his seat.
After the meeting, Ranzau said he was frustrated by the process and believes the district engineered the meeting to try to dispose of all the complaints at once, rather than give them individual attention.
He said his view is that the initial complaint with the cosigners was rejected Thursday on paperwork grounds and superseded by Temple’s official complaint form, filed Friday.
A family member of Temple’s was in surgery Monday morning and she requested the meeting be held Monday night so she could attend, Ranzau said.
He said that request was denied on the grounds that it would put the district past the deadine mandated by SB 40.
“They can’t have it both ways,” Ranzau said. “They told Tiffany that she had to have it done at 7 in the morning, otherwise that would exceed the 72 hours, but now they’re trying to say in the meeting that the weekends don’t count, but it did when they tried to push her to get her meeting done.”
Temple confirmed Ranzau’s version of events and said she has requested that her original complaint, e-mailed on Thursday, be rescinded, so other cosigners will be able to file their own complaints if they wish.
As he did in Ranzau’s earlier grievance case, assistant superintendent Mike Bonner, the head of the district’s COVID committee, defended the mask requirement.
He said it’s being kept in place to keep the district from having to send home large numbers of children if they’re in class with a student who tests positive for COVID-19.
Schools are mandated to keep out any student suspected of carrying an infectious disease, he said. Under current health department guidelines, they are not considered a close contact with the COVID-infected person if both parties are wearing a mask.
Ranzau has been campaigning to get Valley Center and other area school boards to follow the Renwick and Halstead school districts, which dropped their mask mandates after the passage of SB 40 neutralized countywide mask mandates.
Ranzau also testified last week in two days of hearings on behalf of Mulvane parents and others who have challenged that district’s mask mandate.
The school board there was scheduled to rule on that complaint Monday evening.
At Valley Center, Ranzau opened the case by reading a written statement by Temple.
“I have seen a change in my son and I have heard from countless other parents who have said the same about their children,” the statement said. “My son has had issues for the very first time with his schoolwork. He is typically a straight-A student, Now he is missing assignments and I have to get on him continuously for the first time ever.”
“My son has told me that hardly any of the kids are even wearing their masks correctly and they yank them down any chance they get.”
After Ranzau’s earlier complaint, the school board dropped crowd limitations and mask requirements for spectators of outdoor sports and loosened rules on pre-kindergarten students, whose classes are small.
But the board kept the mask mandate for students in the K-12 grades.
The school board vote on Ranzau’s previous complaint was unanimously against it. On Monday, he got one vote.
Board President Bart Balthazor was the lone dissent in the decision to reject the complaint and continue the mask mandate.
“I personally would rather that they were optional for everybody,” Balthazor said. “But we’re a board, not an individual person.”
This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 12:41 PM.
