Wichita school board votes to drop mask mandate after debate over when it should end

Starting March 11, face masks will no longer be required in Wichita Public Schools, although they will still be “encouraged and welcomed.”

The Wichita Board of Education voted 4-3 Tuesday to end a masking mandate that has been in place in Kansas’ largest school district since last August.

A substitute motion supported by the board’s three most conservative members that would have immediately ended mandatory masking for students, staff and visitors failed 3-4.

Face coverings will still be required on school buses, because of a 2021 federal order that they be worn on all forms of public transportation.

And the motion that did pass includes a proviso for the board to reconsider and extend the mandate if COVID-19 spikes again in the district’s schools.

Suburban districts across Sedgwick County have already ditched the in-school requirement in favor of a voluntary masking policy.

During the peak of a January COVID spike, as many as 1 in 10 Wichita students were in quarantine. Record rates of infection in teachers and staff have forced elementary, middle and high schools across the district to close for days at a time.

But in recent weeks, county and district data show, the virus appears to be abating.

As of Feb. 16, the number of positive student cases in Wichita schools had dipped to 34 from a pandemic high of 1,308 on Jan. 6, a dramatic decrease assisted by the district’s decision to stop contact tracing in mid-January.

Masks were required at Tuesday’s special meeting and checked at the door. But of the approximately 60 in attendance, roughly half defied the mandate and either wore masks below their nose or took them off entirely.

The first speaker to address the board, Jake Boxberger, spoke with his mask under his nose and drew a parallel to last week’s Super Bowl game.

He noted that mask mandates were in effect in Los Angeles where the game was held and were required for entry, but “as many of you watched on TV, nobody was wearing a mask.”.

Many of the mask opponents also defied board rules against cheering speeches made during public comment, prompting board president Stan Reeser to threaten to close the meeting.

“We will have an orderly public meeting,” Reeser said. “If we cannot control this, we will clear this room.”

Esau Freeman, speaking for the Service Employees International Union that represents school support staff, noted the mass non-compliance with the mask requirement at the meeting.

“Stop making idle threats and enforce policy,” Freeman said, addressing Reeser.

Later, the anti-mask attendees interrupted board member Julie Hedrick with boos and shouts when she urged families to use the upcoming spring break — March 14-18 — to get their children vaccinated against COVID.

That audience outburst brought another admonition from Reeser, who told the crowd they can cheer and boo all they want at a political rally, but not in the board meeting.

“I implore you to keep your comments to yourself,” Reeser said.

Mary Dean, a longtime activist in Wichita’s African-American community, criticized the three board members who forced the special emergency meeting. She accused them of spending too much time and effort on mask-mandate repeal while neglecting their duties to provide quality education to students.

“I am here to request that you resign here today,” she said. “You keep taking up time you need to be discussing important business.”

Those members, Kathy Bond, Hazel Stabler and Diane Albert, took office in January. They were part of a four-person election slate recruited by the Sedgwick County Republican Party. That election effort fell one member short of a majority when incumbent Hedrick beat Brent Davis and held on to her seat.

After the meeting, most mask opponents seemed to be calmly disappointed.

“I guess we have a date, I guess that’s a good thing,” said Jason Meirowsky, who attended the meeting in a shirt reading “Lions not sheep,” a rallying slogan of the anti-mandate movement. “Now we have an exit plan. That is a good thing. I’d just rather it be today.”

Like a number of people in the crowd, Meirowsky doesn’t have children in the Wichita district — his attend school in Derby. He said he came primarily to show support for Stabler, Albert and Bond, for whom he had campaigned.

“I helped knock on doors for the conservative school board members,” he said. “We kind of go where we’re needed.”

Albert called the outcome of the board meeting “unfortunate.”

She said the decision to delay dropping the mandate was not based on data but more on the negotiations between the two sides.

In making the motion to wait, board member Sheril Logan acknowledged that she was guided by the ongoing debate and her plan was a compromise between those who want to keep the mask mandate for the rest of the school year and those who wanted it to end immediately.

This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 1:50 PM.