At a special meeting on Wednesday evening, the Vandalia School Board approved a resolution to give the district local control of COVID-19 mitigations to be used during the upcoming school year, which is set to begin next week. Vandalia Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jennifer Garrison started the meeting by explaining the penalties laid out by the Illinois State Board of Education that districts could face for not following the state mandate for masks in schools. In a letter sent out to school by State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carmen Ayala it states that “noncompliance is not an option. I will not compromise the health and safety of students or staff, nor will I risk even one child’s life” And, it goes on to state “Local boards of education, schools, and school districts do not have the authority to deny the Governor’s Executive Order requiring universal indoor masking in schools.” But, the letter goes on to state “A district would have multiple opportunities to remedy the deficiencies that present a health hazard or a danger to students or staff before becoming unrecognized.” The letter states that a district would first have its recognition status changed to “On Probation” and would be asked to submit a corrective action plan. After that, the letter states that failure to address the deficiencies would lead to nonrecognition, meaning total loss of access to state funding and loss of the school’s ability to engage in any IHSA and IESA athletic competitions. The Vandalia School Board voted 6 to 1 to affirm local school board control of the mitigations with board members Kevin Satterthwaite, Joe Schaal, Therese Tate, Adam Braun, John Campbell and Joe Lawson all voting in favor of the resolution and board member Ryan Lewis voting against it.
The board has adopted a 3 Level Mitigation Plan. We hope to have more on the plan coming up later today on www.vandaliaradio.com
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