On the afternoon of Thursday, May 13, 2021, the CDC revised its guidelines for COVID-19 mitigation methods for fully vaccinated individuals.

At 5:01pm, School District of New Berlin Joe Garza sent an E-Mail message to parents in the School District announcing immediate changes to the mitigation strategies in place since the beginning of the school year:

May 13, 2021 5:01pm

Good afternoon families,

The CDC announced today / Thursday that fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances. As a reminder, it must be two weeks after your second dose (Moderna or Pfizer) or first/only dose (Johnson & Johnson) of the vaccine to be considered fully vaccinated.

The SDNB is implementing this change effective immediately. This means that all students, staff and visitors who are fully vaccinated are no longer required to wear masks while inside any of our buildings or facilities. Due to federal regulations, masks will still be required on buses.

Please know that we will not require proof of vaccination within our facilities but instead ask that individuals continue to abide by our masking mitigation strategy if the CDC’s new guidance does not apply to you. In other words, we ask that individuals who are not fully vaccinated continue to wear a mask or face covering while in our schools.

The end of the school year is near and our goal remains to keep our schools open through the final day of June 11. We appreciate your cooperation in helping us reach that goal.

Sincerely,

Joe Garza, Superintendent

This decision was a surprise, as the ink on the CDC announcement was barely dry. State and local munipalities and businesses alike were caught off-guard and trying to determine what impact the new guidelines would have on their operations.

As of Friday, May 14, 2021, the Schools and Child Care Programs section of the CDC website did not show any changes in their guidance for these environments.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services was very clear on the COVID-19: Schools section on its website that CDC guidelines for schools had not changed:

As of May 13 2021:
The CDC’s school guidance for mask wearing remains unchanged. Most students will still be unvaccinated and schools should follow CDC’s guidance for schools(link is external). Teachers, school administrators, and staff should continue to follow CDC’s school guidance until more people and children are vaccinated. Students and staff on buses should continue to follow all masking and physical distancing guidelines.

As of 1:00pm on Friday, May 14, 2021, the Waukesha County Department of Health had not changed its masking recommendations for schools, Face Mask Guidelines (PDF), since April 7, 2021. This is notable, since Superintendent Garza has continually referenced the Waukesha County Health Department as his medical guidance (New Berlin never formed a medical advisory committee or consulted with medical professionals while making its decisions).

It's important to note the Waukesha County guidelines are listed as "recommendations" -- a fact that the Superintendent has repeated often. However, their recommendation is pretty strongly worded:

Masks continue to be an important part of disease mitigation in a school setting and Waukesha County has seen successful implementation of face-covering policies in schools throughout the County. These policies have allowed our schools to stay open throughout most of the 2020-’21 school year keeping children in the classrooms with few disruptions.

COVID-19 spreads via respiratory droplets among people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet). The use of cloth face coverings is particularly important in settings where people are close to each other or where social distancing is difficult to maintain. Until such a time that the majority of the community has immunity to the COVID-19 virus, it is vitally important to continue following the steps outlined by the CDC to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19.

Cloth face coverings are recommended by public health experts and the CDC as a simple barrier. Cloth face coverings help prevent respiratory droplets from traveling through the air and onto other people when the person coughing, sneezing, talking, or raising their voice is wearing a cloth face covering. This recommendation is based on what we know about the role respiratory droplets play in the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19, paired with emerging evidence from clinical and laboratory studies that shows cloth face coverings reduce the spray of droplets when worn over the nose and mouth. 

Does something have to be required in order for us to do the right thing? Isn't a recommendation like this enough?

Since the new rules regarding masking did not include proof of vaccination, any reasonable person would have predicted that making the change that he announced into a situation with some students (and teachers) that are vaccinated and some that are not would be chaotic for all involved.

The CDC did revise and clarify its guidelines for Schools on Saturday, May 15, 2021:

Updates as of May 15, 2021

• CDC recommends schools continue to use the current COVID-19 prevention strategies for the 2020-2021 school year.

As a result, the School District has called a Special Meeting on Tuesday, May 18 at 6pm to discuss the following issues:

A. Discuss/possible action on updated CDC Guidance related to vaccinated persons masking indoors 

B. Discussion and possible action regarding mitigation strategies, including but not limited to masks/face coverings, for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year and summer school

Item B was to have been presented and discussed at the regular meeting of the School Board on Monday, May 23, 2021.

Yes, a special meeting was scheduled when a regular meeting is taking place just a few days later.

The administration chose to use their own interpretation of the CDC guidelines instead of waiting for approval from, or even discussing it with, the School Board in a formal (and public) meeting setting. Even if the Board technically did not approve the mitigation strategy (unconfirmed), and therefore did not have to approve it being changed, it doesn't take much awareness to know that such a major issue should not be decided unilaterally. Nor should it have been decided with so little warning or planning or preparation.

Instead of an orderly process, any involved parties must now change their schedules at the last minute in order to deal with the chaos created by a hasty decision.

This is very short notice, but if you want to speak at tonight's meeting, they are allowing people to enter at 5:50pm and the meeting starts at 6pm:

6:00 p.m. (Entry to Commons beginning at 5:50 p.m.)
Eisenhower Middle High School Learning Commons
4333 S Sunnyslope Rd, New Berlin, WI 53151
**PLEASE NOTE: Park in back, main parking lot. Enter IKE through main, cafeteria entrance. Completion of a health questionnaire (online: https://forms.gle/Ku6jsCY9JEB4jKGE6) is required prior to/immediately upon entering the building. Capacity is limited to 50 community members in the Commons.

Privilege of the Floor (the only time the public is allowed to participate) is at the beginning of the meeting. It is limited to 30 minutes total, and speakers are limited to 3 minutes each.

You may also contact the School Board to let your feelings be known, you can do so at the Contact Board of Education form or individual contact information can be found on the School Board Members page. You may or may not get a response.

Last Updated: May 18, 2021 - Archived on Dec 31, 2022

Resources

• SDNBs 2021-22 Fall Re-Entry Plan - July 26, 2021

  Presentation given by Superintendent Joe Garza to the School Board on July 26, 2021. This plan was later approved by a vote of 5-1.

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