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Education News
Tim Nelson

St. Paul school board votes to keep mask mandate in place

A girl in a face mask kneels in front of a locker as others walk by.
Eighth grader Amy Schwoch showed off her binder to her friend Julia Peterson on the first day of school at Carlton High School in September 2020 in Carlton, Minn. In St. Paul, its public school district announced that it will be keeping a mask mandate in place for now.
Alex Kormann | Star Tribune via AP file 2020

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St. Paul Public Schools will be keeping a mask mandate in place for now, even as most other districts in the state have dropped face covering requirements amid a decreasing number of new COVID cases.

The school board on Tuesday night voted 3-2 against an administration proposal to make masks optional in the district’s schools.

Superintendent Joe Gothard offered told board members that the data shows dropping masks in schools was not likely to be a major factor in community COVID spread, or pressure on the health care system.

He laid out a plan to end the mask requirement next Monday, while continuing to monitor for any signs of a COVID surge.

"There would still be opportunities to review the resolution either on a quarterly basis or at any time the board brings it back, or would like to see it back, for discussion," Gothard told the board. "Administration, too, would have the ability to work through the board leadership to say that 'we need to hold a special meeting to change that.' "

But the board, by a narrow margin and with two members absent, voted down the proposal.

Board Member Uriah Ward said "the community seems split about this for reasons that make a lot of sense."

Ward and others expressed concern about a potential future surge, and keeping ahead of the coronavirus.

"My inclination has been, at points like these, to try to be sure we are erring on the side of keeping people safe," Ward said.

In public testimony before the vote, speakers had urged the district to lift the mandate — noting that the city itself had already done so, and masking only in schools would be of limited help.

"Why are our children still in masks, when they have been lifted everywhere else? If anything, it should be optional. You are taking people's rights away," parent Karissa Round testified. "Why is everyone else lifted, and our children are still in school wearing masks?"

St. Paul and the neighboring Minneapolis school district are among a dwindling number of school districts to still have mask mandates in place.