At a July 27 meeting of the Dolton West Elementary District 148 Board, with a decision expected on whether to require masks during this school year, Superintendent Kevin Nohelty said he “was anticipating it would be a very lively, healthy discussion.”

Instead, he said, everybody supported the universal masking, including parents and staff.

“I’m pleased we had full support from teachers, staff and parents,” Nohelty said Thursday. “We know it’s not going to be a perfect system.”

Even before Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a mask mandate for Illinois public and private elementary and high schools, many south and southwest suburban districts had revised their policies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in late July it was recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Previously, the CDC had recommend masks for those not fully vaccinated.

The new guidance was quickly adopted by the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Board of Education.

Some districts, including Homer Elementary 33C, New Lenox Elementary 122 and Lincoln-Way High School 210, were among those telling parents they would recommend, but not require, masks in schools.

The all-on-board acquiescence Nohelty saw hasn’t been repeated elsewhere, and the governor’s mandate has only helped inflame mask opposition in some corners.

In a July 29 message to families, High School District 218 Superintendent Ty Harting said the requirement to wear masks “will make some people very happy and others very unhappy.”

“No matter what we believe we do know that enforcing a mask requirement is the best pathway to allow us to reopen our schools,” Harting wrote.

Pritzker applauded districts that had already announced universal masking, but said too few school districts followed suit, prompting the statewide rule.

“We’re trying to get every child into school every day,” the governor said Wednesday.

Pritzker said that, from a liability

standpoint, school districts are being advised by their insurance carriers that if they do not follow the state guidelines they could be exposed to litigation. The state board of education could potentially revoke their recognition status, but Pritzker said “I don’t imagine we’ll have to go there.”

Official opposition

Steve Balich, who was part of a federal lawsuit filed more than a year ago challenging Pritzker’s authority in the pandemic, said he doesn’t believe the governor has the power to once again impose a mask mandate.

“What’s he going to do? Have (emergency power) forever?” Balich said Thursday. “It’s our right as U.S. citizens to decide if we want to get a shot or wear a mask.”

Balich is Homer Township supervisor, a member of the Will County Board and chairman of the Homer Township Republican Committee.

He lauded districts such as Homer 33C that had, up until the governor’s announcement, gone the mask-optional route.

“That is what the parents want,” he said. “Most people are logical and that’s logical.”

The Will County Republican Central Committee is promoting a rally by the Unmask Our Children Lincoln-Way Area Schools group, scheduled at 5 p.m. Tuesday along U.S. 30 outside Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox.

Balich said that students “need to see the facial expressions of teachers when they are talking,” in order to better communicate in the classroom.

Nohelty’s district was fully remote all of last school year. This year’s summer school program, with masks required, “was a great little test run,” he said, with close to 300 students taking part on a given day.

“It didn’t seem to phase the kids at all,” he said.

School policies

The school year starts Aug. 18, with all 2,300 students in early childhood programs through eighth grade coming into buildings. District 148 serves students from Dolton, Riverdale and small portions of Harvey and South Holland.

Students and staff will maintain 3 feet of separation where possible, and the district has invested in air filtration systems at its schools, the superintendent said.

Teachers will determine when classes can take a short break from wearing the masks, with students able to relocate outside or, if the weather isn’t cooperating, into larger multipurpose rooms where they can spread out and unmask, Nohelty said.

Distancing in the classrooms won’t require any significant changes, he said.

“Our class sizes are relatively small, with about 18 to 20 students per classroom, so that allows 3 feet pretty easily,” he said.

Nohelty said that for elementary districts such as 148, universal masking makes sense.

“More than 90% of our students are under the age of 12,” he said

In Oak Lawn-Hometown Elementary District 123, Superintendent Paul Enderle said in an update to families Wednesday, just before Pritzker’s announcement, that masking was not a high priority among district residents, although COVID-19 case numbers and positivity rates have increased.

The district has just under 3,300 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Things such as enhanced sanitation in school buildings and hand washing were ranked much higher in a recent survey that garnered more than 1,000 responses, he said.

The district was recommending, but not requiring, mask use and that screening tests available to students would be optional, Enderle said. There are no plans to offer remote learning as an option for students who might need to quarantine due to close contact, he said.

In the survey, families ranked monitoring local virus transmission rates as a high priority, and the superintendent noted that numbers of new cases and positivity rates had jumped in the last two weeks in the ZIP codes the district comprises.

The positivity rate had, in mid-July, been less than 1%, and by the end of the month had increased to more than 3%, Enderle said in the video address.

Enderle said that the vaccination rate among district staff was close to 90%, and that in the district’s communities the rate was 70%.

Balich said he foresees the next round of school board elections drawing out voters opposed to masking in areas where boards adopted universal masking ahead of the governor’s mandate

“Parents will come out and vote those people out,” he predicted.

Legal questions

Balich, Will County Republican Chairman George Pearson and some Will County business owners sued Pritzker and the state in federal court in May 2020 alleging that his executive orders were unconstitutional. A motion by defendants to dismiss the complaint was approved this past March by U.S. District Court Judge Franklin Valderrama.

Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, whose village also sued Pritzker over his executive orders and later dropped the complaint, also accused the governor of overreaching and said requiring masks for children in schools is doing more harm than good.

His comments came at the end of Tuesday’s Village Board meeting, a day before Pritzker issued the mandate, but appeared to be speaking based on a number of school districts that had adopted the new CDC guidance.

“We do not need to be requiring mask wearing for our children’s safety,” the mayor said.

Requiring masking for kids “would be forcing them to wear masks for the safety of unvaccinated adults,” who have had ample time to get the vaccine.

“Adults should be protecting our children, not the other way around,” Pekau said. “We should be doing everything possible for them to have normal lives.”

mnolan@tribpub.com